Sad to hear of your experiences with Karmakanix.
I have had just the opposite experience with Steve Nechodom, Mr. Karmakanix
himself. He does a lot of Vanagon work, and owns two himself. He just had to
move his shop, with one month's notice. This caused at least a month's delay
for many customers, but he had no choice. By the way, he is co-located with
German Auto Salvage (Berzerkeley, CA) now and has a great assortment of new
and used parts at hand.

There are many Vanagons always parked around his shop, and in fact, that is
how I could tell his move to the new location was complete. Perhaps in the
previous location, which is in a somewhat lower class location, someone
moved into your friend's van.

He does have apprentices working for him. I have spoken to them and watched
them work, including on my Scirocco 16V. They are passionate about what they
do, have Steve's excellent guidance, and do good work.  I trust them in this
situation. They're getting some of the best training around.

Maybe part of Karmakanix's problem is that Steve is so good, he got
overwhelmed. I've observed a steady stream of folks dropping in for a quick
fix, in addition to all the scheduled work. He's had to turn work away, at
least until later. I can deal with that problem better than having someone,
at my convenience, turn my car into dung!

Talking with him on occasion reveals a man who knows far more about cars,
and what makes them run right, than many an average mechanic. He has been
involved in research projects, done a lot of his own performance-enhancing
modifications on VWs and Audis, and is learned and clever in electronics,
and no doubt other technical areas. I respect him, and will be taking my
Vanagon and Scirocco in for repairs as they need. I'll just be sure to
schedule with him.

My 2 pesos worth,

Ron Antaki

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of Steve Schwenk
Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2001 1:20 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Karmakanik in Berekley

I had previously recommended Karmakanik in Berkeley as
a good shop run by an experienced vanagon/syncro
mechanic, with reasonable rates.  Allow me to withdraw
that endorsement and say that I have heard of
unpleasant experiences with the shop as of late,
including from a friend whom I sent to Karmakanic.  His
van sat unworked on for months, when it was finally
worked on, the interior was trashed and some of the
work was never done and some was done poorly.  Another
person reported an apparent botched drive shaft rebuild
attempt.

Maybe these were isolated experiences, but the one
involving my friend was truly hideous, so I feel i have
to warn people since i used to sing the shop's
praises.