Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

ab348

DAMN DAMN DAMN! Curbed a front wheel on the new ATS tonight in the dark and rain here while parking on the street near a restaurant. Too dark to see what the damage is and it drove OK after so it isn't bent, but I am so annoyed at myself right now...

roadburner

ab348 said:

DAMN DAMN DAMN! Curbed a front wheel on the new ATS tonight in the dark and rain here while parking on the street near a restaurant. Too dark to see what the damage is and it drove OK after so it isn't bent, but I am so annoyed at myself right now...

I let the 2er roll back into the garage door; the only damage was 3 paint chips- each about the size of a match head. Easily fixed, but annoying all the same.

tjc78

Every manager hates review time.   IMO it’s the worst time of year!   

When/if I take the new position 4 of the 6 I’d be managing will be field team that I’ll rarely seen face to face.  

We have a goals system as well.   I never inputted them this year for the team.  I spoke to them about it and they know their specific duties and what they need to work on.  

murphydog

ab348 said:

DAMN DAMN DAMN! Curbed a front wheel on the new ATS tonight in the dark and rain here while parking on the street near a restaurant. Too dark to see what the damage is and it drove OK after so it isn't bent, but I am so annoyed at myself right now...

hopefully not bad and you can get it repaired. My step mother had some curb rash repaired on her A6 for ~$100. Kind of spendy but you cant tell where it happened

murphydog

explorerx4 said:

@murphydog,
I walked by a C1500 that had some pretty aggressive Goodyear Wranglers on it.
You may want to look at those.

I have looked at them, and truthfully there are a lot to choose from. I like the Toyo's, BFGoodrich KO2's and a few others. Depends on how much I want to spend. The KO2's are nearly $300 a tire, others are in the $175-225 range. We will see...

explorerx4

@murphydog,
Had some trouble with the tirerack site earlier, but I found the tires I saw.
I had to paste the link below into a new window to view.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Goodyear&tireModel=Wrangler+DuraTrac&partnum=755SR0WDT&vehicleSearch=true&fromCompare1=yes&autoMake=Chevrolet&autoYear=2017&autoModel=Silverado 1500 4wd&autoModClar=Crew Cab

fintail

Aww, first scratch on the new baby. Easy fix though, same here as what was said before, I can get a curbed wheel fixed here for maybe just over $100. I had to do it on the prior car, as even the quarter sized scrape (dark street parking job, too) pushed my OCD buttons. Better than damaging paint!

ab348 said:

DAMN DAMN DAMN! Curbed a front wheel on the new ATS tonight in the dark and rain here while parking on the street near a restaurant. Too dark to see what the damage is and it drove OK after so it isn't bent, but I am so annoyed at myself right now...

suydam

The first one is the worst!

cdnpinhead

driver100 said:

. . . it will really make you wonder how honest your dealers service department is.

No, it won't. I already know. If I keep clean fluids in my cars and change a few filters from time to time, I'm golden. Much like medical care, keeping out of hospitals is the key to life. I was married to a nurse once.

cdnpinhead

ab348 said:

DAMN DAMN DAMN! Curbed a front wheel on the new ATS tonight in the dark and rain here while parking on the street near a restaurant. Too dark to see what the damage is and it drove OK after so it isn't bent, but I am so annoyed at myself right now...

That's a shame. There are people who can do magic with wheels at much lower cost than replacement -- hopefully Halifax has one of these guys.

Mr_Shiftright

ab348 said:

DAMN DAMN DAMN! Curbed a front wheel on the new ATS tonight in the dark and rain here while parking on the street near a restaurant. Too dark to see what the damage is and it drove OK after so it isn't bent, but I am so annoyed at myself right now...

That can be fixed in most cases.

driver100

A friend has a 2014 Cadillac XTS.....nice car, 50k miles on it. Cost him $70000 new.
Wanted to buy a 2017 Cadillac XT5
They would only give him $25000 for his trade-in XTS. He figures a new car will cost him $50000+.
He is getting an extended warranty and keeping his XTS which is a really nice car and is more luxurious than the
XT5.

driver100

cdnpinhead said:

driver100 said:

. . . it will really make you wonder how honest your dealers service department is.

