Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

stickguy

A bargain. Get one for every application. Shifty’s Dakota!

fintail

Charger engine issue would be in Canadian dollars. With dealer labor rates, ancillary items, and tax, the figure doesn't seem unbelievable.

PF_Flyer

Since you guys are my go-to group for all things automotive do me a favor and next time you check the Owners Clubs, make a note of any other make we ought to have. Exotics are not on the horizon, but I don't want to leave anyone out!

abacomike

Stopped off at my Mercedes Benz service department to have a 4 wheel alignment done. Because this car has an air-suspension (can raise or lower the car a few inches), the alighment has to be done while at the low setting and again at the upper setting. They charged me $250. They found the right caster seriously out of whack and the left front wheel has toe-in problems. Everything is now set according to factory specs. The service manager told me that I should get better wear out of the tires now. The usual charge for a 4 wheel alignment on the S Class sedan is $375, so they gave me a nice discount.

I am still running Pirelli's on the back and I have the new Goodyear's on the front. I expect the rear tires will need replacing in about 5000 miles and I plan to replace those with the same Goodyear's I have on the front.

ruking1

It is normally recommended to:
1. get all of the tires the same brand
2. same model (singular)
3. tread depth differences (side to side, front to back)
on a chassis.

I’m truly surprised that for such a high-end car & dealership, they did not tell you that these stated tire mismatchs can singularly & together be potentially dangerous.

I also know that on 4 Matic’s, that the 4 tire treads be approximately the same (not more than 2/32nds DIFFERENCE) front to rear, side to side.

driver100

roadburner said:

driver100 said:

roadburner said:

I took the Clubman to my local Mini dealer to have the brake fluid, coolant and oil changed. I also had them address a couple of minor issues that I did not have the time to fool with. When I picked it up this morning I was pleasantly surprised to find that the valve cover gasket and one spark plug had been replaced to correct an intermittent cylinder 3 misfire- at no cost! I then drove it to the office at-ahem-a somewhat rapid pace- and it still averaged over 37 mpg. 

Fortunately the mechanics found it, and the gasket and misfiring cylinder were fixed before you headed out on a 500 mile trip!

Actually, I found it; I checked for faults with my scan tool before I took it to the dealer. I was planning to fix it myself. In any case, the Clubman is used primarily as my commuter car. 
Really though, I think that if you are worried about the reliability of a 5-6 year old car with less than 100,000 miles on it the real issue is the quality of the car itself. 

Agreed.......or the issue is me, being extra cautious.

driver100

henryn said:

driver100 said:

A friend took his Ford F150 diesel to Florida with a trailer. Truck would hardly move....he had to stay in a small town, went to the only garage in town where they tried to fix it a few times, waited 3 days for parts.....$5000 later and with 3 days of his life gone forever he was on the road again.......I hate when that happens! :@

"F150 diesel" ?? That should probably read F250 or F350.

OK....I am not sure about my F150s or diesel designations....just know what happened to his Ford Diesel Truck that he loves.

driver100

stickguy said:

Canadian dollars FWIW.

Good point....about $10 to $11K USDs.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

The guy applied at just the right time. A lazy or overworked HR worker isn't going to bother going through files and try to evaluate....when a guy happens to apply at just the right moment.

Yep, especially for a low level job.

You should have brought her a box of chocolates or bottle of wine, maybe not....might give the wrong impression.

Maybe I just should have smelled her hair.

Guys used to do that kind of thing 10 years ago or more (not me necessarily) and no one thought anything of it. I don't even know why someone would mention that as being abusive or harassment. I can recall a lot more than that going on in the old days (not by me necessarily).

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

I"m pushing toward 250K on my Dodge Dakota. I guess it's a combination of good maintenance and assembly plant luck? I don't see any reason why we can't get to 300K. That won't be soon, as it is a bit of a gas hog.

The ever popular Scotty Kilmer claims that cruising down the highway at 65 causes almost no wear on an engine. He says 10,000 highway miles is equal to 2000 city miles. So a car that would last 100,000 miles in the city would go 500,000 if just driven on the highway.

