| Author | Message | ||
     David Morin (Sporin) Member Username: Sporin Post Number: 153 Registered: 02-2003 |
With ECR (http://www.eastcoastrover.com/) *possibly* getting out of the custom business, I was wondering if there are other shops around that do similar stuff. Not that I can afford any of it  but I really enjoyed reading their buildups... lots of good ideas. I'm looking for someplace else that has similar stuff up on the web. Anyone know? | ||
| Jim Reynolds (4x4xfar) Senior Member Username: 4x4xfar Post Number: 375 Registered: 05-2003 |
Why are they gettin out? | ||
| Doug Walker (Dougw) Member Username: Dougw Post Number: 55 Registered: 08-2003 |
http://www.offroadexperience.com/wcb/ and www.roveraccessories.com, www.the4x4center.com all do custom build ups and restorations. DW | ||
| David Morin (Sporin) Member Username: Sporin Post Number: 154 Registered: 02-2003 |
At the moment, they are re-evaluating. here's their letter from their home page... ECR Open letter to the Land Rover Community: Changes are in store at ECR. It is hard to believe that ECR is well into its second decade of work on Land Rovers of all types. We have grown from a small importer of Series Land Rovers to the "go to" shop for people with custom needs for their Defenders and other models. As much as we enjoy the custom work we are doing we are finding it a double edged sword. Yes, we can build anything you can imagine, solve any issue you have and make your Rover world class, and we love doing that, but doing that takes time, so No, we can't do it fast, and everyone wants it fast. Investing the time we do into custom built projects such as camper conversions and hand built Series restorations means that if your Rover needs a new engine, and you are stuck without it, you are in for a long wait while we finish these long term custom projects, and nobody likes to wait. The wait time is also compounded by the fact that projects expand greatly once they arrive at our door. A typical engine job for a Range Rover would take us only a short time, but once we start changing the engine we usually get an expanded work list from the customer that includes lift kits, lockers, paint, and so on. Suddenly a few days becomes a few weeks. On other projects a few weeks becomes a few months. Multiply that by the number of Rovers we work on and then divide that by the four of us and you see the problem... time. The solution... honestly, we are not clear on what that will be. The only thing we know for sure is that we will not continue on our present course. The hassles outweigh the rewards by a wide margin. In an attempt to combat the time problem for service customers we have just opened what we like to call "ECR 2". ECR 2 is a repair facility, only. So if you need a new engine for your Range Rover, ECR 2 is your source. ECR 2 will also offer 4.6 upgrades and other such work, but no paint, crash damage or custom fabrication and it will not offer work on Series vehicles.All of ECR's attention to detail and quality will be at ECR 2 and it is still ECR, but for service only. As for East Coast Rover, the original, currently we have stopped taking in projects. If you have a question about if your project is in the line up or not, drop us and email and we'll be happy to chat about it with you. Any project that we have made a commitment to we will fully honor and build to our exacting standards as usual. Once we finish up the projects that are already signed with us, we will take a break, re-evaluate ECR, and see what direction it takes us in. During this period we will still be selling Rovers of all types, and we will be available, as usual, for free technical support and general Rover advise as we have always done. This web site will still be updated regularly with images and descriptions of the custom projects we are working on for your viewing pleasure. If you need to contact us email is the best way to reach us, or you can try the phone. The phone however ranks second in our thinking. We feel that if we are working on a customer's Rover we owe it to that customer to keep working on it, not spend time on the phone. That means if you call you may or may not get an answer. It does not mean we don't like you, or that we are not here, or that we are avoiding you, it just means that we had to prioritize our time. We don't have a secretary, and even if we did, we know you don't want to talk to the secretary, you want to talk to the guy that is currently underneath the Defender at the other end of the shop. We try to answer all calls, but if you can't reach us by phone drop us an email with your question and we'll reply asap, usually same day. Thanks for your time. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to call, fax or email. We'll be happy to help in any way we can. Michael Smith and the staff of ECR |
