Portland Auto Repair

In the last 30 years I'ved owned a VW Beetle, Rabbit, and GTI, and now three Porsches (two 356s, one Boxster). They have all gone to Heckmann & Thiemann. For care of German cars, these guys can't be beat. They're not always the cheapest, but the do absolutely the best work in the city. For Porsches, they are way, way, way better than Sunset. Now, they do get busy, so it's not always a drop-in-today kind of place, but you cannot beat a mechanic who has 100+ loyal customers who come to a rally every summer.

I needed wiper blades. Badly. As in I'd been driving around with that horrible dragging rubber against glass sound for over a year. I bought some at Costco, but surprise! - wipers for my car can only be ordered through Audi. Heckmann ordered them. I went to pick them up ($60, fml) thinking they'd just hand them to me and I'd make puppy dog eyes at my bf till he put them on for me. Instead they sent out a mechanic, who spent 10 minutes installing them, making sure they didn't slap against the left side of the window like they had been and cleaned my window to boot. No charge and no puppy dog eyes required. These guys rock. First off they only work on Audi, VW, Porsche (and Lezbarus, weird) - so you can take your convertible Beemer somewhere else, Muffy. And they had a real life trained in Germany, German speaking mechanic work on my car! So when my car whispered to him what the rat bastards at an Audi dealership in Reno had done to it, Dietrich (totally making up that name, I forgot what his real name is) soothed its worries away in its native tongue. German is such a melodic language, no? They discovered that the dealership had put in the wrong size belt and that was the reason behind the rabid squirrels making sweet, sweet love sound that had been emanating from under my hood. I was also due for major service and my engine light was on due to some sort of exhaust thingy that I didn't understand. They fixed everything in two days. I had given them my credit card number over the phone since I was tight for time. When I got there, the service manager let me know Dietrich was not yet done whispering sweet nothings into my car's nether regions. I thought I was doomed to sit in the waiting room, staring at my toes with nothing to read. But one of the owners was there and we had a wonderful hour long conversation about everything from food, to the economy, to places I should hike in the gorge, to Portland history. Apparently Dietrich takes his time (know what I'm saying, ladies?) I wasn't even irritated, because I knew these guys were staying late just to make sure everything was perfect with my car. Bonus star was for not making me feel like a total jackass when I told them my alignment was way off - and it turned out my tires were super low. I will never take my car anywhere else.

I grew up in a Volkswagen family. People from Volkswagen families know each other. I'm not talking about owning fancy Jettas and what not. In my family, growing up, we had a 1979 bus and a 1982 Vanagon (one was always running and the other broken, they would just trade places), we also had a couple of different diesel Dashers at various points in time. My dad did most of the work on the cars, however, there was that rare instance when a pro was needed. That is where Heckmann & Thiemann come in. They are the trusted VW and Porsche mechanics in the area. They will always treat you right and never rip you off. When I turned 17, I bought my first car. Of course it was a VW. It was a 1974 bright metallic green Super Beetle with a sunroof and it didn't even idle (I got it for $400 and named him Kermit). It had been sitting for years and was in rough shape. My dad and I replaced the rotted out interior and got the engine running and idling. A few months later, the CV joint went and fixing that was beyond my abilities. Mr. Thiemann took great care of me. He could obviously tell that I didn't have a lot of money. He showed me what the parts I needed looked like and sent me to the junkyard to get them rather than ordering new expensive parts for me. He didn't charge much to fix the car either. I am still so thankful that when I was that young and naive, I had such a fantastic mechanic to take care of me and keep Kermit running.

It's a rare and precious thing to find a friendly mechanic who you trust. These guys are not the cheapest, but they are honest and they do a good job, and in the long run, that will save you money. Can't recommend them highly enough.

A month and a half ago my got cancer. The laundry list of existing quirks and problems suddenly included serious driveablitly and safety issues, so I brought it to the nearest shop (see my review for Morgan Automotive). Said shop obviously has no knowledge or experience with Volkswagens, and after two trips and $1500 the problem had not been fixed. After a month of carpooling and public transportation, I made an appointment with Heckmann & Theimann, who specialize in Volkswagen, Porche, Audi and Subaru. A friend had recommended them, and I had a good feeling after reading several positive reviews. Everybody I spoke with was extremely friendly, and you could tell the mechanics took my problem as a challenge. Within a few hours they discovered several related problems that the other shop had not, even though two of which I had specifically asked them to address. They charge more per hour (labor=$85/hour) than some of shops, but they are quick and thorough. They had three different technicians (including the shop owner) test drive my car for what must have totaled a few hours to ensure that the problem had been fixed, and the bill I recieved was much less than I had expected. I trusted these guys, and will definitely be going back.