CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT: BEN ADLER AND KYLE DOBBINS, KENNESAW, GA
I wanted these for performance.
When Ben Adler and Kyle Dobbins did a Google search and decided to give Pull-A-Part of Norcross a try, they never knew they’d want to come back so soon.
“We came up here last week,” Dobbins said, wrench in hand as he climbed underneath an E36-chassis BMW 3-Series hiding a hidden treasure. “We got a fan clutch, a fan, fan shroud, a radiator hose, the reservoir, cam position sensor… and I came back because I wanted the M3 bumper off this thing. I thought I might sell it for a few bucks. The bumper was already gone when we got back, but that’s okay.”
Better than okay, in fact. When the duo glanced again, they noticed a fresh set of Bilstein racing shocks at all four corners.
“They’re probably worth about $500,” Dobbins said. “I was just looking under at the differential, and then I saw the Bilsteins. This person must have upgraded his suspension.”
Adler and Dobbins are members of New Alliance, an online car club that grew into a new kind of car meet in Kennesaw, Georgia: no revving, no hooning and a focus on keeping it low-key.
“My first year at Southern Poly, all my car friends wanted to have a meet,” Adler said. “There was no meet in the area, so we decided to throw our own. People have their own sub-meets in it. It’s chill.”
Pull-A-Part’s Notify Me feature sends an email or text alert when your desired vehicle hits the yard. It’s a sure way to be the first to know when your car hits the yard. And thanks to Pull-A-Part’s flat pricing structure, a shock is a shock — even if it happens to be a racing shock from Germany. In this case, the full set of four Bilstein shocks ran under $75, plus tax and environmental fees — less than a quarter of the price of a new set bought online.
“The E36 is my favorite car,” Dobbins said. “They’re problematic sometimes, but when they’re working, they drive awesome.”