European Auto Tech - Tucson, Arizona

John Ranney, owner of European Auto Tech has a long history of excellence in automotive repair. In 1973 he started at a Major East Coast Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen Dealer and moved on to become shop foreman at one of the largest dealerships in the New York Metropolitan area. From there he opened his own service facility in central New Jersey in 1987, expanding his car line to BMW, Volvo, and Mercedes-Benz. After years of battling the winters he moved to sunny Tucson and opened the shop you see on Fort Lowell today.

One of the things that bothered him about dealerships was the frequent and frustrating miscommunication between the customer, service writer, and technician. At European, there is no middleman. You speak DIRECTLY to the owner.

John is a certified MASTER ASE L1 Tech. The elite ASE certification stands for automotive service excellence. This national automotive test, given in major US cities every year, gives mechanics an opportunity to reveal their knowledge. A technician must pass 8 required testing areas in order to be elevated to MASTER certification. John has passed all 8 of the following categories: Engine Repair, Automatic Trans/Transaxle, Manual Drive Train and Axles, Suspension and Steering, Brakes, Electrical/Electronic Systems, Heating and Air Conditioning, and Engine Performance. To reach the status of L1 John passed in the Advanced Engine Performance area.

Dana Whalen

Dana Whalen has been in the automotive industry for over 15 years. She has attended numerous automotive management classes. Dana is ASE certified as well as AMI certified.

She has opened and managed an independent Toyota repair facility for over 7 years. It has always been her passion to work with European cars. Dana has been the service manager at European Auto Tech for over 4 years.

When you call us, it is her friendly voice you'll be hearing on the other end.

Mark Herbert

Grandfather Joseph Herbert built a repair shop in Fords NJ around 1910-11. Herbert’s Garage was started.
Died from complications from being hit out front of the shop while helping a stuck motorist around 1942
His son, my father, Matthew Herbert, took over the shop at the age of 16 until his death in 1969. My mother kept the shop in the hope one of her sons were to reopen Herbert’s Garage. She was able to keep the building by leasing it out to auto repair business’s. I started in the shop as a clean up boy at the age of 14, it was a deal brokered by my mother to get me out of the backyard garage where I working on bicycles mini bikes and anything I could get my hands on. I worked for a shop called The Little Car Shop, run by a Richard Delany. It was a shop that specialized in foreign cars.

A very short time after starting there I became a “mechanic’s helper” because the shop was so busy. I would come in, clean up real fast, than do whatever the mechanics told me to do. After a while that job entailed doing entire jobs myself. About a 1 ½ years later the shop moved to a bigger location. In that location they had to hire a clean up boy to replace me because by now I was working full time on cars. By the time I was 17 I was put in charge of all the mechanics (my boss was never at the shop), my boss felt I was the most trustworthy and reliable, his words.
Around the spring of 1979 my boss had to sell the business because of his promiscuous ways. I didn’t stay for the new owners, they had a shop close by and I didn’t like the way they did business, they were dishonest to say the least.

A friend told me about an opening in a Porsche Audi dealer, I applied for the job and was hired. At the time of my hiring my paychecks came from the sales department because I was too young to be paid by the service department, something in their dealer contract, even though I was working on the line in the service department.

This was the dealer I met John Ranney at.

I worked there until they sold the Porsche franchise.
I applied for a job at the dealer that the bought Porsche franchise, a Mercedes Benz dealer.
I stayed with them until I opened my own shop around the summer of 1989.
I opened my shop in the building my Grandfather built, much to the pride and pleasure of my Mother.
I built my business with honesty and the best work possible, we had a large, satisfied, customer base and became the shop the other shops would go to when they couldn’t fix a problem. in fact I met my wife, Linda, because no other shop (3) could fix her 1979 320i, which I fixed in an hour with a used Audi part. When she picked up the car she didn’t believe it was fixed, but the next morning she brought us doughnuts and never left. Unfortunately the demographics changed drastically in the area and the amount of German cars dwindled. That and with my Mother’s passing we were forced to close the business. My family and I came out to Tucson in August 2005 in the first stop of what was going to be many for me to find a place I would want to live and work. But after talking with John and realizing we had the same perspectives towards repair and customer service, it was a no brainier, I didn’t need to go to the other places. After dealing with my business and my Mother estate I finally made it to European Auto Tech in May 2006.

Matthew Kayne - Performance Consultant

They call me Matt, and I am the Performance Consultant at European Auto Tech. I have been an employee of the company since 2002, working several job titles from front desk assistant to technician. I am very passionate about motorsports and that why I really love this job! If I am not working on my car or at the race track, it is likely you will find me watching Speed channel or reading a book about motorsport history. When not working, I am very involved in the Arizona motorsport community, participating and administrating for several different sanctioning bodies such as BMWCCA, NASA, CRA, and IKC.

I am a BMWCCA Board Member for both the Sonora and Roadrunner chapters, helping to organize driver’s schools’ in Phoenix, and other key events for both clubs. You will often find me at the events these chapters hold. Join the club if you haven’t already, and come meet me!

I have been involved in the BMW motorsport industry since 2001. I work for several private club racing ventures, performing tasks ranging from changing wheels to full race car builds from street cars. I am constantly expanding my knowledge of the sport, along with technical understanding of proper race car set-up, including such skills as setting ride height, performance alignments, and engine tuning.

I have been to the following tracks:

- Phoenix International Raceway
- Firebird International Raceway
- Arizona Motorsport Park
- Buttonwillow
- Willowsprings
- Thunderhill
- California Speedway
- Miller Motorsport Park
- Nurburgring (Germany)
- Hockenheimring (Germany)

Some of my current projects include building a custom racing brake set-up for E30 M3’s, including Wilwood Forged Superlite calipers and AP Racing rotors. I will be designing and producing custom brackets and hats using Solidworks software. I am also designing several other reliability-related items to reduce the possibility of loss of track time due to factory parts that cannot withstand the extreme conditions that occur at race tracks.

In 2006, I participated in the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill as a crew member for E-ticket Motorsports. Our car performed for an impressive twenty hours before driver issues arose, and we had to leave the race.

In addition to automotive racing, I also have participated in a fair amount of Performance Go Kart Driving, competing with some of the best drivers in the region at P1 Karting Facility in Tucson and F1 Race Factory in Phoenix.

I have performed many performance modifications on almost every model BMW produced, and my knowledge of the products, company reputability, and service are vast. I have garnered much of this experience from seeing how these parts perform in real-time tests on the race track. I have also built street cars for show competition; please see the links below for some of the vehicles I have designed.

At European Auto Tech, we have the ability to cater to all your performance needs. Don't Wait, Call Today!