YamatoGarage from Missouri

[RentonD]

I would like to start off this review by saying I couldn't find very many reviews on this place, but on the ones I did find, they were very pleased with their purchase.

YAMATO GARAGE (Founded and Run by Donovan Gutshall out of Wentzville, MO)
My first impressions of Yamato Garage were very promising but when I sent in the money for my Advertiser Special I had no idea what I was getting into. The advertiser special had actually ended about a week before my order, but I had been quoted long before the order ended. I call him to make sure I don't need to send him more money. So Donovan being such a great guy gave me the equipment for the special. I was so dumbfounded and thankful. So, I ordered it after hours on a Thursday [8/6/09] not realizing the special was over and called on Friday [8/7/09]. Awesome! So then I call on Monday [8/10/09] to see what was going on and he tells me that it will ship out later that day and I could call later and get the tracking number. Also excellent. I try to call him back later that day but don't get an answer. I wasn't too worried as I was told it would ship out. I call him the next day and he answers to tell me that he's working on the YamatoGarage project car. OK, I can accept that. I can understand the love for wanting to work on a drift car. I gave him my e-mail to get a tracking number and he said he'd PM me on Zilvia. Much to my surprise he called me later that day and gave me the number. Arrived at my house less than 48 hours later. Looks like some VERY sturdy parts. I'm very excited to put them on.

Summary: Great parts, easy to reach, great prices. I am definitely buying my rear suspension parts from these guys. YamatoGarage and Donovan are awesome.

[s15specR]

Helpful, any one else have any inputs on their stuff ?

[jspec240]

I got a lil confused and thought yamato garage japan made its way to the us...

lol

[direktdrive]

Just got their s14 rucas and toe rods in. It was about a week since I ordered them. So good timing especially since they're all the way in Missouri and I'm in California! Anyways, the s14 ruca's are so beefy and the welds look amazing. Same goes for the rear toe rods. I also loved the rucas and toe rods' purple finish. Soo hypebeast haha. j/k. I really can't wait til I install and run these parts.

Lots of cred for yamato garage. ;)

[mattro]

just got the oil cooler kit, great quality, great shipping, great cust service, i will def buy all the parts i can from these guys.

[bornslippy73]

I also order their oil cooler kit. Awesome customer service. They gave me a free t-shirt and stickers for a very slight error in communication with my order. No major concern at all. The oil cooler is super. Yes great quality. Quick response in PMs. I also signed up for the fuel rail group buy. Just waiting on the go signal to pay.

[DruidAT]

Two thumbs up for Yamato Garage. I made my first order a month or two ago on their whole multi-link setup however, they had ran out of traction rods and assured me they'd give me the sale once they come back in stock. I also ordered an oil cooler. The lines leaked, they assured me that they were pressure tested before they were sent out and I was refunded my money and was told to keep the lines. I have the oil cooler set up now with new lines and couldn't be happier. I think the lines may have just been damaged in shipping? Now I'm waiting on those tracton rods and an alignment.

THESE ARMS ARE BEEFY! I'm pretty excited.

[RentonD]

P.S. There's a Yamato Garage thread already. Use the search button. Next! Congratulations on the Rods though. I got some tension rods. I <3 YamatoGarage.

[Sprayandprayz]

Ordered s13 ruca's last sunday and received them the following friday. very nice doing business with donovan. thanks again.

[CristianJ]

Yeah i have there full suspension set up. Quality parts and great customer service :bigok:

[lou's40sx]

Bought Valance Replica from him. Seemed very busy, the package arrived fast and a little better condition than I expected. Had to remind him to send tracking, and he did right away, he was busy so, very understandable, and good communication.

Overall great experience on my part. A grade.

[eklips3]

yamato garage is dope !

wicked deals , wicked communication . will definatley do business again and again

keep up the good work

[Vatche]

i bought there sway bars for 200 shipped. was a great price for 30mm/28mm. orginally supposed to come with bushings and endlinks but i was a couple days late so they sent me a set with just the sway bars.

but i recieved sway bars that are 27.5mm front and 27.5mm rear.

i bought bushings for 30mm and 28mm and i cant use either.
i cant really use the sway bars because theyre both the same thickness which is kinda not what i want to run.

and everytime i pmed i got a poor response not answering my questions. i wasnt happy with that. they completely ignored what i brought up.

before i made the purchase their customer service was great.

and i give a thumbs down for WTF is with these sizes and bad customer service.

And another thumb down for quality.

now i have to piece shit together to make it work.

[unaffiliated240sx]

donavan is a great guy, great customer service and parts.

[lakaiae86]

i ordered some yamato s13 rucas a few months back...ended up selling them.. they werent as beefy as i thought they were gonna be, they were actually pretty thin and the welds on them were ehhhhh ended going with spl

[Vatche]

I installed the front sway bar from Yamato Garage's set. In 3 weeks it broke completely in half.
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i220/o0jh/car%20parts/IMG00310-20110112-1900.jpghttp://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i220/o0jh/car%20parts/IMG00309-20110112-1723.jpg

I asked for a refund. He says all he can do is send me a replacement. But I have no faith in this product. And it should be his responsibility to deal with this, not mine.

I have had nothing but poor experiences with Yamato Garage. I am unhappy.

EDIT 2/14/2011: So it has been a month and I have not recieved a replacement, I did read he was having issues with the storm and stuff, but I am pretty sure it could have been done already.

[lakaiae86]

damnnnnnn... lol wtf?. yeah their quality wasnt as good as i expected.. ended up spending extra and went spl all the way..well worth it.

