Re: KW Coilovers, HPA

[Riley McDowall <roog@telus.net>]

At 12:31 AM -0400 10/17/01, Paul Grimes wrote:
>Wow, I am normally I am pretty quiet that is quite a statement!  I would be

Hey Paul, glad to see you're on the list! :)

How's the scirocco build-up going?  I'm eagerly awaiting the next 
installment, and am especially interested to see how you put the car 
back together after the paint work....


>interested to know what qualifies HPA  as "a bunch of fucks?"  Marcel Horn
>has for all intents and purposes pushed the envelope pretty darned far with
>their development of the Mk4 AWD platform and after personally driving their

A lot of people have pushed the envelope, with this and other 
platforms... the difference being that some people are more concerned 
with building perfection and some people are more concerned with 
generating PR and growing their company.  HPA is a prime example of a 
company that seems to have cut a lot of corners on the work they did 
for customers, and spent a lot of time and money promoting themselves 
(a big reason they've been in R&T is that they were willing to 
trailer their cars down to LA for the photo shoot).  I've met Marcel 
a few times, and I've always thought he was a really nice guy - very 
easy to talk to, very enthusiastic about VWs.

Unfortunately their business practices leave me cold.  Their "World's 
first VR6 Beetle" campaign was a complete fabrication.  Their 
still-incomplete "first" Beetle was shown against another shop's VR 
Beetle (in its second iteration, natch, this time with a turbo) at a 
show in Seattle in the summer of '98 or '99.  They have a reputation 
for doing conversions on the cheap and then being unable to fix the 
problems they create.  Ask Dr. Boltz in California how impressed they 
are with HPA.  I have a friend who worked for RPI and paid HPA to do 
a 1.8t swap into his '92 GTI 2 years ago.  He drove the car for about 
a month and then took it off the road for well over a year because he 
was so disgusted with it.  Aside from driveability problems, the car 
had glitches that were potentially dangerous (fuel pump would 
randomly turn on or stay running after the ignition was turned off). 
It is now back on the road after having the wiring harness 
reconstructed.  The list goes on... I live in Vancouver, and I've 
heard plenty of stories.

And I know that every shop has built a bad car, and every shop has 
one or two dissatisfied customers, but some have very very few and 
some have more than they should and for the wrong reasons.  HPA falls 
into the latter category.

>650 horsepower turbocharged AWD TT I was so impressed that I have made
>arrangements to deliver my TT  Roadster to them this spring to undergo a 24

In all honesty, I think the quality of their work has improved of 
late... I hope your TT turns out as well as the one you drove!

>As for us "whoring ourselves" to HPA I would again encourage you to consider
>what you just said;  we decided to promote something to our readers that is
>IMHO a really damned good product; for the price FAR better of a product
>than either the H&R or Koni products.   I didn't for once suggest that the

Is it?  Your write-up was excellent, but it was a little generic. 
The section on KW, and HPA, read like a press release... if it is a 
FAR better product (and I wouldn't know, because I've never driven 
the KW coilovers), then please explain how and in what way.

Another concern I had has to do with the warranty.  I've seen the 
containers FULL of returned Spax and Avo product at RPI and Denon, 
and I can't help but worry that it's HPA underwriting the warrantee. 
This is what Ron did with Spax and he ended up getting killed on 
returns that Spax wouldn't reimburse him for... he then cancelled the 
warrantee program and left the rest of his customers holding the bag 
on their defective product.  I doubt that Marcel would go down the 
same road and NOT do the same thing Ron did when push came to shove...

>Oh, and sorry about the whole "whoring" ourselves out thing happening; when

I apologize - sometimes I can't help but turn a phrase when I know I 
shouldn't ;)

And I understand completely the financial demands that site brings 
with it.  But VW Vortex is probably the single-most important and 
up-to-date source of raw VW tech information on the net... I 
certainly don't mean to impugn your integrity, but I do have to 
wonder what motivated this association with HPA.  And how much is 
hype and how much remains unbiased review?  If you can, please do 
write an article comparing high dollar coilover kits...*that* would 
be something a lot of people (consumers) appreciate!  :)


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