No, it won't. I already know. If I keep clean fluids in my cars and change a few filters from time to time, I'm golden. Much like medical care, keeping out of hospitals is the key to life. I was married to a nurse once.

The real mechanic said to always use the manual....these sleazy dealers will make up their own schedules, and try to scare you into using their schedule.

Mr_Shiftright

That's a pretty good trade-in value actually. Don't see him doing much better than that.

dino001

driver100 said:

A friend has a 2014 Cadillac XTS.....nice car, 50k miles on it. Cost him $70000 new.
Wanted to buy a 2017 Cadillac XT5
They would only give him $25000 for his trade-in XTS. He figures a new car will cost him $50000+.
He is getting an extended warranty and keeping his XTS which is a really nice car and is more luxurious than the
XT5.

That’s some nasty depreciation.

dino001

driver100 said:

cdnpinhead said:

driver100 said:

. . . it will really make you wonder how honest your dealers service department is.

No, it won't. I already know. If I keep clean fluids in my cars and change a few filters from time to time, I'm golden. Much like medical care, keeping out of hospitals is the key to life. I was married to a nurse once.

The real mechanic said to always use the manual....these sleazy dealers will make up their own schedules, and try to scare you into using their schedule.

When I went for my first “free” service on my old 2012 (one year, 14k), the salesman, err service advisor printed and handed me some document that I was “requesting” $600 of work on alignment, injector cleaning and differential fluid, I so desperately needed on this pristine and virtually new car, tragically not covered by the oh-so “ultimate” care from BMW. He couldn’t even keep straight face with that one, so told me I “really only needed” the $200 alignment. I told him to jump into lake with that price. Looking at their prices, all was in $200 increments. Got an alignment a few months later at an indie BMW shop for 60 percent, which is still higher than “normal” cars, but tire stores wouldn’t even touch it. I was so upset with that whole “free” service with proposed $600 spiff, that I blasted them in the survey, essentially calling out their revenue driven motivation for “advice”, not to mention being completely contradictory to BMW’s whole marketing (back then, anyway) that you were “all covered” in first 4 years. They didn’t push it anymore during later visits. Meanwhile “ultimate service” morphed into buy even more ultimate service for extra 2+ grand, if you just want to have same coverage on the new 2018 as it was my old 2012, which I passed on (I still had original brakes at 70k, with another 5k+ left) - I’m sure that even if I bought it, they would most likely still find something I so desperately “need” that’s still not covered. Crooks.

roadburner

Thanks to the New Car Manager tomorrow I'll be on a local TV show to talk about a BMW 2 Series that is being given away in a charitable charity raffle. It should be interesting at least...

0patience

Trying to follow this thread is like trying to play pinball with 6 different steel balls going at one time.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

I hate performance management (a complete misnomer anyway). various iteration of senior "leadership" bought into the idea that it needed to be done, and somehow accomplished wonderful things. In reality, it was rolled out late every year, there were never any kind of useful organizational goals, so people did some half-baked performance plan with their boss, which then went into some black hole until January, when you had to do the final recap piece and sign off on it. No one ever managed to it during the year, and usually the goals became meaningless as things changed during the year.

My favorite year was one where the unit bosses never pushed it out, but at year end, suddenly we needed it. So in about March, I did it for the prior year. Wrote up "goals", summarized how I met them, sent to my immediate manager who accepted it, and was done.

the fact that the ratings were never actually tied to anything concrete like raises made it even more of a joke.

The annual reviews at my old job were similarly meaningless. If you screwed up they told you at the time, if you did a great job they never told you. The review was a number of parameters based on a 1-5 scale with 5 being the best. Everyone got 3s except for a few fanny kisser who got 4s and a few screw ups who got 2s. It was a union pay scale so there was no possibility of a raise.

It was such a joke that I didn't even read it for the last 15 years. Just asked"am I fired?" And if they said no walked out.

Coming back to cars I see that Ford has broken the $100k price tag with the new F-450 Super Duty.

oldfarmer50

ab348 said:

DAMN DAMN DAMN! Curbed a front wheel on the new ATS tonight in the dark and rain here while parking on the street near a restaurant. Too dark to see what the damage is and it drove OK after so it isn't bent, but I am so annoyed at myself right now...

