Automobile Atlanta, My recent visit Options

[bigkensteele]

The usual disclaimers - I am in no way affiliated with Automobile Atlanta.

I believe that I bought my first 914 in '94, not long after I graduated from college. The internet was fairly young, and word of mouth traveled by phone and print, I had formed an opinion of Automobile Atlanta before I ever called them. People told me that they were arrogant, and George was not the nicest guy around. I still ordered a few things from them, since they were the only game in town for 914s at that point in time.

I was in Atlanta for business in '98 or '99 and I had a chance to stop by. I was really hoping to get a look at the 916, the (then thought to be) last 6, the cool concept, and the green car with 5600 miles. When I got there, I was told that I could not get in to see the cars because one had been damaged by a previous visitor. Nobody seemed to care that I had rearranged my schedule to visit. That experience solidified in my mind what I had heard 2nd, 3rd and 4th hand from others. I did very little, if any business with AA from that point on.

When the World came to be, and George started posting, I thought "This doesn't seem the be the same guy that I met 8 years ago". He seems nice, outgoing, and truly dedicated to helping us out.

Another business trip to Atlanta popped up recently, and I emailed George before I arrived. His reply was basically, "come on in, we will show you around". So I spared a couple of hours before my return flight.

I don't know if I caught them on a bad day 8 years ago, or if things have changed, but I could not believe the welcome that I received.

When I first arrived, I spent some time looking at the cars on the lot (and they have some very interesting cars on the lot). One of the mechanics asked if he could help, and I told him "nope, just looking, out of town, etc." He could not have been nicer, and he spent probably 15 minutes telling me everything he knew about all of the cars around us, as well as the flared 150hp 4 cyl. car that he was detailing. They built this car from the ground up, basically out of spare parts.

When I finally went in, they paged George for me. I told him who I was. We talked for a couple of minutes, and he called his right-hand man, Garrett to give me a full tour of the facilities. Garrett knows the place from top to bottom, and he would have to. They could literally build a 914 from the ground up. The inventory is amazing - from parts you wish you had, to stuff you didn't even know you needed. They have everything, either new or used. I mentioned that my car came with a funky blue plaid interior that I would love to redo. Garrett said, "I think we have that"... That is when things got really interesting. He took me up to the "lost warehouse". Apparently, a few years ago, a dealer or distributor went out of business, and they had a huge cache of 914 parts. George found out about it and bought everything. They have brand new seats (yes, never been sat in) in almost every color and style. Seatbelts, body parts, tons of stuff that was previously thought to be NLA. They have it. Unfortunately, they did not have my particular blue plaid.

The point of my post; if you truly love the 914 and you find yourself in northern Atlanta with a couple of hours to spare, you MUST visit George. It really is like Mecca for the 914 owner.

Yes, you will find some things cheaper from other sources, but you will NOT find any other part reseller more dedicated to the 914 cause than George and his staff at Automobile Atlanta.

Ken

[pin31]

When I bought my 1st 914 in the late '80's there wasn't many places to buy parts from or get help. My AA catalog was read (studied) cover to cover 100's of times (what a wish list I had, no $$ back then but what a list)!!

Fast forward to now, 3rd 914 (could finally afford a mint beauty), I still read the catalog cover to cover (can't wait for the new one) and I still buy most of my parts there.

Having been a small business owner myself, I know fist hand how difficult it can be to build a business and keep it going through the years. Hat's off to George keeping it alive (and growing) and his passion for the cars we all love.

I've had minor issues with AA in the past, but they have always been rectified quickly and equitably. From reading some of the posts on this site, I feel that George gets a lot of crap (sometimes unnecessarily) and that's a shame.

The next time I'm anywhere near Atlanta, I would love to visit AA and meet George and his team.

George, I still like the idea of a 914 get together in Block Island !!

Tim