[evlrdlne]

I highly suggest not buying one from Saturn motorsports.

We bought a Slightly blemished hood and was assured that the only blem was a small chip(which pics were shown) and other then that the hood was perfectly fine.

When we received the hood it did not fit the car and had to be modified(they assured it would fit the Redline). Also after the first sunny day, the Clear went cloudy on it and is unrepairable.

Saturn Motorsports basically told us that tough luck and maybe keep trying other bodyshops(ie: spend more money trying) and see if it can be fixed. They will not refund any money and will now not return emails. So basically we are now stuck with a hood that will now need to be painted to match. If we wanted a painted hood, we would have kept the stock one....

Just a heads up to any of you out there thinking of this Modification

 

[JPK]

That sucks.

I've heard that SMS is not the best place to buy from.

 

[Sp00ner]

They have nice stuff, just expensive as hell... and it seems like if you're not building a turbo Saturn, they don't have a lot for ya. They do have some good stuff usually, just expensive...

 

[XxGarbSxX]

I think I recall the hood you're talking about. I believe it was posted on their forum, and if memory serves correctly, they said the hood was already damaged and it was being sold as is. Now I have also bought stuff for my car from SMS, I got the Thermal R&D cat-back for my SC2 and their customer service was excellent. I have never heard of them ever leaving a customer high and dry, and I know I certainly wasn't left high and dry with my exhaust. I feel for you to an extent, but buying an already damaged part as is really isn't the smartest thing to do.

 

[xtremesc2]

did you get it at discount? how much did you pay for it?

 

[evlrdlne]

the onlything that was wrong with the hood when it was ordered was a small chip in the very top upper left corner of the hood, the rest of the hood I was informed was fine. There must be a defect in the clear or somethign isn't right on it becuase as soon as it was under sun the entire hood went cloudy.

To get the hood to my door from their shop in California it ended up costing me over 500$CAN.
I've also purchased springs from this company and would have been a repeat buyer if i had received some better customer service from them. The way they treated me just wasn't fair. I will not be buying anymore parts from this company. I believe in customer service, without it I am not interested in doing business with them.

 

[evlrdlne]

also, the company didn't stop to realize that I could of been a loyal customer had I been treated fairly and felt that my concerns were important to them. I've only owned the Redline since Feb 1st and within 2 months I have put over 5,000 just in parts (not including install costs) into my car, and the car is nowhere near done there. This is a show car, they could of made alot of money from me if i felt like they cared if I was happy.

 

[evlrdlne]

P.S. If your looking for a CF Hood for your Redline I highly suggest looking on APC's web site, as once I got the hood the underneath of it was engraved with "APC" and a serial #, I can not say for sure but it almost seems like they purchased the hood, it got damaged so they resold it. I'd imagine the cost would be cheaper by going directly through APC, they don't show it listed in their online catalog but under their "show cars" section there is a green Quad Coupe with one on it, you'd still need to do the latch adjustment to make it fit.
The other part that still upsets me is they passed this hood off as if it would fit the Redline and it didn't, if my cousin wasn't a very good welder i would have incurred more costs to make it fit.

 

[qcion3]

what is APC's website?

 

[evlrdlne]

http://www.performancestyleattitude.com/home.htm
go to this site, it should work, look under "show cars" near the top of the page. They don't show this hood on their catalog yet (i think its too new) so you'd probably need to call them directly.
Too bad I noticed they had an Ion done up a little too late, i probably could of ordered directly from them and not had this problem.

 

[Sinister redlines]

Depending on how bad the finish is you should be able to fix it. If you pm me with some pics I may be able give you some advice ( I am PPG and Dupont certified painter ). Not to frustrate you further but it is pretty common to refinish the cf parts due to the fact that most are not clear coated from the factory. It may seem to be but it is mearly clear gel coat which has very bad responses to uv from the sun light vs cear coat that has many uv protectants in them. As far as fitment cf is known to bow very badly. Some companys do a better job of strengthening the mold to prevent it unfortunately apc is not one of them. Hope this helps.

 

[XxGarbSxX]

Yea, if all SMS did was re-sell an APC hood, and all that was originally wrong with it was a chip, then that doesn't say much for APC. If all they did was chip the hood, then the fit and finish was bad from the get-go. I try to stay away from APC because they're known for half assed ricey products, although their hood for the 3rd gen SC2 was pretty freakin sweet.

 

[SatredL]

Do any of the Saturn dealerships near you guys have the Saturn Motorsports catalog? If so you can get the cf hood thru Saturn + a bunch of other goodies.

 

[John]

APC isnt making any more cf for the ion. But my friend has 1 on his qc3 and it looks great been on for 3 months

 

[Jim Lewis]

Don't mean to play "dad" here, but "show car" and "buying known damaged parts" don't quite match.

These hoods aren't generally clear-coated, so you have to shoot them with clear yourself.

Buying something "as-is" with known damage and no guarantee, then bitching about it being a bad product and wanting a refund or compensation just doesn't wash. That's what "as-is" means - you own it - as is - if you want a guarantee and customer service to back it up, buy a new product with a fitment and finish guarantee.

I don't know the people at SMS, but if I sold you something declared "as is", and you called up complaining, I'd simply ask you what part of "as is" don't you understand...

 

[Sp00ner]

He not upset about the as-is, he's upset that the as-is description didn't quite match the product. Ya, know?

 

[evlrdlne]

He not upset about the as-is, he's upset that the as-is description didn't quite match the product. Ya, know?

Exactly. I was sent pics showing the damage(hardly any and easily disguisable, and then this happened. My bodyman also says that the only way they have ever got clear to come uncloudy after it did, was to shoot a color-coat over it again(which is impossible for a CF hood)

PS- it's SHE...not HE

 

[Sp00ner]

Sorry Miss! We're new to this whole 'females on our forums' thing, it went from 0 to a few in like 2 days!

 

[zfactor]

to everyone here i would never buy a cf hood from apc in the first place. no offense to anyone but apc's products are normally very cheaply made and especially the carbon fiber stuff is junk. i own a shop here in fl. i seel cf hoods ALL the time and only use one comapny for them after seeing 6 apc hoods i will NEVER seel one ever again , even if my other source does not have one for your vehicle i will tell you i cant get you one. i am all about customer service and i feel that with apc's product i cant offer this because they dont offer it to me. the are a terrible company to deal with. vis racing is the only comapny that offers great cf hoods. never had a single one bad and they always fit on the first try. i sell A LOT of these and if there is a problem as sometimes happens with body kits vis will fix it or make it right however they have to. not to rag on apc, but come on thier stuff is at wal-mart.

 

[D3XXFR]

Hey do you think the company you deal with is thinkin about making a CF hood for the ION redline? Just curious