Did Turner buy ECS Tuning?

[agent]

Are the parts you need not available from Blunt, Levent or Bimmerworld? Obviously the first choice is to support the vendors who support the E30 community, and I will happily support James Clay over a VC group.

[econti]

real quick is VAC still good? I'm planning to spend a large amount of money with them and don't want chinashit products

[nando]

^++

I have *always* been skeptical of ECS. I'm not jumping on a bandwagon because of recent developments - it only justifies what I already believed.

Our platform has a lot of challenges already - owning, daily driving, and restoring an E30 is getting to be impossible for many people as prices skyrocket.

Maybe you haven't noticed, but BMW isn't exactly supportive anymore either - they want you to buy (or better, lease) a new X-something Msport grand touring, preferrably with an AT (those pesky manual guys waste so many R&D resources).

We don't need poorly run corporations to come in and suck the blood out of what's left of our community. We can't afford to outsource everything to the cheapest products from China - look at what the E36 and E46 communities are, look a r3v on Facebook *shudder*, and decide if that's what you really want for the E30.

[SkiFree]

A couple guys here still missing the point.

It is nice to know that the profits from my purchases go to support a small business. It's an enthusiast market and I want to buy from a company headed by a grass-roots enthusiast, NOT an investment firm and corporate CEO. I have no explicit "hate" for ECS, just a strong preference on who gets my profits.

[jeenyus]

Kit components have been listed for quite a while, probably more than a year, but not sure why folks didn't pick up on it.

Maybe we are all on the hate ECS train? I personally try to avoid big conglomerates, but when they buy everyone else you shop from it's tough.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

[roguetoaster]

This is a "caveat emptor" situation, 100%.

Ninja edit: the "Assembled by ECS" kits I looked at just now appear to show the brand names of the included parts.

Kit components have been listed for quite a while, probably more than a year, but not sure why folks didn't pick up on it.

[agent]

It's not their fault that people want cheap crap, but if you order one of their 'kits' - they're going to package it with the cheapest Chinese parts they can find, and pocket the difference.

This is a "caveat emptor" situation, 100%.

Ninja edit: the "Assembled by ECS" kits I looked at just now appear to show the brand names of the included parts.

[jhaurimn]

i buy from blunttech just so i have an excuse to go see steves hair

[nando]

I think this is unreasonable to put that blame on ECS or any vendor of parts for that matter.

Cheap parts, are a product of owners shopping price vs. quality.
The corporation is simply offering what the market has asked for...

By and large, the E30 market (Both M3 and Non-M) has taken a turn for a while towards "low cost" pathways.

If the corporation sells the cheap parts, that's not their fault. That's the buyers fault for opting for it. Either for lack of due diligence, budgetary concerns, or just simply being cheap. The corporation isn't forcing the consumer to buy the cheap parts, they simply offer them. So why is it "ECS' Fault"???

All things fair and equal, TMS is less than 20 miles from my house in NH, and I've known TMS/Will since the early days where it was on a corner in Amesbury with a plate glass window and 2 desks in the front. I didn't/don't like the ECS acquisition, from the simple perspective of what it did to the working staff of the company here in MA.

ECS still offers every part TMS did prior, at various price points. Consumer onus and responsibility is still the driving factor when we speak of parts choices.

Customer service, yes, that is unquestionably an ECS issue.

It's not their fault that people want cheap crap, but if you order one of their 'kits' - they're going to package it with the cheapest Chinese parts they can find, and pocket the difference.

[cory58]

you're missing the point.

the E30 BMW community is small, and it's important to support vendors that are based in this community.. ECS is basically owned by giant hedge funds and private equity vampire squid corporations. They don't GAF about our community and old cars. If you want the very cheapest Chinese knock off parts and to support the further hollowing out of available aftermarket and OE parts for E30s, keep shopping at places like ECS.

Uh, you don't even know me. I see the black helicopters as much as anyone else, so I appreciate your rant but you have no idea why I've bought from ECS or Turner, or the fact that I only buy OE or OEM equivalent parts.