Ouch. On the Eclipse I curbed a wheel at the Mickey D's drive through and scraped the back bumper backing up in the dark. The pain is worst because you can't blame anyone but yourself. I feel your pain.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

cdnpinhead said:

driver100 said:

. . . it will really make you wonder how honest your dealers service department is.

No, it won't. I already know. If I keep clean fluids in my cars and change a few filters from time to time, I'm golden. Much like medical care, keeping out of hospitals is the key to life. I was married to a nurse once.

The real mechanic said to always use the manual....these sleazy dealers will make up their own schedules, and try to scare you into using their schedule.

I seldom use dealer services but sometimes they're right. The early Chrysler 2.7L engine had a 7500 mile OCI but service techs would tell you to do it every 3k to avoid sludge. For once they were telling the truth.

oldfarmer50

Mr_Shiftright said:

That's a pretty good trade-in value actually. Don't see him doing much better than that.

That's horrible although I don't doubt it's true. My question is why? Are they bad cars that don't last or is it the snob factor. Good case for buying used.

oldfarmer50

roadburner said:

Thanks to the New Car Manager tomorrow I'll be on a local TV show to talk about a BMW 2 Series that is being given away in a charitable charity raffle. It should be interesting at least...

Post the clip here and become a celebrity. Might get you a few votes in the election too.

oldfarmer50

Explain this:



Could there be a worse way of presenting a black truck for sale?

imidazol97

0patience said:

Trying to follow this thread is like trying to play pinball with 6 different steel balls going at one time.

I hate to bring it back up because I didn't think losing it in the change to vanillaforums was important, but remember the days where the forum software would present posts in "threads" if one had the settings that way. It did sure make it easier to separate the topics. LOL

More than once I've thought someone was replying to a different post and had that "WAT?" reaction before I figured out the topic it fit into.

dino001

0patience said:

Trying to follow this thread is like trying to play pinball with 6 different steel balls going at one time.

I loved those, that's why I'm staying around.

nyccarguy

@dino001 - When we had my wife's '07 X3 and my '11 328xi, they never once tried to up sell us on anything that wasn't covered. I think your BMW dealership is particularly shady.

On my other cars (Honda, Acura, Subaru, Infiniti) I always walk into the service department and tell them exactly what I want done to the car. I never go for the "XX,XXX mile service" which is usually nothing more than an oil change, filter change, tire rotation, and check this, check that, adjust this if necessary, adjust that if necessary... If any type of fluid (brake, transmission, differential) needs to be changed as per the manual (or what some other long term owners have suggested), I always specify that it be performed as a "drain & fill" and not whatever "power purge performance ______ fluid exchange" they are trying to hock. I always print coupons off the dealer website too.

My Pilot (with the exception of the front suspension, rear lower control arm bushings that were recently replaced under an extended warranty) and my Prelude have seen only my indie mechanic for a few years. While my cars are under factory warranty, I like to service them at the dealer. I've found most things to be reasonably priced plus they give me a car to drive (Acura, Subaru, Infiniti).

My parents bought their first Cayenne (2011) from a dealer whose service department was very expensive. They understand that servicing a Porsche isn't cheap (I think Mom's Cayenne calls for 9 or 10 quarts of full synthetic oil), but after the 2nd service I called around to other dealers that were in equally expensive areas with equally brand new facilities. Jack Daniels Porsche (Upper Saddle River, NJ) was way more expensive than anybody else. When the time came to buy their second Cayenne, a 2016 (after 19 months with a 2014 old body style X5), they went to a different dealer (Porsche of Larchmont, NY) and called me when they got to the F&I office. They were offered an extended warranty (to 100K miles) and a pre-paid maintenance package for $2,800. Knowing what it cost them to service the 2011 Cayenne, they jumped at it. So far after 40K miles it has paid for itself.

snakeweasel

0patience said:

Trying to follow this thread is like trying to play pinball with 6 different steel balls going at one time.

Just think of it as a multiball bonus.

Ah memories of a misspent youth at the pinball joint. 

dino001

oldfarmer50 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

That's a pretty good trade-in value actually. Don't see him doing much better than that.

That's horrible although I don't doubt it's true. My question is why? Are they bad cars that don't last or is it the snob factor. Good case for buying used.

