Polo Performance Services?

scotsjohn · May 29, 2011, 08:37:48 PM

Is Stuart Norman out of the game now? I know he was getting a bit of stick for some of his kit, but he had some decent ideas. Shame when anyone who's supporting old Polos moves on.

hayesey · May 29, 2011, 08:51:05 PM

I think his unit was robbed or burnt down or something. Maybe he'll be back once he gets insurance through?

cheddarcheese · May 30, 2011, 03:19:12 PM

well most of his items were just copies of other people items made cheap with out the quality!

cheys03 · May 30, 2011, 04:54:37 PM

To be fair, a lot of people rate his services and customer support very highly. Big can of worms with designs being 'borrowed' but imo largely let down by manufacturing quality. Genuinely I hope he is able to improve his products and range with some decent welding and original ideas - as scotsjohn says, it would be a great shame to loose his services from the Polo world.

Justin14100 · May 31, 2011, 09:39:35 AM

Quote from: cheddarcheese on May 30, 2011, 03:19:12 PM
well most of his items were just copies of other people items made cheap with out the quality!

Hate the bitching that goes on here about him, its a total joke.

grungeisdead · May 31, 2011, 11:37:51 AM

tbf most of the polo products created, have been copied from others designs.

who cares as long as we get more performance oriented products for the polos, readily available, from one or several companies.

This means there is no monopolisation in the market, and brings in an element of competitiveness.

His prices are competitive, and products are good. Level of customer service is 2nd to none.

He had his unit broken into earlier this year, jigs and tools were stolen, so it has taken him some time to get operational again.

Scotsjohn - you have a habit of scaremongering and insinuating many things. I think you should think slightly more and proof read what you write, prior to posting it, as it could be taken in several different ways.

CheddarCheese - Have you owned Salzmann, PPP and PPS products, to actually compare, or are you just chatting shit.

vwmk3jon · May 31, 2011, 03:05:07 PM

talk about having blinkers on!

Yup, he's an asset to us all imho. othrwise, all we'd be l;eft with is golf bits and they're totally bloody useless! Even a couple of days after being robbed did he send me all new bolts for my frame and detailed instructions which he actually sat down to handwrite. Now i'd love to see another company give that level of service.

breadman · May 31, 2011, 07:47:02 PM

To be fair Saf, I don't think scotsjohn was trying to be unfair here - I certainly didn't read it as such. I think it was a genuine enquiry as to his work status? I certainly agree with everything else you said though, the more suppliers the better.

I too think it's a great shame that Stuart Norman has been slagged off in the past. However, there has without doubt been issues with some of the welding on his frames which was unacceptable because of the safety implications. From what I understand though, he has always tried his best to sort any issues very quickly and without arguement.

I don't know whether Stuart does the welding himself or subs it out? If he could acheive a high standard in this area his subframe in particular would be very good value for money indeed. As scotsjohn said, he does have some very good ideas and anyone supporting the longevity of high performance parts supply for Polos mk1-3 has got to be good for all the reasons Saf quoted.

Let's hope he gets back up and running soon.

Jezza-7 · May 31, 2011, 09:50:43 PM

He is a really nice bloke. When my gearbox mount cracked he had no problem sending me out a new one. I know also when antony complained about the welding on his frame stuart sent out a brand new one too.

I have had ppp and pps products so i can comment about both, such as subframes and i have to say that the pps one was ok but the design could of been better like the rear bar being a single bar welded in and the mounting holes were elongated so they had play in them. My welding wasn't too bad on my frame but the gearbox mount was crap. I noticed after fitting the ppp one that it felt a lot more stable and the welding was a lot better. The mount was imo the best mount you can buy.

At the end of the day it would be a shame to loose anyone that is making products for older polo's.

Etches · June 01, 2011, 12:44:56 AM

Having had many frames and other goods etc from stuart , i think hes a top bloke. I bought an old frame off ebay and sent it too him. He updated the design and got it sprayed for me which cost me nothing. The welding again wasnt the best on the GB mount but its never broke on me and for the price a top product. I just hope he manages to pull it all back together as he will be missed on the polo scene.

So there's no need to slate without good reasoning.

cheddarcheese · June 01, 2011, 01:35:28 AM

its just my opinion that i have come to from the feedback of others who have had pps products the quality is not up to scratch compared to ppp.

i do think its a good thing for this guy to be selling polo performance products sounds like he has good customer service and wish him the best but why cant it be cheap and high quality.

dub-disaster · June 01, 2011, 06:32:29 AM

Quote from: cheddarcheese on June 01, 2011, 01:35:28 AM
its just my opinion that i have come to from the feedback of others who have had pps products the quality is not up to scratch compared to ppp.

i do think its a good thing for this guy to be selling polo performance products sounds like he has good customer service and wish him the best but why cant it be cheap and high quality.

high quality usualy comes at a price due to the extra skill/time/materials when it comes to car parts you get what you pay for does ring true or it has for me anyway I've bought the cheaper option numerous times trying to save my dollar and usualy end up spending more than I would of in the first place trying to sort out the mess the cheaper option had made!

DKnight · June 01, 2011, 08:09:42 AM

i find it strange how people say he has good customer service, 3 people already in this post said their items broke and needed fixing/new bits?

He might be a top guy who does have great customer service, but he has clearly been punting out poor quality parts?

So aside all the "bitching", the fact still remains

scotsjohn · June 01, 2011, 12:35:37 PM

I for the life of me can't see where a simple enquiry as to the whereabouts of PPS contained any scaremongering or insinuation. On the contrary I'm running a PPS subframe and have been very happy with it and the service I got from Stuart.I have, like a few others on here, had my doubts about quality when other folks parts have gone wrong, but there's a recent post on the failure of a PPP gearbox mount. Shit happens, some of us give our cars a leathering from time to time. Even as a quietly driven(is that possible?) daily,on potholed roads, we're asking a lot from a thirty year old design when even new cars are coming to grief.