[niscur29]

Damn that sucks!!! Glad I went peak with my RUCA's over the holiday sales was so close to buying YG stuff.

[Wreckless35]

I recently recieved my group buy full s14 suspension parts from Yamato Garage. At first glance I was highly impressed with my products... Beefy arms, lightweight, and rich color of my own liking was used. I recently installed yet have driven vehicle much since so as for performance quality I can't say much but the appearance of my arms have deminished since installing. I had alot of paint chipping from powder coating once it had any slight contact with other metal. I'm hoping the finish stays the same as it is driven more often. Otherwise so far so good. Donovan was very easy to contact & answered all questions via post/PM when needed.

[travypoo]

i ordered all 3 rear arms and fron tension rods from them recently. as you said above the paint chipped super easy, looks rad though.... also ordered black arms with silver flake and got the rucas shipped to me purple. they did offer me to ship it back and re coat however which was nice of him. havent driven the car anywhere yet to see how they hold up but the quality looks great and the welds are decent.

[rustyhatch]

does anyone have a picture of the s13 rucas they recieved ?

[alex_s817]

anyone have a hard time contacting Yamato Garage now? I am waiting on s14 rucas that were ordered in December and still do not have them. No answer when I called and now the website is also down? No PM response on here either.

[twotoes]

I ordered s14 RUCA's from him a couple weeks ago, I emailed him last week for an update and he emailed me back saying

"yes we recieved payment and your item will ship by the end of the week as we are waiting n another batch of qa1 hyme joints for the arms,

donovan"

I was surprised to see today that the website no longer exists...im going to try to email him again for another update, ill post what I find out.

[twotoes]

He got back to me right away when I emailed him today and my RUCA's are being sent out asap. So far I dont have any complaints, hes emailed me back both times that ive contacted him.

[Vatche]

Yeah I am disappointed . I am still out $200 for buying parts from Yamato Garage. No refunds, no replacement, the last pm I got from Donovan 2 months ago was saying he would send me replacements. If I got them I wouldn't need to complain any further. I am not out to hurt anyone, but this is/was bullshit. I guess they stopped caring?

[MattRose]

My buddy ordered RUCA in their group buy in December/January and still hasn't recieved them, even though payment was promptly sent months ago

[Persona]

I was thinking of ordering RUCA's from them but I noticed a very similar structure to the wholesale RUCA's people sell on ebay and under the top speed name for a while etc minus the powdercoating. When I asked them about it, they completely avoided my question.

Not saying they do or dont, just giving my experience.


Link for reference,

NISSAN S14 94-98 REAR UPPER CAMBER KIT ARMS - eBay (item 190497828493 end time Apr-03-11 09:22:35 PDT) (http://cgi.ebay.com/NISSAN-S14-94-98-REAR-UPPER-CAMBER-KIT-ARMS-/190497828493?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item2c5a8e2e8d#ht_1493wt_906)

[conrad_s13.5]

i dnt know what all this talk about "looked very beefy/sturdy"
have you guys seen another companies stuff!?

Oil cooler I got was made of cheap cheap metal. Shit got suuuuuuper hot. Couldnt just drive to the gas station and back without it leaking. And when i went to take it off, the threads came off like paper,.....completely useless. I know for a fact i didnt cross thread or anything like that.

Asked for info on fitting sizes for the fuel rail, He gave me some sizes, I purchase some earls fittings from summit, turns out they were the wrong sizes,...had to return those,. which was a hassle in its self when your on a crunch for time. Did my own research, and found a circuit sports fuel rail (that looked strangely exactly the same) that ended up having the correct sizes listed in the description...imagin that.

I'm not trying to bash anyone, nor would i ever about something like this, I take most things as live and learn,...and no harm done. But this thread, could definatly mislead alot of people into expensive future potential problems

[tredmkv]

I have the full s13 package, joints are decent quality, paint is holding up fine and the vehicle aligned with no problems, but I have a feeling next time I will go with a better brand.

[MattRose]

This guy is a crook and has taken many people's money and parts have yet to arrive. He responded quickly when I called him out and then never got back to me after that. Helen Keller could provide better customer service than this guy...

[zo0d]

-1 for yamato garage

The RUCAs themselves aren't bad at all.

But I had to wait close to 4 months to recieve my set. Total BS.

He gave me some crap about UPS losing the item and him having to wait for their insurance to pay him before he could send out another set. I'm not the only person which he has given the same story to.
Perhaps he's scamming UPS into paying him out more than what the RUCAs are actually worth.....

Never again.

[dsc4130]

did you paypal him?

[Vatche]

what a shit company. shit customer service. shit products.

i hate people that steal.

sorry if i get mad when someone takes $200 from me. which i know doesnt sound like a lot. but i would be pissed if it was $20. its the point of it

[ChampionSound]

installed my rucas finally

to be honest with you, not very impressed, if i was to do it again, id get circuit sports for the same price. helm joint is cheap as sin, had a fair bit of play, and best of all, the bracket on the other side did not even fit properly.... pretty ghetto

i had to hammer it with a buddy to fit it onto the knuckle and even then it was a huge headache.

would not buy another yamato product at this point unless i see some huge changes

[speedgod^s13]

installed my rucas finally

to be honest with you, not very impressed, if i was to do it again, id get circuit sports for the same price. helm joint is cheap as sin, had a fair bit of play, and best of all, the bracket on the other side did not even fit properly.... pretty ghetto

i had to hammer it with a buddy to fit it onto the knuckle and even then it was a huge headache.

would not buy another yamato product at this point unless i see some huge changes

You couldn't buy another part from them, even if you wanted to. They are no longer in business. From what I've read, it's no surprise.