I read online the glowing testimonials for Ryan G and decided to bring my 2012 Mini (S) there for it's 36k checkup. Nothing was wrong with the operation of the car but to keep things on the up and up warranty wise, I wanted to adhere to the recommended maintenance timetable.
The folks there - both dude at the front counter and mechanic I interfaced with were very nice, polite and professional. The joint was spotless - you could eat a picnic lunch in the middle of the garage with no hesitation. The routine maintenance included some fluid changes, new spark plugs and coils, a couple few recommended filters. All seemed good except for the price seemed a little high, but not too bothersome for an almost 5 star repair shop.
Fast forward to now (~9mos/2500 miles later). Recently the car started to misfire - occasionally at first but progressively worse until it felt like a perpetual problem with no "it worked fine today" breaks in the action. The thing was all the sudden totally gutless and sounded like a VW Beetle. Previously it was a very peppy and solid sounding/solid running vehicle with "git-up and go" to spare.
I called and found out that there were 2 (Carmax) warranty approved repair shops in Auburn, Ryan G Moterwerks NOT being one of them so I took it elsewhere. By warranty approved I mean Carmax regards the two Auburn shops to be "same as bringing into Carmax for repairs" and thus, shaving $50 off the normally $500 deductible. That mechanic called me within the hour to ask several questions.....specifically, did I change the sparkplugs and coils? I responded "not me, but the folks at a competitor did". They went on to tell me that "whoever" changed them torqued the spark plugs and the coils more than double the specs and insodoing, created the problems I have been experiencing. There was considerable technical jargon supplied to substantiate their assessment which I admit to not fully understanding and certainly not able to repeat here without botching the message. This was validated in my mind by them replacing the very spark plugs and coils that were replaced by Ryan G and the car running better than ever.
So....in the final analysis, I will not take my vehicle back to Ryan G's despite initially really enjoying their service. Something like overtorquing spark plugs should never happen and causes me to wonder what else could be done incorrectly had I had other more in depth repairs required. Sorry guys, you only get one of these bloopers with me no matter how clean the work environment presents and how pleasant the folks are. Ultimately I take the car in for mechanical restoration, not the other stuff.
Of course you may feel differently, that 9 months later any number of things could have been at play that were out of RGM's control. Truthfully, perhaps. But I'm not going to take a chance, repairs simply cost too much. What I do know is that the parts changed by RGM were indeed overtorqued - severely. What I do know is that no one touched those parts until the second place did. What I do know is that replacing these recently replaced parts totally fixed the issue. Cause/effect.