It's the whole domestic car used values. I think there are multiple factors:
1. Enterprise - most likely largest car buyer on the Planet, buying and then dumping them couple of years later in huge quantities. If the vehicle is one of those on their fleet, you face stiff supply competition. What's worse, Enterprise vehicles also tend to be bare bones (zero options within their particular line), sometimes even stripped from standard retail configurations (e.g. a few years ago there were "Enterprise Impalas" without side impact airbags at same time, all retail Impalas had them).
2. Detroit's sales model - make them, then sell try to them, which invariably leads to periodic big incentives. After all these years they still have most inelastic production and sales vs. the competition. It was (and still is, perhaps to slightly lesser degree) driven by hostile labor unions that do not allow quick production changes and contracts with their dealers that expect the dealers to take everything they make. In comparison, BMW only makes cars that are ordered by either a dealer, or actual customer (they stress that fact during factory trips - they say that all cars they make are already "sold"). At the end we will often have large new car discounts resulting in pounding on used car values. This is the case when last thing you want to do is buy a brand new model from Detroit - the dealer will act like it was made of gold, few months down the road, the supplies get stuffed with inventory, prices get slashed, and you quickly find out how much you overpaid.
3. There is still that perception thing, or as others believe, conspiracy of the press, buying public, government and Taliban against domestic brands, especially of course GM. They (the conspirators) somehow still don't want to believe these vehicles, especially used, are as valuable as their Japanese or German competition. They will take them only if the price reflects that conspiracy discount.

fintail

Definitely a car to buy used. A few things work against the XTS.

High MSRP. All premium car MSRPs are inflated, but that one more than others. I assume the 70K is in CDN, at what I remember 2014 exchange rates, that's maybe 55K USD - still a lot. I can't imagine an XTS being 70K USD, even after onerous taxes. Also brand and model cachet - the car is seen by some as a fancy Impala, and many were/are put into rental fleets. A combination of diminished brand equity and more late model used supply than demand will harm resale.

I suspect a same year same price competitor car might bring 5-10K more depending on the situation.

oldfarmer50 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

That's a pretty good trade-in value actually. Don't see him doing much better than that.

That's horrible although I don't doubt it's true. My question is why? Are they bad cars that don't last or is it the snob factor. Good case for buying used.

qbrozen

driver100 said:

Once again the Canadian TV show Marketplace shows how SOME car dealerships rip off customers by scaring them into buying more products. The report says dealerships may make $1000 to $2500 on a car, but, these days they make much more on service. Many service managers are on commission for 50% or more of their total pay....so they have to sell to make a living.

One lady takes her Honda in, and they try to upsell her on things like brake pads, but, they don't mention the Takata airbags that should be removed....not much money in doing that.

It is 22 minutes long....but, it will really make you wonder how honest your dealers service department is.
https://youtu.be/jBpMe36GoW0

They do kind of a poor job in that piece. The scare tactics and misinformation from the service advisors is the story there. The voiceover is very careful to use the words "needed" vs "recommended" yet they never explain the difference. I recommend you have $1M in the bank. Is it needed? No, of course not. There is nothing wrong with anybody recommending additional service.

roadburner

qbrozen said:

driver100 said:

Once again the Canadian TV show Marketplace shows how SOME car dealerships rip off customers by scaring them into buying more products. The report says dealerships may make $1000 to $2500 on a car, but, these days they make much more on service. Many service managers are on commission for 50% or more of their total pay....so they have to sell to make a living.

One lady takes her Honda in, and they try to upsell her on things like brake pads, but, they don't mention the Takata airbags that should be removed....not much money in doing that.

It is 22 minutes long....but, it will really make you wonder how honest your dealers service department is.
https://youtu.be/jBpMe36GoW0

They do kind of a poor job in that piece. The scare tactics and misinformation from the service advisors is the story there. The voiceover is very careful to use the words "needed" vs "recommended" yet they never explain the difference. I recommend you have $1M in the bank. Is it needed? No, of course not. There is nothing wrong with anybody recommending additional service.

