Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

stickguy

the latest software update must have fixed some of the old timers. Sandy got his identity back too.

xwesx

snakeweasel said:

xwesx said:

oldfarmer50 said:

To me anything built in this century is new.

I can't believe I missed this gem the first time through!

I agree! I find it a little shocking every time I remind myself that we're on the twentieth year of century already.

You might be in the 20th year of this century but the rest of us just started the 19th year. So how are things in the future?

OMG. After that epic follow up of complete nonsense, I retract any statements I have ever made here. LOL

Petty doesn't even begin to describe this thread.

explorerx4

I found a hint that I had saved previously. It took me a few days to find it after I got downgraded to Stranger.
Now I have 2 identities, but I haven't used the 2nd one.

isellhondas

abacomike said:

isellhondas said:

Anyone miss me? Didn't think so.

After months of having my password rejected I finally gave up and resigned myself to becoming a part of Edmunds history. Today I decided to give it ONE MORE try and it let me in! Can't possibly catch up at this point. Have I missed anything important?

Absolutely nothing Isell!  

Well, Mike I just hope your health has been good. It's good to be back!

stickguy

darned cold out today. and lots of filthy cars. also major piles of salt near some intersections. the trucks must have offloaded there. I don't like that, since it can kick up and get into the underside of your car.

stickguy

Mathias is big on pointing out that the used car market (well, the bottom feeder part of the market) is skewed by tax refund season. If a lot of people expecting a refund end up owing instead, could take a whack out of sales.

isellhondas

abacomike said:

I am so upset with my Mercedes service department (misnomer - certainly service is the wrong word).  They have had the car since Thursday morning.  

They ordered parts and on Friday morning they received incomplete parts - 2 left tracks instead of a left and a right.  Another order for a part is made and it comes in this morning.  The mechanic screws around with the glass sunroof only to find that he missed a part for the frame and now they have to order another overnight part.  I am furious - the mechanic is incompetent - all he had to do is pull up the service manual or bulletin while he was working on the glass and he would have known that a third part was needed.

I had to call to find this out - no one called me to let me know what was happening with my car - it’s 4:30 PM yet I had no update.  I gave the service writer a piece of my mind and insisted he give my car to someone who knows what they are doing.

I also told him that when I get the survey from Mercedes Benz, I am going to show my anger over their incompetence on the survey. I also said I was calling MBUSA to complain about this incompetence.  He begged me not to do that but I told him if I had some communication from him about what was happening I would not have been forced to do this.  :@

Dealers live and die by surveys. In this case a bad one sounds well deserved. Knowing how you feel though I wouldn't be surprised if you never get a survey.

suydam

Actually many younger workers aren’t on FB because they know employers can find out about them. They are more savvy about FB than we are!

abacomike

isellhondas said:

isellhondas said:

Anyone miss me? Didn't think so. After months of having my password rejected I finally gave up and resigned myself to becoming a part of Edmunds history. Today I decided to give it ONE MORE try and it let me in! Can't possibly catch up at this point. Have I missed anything important?

Absolutely nothing Isell!  

Well, Mike I just hope your health has been good. It's good to be back!

Good having you back, isell!

imidazol97

stickguy said:

the latest software update must have fixed some of the old timers. Sandy got his identity back too.

Good.

ab348

isellhondas said:

Anyone miss me? Didn't think so.

After months of having my password rejected I finally gave up and resigned myself to becoming a part of Edmunds history. Today I decided to give it ONE MORE try and it let me in!

Welcome back! We had a search party out looking.

Can't possibly catch up at this point. Have I missed anything important?

Nah.

henryn

isellhondas said:

Dealers live and die by surveys. In this case a bad one sounds well deserved. Knowing how you feel though I wouldn't be surprised if you never get a survey.

The worst, absolute worst, dealer relationship I ever had was with a Dodge dealer back in 1994 or thereabouts. I purchased a dealer demo Dodge Dakota. That truck was very quick, but had a lot of problems.

I took it back to the service department, one week after purchasing. I had a written list of problems, 4 bullet points, printed out in a large font, easily readable. I handed the piece of paper to the service writer and watched him try to mouth out the words. It was painfully obvious that the guy was functionally illiterate, which was really embarrassing to both of us. I asked for a different service writer, who could read, but they didn't fix any of the problems. I wound up using a different dealership service department, who fixed some of the problems, but not all. I finally sold the truck after about 3 months at a loss, but was very happy to see the end of it.

