Ok then. Try this. Do a thorough search on here about the posts on that specific business and add up the negative and positive ones and see what you come up with. Then it's totally on the searcher, and isn't subjected to a single person's bias. Betcha I know what you'll come up with...
On another note, I understand that this is a super limited, niche crowd, but nonetheless, there's still enough of us around here in the se portion of Michigan to get a good amount of business from. Plus, there's more to the performance world than Buicks. Hell, even if you have the LS and Subaru crowd that's enough. If this person was interested in honing their reputation and building enough business to STAY in business, they 1. wouldn't abandon this board. 2. would give solid, thorough diagnosis first, and 3. hire SOLID, FULL TIME help, not fly by night, work when you want to techs, with zero formal training or certifications. I personally think he's a great guy. He's honest, works all day every day, and friendly to a fault. BUT, his business practices suffer. He needs a real life, full on, full time, expert shop foreman with experience and integrity. Bruce has a boatload of knowledge on these cars. He really does. He RARELY not knows the answer to my questions. But his employees are absolutely and utterly worthless weed smokers with ZERO integrity or technical expertise. Recession? Bullshit. There ain't no damn recession. Never was either. Not for the gear heads of SE Michigan. Trust me, I specifically paid attention to this on purpose. Every day. There were more Corvettes, Camaros, Firebirds, STIs etc etc around here during those years than you could shake a stick at. You can make a decent amount of money with a speed shop in this area if you know what you're doing. To be honest? MOST, like 99% DO NOT. I mean, they're not even CLOSE. If he just cracked the whip, and hired solid guys-full time professionals, I think he'd he'd have more money than he knew what to do with. I think there's a BOATLOAD of money in this business ONLY because the competition SUCKS.
Sure there's guys like Lingenfelter, Roush, Saleen, Callaway, SLP, Kenne Bell, & Duttweiler, but those guys are in a separate category. There's only a few of them around and they're super expensive. But as for the local little guys, most speed shops have no clue what they're doing. If someone really stepped up and spent the time, I think they could clean up around here.