As far as ECS not being "part of the community" because they're owned by a large company, I disagree. When they sell me OEM parts at great prices with free shipping, they are "part of the community" helping to keep my old BMWs on the road.


I also buy from Blunt mainly because they support the community and r3v. Dave is great, but sometimes I just want to pull up a website and order instead of asking for a quote. I've had problems with orders from Blunt but they've taken care of me, so I will definitely keep doing business with them.


So, I'm not missing the point. I am a firm believer in people voting with their wallets. If you don't like ECS because of their ownership or the fact that they consolidated Turner, don't buy from them. If they give me bad service I will stop buying from them, but I'm also going to keep posting honest reviews of my experiences. I count on r3v for honest feedback (and a few black helicopters here and there).


Cory

[UNHCLL]

you're missing the point.

the E30 BMW community is small, and it's important to support vendors that are based in this community.. ECS is basically owned by giant hedge funds and private equity vampire squid corporations. They don't GAF about our community and old cars. If you want the very cheapest Chinese knock off parts and to support the further hollowing out of available aftermarket and OE parts for E30s, keep shopping at places like ECS.

I think this is unreasonable to put that blame on ECS or any vendor of parts for that matter.

Cheap parts, are a product of owners shopping price vs. quality.
The corporation is simply offering what the market has asked for...

By and large, the E30 market (Both M3 and Non-M) has taken a turn for a while towards "low cost" pathways.

If the corporation sells the cheap parts, that's not their fault. That's the buyers fault for opting for it. Either for lack of due diligence, budgetary concerns, or just simply being cheap. The corporation isn't forcing the consumer to buy the cheap parts, they simply offer them. So why is it "ECS' Fault"???

All things fair and equal, TMS is less than 20 miles from my house in NH, and I've known TMS/Will since the early days where it was on a corner in Amesbury with a plate glass window and 2 desks in the front. I didn't/don't like the ECS acquisition, from the simple perspective of what it did to the working staff of the company here in MA.

ECS still offers every part TMS did prior, at various price points. Consumer onus and responsibility is still the driving factor when we speak of parts choices.


Customer service, yes, that is unquestionably an ECS issue.

[nando]

I've bought a few times from ECS with no problems. Maybe I'm just lucky.

I did buy for the first time from Turner last month. Customer service was excellent. Communication was proactive and very responsive.

Cory

you're missing the point.

the E30 BMW community is small, and it's important to support vendors that are based in this community.. ECS is basically owned by giant hedge funds and private equity vampire squid corporations. They don't GAF about our community and old cars. If you want the very cheapest Chinese knock off parts and to support the further hollowing out of available aftermarket and OE parts for E30s, keep shopping at places like ECS.

[cory58]

I've bought a few times from ECS with no problems. Maybe I'm just lucky.

I did buy for the first time from Turner last month. Customer service was excellent. Communication was proactive and very responsive.

Cory

[agent]

As to artwork, please make sure you submit all requests with your order. Due to some concerned feedback by an individual that didn't appreciate fine art, we no longer include visual masterpieces along with every order.

This, sadly, is the world we live in now. Thankfully several of us will always be able to look back fondly on the days when artwork was included with your order, whether you wanted it or not...

[DealinDave@Blunttech.com]

I can say that we won't be bought out by ECS lol. We have a great customer base of like minded enthusiasts that keep us around and motivated. It's a great time to be a buyer as there are a lot of awesome part suppliers out there. We try to keep our pricing as competitive as we can, but we have always tried to separate ourselves by having the best customer service possible.

It's true our current site sucks. If you've visited it before and just turned around, we get that. We were given the run around for about 2 years from a development firm that left us with a barely functional, non-user friendly site. We tried to integrate some very large systems into our site that ended up becoming exceedingly over complicated by our previous developer. Our new web developer is nearly finished with an all new site and it should be up by early Spring, streamlining the online ordering process. As always, we'll just be an email/call away. We answer emails whenever possible, whether that is after business hours at night or on weekends.

As to artwork, please make sure you submit all requests with your order. Due to some concerned feedback by an individual that didn't appreciate fine art, we no longer include visual masterpieces along with every order.