The manager of that first dealership called me on the phone and offered me a hundred dollar bill if I would bring the initial customer survey to him instead of returning it in the mail. I refused. Not that I can't be bought, but my price is higher than that!

About 6 months later, the local paper (Houston Chronicle) had a big article about that Dodge dealership. Seems that most of the people working there were ex-cons, knew each other from the Texas prison system, and they were being investigated for defrauding the Houston Police Department. Seriously, who in their right mind trys to defraud the police department?

But I was left wondering whether I had potentially endangered my life by ratting them out to Chrysler Corporation.

ab348

abacomike said:

I am so upset with my Mercedes service department (misnomer - certainly service is the wrong word).  They have had the car since Thursday morning.  

They ordered parts and on Friday morning they received incomplete parts - 2 left tracks instead of a left and a right.  Another order for a part is made and it comes in this morning.  The mechanic screws around with the glass sunroof only to find that he missed a part for the frame and now they have to order another overnight part.  I am furious - the mechanic is incompetent - all he had to do is pull up the service manual or bulletin while he was working on the glass and he would have known that a third part was needed.

I had to call to find this out - no one called me to let me know what was happening with my car - it’s 4:30 PM yet I had no update.  I gave the service writer a piece of my mind and insisted he give my car to someone who knows what they are doing.

I also told him that when I get the survey from Mercedes Benz, I am going to show my anger over their incompetence on the survey. I also said I was calling MBUSA to complain about this incompetence.  He begged me not to do that but I told him if I had some communication from him about what was happening I would not have been forced to do this.  :@

Man, Mike, that that must be frustrating. Since you do not have a day job I'm surprised you haven't already filed the buyback paperwork with the state and retained a lawyer.

driver100

stickguy said:

darned cold out today. and lots of filthy cars. also major piles of salt near some intersections. the trucks must have offloaded there. I don't like that, since it can kick up and get into the underside of your car.

Stick, well at least you are talking about cars!

driver100

isellhondas said:

abacomike said:

I am so upset with my Mercedes service department (misnomer - certainly service is the wrong word).  They have had the car since Thursday morning.  

They ordered parts and on Friday morning they received incomplete parts - 2 left tracks instead of a left and a right.  Another order for a part is made and it comes in this morning.  The mechanic screws around with the glass sunroof only to find that he missed a part for the frame and now they have to order another overnight part.  I am furious - the mechanic is incompetent - all he had to do is pull up the service manual or bulletin while he was working on the glass and he would have known that a third part was needed.

I had to call to find this out - no one called me to let me know what was happening with my car - it’s 4:30 PM yet I had no update.  I gave the service writer a piece of my mind and insisted he give my car to someone who knows what they are doing.

I also told him that when I get the survey from Mercedes Benz, I am going to show my anger over their incompetence on the survey. I also said I was calling MBUSA to complain about this incompetence.  He begged me not to do that but I told him if I had some communication from him about what was happening I would not have been forced to do this.  :@

Dealers live and die by surveys. In this case a bad one sounds well deserved. Knowing how you feel though I wouldn't be surprised if you never get a survey.

I'll be surprised if he gets his car fixed at all.
I tend not to make derogatory comments until after leaving the service area.
Now they can start their defense, and spit on your engine.

imidazol97

@abacomike
Sorry how your dealer is not doing this at the level of performance expected for a luxury vehicle store.

I get better communication than that from my Chevy store.

driver100

stickguy">

darned cold out today. and lots of filthy cars. also major piles of salt near some intersections. the trucks must have offloaded there. I don't like that, since it can kick up and get into the underside of your car.

<

Stick, a little boring but at least you are talking about cars!

driver100

imidazol97 said:

@abacomike
Sorry how your dealer is not doing this at the level of performance expected for luxury vehicle store.

I get better communication than that from my Chevy store.