If Scotty says it....it must be true!

driver100

henryn said:

Plus labor?

ruking1

Yes, unless one know someone who will do it free?

henryn

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

The guy applied at just the right time. A lazy or overworked HR worker isn't going to bother going through files and try to evaluate....when a guy happens to apply at just the right moment.

Yep, especially for a low level job.

You should have brought her a box of chocolates or bottle of wine, maybe not....might give the wrong impression.

Maybe I just should have smelled her hair.

Guys used to do that kind of thing 10 years ago or more (not me necessarily) and no one thought anything of it. I don't even know why someone would mention that as being abusive or harassment. I can recall a lot more than that going on in the old days (not by me necessarily).

href="http://https://www.wtap.com/content/news/Mom-scares-off-suspected-kidnapper-with-gun-507986421.html">https://wtap.com/content/news/Mom-scares-off-suspected-kidnapper-with-gun-507986421.html

Some guy in an Old Navy store in a mall apparently patted a little 5 year old girl on the head. The little girl's mother apparently flipped out, pulled a gun on the guy and chased him out of the store. The guy was arrested and charged with attempted abduction, even though the police now say the store's video surveillance contradicts the woman's story.

Never touch anyone again. Never. As long as you may live, never again touch anyone. You have been warned.

ruking1

Yeah always walk around wearing silicone examination gloves and a sanitary face mask &/or ski mask, https://www.walmart.com/ip/TopHeadwear-3-Hole-Winter-Ski-Mask/48346397 baseball cap. If anybody asks, tell them you are contagious. Due to Hippa regulations you can’t say more. When in public places, there has been no presumption of privacy & for a long time!

ab348

I have 2 PCs here both running Windows 10. I like to share files between them as they are at opposite ends of the house. I was planning to do some more scanning of old photos today and could not find certain images I thought I had scanned a couple of years ago on the PC attached to the scanner. Not wanting to scan them again if I already had, I tried to look at the other PC from the one I am writing this on, to see if they were there. "Could not access" was the message that came up. This happens every few months to a year whenever MS issues a significant Windows 10 update. While mostly useless to me, the one thing the updates always seem to do is break networking.And it always seem to break it in a different way.

There is no easy way to figure out what is wrong. Their troubleshooting tool never finds anything. The process of fixing it is ridiculously complex and technical. I ended up burning over 3 hours of time searching online, tweaking things, rebooting several times on each machine, no joy. It was just ridiculous. You would follow one set of recommendations found online, have no luck, then try something else found online with the same result. Nothing is intuitive, nothing makes any sense as to why it wouldn't work. You find yourself neck-deep in screens you have never seen before that look like Win95 screens. It took me all afternoon. No scanning for you!

Finally I found it. The problem was that last week after I had scanned a bunch of prints, I was at the other machine later on that night and wanted to look at one picture. I brought it up on that machine and in looking at it I used MS Photo Manager to tweak the colors and then saved it on that machine instead of the one it was originally scanned at. So I apparently had 2 files with the same names in different folders on different machines. Just by chance when I tried to get it to share each others files late this afternoon for the umpteenth time I stumbled on to a slightly different way of doing it. The PC with the original file identified that one file as a problem - something to do with permissions, for one file out of 10s of thousands - and unlike all the other times I tried to fix the issue, asked me if I wanted to make them the same in that respect. I said yes, it did, and suddenly I could share again. Unbelievable. I couldn't find that screen again now if I tried, it was just dumb luck.

How MS every got this far with ridiculously stupid software components like that is a mystery. And next year when it happens again I will go down the same rabbit holes spending hours trying to fix it.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

The guy applied at just the right time. A lazy or overworked HR worker isn't going to bother going through files and try to evaluate....when a guy happens to apply at just the right moment.

Yep, especially for a low level job.

You should have brought her a box of chocolates or bottle of wine, maybe not....might give the wrong impression.

Maybe I just should have smelled her hair.

Guys used to do that kind of thing 10 years ago or more (not me necessarily) and no one thought anything of it. I don't even know why someone would mention that as being abusive or harassment. I can recall a lot more than that going on in the old days (not by me necessarily).

