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I told him that from day one this engine went down on power when the weather got hot. He suspects the timing could have been off from day one but is exhibiting worse symptoms due to chain stretch.
I understand that Yamaha build the top end of this engine. I am not happy! I drove this car in a reasonable manner and did not abuse it.
I have to decide between continue to drive it as is, get it fixed, or get rid of it. The frequency of repairs is the biggest problem, as my wife is busy but has to provide me a ride.
Granted, he should have got "4 or 5 more good years" in writing, with a warranty of some kind, but still, I can understand his frustration.
That mechanic should learn not to say such things if he doesn't want pissed off customers.
I do agree that promises like that shouldn't be made but do you know how some vehicle owners react when they are not? That is often treated as being wrong too. But I do have to laugh at the idea because usually when we think a car is really on its last legs there are times we still see it limping around several years later and then the opposite can often be true. There may be no signs of trouble obvious today and tomorrow it just dies. That's just cars doing what they do, break when ever they darn well want to.
No codes are set! The tech/owner made a comment that the newer cars would report something, but this one is not reporting anything.
Could it be just the VVT actuator? I'm guessing that would be a great find...?
I think I will fix it, keep it as a backup, and on the wish list is a Subaru (Outback or Forester) which my one mechanic seems to love the most today. In Dave Ramsey fashion I have avoided such a transaction for as long as possible. Not good to have cash tied up in a car, BAH!
I can say that I have given vendors all the work / boat payments they could possibly want. The TCO for all these years has still been far lower than a new car! Huzzah for the techs!
1) The loud humming sound goes completely away when I turn the tone knob below 7 or 8. YES! Bad pot, but still usable.
2) I inspected underneath the circuit. The guitar connections are merely open dipoles, and input #2, the spring-loaded pole that presses on the guitar chord's 1/4" jack was bent from movement and being mounted too close to the base. I bent it back.
3) The speaker, oh the speaker. Parts of the cone are actually flapping in the wind, dry-rotted. Now don't get me wrong, "You Really Got Me" sounds just like the amp that Dave Davies used where he cut his cone up with a razer blade LOL. But most other music is a problem.
So I was originally going to repair it but with a speaker change it seems a bit counter-productive to make changes that will change the original sound and hardware. So I guess I will accept this as a collector's item, just play the Kinks on it when friends are over, and appreciate what I get from fans of old stuff like my guitar buddy who spotted it and exclaimed how supremely cool it is.
And thus ends the 19 year history. Wow, that was a long time. I was downsized a week after buying that car. It was well worth it to keep it so long. It did prepare us well financially, despite the yearly repairs!
I apologize that we will never know the extend of the engine problem!
https://www.autonews.com/video/its-more-humane-why-one-dealer-pays-service-techs-hour
Is this some sort of witchcraft?!
I do find it interesting how the owner admits that flat rate acts as "an invisible manager." At the same time, he also recognizes that "fast" is not "better."
https://www.autonews.com/best-practices/amid-technician-shortage-group-hiring-now
A shortage of service technicians is among the top concerns at dealerships across the country, and one is taking a unique approach to solve the problem.
Warren Henry Auto Group, headquartered in Miami, last month began holding job fairs promising to hire qualified technicians on the spot.
Instead of following the usual protocol that would take weeks to pick someone for a sorely needed job, the company brought its dealer principal, service director and human resources staff to the fair at Florida International University. It essentially amounted to a professional game of speed dating among dozens of candidates.
By the end of the day, the company had made verbal offers to five candidates, most of whom will start this week.
"We're trying everything," Barbara Exposito, Warren Henry's human resources director, told Automotive News. "We have to make decisions pretty quickly, especially because of the need in the business."
‘Dangerous shortage'
According to the National Automobile Dealers Association, the industry is facing a shortage of 76,000 technicians each year through 2026. In addition, 30,000 per year will be retiring.
NADA Chairman Charlie Gilchrist addressed the issue at his inaugural address in January, saying the "dangerous shortage" threatens dealer profitability. The NADA Foundation launched a work force initiative this year to connect prospective technicians with open jobs.
