I am looking for an alternative to the dealer. I live in Ottawa and I want to hear from fellow volvo owners about their recommendations.

One person recommended Adria on Bank St

I haven't heard anything bad about Adria, but I have been taking our 740 and now 940 to Wally Becker's for ten years. Some good things about Becker's:

1. They actually support the home mechanic with advice and (limited) parts sales
2. Very slow turnover of mechanics - still the same guys after all this time
3. Source parts from a variety of places, and usually at least suggest the very best quality and offer some alternatives if price and/or projected life of the car is an issue.
4. Generally they are looking at your business over the next few years, not just today. That's good.
5. Always safety, reliability, performance, in that order.

Becker's doesn't do internal transmission work or wheel alignments, but they can arrange it.

As for dealers, I have found the parts guys at Carling to be OK. I can't say about service, I NEVER get cars serviced/fixed at dealerships. But - the most sophisticated car I've ever had is the 940, dirt simple compared to a new Volvo!

I have no experience with St. Laurent Volvo.

Yeah, Adria would be the right answer!! I have been dealing with Adria for 5 years since I bought my 1st 81' 245... Simon and Ante have been fixing my 2 other Volvos since then also. I have just run the warranty out of my 98 S70 T5 and will be going back to Adria when service is needed. My other non-dealer alternative would be Wally Beckers on Wellington, I have heard that MGD(?) motors on Huntclub isn't bad, but mostly a high end shop for porches and merc's. You can try East Motors on Montreal Road, but they are mostly a Volks shop... stay the hell away from Canadian Tire!! LOL!

Adria is a family type garage... run my Simon and his son Ante. They try hard to make sure you are well taken care of, and show genuine concern for the well being of the car...The mechanics in the shop know their stuff... which tends to cut down diagnostic time quite a bit. Give them a try..I even bought a car from their lot once.

I like St. Laurent Volvo for the warranty service I received while my S70 was covered. I've never gone to Carling Motors for service, but they have a good rep also.

Sergio Salamunovic
1998 S70 T5 SE <- Current 82,000 Km
1990 740 GL Traded fir S70 with 210K Km)
1984 245 GL R.I.P
1981 245 GL R.I.P (Retired 2001 with over 400K Km)
1980 240 R.I.P

I have a lot of friends that deal with Adria, give Ante a call. Your desire for a new service centre is likely because of two things: 1) cheaper parts/labour; 2) better sevice overall. For the first, anything is better than the dealership. As for the latter, we dealt with Carling Motors when we first got out V70 (two years ago) and were most dissatisfied with the service. As such, we've been dealing with St.-Laurent ever since and have never been let down. (I don't work there! just have had good experiences...) Take your pick, between Adria and St.-Laurent. Dad brings the V70 to St.-Laurent, I take my 745Ti to Adria, and depending on the nature of the call will take it to St.-Laurent. Cheers,

ERIK

'98 V70 AWD (Dads....)
'90 745Ti "ICE RCKT" (mine!!!! :) )

As long as we're on a Ottawa thread - any thoughts on shops in and around Montreal ?

I bought my Volvo used and have been dealing with John Scotti for 6+ months with no complaints yet (never say never :-)).

What are your thoughts on the Uptown family ? (Uptown and Pointe-Claire)- and Boul. St-Martin ?

and the Independants ? Swedish, Autotech, Minty, Garage BlainVille, and co. I've also heard of Automag for the older models (240), if you've been to Automag, can you tell me where it is ?


Thanks in advance,


Lee