Me neither. Politics and power dynamics have changed to the point where it doesn’t matter if you did or not.

oldfarmer50

Hey, has anyone ever used one of these car buying services?

Why would you buy a car sight unseen?

What happens if you get a lemon?

https://www.vroom.com

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

Hey, has anyone ever used one of these car buying services?

Why would you buy a car sight unseen?

What happens if you get a lemon?

https://www.vroom.com

No, I'd have to see any used car I would buy (new car too but I can see it at a dealer).
But, for most people, they can buy a used car and they can't tell if it is a lemon anyway.
Do they offer a money back guaranty?

ruking1

ab348 said:

I have 2 PCs here both running Windows 10. I like to share files between them as they are at opposite ends of the house. I was planning to do some more scanning of old photos today and could not find certain images I thought I had scanned a couple of years ago on the PC attached to the scanner. Not wanting to scan them again if I already had, I tried to look at the other PC from the one I am writing this on, to see if they were there. "Could not access" was the message that came up. This happens every few months to a year whenever MS issues a significant Windows 10 update. While mostly useless to me, the one thing the updates always seem to do is break networking.And it always seem to break it in a different way.

There is no easy way to figure out what is wrong. Their troubleshooting tool never finds anything. The process of fixing it is ridiculously complex and technical. I ended up burning over 3 hours of time searching online, tweaking things, rebooting several times on each machine, no joy. It was just ridiculous. You would follow one set of recommendations found online, have no luck, then try something else found online with the same result. Nothing is intuitive, nothing makes any sense as to why it wouldn't work. You find yourself neck-deep in screens you have never seen before that look like Win95 screens. It took me all afternoon. No scanning for you!

Finally I found it. The problem was that last week after I had scanned a bunch of prints, I was at the other machine later on that night and wanted to look at one picture. I brought it up on that machine and in looking at it I used MS Photo Manager to tweak the colors and then saved it on that machine instead of the one it was originally scanned at. So I apparently had 2 files with the same names in different folders on different machines. Just by chance when I tried to get it to share each others files late this afternoon for the umpteenth time I stumbled on to a slightly different way of doing it. The PC with the original file identified that one file as a problem - something to do with permissions, for one file out of 10s of thousands - and unlike all the other times I tried to fix the issue, asked me if I wanted to make them the same in that respect. I said yes, it did, and suddenly I could share again. Unbelievable. I couldn't find that screen again now if I tried, it was just dumb luck.

How MS every got this far with ridiculously stupid software components like that is a mystery. And next year when it happens again I will go down the same rabbit holes spending hours trying to fix it.

Unless you are tied to Windows 10 or do not want to fix/find the issue, Apple has been easier to use for a LONG time. We’ve used both for many years. Our companies pay for whatever platforms we use.

driver100

We had a deck put up 2 1/2 years ago. Strangely, one of the glass panels shattered yesterday for no apparent reason. I wrote to the company that installed it a nice email, I said we love the deck, how do we get a new panel? I expected they would tell me we will fix it for $200 or so. They wrote back within an hour and said we will be out to replace it tomorrow.

Now that is the kind of company I love to do business with.

ab348

ruking1 said:

Unless you are tied to Windows 10 or do not want to fix/find the issue, Apple has been easier to use for a LONG time. We’ve used both for many years. Our companies pay for whatever platforms we use.

I have Apple products too and like them much better. But the cost of swapping over these machines plus all new application s/w is more than I want to take on.

stickguy

Vroom is like Carvana. you don't actually buy it sight unseen, any more than if you find a car at a traditional dealer's website, and negotiate a deal via email.

first time you see the car in person is when you go to consummate the deal. Vroom I believe also offers a 7 day return policy like Carvana. But, even if you arrange to have the car delivered, you need to inspect it and take a test drive first. Basically exactly what you should do (but people often don't) at a normal dealer. If it is as represented, you sign the papers and deal is done. If the truck pulls up and you don't want it for any reason (including you just didn't like it in person) you just say no and they take it back.

ruking1

ab348 said:

ruking1 said:

Unless you are tied to Windows 10 or do not want to fix/find the issue, Apple has been easier to use for a LONG time. We’ve used both for many years. Our companies pay for whatever platforms we use.