Not making excuses, it is very poor service. But, I think they got the wrong parts the first time. It is probably a complicated system and they probably don't work on them very often....how many S drivers want to breath fresh air?
They should have phoned....but, maybe they said they would phone when it was actually completed, that could be a normal procedure.

explorerx4

I was thinking about what vehicle Brady is going to give away to a teammate when named Super Bowl MVP, but they don't do that any more.

PF_Flyer

Just an FYI... there was no "update" to any software. We did, however, track down a couple of misbehaving links that were causing some of the login issues people were experiencing. But as someone's grandmother MUST have said, "Anything not working, give it a good bash"

Hmmm... if you WERE going to hand the keys to something to a SuperbOwl MVP, what would you give them? Or could you tailor the choice based on who got the award and how much you might not like them?? LOL

stickguy

I think it was the MLB world series where they gave the MVP a choice of 2 cars (chevys). I think a pickup or a corvette, something like that.

stickguy

PF, sounds like a software update to me! Also makes sense given the symptoms people were having but not all the time.

cdnpinhead

isellhondas said:

Anyone miss me? Didn't think so. Have I missed anything important?

The Edmunds "powers that be" saw fit to do something or other a week or two ago that seems to have solved a number of issues. I got the dreaded "you've got to start from scratch again" message yesterday and it was surprisingly easy to get up and running again.

Maybe they'll tell us how it was done, or perhaps not.

Welcome back, BTW.

roadburner

isellhondas said:

Anyone miss me? Didn't think so.

After months of having my password rejected I finally gave up and resigned myself to becoming a part of Edmunds history. Today I decided to give it ONE MORE try and it let me in! Can't possibly catch up at this point. Have I missed anything important?

Actually I was looking up an old thread and noticed your comments- and I wondered where you had gone.
Miss anything? Not really.

cdnpinhead

suydam said:

Actually many younger workers aren’t on FB because they know employers can find out about them. They are more savvy about FB than we are!

I've heard that younger people completely shun FB -- they're off to other things. Only we fossils continue to deal with FB.

stickguy

that is how social medium stuff always works. Kids get it early, and once the old folks arrive they move on. When their parents find instagram and snapchat, they will be long gone.

28firefighter

I’ve stopped using Facebook for any social purpose. It’s to share pictures with family. 

And my employer couldn’t find me there without a subpoena to Facebook. I have it locked down that well. 

roadburner

Problems like Mike's can be mitigated to a great degree if the SA keeps the customer informed of the progress of the repair. As for the extra part needed, it's hard to tell if it was an honest mistake or haphazard and substandard preparation. Still, Mercedes-along with most higher end car makers-emphasize how important it is to have your car serviced and repaired at an "authorized dealer," so Mike's experience has pretty much screwed the pooch for than dealer.

cdnpinhead

It may be expensive, but at least it fails more often than my ten year old Honda with over 150K miles on it. To each their own.

explorerx4

Considering some of those other social media platforms are owned by facebook, they are basically just different flavors of the same thing.
Most younger people with careers know you have to be careful what you post on any type of social media.

stickguy

I look at stuff on FB, but almost never comment, and never post anything. Basically just a lurker! The FBI could look at my account and approve me for anything, it is that boring.

stickguy

I keep getting surveys from Acura about my recent service visit. I decided to just ignore it instead of hammering them. They did screw up and not check that the part was in stock before I drove all the way (40+ miles) up there, only to find out they had a unit in stock for an ILX, not the TLX. Oops. I got grumpy (took a Friday afternoon off to run up there) and was slightly less than pleasant to the guy (really no call for it, but in this case, he screwed up, it wasn't an "out of his control" situation).

But, to his credit, he treated it like a big deal, and went above and beyond to rectify. Had Acura overnight freight the right part (saturday delivery, surprised they could even do that), prioritized having it installed, and put me in a loaner car to save miles on mine, and having to wait when I came back. So overall, not really a big deal. He offered repeatedly to have someone drive it back down to me to save me the return trip, but I declined the offer.

so I guess in the big picture, they get some credit for fixing a problem of their own making!

roadburner

stickguy said:

I look at stuff on FB, but almost never comment, and never post anything. Basically just a lurker! The FBI could look at my account and approve me for anything, it is that boring.

I mostly post car oriented things on my FB page- and no politics allowed, although I will wade in to "debates" on other FB pages.

oldfarmer50

dino001 said:

imidazol97 said:

dino001 said:

Responsible, dependable, self-actuated.