I agree, my Mazda dealer would give you a list of the services for each mileage interval. They quoted a price for the services called for in the owners manual as well as a price for those services plus the additional services that they recommended. None of the things that they recommended were out of line; for example, they recommended changing the manual transaxle oil every 30K miles- Mazda claimed that the oil was a "Lifetime" lubricant. For the small additional cost I always had it changed.

ab348

I saw that Marketplace piece when it was broadcast here last week. It was a typical item by them, use the old 60 Minutes ambush technique to make someone look like they are doing something bad. It really is no different from the furnace serviceman saying you need X Y and Z done each year on your oil furnace or a tire shop saying your treads with 5/32nd left should be replaced. Marketplace is an old-school CBC show from the '80s and has maintained that network's left-wing bent forever. I bet they would be shocked to discover that the retail price of a product has nothing to do with its manufacturing cost.

suydam

Just took my Encore to the dealer for 25k service. It's the first one I've paid for since we bought the car as the first 2 years are free. They did oil change, tire rotation, inspection, air filter change all for about $45. Cleaned it well too. I usually use dealer service as long as the car is under warranty -- 4 years in Buick's case. So far so good.

dino001

roadburner said:

qbrozen said:

driver100 said:

Once again the Canadian TV show Marketplace shows how SOME car dealerships rip off customers by scaring them into buying more products. The report says dealerships may make $1000 to $2500 on a car, but, these days they make much more on service. Many service managers are on commission for 50% or more of their total pay....so they have to sell to make a living.

One lady takes her Honda in, and they try to upsell her on things like brake pads, but, they don't mention the Takata airbags that should be removed....not much money in doing that.

It is 22 minutes long....but, it will really make you wonder how honest your dealers service department is.
https://youtu.be/jBpMe36GoW0

They do kind of a poor job in that piece. The scare tactics and misinformation from the service advisors is the story there. The voiceover is very careful to use the words "needed" vs "recommended" yet they never explain the difference. I recommend you have $1M in the bank. Is it needed? No, of course not. There is nothing wrong with anybody recommending additional service.

I agree, my Mazda dealer would give you a list of the services for each mileage interval. They quoted a price for the services called for in the owners manual as well as a price for those services plus the additional services that they recommended. None of the things that they recommended were out of line; for example, they recommended changing the manual transaxle oil every 30k miles- Mazda claimed that the oil was a "Lifetime" lubricant. For the small additional cost I always had it changed.

Unlike automatic, manual transmission fluid change is probably the least needed service in the first 100k. "Lifetime" can of course mean a lot of things, but in this case it's nearly that, has been for years. That's what I always had been told by mechanics, anyway.

dino001

suydam said:

Just took my Encore to the dealer for 25k service. It's the first one I've paid for since we bought the car as the first 2 years are free. They did oil change, tire rotation, inspection, air filter change all for about $45. Cleaned it well too. I usually use dealer service as long as the car is under warranty -- 4 years in Buick's case. So far so good.

That's great price. I only hope your engine is not a turbo, or one of those high-compression ratio (high output) naturally aspirated engines. At $45 with all those other items included, it has to be mineral oil change, which is fine for low or medium compression ratio naturally aspirated engines, as long as it's changed often.

This was, by the way one of the issues when early turbos or high output engines were introduced by domestic companies. Dealers were running their usual regular oil change practices, when these engines required much more heat resistant oils (synthetics), which lead to early blowups. Some imports, like Benz were not immune to that, either - they were one of the first 10k+ oil interval companies, but the dealers were often not using proper oil to match that interval. It too years to convince dealer's mechanics to put proper oil into some of those machines. It went as far, as some manufacturers creating lists of exclusive approved oil products for their vehicles. This was also done, as US market practice does not allow them to void the warranty just because somebody serviced vehicle in a non-factory approved garage, or even themselves, which btw is a common practice in Europe.

imidazol97

driver100 said:

Once again the Canadian TV show Marketplace shows how SOME car dealerships rip off customers by scaring them into buying more products. ... Many service managers are on commission for 50% or more of their total pay....so they have to sell to make a living.

Nicely done article. The Marketplace was careful to show what was mileage recommendations from owner's manual recommended by the automaker. Then they have the salepeople couching the wording in a deceptive manner to sell something more. I contrast that with saying this is earlier than the manufacturer's recommendation, but we would like to change it for you now.

I can't help but wonder if the lack of mention of the "imperfection" of the airbag in the Honda is actually encouraged by Honda because the airbags are in short supply after how many years? Not mentioning it helps keep the "Honda image" sharp and what some want it to be. Pointing out they have a recall and still can't fulfill the safety requirement points out that Honda has the same problems as most other manufacturers.