I have Apple products too and like them much better. But the cost of swapping over these machines plus all new application s/w is more than I want to take on.

Well I can certainly understand that!

The problem is all of those sorts of steep learning curves have been applied to cars.

2014 MB GLK 250 BT “manual” has 8 books, one of which is a minimum of 650 pages.

On another diesel, I got two separate verbal briefings on how to operate the various systems for two hours each. The guys had been factory trained and talk like machine guns. So my take is that if they didn’t talk like machine guns, it would be two four hr briefings.

explorerx4

@driver100,
Was the glass in the railing on the stairs or in the deck railing?
I can see why it shattered, that's some shoddy deck construction.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

We had a deck put up 2 1/2 years ago. Strangely, one of the glass panels shattered yesterday for no apparent reason. I wrote to the company that installed it a nice email, I said we love the deck, how do we get a new panel? I expected they would tell me we will fix it for $200 or so. They wrote back within an hour and said we will be out to replace it tomorrow.

Now that is the kind of company I love to do business with.

Some sort of frost heave I’d guess.


Or a raccoon with a rock.

Sandman6472

Have all Apple products now and really like them. Once I do something on my iPhone, I can retrieve it on my MacBook Pro or my iPad. Very simple and easy. No longer have the need for a desktop as the laptop does it all. So why spend the extra $.

driver100

explorerx4 said:

@driver100,
Was the glass in the railing on the stairs or in the deck railing?
I can see why it shattered, that's some shoddy deck construction.

The glass broke on the stairs part.
It was installed by a 5 star company....and their work was excellent as far as I can tell.
I think it was a manufacturers problem.

abacomike

ruking1 said:

It is normally recommended to: 1. get all of the tires the same brand 2. same model (singular) 3. tread depth differences (side to side, front to back) on a chassis. I’m truly surprised that for such a high-end car & dealership, they did not tell you that these stated tire mismatchs can singularly & together be potentially dangerous. I also know that on 4 Matic’s, that the 4 tire treads be approximately the same (not more than 2/32nds DIFFERENCE) front to rear, side to side.

My Mercedes service department told me that so long as the same tires are used on the same axle it doesn’t matter.  But they must have the same speed rating, and the exact same specs.

Only two brands make tires for the S450 - Pirelli and Goodyear.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

We had a deck put up 2 1/2 years ago. Strangely, one of the glass panels shattered yesterday for no apparent reason. I wrote to the company that installed it a nice email, I said we love the deck, how do we get a new panel? I expected they would tell me we will fix it for $200 or so. They wrote back within an hour and said we will be out to replace it tomorrow.

Now that is the kind of company I love to do business with.

Some sort of frost heave I’d guess.


Or a raccoon with a rock.

Kids with a BB gun!

driver100

abacomike said:

ruking1 said:

It is normally recommended to:
1. get all of the tires the same brand
2. same model (singular)
3. tread depth differences (side to side, front to back)
on a chassis.

I’m truly surprised that for such a high-end car & dealership, they did not tell you that these stated tire mismatchs can singularly & together be potentially dangerous.

I also know that on 4 Matic’s, that the 4 tire treads be approximately the same (not more than 2/32nds DIFFERENCE) front to rear, side to side.

My Mercedes service department told me that so long as the same tires are used on the same axle it doesn’t matter.  But they must have the same speed rating, and the exact same specs.

Only two brands make tires for the S450 - Pirelli and Goodyear

.

I believe that is correct. If your car is AWD, then the 4 tires should be the same make and have same wear.

explorerx4

@driver100,
Maybe Canada has different standards, but here a deck needs to be built on piers that are deeper than the frost line.
I will say the pavers you have look pretty level.
Why would someone climb the stairs to kick out the glass when they could stand on flat ground and kick it in?
You contractor must a 5 on a scale of 10.

jmonroe1

abacomike said:

Had a great day with my daughter yesterday. I took her shopping and she bought some pants, shorts, shoes, etc.  it was so nice to buy her things she needed.  Then we went out for dinner and she had a Caesar salad and a lobster tail and several glasses of wine.  I had part of her salad, sautéed mushrooms and a filet mignon.  Very enjoyable dinner.