That's why so many places like to employ older folks. Most of us have a work ethic.
So many of the youngsters they employ and hope to train to be good workers have teh
attitude that if the employer tells me to do something I don't like, I just hang up my uniform and walk out the door right then and there.

I heard of one young lady working in a trendy mall shop who was needed beccause they were busy and
was asked to take her break later. She quit right then and there.

That's quite extreme example. I have an opposite one, just not from this country, it's from Poland, where employment isn't as easy to come by and the "employers" behave like dukes on their exclusive domains. My nephew was employed by this guy as a driver for a delivery network of medical supplies. He was efficient, accurate, always delivered, figured out right routes quickly. It was noticed, the guy gave him what looked like a good opportunity to prove himself as a dispatcher and route handler for other drivers. Things looked up, business looked up. Then the business slowed down, just enough for the guy to panic even it was mostly due to seasonal factors, present essentially every year. It was not first year it happened, yet the guy started acting like the company in is some kind of danger, cut the workforce and fleet (mind you those medical deliveries aren't as simple as it appears, so the drivers need to be well trained). The business picked up in just couple of months, but there were no people to handle that. The guy started pushing extreme amount of work on my nephew, essentially making him work 12+ hour shifts and sending him to work 150+ miles away as a substitute. Would not listen to reason, his mantra was "I'm paying you more than others" The problem was if you broke down that "great pay" per hour, he was making barely over minimum wage. My nephew tried to talk, more than once, he wrote a short email explaining why he can no longer do that schedule and work outside the home location. The guy responds with a rebuff and puts him in retaliation on a "month probation" for a month with looming demotion back to the driver. After a month he wants to extend the "probation". My nephew walked away there and then. I say AND GOOD FOR HIM!

Those are both pretty extreme examples. All I can say is that the young (under 30) people who work with me are very hard workers.

Speaking of extreme examples, I just put my device down for a moment and must have accidentally clicked on another icon. When I picked it back up I was on some used car page. I figured I’d just back click and be in forums again...nope. No matter how many times I back spaced I couldn’t stop seeing used Chevys. I clicked on help but couldn’t get anything other than more car research. The auto forums were nowhere listed in whatever limbo I was stuck.

I finally went to my browser history and clicked on the last listing for forums and got back in but that was a traumatic experience I don’t want to repeat. Shame the site has become so counter intuitive, at least for dummies like me.

berri

I think part of what is happening to MB, BMW, etc. dealers is that as they proliferate models from somewhat lower priced 1 series to top of the line 7 series, combined with lease promotions, they have perhaps overwhelmed the dealer service departments. They are no longer pure lux car lines, so many more people are buying or leasing them. It is very expensive to expand dealerships. So volume has superseded the past exclusivity of the products that many dealerships were originally built around.

stickguy

are you sure you did not open a new window? Sometimes the popups launch that way, so you would never be able to back arrow from there.

but you did learn a good trick, going to history.

fintail

I am not the youngest anymore, but I am only on fb to communicate with a few relatives who seem to shun every other method, and to monitor a few hobby-related groups (there's even a fintail group). I don't post anything personal, haven't even posted my pic.

suydam said:

Actually many younger workers aren’t on FB because they know employers can find out about them. They are more savvy about FB than we are!

oldfarmer50

berri said:

We'll probably also see the burgeoning gov deficit from the latest tax bill lead to a recession in a couple of years. Seems to be some sort of correlation there or something. The only one that really seemed to workout without kinks was way back in the Kennedy years, but the incremental tax rates were as high as around 70% back then, so it perhaps had more impact to make up for the tax revenue shortfalls. Everyone is all for small gov until something impacts them.

When the tax rate was 70% wealthy people didn’t take their income in the form of salary (if they ever did). They also used tax shelters to shield from taxes. I’m guessing revenue was not greater back then.

snakeweasel

PF_Flyer said:

I'm thinking we can swing back a little closer to the cars in CARS & conversations. As interesting as a lot of things are, we ARE about vehicles here, not taxes and healthcare and all that. Diversions certainly welcome and interesting, but once we get to suggesting there ought to be a taxes discussion... there's your sign

Probably a combination of cabin fever and all those tax prep ads that are everywhere this time of year

Just a gentle nudge from one of your friendly neighborhood moderators!