"This is not an issue we can afford to kick down the road," Gilchrist said.
Exposito said the Warren Henry group, which operates 13 franchises at six locations in Florida, thought a hire-on-the-spot event would stand out and draw attention to its needs. Many dealerships have offered on-the-spot gimmicks for trade-ins or buyback programs.
"We felt confident our service director would be able to meet with all of the candidates," she said. "It worked out well."
READY TO GO
Warren Henry Auto Group is holding job fairs for service technicians where it makes on-the-spot offers in respone to a shortage of qualified candidates.
New HQ
Aside from the industrywide tech shortage, the Warren Henry group has another incentive to hire as quickly as possible: It's set to open an 800,000-square-foot headquarters in North Miami this fall.
The site, which will feature 82 service bays in a climate-controlled shop, will allow the company to double in size and hire 150 to 200 workers, about 40 of which will be service technicians.
As part of the interview process, prospective employees got to tour the construction site. The seven-story building will sell Jaguar, Land Rover, Infiniti and Koenigsegg vehicles out of a glass-paneled showroom. Officials say it will include the nation's largest electric vehicle charging facility.
It also will have a cafe, rooftop event space, gym for employees and other amenities.
The Warren Henry group, which has had stores on Automotive News' list of the Best Dealerships To Work For in each of the past five years, sold more than 4,300 new and used vehicles last year.
The company plans to host another hire-on-the-spot job fair at the end of August, Exposito said. The group also is attempting to recruit techs at colleges and universities.
It offers relocation assistance and housing opportunities for out-of-state workers. It's also attempting to raise the profile of its service technicians, occasionally allowing individual workers to "take over" its social media channels for a day.
"We like to think of recruiting as more of a guerrilla marketing approach," Exposito said. "If everyone's talking about what we're doing, there's more buzz around it."
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2014 M235i; 2009 Cooper Clubman; 1999 Wrangler; 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i
Frankly, I think the idea of having "safety critical systems" completely isolated from the IoT functions is a non-starter (mostly due to the efficiency of over-the-air updates, of which the intent of many is to modify the software functions in such systems), it makes so much sense to offer fail safes.
The issues often surrounding dealer service are well documented. Dealers get credit for having technicians specialize not just in a limited number of makes and models, but often work only with specific systems such as a transmission technician, an electronics specialist etc. They also get plenty of bad press for the tendency to "wallet flush" which when called on it typically try and place all of the blame the technicians and service advisers and pretend to be victims.
Here are a couple quotes from the Forum.
BTW. There are no quotes from any technicians in this forum. Accident?
https://www.autonews.com/fixed-ops-journal/automotive-news-fixed-ops-journal-forum-improving-returns
Mark Hargreaves, service manager, Gator Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge
"Why is it important to train technicians to properly write an estimate? An organized estimate will increase the adviser's close ratio. It will decrease the time it takes to get authorization. And it will increase your hours per repair order — it's going to make it easy for the writer to sell the job; the customer's going to buy more."
Tully Williams, fixed operations director, Niello Co.
"Do we sell dollars? Not really. We sell hours, and I want to track hours through my store. We look at three key performance indicators.
"First, how are my hours being tracked — by writer, by technician, by store? Next, how do we get more hours? Are our techs doing the great-quality recommendations that we would sell to our family members?
"Last but not least, are we selling these recommendations to all of our customers?"
Lee Harkins, owner, M5 Management Services
"Take a look at why I should go to work for you. That should be the point that you advertise in your ads. Not what you want. But, what does a technician want?"
Max Lowenbaum, vice president of sales, Hireology
"There are people in the market. The issue is that those people are not considering retail automotive, or being a technician, as the place that they would consider working."
L O L
"An organized estimate will increase the adviser's close ratio. It will decrease the time it takes to get authorization. "
That required repairs, written by someone who is supposed to understand the vehicle, need some business guy to approve them, that says a whole lot about the people involved and the system.