She is in North Palm Beach today on a job interview.  Boy would that be nice if she could find something down here.  Great spending some time with her! 😛

@Mike, since you're never going to send me airfare money to come visit you, I'm going to Plan B. What do you think of this? The next time I go to visit my Delray Beach SIL, I'll give you a call and you can treat Mrs. j and I to a nice surf and turf dinner at a restaurant of your choosing. This is probably a better idea, right?

jmonroe

ab348

explorerx4 said:

@driver100,
Maybe Canada has different standards, but here a deck needs to be built on piers that are deeper than the frost line.
I will say the pavers you have look pretty level.
Why would someone climb the stairs to kick out the glass when they could stand on flat ground and kick it in?
You contractor must a 5 on a scale of 10.

The standards here are that a deck 4’ or less off the ground does not need piers that go below the frost line.

cdnpinhead

henryn said:

Never touch anyone again. Never. As long as you may live, never again touch anyone. You have been warned.

What a wonderful world we live in. It was not always this way, but now it is.

ruking1

abacomike said:

ruking1 said:

It is normally recommended to:
1. get all of the tires the same brand
2. same model (singular)
3. tread depth differences (side to side, front to back)
on a chassis.

I’m truly surprised that for such a high-end car & dealership, they did not tell you that these stated tire mismatchs can singularly & together be potentially dangerous.

I also know that on 4 Matic’s, that the 4 tire treads be approximately the same (not more than 2/32nds DIFFERENCE) front to rear, side to side.

My Mercedes service department told me that so long as the same tires are used on the same axle it doesn’t matter.  But they must have the same speed rating, and the exact same specs.

Only two brands make tires for the S450 - Pirelli and Goodyear.

Just one examination of say Tire Rack’s site lists considerably more brands for the 2018 MB S450 than just Pirelli &/or GY. Now if those two are their/your choices out of a myriad of tire brands & models, those are whole other issues.

It’s inexplicable to me that MB factory/dealer let a “$375 1 side misalignment” get past QC? It as stated has two to 4 tires early replacement consequences.

I highly doubt it was driver error, as in the driver hitting a curb, etc.

driver100

explorerx4 said:

@driver100,
Maybe Canada has different standards, but here a deck needs to be built on piers that are deeper than the frost line.
I will say the pavers you have look pretty level.
Why would someone climb the stairs to kick out the glass when they could stand on flat ground and kick it in?
You contractor must a 5 on a scale of 10.

I am sure building standards here would at least be equal to ones you have. Doubt if the standards would be as high in Florida, though they are tightening standards there these days.
Are pavers those bricks.....they have been there since the house was built 11 years ago?
I don't think the glass was kicked in.....I think the temperature somehow did it....also I wouldn't be surprised if a bird flew into the glass (may not have died), they fly into our windows sometimes.
5 out of a possible 5, and glowing reviews.

driver100

ab348 said:

explorerx4 said:

@driver100,
Maybe Canada has different standards, but here a deck needs to be built on piers that are deeper than the frost line.
I will say the pavers you have look pretty level.
Why would someone climb the stairs to kick out the glass when they could stand on flat ground and kick it in?
You contractor must a 5 on a scale of 10.

The standards here are that a deck 4’ or less off the ground does not need piers that go below the frost line.

Thanks ab. I really know nothing about building decks or anything for that matter. That is why I call the guy.
Especially the guy with 5 stars and no complaints.

driver100

cdnpinhead said:

henryn said:

Never touch anyone again. Never. As long as you may live, never again touch anyone. You have been warned.

What a wonderful world we live in. It was not always this way, but now it is.

When I was working or had the business up until about 8 years ago employees would make all kinds of suggestive remarks and we laughed and knew it was all in fun....and had a good time with it. These days I would never attempt a suggestive remark at work...who knows how it could come up and bite you in 20 years? I think I would wear a headcam so everything was recorded.

