Re: Dinan Bashing

["Greg Koenig" <gregk@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

First off, I would consider myself a good Dinan customer, most of the time. 
 I have talked ill of them on the digest before, and sometimes I get a
couple of dirty looks from Steve's minions when I am talking with my friends
over there.  First off though, Dinan does pretty good work. They are the
only tuner who really tests the hell out of all there products, and they are
also the only tuner who develops the majority of the things they sell.  This
is both good and bad.  Good in that the quality control is suburb, bad
because the cost is out of hand most of the time.
Dinan's biggest problem is a simple one, they are just too damn big, and
Steve thinks he can do everything better then everyone else.  A good example
(hypothetical): If Dinan was going to offer a big brake kit, Steve would
probably have the calipers milled himself and design the whole kit "in
house" because let's face it, to Steve, Brembo just isn't good enough.  
This sort of attitude can be found in such things as $380 spacers (compared
to $99 H&R spacers that are works of art), superchargers that cost $8k, and
even then, mess with all sorts of voodoo with a "TurboTronics Box".  All
this in house stuff is well and good, but why not take a lesson from Turner
and use companies like H&R, Brembo and BMW M GmBH to provide you with
products that are developed by specialists instead of stringing an
engineering department to it's seams and driving the price of your products
through the roof.
Also, if Dinan will take one lesson from Turner, how about Steve interacts
with customers a bit more.  When you call up Turner, RMS, TC Kline or
Mountain Auto Sport, you have a good chance of getting Will, Osh, TC or
Kermit on the phone.  Good luck getting Steve on the phone at Dinan.  He and
I have talked a bit, but I don't even think he knows my name.  If I had
spent as much money with Turner as I have with Dinan, Will would probably
send me an Xmas card.  Hell, I only bought 1 major thing from Will, the big
brakes, and he knows who I am over the phone.  I like dealing with companies
like that.
Also, Dinan slings more bullshit then a street sweeper in Pamplona, Spain. 
Ask a Dinan salesman to compear there product to someone else's product. 
Now be amazed as you get to sit back and listen to a closet engineer go to
work.  Steve himself looked over my Porsche brakes and went off for 5
minutes about the fact that there aluminum, and will flex under all braking.
 I reminded him that my last name wasn't Schumacher.  He still insisted that
monoblock calipers were the only way to go.  O, thanks Steve, I guess those
guys at Porsche know nothing about providing brakes for 400hp street cars. 
What does Dinan do well?  Rather a lot.  I can take my car to Dinan and have
it made significantly faster then stock.  The car will be easily driven on
the track and on the road, a good balance between the two actually.  Dinan
will soon be offering a track catalogue with such things as fully adjustable
coil over suspensions (all the way around) and custom made exhaust and
intake components.  This is a step in the right direction.
As for my car.  Well, I originally went to Dinan because they are local and
have a good reputation.  By the time I had gotten on this list and learned
about places like Turner, the Dinan vampires were already on me.  However, I
do love my car, and I think the quality of there work is first rate.  I do
like the Dinan badge because I am only a lowly 325 owner, and at least it
shows that my car isn't a complete grocery getter.  As far as not knowing
anything about cars, I would agree, some Dinan customers don't know a thing
about cars, I however, am not one of them.  

Greg Koenig
'94 Dinan 3 aka, Derr Dinanstein

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