Try Garry Joyce at IAE Cranfield. There is really no point in obtaining competitive quotes unless you are certain they are all quoting for exactly the same job. It’s better to find a shop you trust and build an ongoing relationship.
There is really no point in obtaining competitive quotes unless you are certain they are all quoting for exactly the same job
I would agree 100%, but sadly for that to work the customer needs to have a really good knowledge of what is involved – in both technical terms and “required paperwork” terms.
And most don’t have that, which is probably one factor which supports the mess that we have in the industry.
One could make the same statement for every other walk of life e.g. the famous “British builder” institution 
On my TCAS install (by a big margin the biggest job I have ever gone to an avionics shop for) I was quoted 2k extra by one shop, for unnecessary paperwork. They would have quite possibly done it competently (I happen to know they have done a lot of those installs) but I wasn’t going to chuck away 2k for no reason. Later they admitted they didn’t need that paperwork but by then I went to another shop which made a right hash of it (a real “Team C” job and revealing a nonexistent attitude to QA all the way to the top). Those two were probably UK’s biggest and best known firms.
I don’t know what the solution is but if say you visit a solicitor it pays to research the topic on the internet first It might not make you very popular (I am sure doctors hate patients who have googled for “ingrowing toenail” before the visit) but you will get a lot more out of it.
Old post, but let me try to provide an answer anyway.
I am surprised ASP in Belgium doesn’t come up in this discussion. I have had friends who worked with them over years on a PH-reg Piper. I have had them work on my Mooney, a number of smaller jobs. Given Peter’s list of requirements I would say they score like this
1. high
2. high
3. for “very” competent I cannot judge, but certainly “competent”
4. they do understand old and new boxes and harnesses, I have seen it
5. in two cases I requested a job to be done on the same day (arrive – fix it – depart same day), they were willing to accept,
I waited in the airport’s restaurant, and they delivered on the dot; says of course nothing about big projects and how they get
organized and delivered
6. here you need to judge yourself, it’s closer than Munich for sure
7. never any bad experience, not me, not my group of friends
8. they are an FAA approved repair station (as far as I remember)
What else ? I liked the cleanup of my panel, after a job was done. Even details like a little touch up of paint in the right color.
Hope this helps a bit.
+1 for ASP
To answer the OP question: if there is, no pilot in his right mind would talk about it, at least not in public! 
Hi WP,
Would you mind sharing the meaning of “OP question” ? I am lost.
“OP” = original poster; usually the person who started a thread.
Funnily enough ASP did briefly appear here but instead of participating properly in the forum and getting business that way, they did it differently
The formula is really very simple… an avionics installer who contributes generally on EuroGA can get a lot of business.
@AP
My point was that if a pilot knew of a good avionics shop, the last thing he would do is talk about it in public. It would only cause problems the next time he needed something done because of longer wait times.
I was joking,almost.