Image over Safety? Nevermind someone can be seriously injured or die unnecessarily if the air bag goes off and is over powered due to deterioration of the explosive.

I contrast this experience to my Chevrolet dealer where they pulled the cabin air filter for a check, as recommended in the manual IIRC, and showed it to me at 45K miles. I already had a replacement in the trunk but hadn't put it in my son's car. And they check for recalls when the car is logged into their computer for each service visit and mention there are no recalls.

imidazol97

roadburner said:

I agree, my Mazda dealer would give you a list of the services for each mileage interval. They quoted a price for the services called for in the owners manual as well as a price for those services plus the additional services that they recommended. None of the things that they recommended were out of line; for example, they recommended changing the manual transaxle oil every 30k miles- Mazda claimed that the oil was a "Lifetime" lubricant. For the small additional cost I always had it changed.

Auto transmission fluid in my son's Cruze is rated for 100K mi in the service manuals. After reading about people who had changed their own earlier and not knowing how the car was driven in its life as a rental/lease in the Northeast, I had the dealer change the Dexron VI at 45K miles. Now I know it has fresh fluid. Cheaper than a rebuilt at 120K miles if the car is still in the family. If I could have changed it myself, I would have done it at 36K mi like I did my leSabres but no dipstick on the Cruze.

People on forums commented how black the oil is when they changed it, but that's also stated as a Dexron VI characteristic.

ab348

imidazol97 said:

I contrast this experience to my Chevrolet dealer where they pulled the cabin air filter for a check, as recommended in the manual IIRC, and showed it to me at 45K miles. I already had a replacement in the trunk but hadn't put it in my son's car. And they check for recalls when the car is logged into their computer for each service visit and mention there are no recalls.

The dealer where I got my last 3 cars seems to provide good service if you are a Cadillac owner but less so if you come in with a Chevrolet or Buick. When I took my 2011 Regal in for its last service before I moved on from it they also pulled the air filter and told me when I came to pick up the car that they could change it for $95. I passed and stopped at a parts store on the way home to buy one for $10. When I changed it the dealer tech hadn't even bothered to scoop out the loose bits of leaves, twigs and dead bugs from the airbox. I was not impressed.

dino001

imidazol97 said:

roadburner said:

I agree, my Mazda dealer would give you a list of the services for each mileage interval. They quoted a price for the services called for in the owners manual as well as a price for those services plus the additional services that they recommended. None of the things that they recommended were out of line; for example, they recommended changing the manual transaxle oil every 30k miles- Mazda claimed that the oil was a "Lifetime" lubricant. For the small additional cost I always had it changed.

Auto transmission fluid in my son's Cruze is rated for 100K mi in the service manuals. After reading about people who had changed their own earlier and not knowing how the car was driven in its life as a rental/lease in the Northeast, I had the dealer change the Dexron VI at 45K miles. Now I know it has fresh fluid. Cheaper than a rebuilt at 120K miles if the car is still in the family. If I could have changed it myself, I would have done it at 36K mi like I did my leSabres but no dipstick on the Cruze.

People on forums commented how black the oil is when they changed it, but that's also stated as a Dexron VI characteristic.

Yeah, automatic is different. That's where you may want to be more vigilant and cut the interval. Black fluid usually means it's too late already. I heard of people going as often as 15k miles, that's probably nuts, unless you tow a heavy trailer every day. Doing it every 30-60k miles, depending on your own driving circumstances and level of comfort, sounds reasonable.

graphicguy

oldfarmer50 said:

Explain this:



Could there be a worse way of presenting a black truck for sale?

Maybe there's a method to the madness. Perhaps that truck doesn't present well in the daylight?

roadburner

dino001 said:

roadburner said:

qbrozen said:

driver100 said:

Once again the Canadian TV show Marketplace shows how SOME car dealerships rip off customers by scaring them into buying more products. The report says dealerships may make $1000 to $2500 on a car, but, these days they make much more on service. Many service managers are on commission for 50% or more of their total pay....so they have to sell to make a living.

