Rowe Tech

If you have [or are considering purchase of] a used German performance vehicle, find a good mechanic that you trust or get yourself a Camry. Portland is fortunate to have several trustworthy, talented, and professional shops who specialize in German vehicles [Porsche, Audi, VW]. Today, I add Rowe Tech to my own list of favorites. They are knowledgeable, honest, and communicate clearly. Yes, today I also had work done that was affordable - and that's great. But if you have the three things aforementioned here, you may still have a big bill every once in a while - but it won't be a price that is a product of not knowing what they are doing, doing more than you may have needed, or your checking balance couldn't bear to do it all at once. My 02 ALMS TT is like me: old, lots of hard miles, and stuff going wrong all the time. And I love it. Ceder [Owner] gets this - and worked with my budget to get me back on the road, previewed important work that should be done in the near future, and hit his cost estimates at or below stated levels. It's a bit of a rally to get to this place, but if you're doing preventative maintenance - enjoy the journey. If you happen to be in tow truck with a guy named 'Goose' who just had a Philly steak sandwich - well, then it's a drag to get out there. So, no Camry for me kids. Thanks to the Rowe Tech crew for care and attention.

This has been the worst dealing I've ever had with a mechanic in my life. It's very apparent to me that they are too busy to take on additional work and it would have been courteous and honest of them to direct me to a different tuner shop that would have time. I reached out to Ceder in September of 2016 that I wanted to do a Stage 3 setup on my 1.8t A4, and the price he quoted me was pretty darn good so I decided to go with it. It took over a month for the parts that I pre-paid for to show up at the shop, and then they had my car in the shop for over TWO weeks when he finally was able to schedule me in. That would not have been a problem had Ceder disclosed actual timelines instead of the vague "few days maybe" crap he always would say. Not to mention that I feel like I must micromanage them to get any sort of update without feeling brushed under the rug. From one business owner to another, here's some advice: get an assistant and adopt a new business model. Because the way things are running right now is completely insane. If I treated clients like that I would be out of business really quick. This has been probably the worst experience I've had with an auto shop. It's a real shame because you are a nice guy but I've got to call you out on your shoddy business practice. UPDATE: I got my car back, and was concerned with some issues I was having while driving so I brought my car into the autoshop I trust here in town for a full inspection of Ceder's work. What they found was very disturbing; he did a complete hackjob on my car. They installed my MAF sensor BACKWARDS and tuned it as such for crying out loud. Now I have to find somewhere reputable to clean up after them and retune my car. Pretty much spending twice what I wanted to in the beginning. Check out the invoice I got for the whole mess I have to clean up now, STEER CLEAR of these guys, don't risk your German auto!

After my car was "done" I broke down 3 times leaving the shop before they test drove it due trying to drive off from having my lpfp not being installed properly. I asked them to put in a hybrid turbo which almost anyone who knows anything about Volkswagens knows they install from the top of the engine bay, and after finally getting it back running I hear horrible noises coming from the suspension and turns out it is the a arm bolts had not been tightened back and the bolts had popped off as I drove to the shop 4th time. Then the tech tells me he tried to put the turbo in from the bottom and had removed suspension components. To top it all of there's a large dent in the inner door frame wasn't there before and they and they smoked my new JL Audio Amp and Subwoofer while installing the turbo and didn't bother telling me about it, I'm at the car audio shop now and they are showing me exactly what happened... I used to love rowetech had a previous 5 star review, but I'll never be back and I feel very disrespected. Worse still, when I had complaints I was ignored.

I took my car in for an oil cooler replacement expecting it to be expensive. When I contacted owner he gave me an appointment earliest availability for th following month. During appointment I had to call for follow up on status of my vehicle multiple times and several days later was told that there was no knowledge of an oil cooler at all and problem was a simple $15 replacement sensor fix. Tried to drive to work 15 minutes away and car broke down, again. All in all I had my car towed 5 or 6 times because everytime I left th shop th car would break down before I could make it home. The estimated time of labor was always days later than previously arranged. At one point I had to request time off from work to bring th car back th same day I had picked it up. This went on for over a month so by this point I had been put on an attendance contract through my job because I could never get my car to make it all th way to my job 7min drive without breaking down. Paid $1000 in tow costs and missed several hours sometimes a day or two from work due to draining all of my money on unexpected ubers and tows just to get it back to their shop. After about 2 months I realized their mechanics were sabotaging my car and completely destroying it from th computers to th parts under th hood. Things completely unrelated were all having problems everytime I left their shop. I've found a mechanicnwho was able to fix th initial problem but they're still weeks later working on trying to reverse and fix everything that th mechanics at rowetech did to my car to keep me coming back, taking advantage knowing I was willing to pay rh price to keep th car running ad it was my only form of transportation to work, and also of their bosses leniency by conveniently being out of office or nowhere around whenever my car was being worked on. I would never in my life take my car back here again and even after th things my new mechanic at Fifth Gear Automotive was able to fix made a drastically immediate improvement but trying to determine every single thing that was tampered with by rowe tech has been time consuming between random sensors being unplugged or plugged in wrong places to my entire ac system being erased randomly from th codes in my car. It sucks because th situation it's put me in and th stress it's caused has been enough to make me scrap th car and start over.

Ceder owner knows his stuff and you can see he cares for the cars! Taken my Audi's to him only because he is going to say it straight. Just got my B7 Avant tuned stage 1! His prices are great for getting a custom tune. I don't like the idea of big name tunes because you never know what parameters are set. He is the Tune guy for your Audi in Portland area.

I wrote Ceder about installing a Magnaflow on my 2000 Escalade to bring the volume down from the straight pipe setup. I gave him the dimensions I had to work with based on another shop's assessment and He quoted me nearly 50% of what the other shop did. Told him to go ahead and order it and let me know when I could get it done. He wrote a few days later saying it was in but wanted a picture of underneath the truck to make sure. The muffler he ordered was too big and didn't want to risk it. He went online looking for one that would work and when he couldn't he called his rep to find one. When he did, he offered to drive over an hour to get it so I could still keep my appt. I told him absolutely not, take your time and call me when it comes in. The next week I get a message that it's in, and slots me in that afternoon. I show up and asked if he'd also help me undo a couple stubbon bolts for the rear seat, which he quickly agreed to. Turns out the size of the pipe the other shop told me was WAY off and Cedar's employees one of them was Matt spent 2 hours using different size pipe pieces to create a custom size reduction adapter to make it work for me. He did what he said he would, for the price he said he'd do it for. All in all, I'm super happy with the result and he's also incredibly kind! Thanks again!

AMAZING QUALITY! Cedar is the best AUDI/Volkswagen guy ever. We've taken quite a few tricky cars to him and he always takes the time to figure it out. He has rebuilt a head for my audi, and also diagnosed an IMPOSSIBLE electric problem on my GTI. Very good guy. Sticks to it until the job is done. You're gonna like this guy.