Performance Imports

A real treasure - family owned, decades of experience

by johnapainter at Citysearch

I have bought, sold and serviced all of my family's cars, including Mercedes Benz W123, W124 and W210 cars as well as Alfa Romeo at Performance Imports for many years. Over the years I have had challenges ranging from difficult to diagnose and obscure problems to road side break downs and in every case Performance Imports has exceeded my expectations in dealing with these challenges. From my very first interaction with Performance Imports when I bought my 1978 240D they have treated my family as an extension of their family and always given us straight forward and honest advice and service for our cars at a very reasonable cost. On many occasions I have had small problems or questions about my cars and I have stopped in at Performance Imports without an appointment and they have always taken the time to answer my questions and very often fixed problems on the spot. I strongly feel that this type of family owned business with highly skilled mechanics who have decades of experience and a great network of parts suppliers and relationships with specialized service providers (body work, parts rebuilding) is a very rare find and a real treasure to have in the Western Connecticut area.

I suggest looking elsewhere

by dabaum at Citysearch

I wish I had the same service others had had years ago...

Performance Imports (aka Danbury Benz) represented a client of theirs in selling a car, however, misrepresented the cars condition. In multiple advertisements they claimed "everything works, no rust." Also, I paid them for a safety inspection and oil change just after purchase. I bought the car with their assurance that the car was ready for a trip to the bottom of South America with my wife and three year old boy.

What I got was not that. The cars brakes were unsafe, a caliper piston welded from heat and the inner pads to bare metal, in other words, unsafe stopping putting my family at risk. I mentioned this to one of their techs who said it was probably just from sitting. They never called me back. The mileage difference from when I bought the car and pad for the safety inspection was about 30 miles. Last time I checked, it is impossible to wear out a set of brake pads in 30 miles or from a car sitting in a lot.

Other misrepresentations.

A speaker is blown.

Speedometer is not working.

The seals around the differential are leaking.

Rust is hiding in every wheel well.

On the positive side, the manager has good demeanor and put some effort into getting the cruise and tachometer working so that the car could be as claimed. They also held the car for me until the snow thawed and it could be shipping to Atlanta.

Frustratingly, however, it took 10 phone calls each time to get them to follow up and each time I got the feeling that I was the bad guy just by asking them to be their word about how the car was advertised.

My mistakes: Not using an impartial mechanic to inspect the car and trusting Performance Imports to be impartial.

You're welcome to contact me.

Great Customer Service!

by myfoundation at Citysearch

I broke down in CT and am not from the area. I didnt want to take my Mercedes to any shop and the dealer was an arm and a leg! I found Performance Imports in the yellow pages and they told me to have it towed in. They took a look at the car right away and I had an estimate in no time. It was great to know that they specialized in euro cars so I totally trusted the work. It turned out to be nothing big and I was back on the road that same day. Thank you Performance!

• Pros: Really nice
• Cons: No cons