One lady takes her Honda in, and they try to upsell her on things like brake pads, but, they don't mention the Takata airbags that should be removed....not much money in doing that.

It is 22 minutes long....but, it will really make you wonder how honest your dealers service department is.
https://youtu.be/jBpMe36GoW0

They do kind of a poor job in that piece. The scare tactics and misinformation from the service advisors is the story there. The voiceover is very careful to use the words "needed" vs "recommended" yet they never explain the difference. I recommend you have $1M in the bank. Is it needed? No, of course not. There is nothing wrong with anybody recommending additional service.

I agree, my Mazda dealer would give you a list of the services for each mileage interval. They quoted a price for the services called for in the owners manual as well as a price for those services plus the additional services that they recommended. None of the things that they recommended were out of line; for example, they recommended changing the manual transaxle oil every 30k miles- Mazda claimed that the oil was a "Lifetime" lubricant. For the small additional cost I always had it changed.

Unlike automatic, manual transmission fluid change is probably the least needed service in the first 100k. "Lifetime" can of course mean a lot of things, but in this case it's nearly that, has been for years. That's what I always had been told by mechanics, anyway.

Considering it was my track car I thought it was cheap insurance; the car had a limited slip diff so there was also the possibility of clutch material floating around. BMW used to call for 60K oil change intervals for their manual transmissions, as did Jeep(for my TJ, at any rate).

roadburner

imidazol97 said:

roadburner said:

I agree, my Mazda dealer would give you a list of the services for each mileage interval. They quoted a price for the services called for in the owners manual as well as a price for those services plus the additional services that they recommended. None of the things that they recommended were out of line; for example, they recommended changing the manual transaxle oil every 30k miles- Mazda claimed that the oil was a "Lifetime" lubricant. For the small additional cost I always had it changed.

Auto transmission fluid in my son's Cruze is rated for 100K mi in the service manuals. After reading about people who had changed their own earlier and not knowing how the car was driven in its life as a rental/lease in the Northeast, I had the dealer change the Dexron VI at 45K miles. Now I know it has fresh fluid. Cheaper than a rebuilt at 120K miles if the car is still in the family. If I could have changed it myself, I would have done it at 36K mi like I did my leSabres but no dipstick on the Cruze.

People on forums commented how black the oil is when they changed it, but that's also stated as a Dexron VI characteristic.

ZF makes the 8 speed automatics in all current BMWs save the X1; ZF recommends an ATF change at 50K-60K miles if the car sees a lot of high speed driving or track usage.

dino001

roadburner said:

dino001 said:

roadburner said:

qbrozen said:

driver100 said:

Once again the Canadian TV show Marketplace shows how SOME car dealerships rip off customers by scaring them into buying more products. The report says dealerships may make $1000 to $2500 on a car, but, these days they make much more on service. Many service managers are on commission for 50% or more of their total pay....so they have to sell to make a living.

One lady takes her Honda in, and they try to upsell her on things like brake pads, but, they don't mention the Takata airbags that should be removed....not much money in doing that.

It is 22 minutes long....but, it will really make you wonder how honest your dealers service department is.
https://youtu.be/jBpMe36GoW0

They do kind of a poor job in that piece. The scare tactics and misinformation from the service advisors is the story there. The voiceover is very careful to use the words "needed" vs "recommended" yet they never explain the difference. I recommend you have $1M in the bank. Is it needed? No, of course not. There is nothing wrong with anybody recommending additional service.

I agree, my Mazda dealer would give you a list of the services for each mileage interval. They quoted a price for the services called for in the owners manual as well as a price for those services plus the additional services that they recommended. None of the things that they recommended were out of line; for example, they recommended changing the manual transaxle oil every 30k miles- Mazda claimed that the oil was a "Lifetime" lubricant. For the small additional cost I always had it changed.

Unlike automatic, manual transmission fluid change is probably the least needed service in the first 100k. "Lifetime" can of course mean a lot of things, but in this case it's nearly that, has been for years. That's what I always had been told by mechanics, anyway.

Considering it was my track car I thought it was cheap insurance; the car had a limited slip diff so there was also the possibility of clutch material floating around. BMW used to call for 60K oil change intervals for their manual transmissions, as did Jeep(for my TJ, at any rate).