Didn't a lot of people meet at work and fool around and eventually got married etc., isn't that how nature works?
No means no but sometimes you have to get to "No".

tjc78

Wow, @driver100 ... First the striped shirt, then the stomach revealing Superman shirt, now the poorly constructed deck.... what are we going to do with you?

driver100

tjc78 said:

Wow, @driver100 ... First the striped shirt, then the stomach revealing Superman shirt, now the poorly constructed deck.... what are we going to do with you?

lol.....looks like my life is in a downward spiral.

driver100

Got a ride home from the airport on Sunday in a friends new 2019 Lincoln MKZ. It is OK, but not too special really. Interior is OK, I got the impression Ford is just going through the motions of keeping Lincoln rolling.

stickguy

With th sedans they are. The new CUVs like aviator and nautilus are nice though.

bwia

With Ford killing all of its passenger cars except the Mustang and Focus, the new 2020 Ford Escape looks less like a crossover and more like a car. The interior looks bland and cheap perhaps a Titanium model might look more upscale. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSGrCjp_a2c

roadburner

Replacing the temperature sensor and eliminating the misfire on the Clubman kicked the fuel economy up a notch; it averaged over 47 mpg on the drive to work today. The OBC claimed 49 mpg, but it is 4% optimistic. 

pensfan83

roadburner said:

I took the Clubman to my local Mini dealer to have the brake fluid, coolant and oil changed. I also had them address a couple of minor issues that I did not have the time to fool with. When I picked it up this morning I was pleasantly surprised to find that the valve cover gasket and one spark plug had been replaced to correct an intermittent cylinder 3 misfire- at no cost! I then drove it to the office at-ahem-a somewhat rapid pace- and it still averaged over 37 mpg. 

I recently took the Prelude out of winter storage and made an appointment for an oil/filter change at a very reputable indie shop that only handles Honda/Acura vehicles. I have never used them however when I made the appointment and gave them the year of the car they started asking me a lot of detailed questions such as when the timing belt was last changed, have I noticed any leaks, have I noticed excessive oil consumption, when were my other fluids changed, etc. I was impressed they would inquire about all of that and am hopeful I have a similar experience tomorrow.

28firefighter

Reminds me of the shop I take the Saab to. Granted, they also have every piece of historical information on the car since they serviced it for the past two owners, so there aren't many surprises.

Hopefully your bill is less than mine are...

dino001

driver100 said:

When I was working or had the business up until about 8 years ago employees would make all kinds of suggestive remarks and we laughed and knew it was all in fun....and had a good time with it. .

You may be right, but in the old times those uncomfortable with it, would simply not say anything and pretend laugh through those. So you never know. "Mad Men" workplace culture is long gone, but it was fact of life at some point and I'm not sure it was such a wonderful thing. Now, did we go too far into making everybody paranoid and simply afraid? Hell, yes.

However, I see seeds of that when I go back to my home country, where the boss, especially if he is also an owner (small business), behaves like a medieval prince on his domain and everybody is supposed to bow to his highness. It's not just sexual power, it's simply about power over people below you in the social structure. Whether it's an inappropriate joke, touch, or yelling and intimidation, hostile workplace is a real thing.

roadburner

28firefighter said:

Reminds me of the shop I take the Saab to. Granted, they also have every piece of historical information on the car since they serviced it for the past two owners, so there aren't many surprises. Hopefully your bill is less than mine are...

My bill was very reasonable; My dealer quotes what Mini refers to as Value Prices for routine maintenance. Plus, Mini is having a Spring special offering additional rebates. So, my oil change and inspection was just $55. 

driver100

Delete

driver100

bwia said:

With Ford killing all of its passenger cars except the Mustang and Focus, the new 2020 Ford Escape looks less like a crossover and more like a car. The interior looks bland and cheap perhaps a Titanium model might look more upscale.

They did a nice job on the exterior....much nicer balanced look than the previous model....does look more car like than bus like.
Interior is pretty plain, but, it is tasteful and looks functional. Lots of good standard features too.