Carry on!!

OK car related. My wife was talking about what to get when we replace our current cars. She suggested a pick up for me so we can take trips and bring the motorcycle with us. So that got me to looking at pick ups. Well we were out today and just stopped by a Chevy dealer just to look. Well my wife asked about the used ones that they had and the salesman looked in their inventory listing the used trucks they had and mentioned this truck. Yes it's a used truck with only 62 miles. The salesman told us it was a customer of theirs who only had it for a weekend before trading it in. The salesman also told us this customer sometimes buys several cars a month from them. Talk about chronic car buyers.

snakeweasel

isellhondas said:

Anyone miss me?

Why? Were you gone?

oldfarmer50

isellhondas said:

Anyone miss me? Didn't think so.

After months of having my password rejected I finally gave up and resigned myself to becoming a part of Edmunds history. Today I decided to give it ONE MORE try and it let me in! Can't possibly catch up at this point. Have I missed anything important?

You mean other than driver100 being elected Canadian Premier? Nope, not much.

stickguy

I like that PU (other than the color combo). But would your motorcycle even fit in the short bed?

We already decided that when my car goes back it will be replaced by some sort of CUV. Gotta plan ahead!

explorerx4

@snaleweasel,
Interesting story about how the truck ended up as 'Pre Loved', but I'm kind of suspect of the 'Market Value' starting price.
Doesn't hurt to look at some other options.

oldfarmer50

explorerx4 said:

I found a hint that I had saved previously. It took me a few days to find it after I got downgraded to Stranger.
Now I have 2 identities, but I haven't used the 2nd one.

Use your secret identity to praise your posts and destroy your enemies. Hopefully your alias is more creative than jmonroe’s.

explorerx4

Not sure if I should choose driver100. or oldfarrner50.

oldfarmer50

cdnpinhead said:

suydam said:

Actually many younger workers aren’t on FB because they know employers can find out about them. They are more savvy about FB than we are!

I've heard that younger people completely shun FB -- they're off to other things. Only we fossils continue to deal with FB.

I never used Facebook and probably never will. Whodathunk I was a trend setter?

snakeweasel

stickguy said:

I like that PU (other than the color combo). But would your motorcycle even fit in the short bed?

We already decided that when my car goes back it will be replaced by some sort of CUV. Gotta plan ahead!

We wouldn't get a short bed, but there is always the option of trailing the bike. But I could then consider an SUV.

snakeweasel

explorerx4 said:

@snaleweasel,
Interesting story about how the truck ended up as 'Pre Loved', but I'm kind of suspect of the 'Market Value' starting price.
Doesn't hurt to look at some other options.

We were just scoping out trucks, not in the market yet. If we go this route it will be mine and used solely for commuting, bad weather and hauling stuff so I would get a more base model with few options.

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

PF_Flyer said:

I'm thinking we can swing back a little closer to the cars in CARS & conversations. As interesting as a lot of things are, we ARE about vehicles here, not taxes and healthcare and all that. Diversions certainly welcome and interesting, but once we get to suggesting there ought to be a taxes discussion... there's your sign

Probably a combination of cabin fever and all those tax prep ads that are everywhere this time of year

Just a gentle nudge from one of your friendly neighborhood moderators!

Carry on!!

OK car related. My wife was talking about what to get when we replace our current cars. She suggested a pick up for me so we can take trips and bring the motorcycle with us. So that got me to looking at pick ups. Well we were out today and just stopped by a Chevy dealer just to look. Well my wife asked about the used ones that they had and the salesman looked in their inventory listing the used trucks they had and mentioned this truck. Yes it's a used truck with only 62 miles. The salesman told us it was a customer of theirs who only had it for a weekend before trading it in. The salesman also told us this customer sometimes buys several cars a month from them. Talk about chronic car buyers.

I work with a guy who traded his F-250 in on a new Colorado and likes it much better.

oldfarmer50

explorerx4 said:

Not sure if I should choose driver100. or oldfarrner50.

Use my handle, everyone will just think I got a little more crazy. If you start bad mouthing people under driver’s name no one will believe it’s him.