"Track car" would definitely be governed by different rules.

andres3

tjc78 said:

Every manager hates review time.   IMO it’s the worst time of year!   

When/if I take the new position 4 of the 6 I’d be managing will be field team that I’ll rarely seen face to face.  

We have a goals system as well.   I never inputted them this year for the team.  I spoke to them about it and they know their specific duties and what they need to work on.  

I wonder if old Hugh Hefner offered to let them perform one more "final examination," if they didn't want to just rely on their prior performances for their yearly review.

Reminds me of a professor in college who allowed an A on the final to erase any lower grades on prior tests throughout the quarter.

andres3

tjc78 said:

Every manager hates review time.   IMO it’s the worst time of year!   

When/if I take the new position 4 of the 6 I’d be managing will be field team that I’ll rarely seen face to face.  

We have a goals system as well.   I never inputted them this year for the team.  I spoke to them about it and they know their specific duties and what they need to work on.  

I wonder if old Hugh Hefner offered to let them perform one more "final examination," if they didn't want to just rely on their prior performances for their yearly review.

Reminds me of a professor in college who allowed an A on the final to erase any lower grades on prior tests throughout the quarter.

dino001

roadburner said:

imidazol97 said:

roadburner said:

I agree, my Mazda dealer would give you a list of the services for each mileage interval. They quoted a price for the services called for in the owners manual as well as a price for those services plus the additional services that they recommended. None of the things that they recommended were out of line; for example, they recommended changing the manual transaxle oil every 30k miles- Mazda claimed that the oil was a "Lifetime" lubricant. For the small additional cost I always had it changed.

Auto transmission fluid in my son's Cruze is rated for 100K mi in the service manuals. After reading about people who had changed their own earlier and not knowing how the car was driven in its life as a rental/lease in the Northeast, I had the dealer change the Dexron VI at 45K miles. Now I know it has fresh fluid. Cheaper than a rebuilt at 120K miles if the car is still in the family. If I could have changed it myself, I would have done it at 36K mi like I did my leSabres but no dipstick on the Cruze.

People on forums commented how black the oil is when they changed it, but that's also stated as a Dexron VI characteristic.

ZF makes the 8 speed automatics in all current BMWs save the X1; ZF recommends an ATF change at 50K-60K miles if the car sees a lot of high speed driving or track usage.

"High speed" likely means Autobahn speeds of 100+ mph.

andres3

suydam said:

The first one is the worst!

They do get progressively less painful as you pile on the blemishes over time. After a certain point, another little scratch or ding doesn't make any difference.

No garage queens in my stable.

andres3

fintail said:

Definitely a car to buy used. A few things work against the XTS.

High MSRP. All premium car MSRPs are inflated, but that one more than others. I assume the 70K is in CDN, at what I remember 2014 exchange rates, that's maybe 55K USD - still a lot. I can't imagine an XTS being 70K USD, even after onerous taxes. Also brand and model cachet - the car is seen by some as a fancy Impala, and many were/are put into rental fleets. A combination of diminished brand equity and more late model used supply than demand will harm resale.

I suspect a same year same price competitor car might bring 5-10K more depending on the situation.

oldfarmer50 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

That's a pretty good trade-in value actually. Don't see him doing much better than that.

That's horrible although I don't doubt it's true. My question is why? Are they bad cars that don't last or is it the snob factor. Good case for buying used.

Isn't the used car market the great Capitalist equalizer? There seem to be people that will be blindly loyal to a brand and buy new cars from them no matter what happens. I suspect there are less "loyal" brand buyers in the used market as there is with new.

abacomike

Results of my several go-rounds with SiriusXM after a slew of emails:

Because of all the trouble they caused me, they offered me a one-time special subscription to Sirius “All Access” for $153.00 for one year which includes all taxes an fees.  The normal cost is $25.00 a month including fees and taxes.  All access includes streaming online or on the iPhone as well as all channels, etc.

I took the subscription which is exactly like my free 1-year trial components.  I am satisfied with the price.

Of course, on December 15th 2018, it automatically renews at the $319 yearly rate, but I already noted on my calendar to call and cancel the service before they have a chance to charge my card.

It is very frustrating to deal with this monopoly.  You need to find ways to circumvent their legalese.  The person I spoke to was from Eastern Canada and had lots of questions about our hurricane.