Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

stever

dino001 said:

Nothing infuriates me more than a blatant lie.

Is it lack of values, self-control, shame, respect, social acceptance? All of it, perhaps? What is it?

I do tend to mumble and I have this Mississippi/Alaskan accent that does throw people off.

Judging by the salesperson's reaction, I think it's more of a misunderstanding (I did say "Golf" and SportWagen" in the same breath and the full name of the wagon is Golf SportWagen). Only three of those at the dealer though, not what I'd call a lot of inventory. But I could tell that the guy has been yelled at before due to the internet phone person sending people down there and then not following through with the actual appointment notice.

They were a bit busy for a Monday early in the month and that was a bit of a surprise.

How they managed keys was interesting too - none of this "let me get the number and grab the key" stuff. They leave the fobs on the windshield in the corner by the VIN.

No biggie, I needed to get off the hill and get a gallon of milk anyway.

dino001

So you're giving them benefit of the doubt.

stever

Sure, I'm easy. Have to save my energy for the real battles.

Like etching, mop and glow....

Plus, with VWs at least, I'm more of a stroke than a buyer.

mako1a

Oldfarmer, don't feel all alone. I get a similar (but not as threatening) letter from Virginia DMV about every 10 years. Never had a lapse in insurance in 30 years, but they ask me to prove I have it. Online takes about 5 minutes and rest easy for another 10 years.

verdugo

graphicguy said:

At first they claimed I was using the wrong gas. I explained that I only used Premium, and always used Tier 1 brnads of gas, so that's a crock. It really irritates me that Cadillac and the dealers are trying to blame me for some of the car's problems.

That is beyond lame. Cadillac should be ashamed of themselves.

dino001

verdugo said:

graphicguy said:

At first they claimed I was using the wrong gas. I explained that I only used Premium, and always used Tier 1 brnads of gas, so that's a crock. It really irritates me that Cadillac and the dealers are trying to blame me for some of the car's problems.

That is beyond lame. Cadillac should be ashamed of themselves.

Wasn't Graphic also accused of wrong gas on S4 MMI and binding AWD issues? Seems like gas is to blame on everything, including locust in the southern hemisphere...

[Deleted User]

Michaell said:

I must have some really cheap electricity, then. My June bill was $183 and the July bill dropped to $149. We have a hot tub connected full time and the A/C has been running. I suspect August will be a bit more. In the winter, the heated floors consume a bit of electricity, but the house we're moving to doesn't have that feature.

June was the first time we've paid for electricity since installing solar in September.  $10.

fezo

Just turned our solar on Thursday. Breaking even initially.

driver100

My new HP computer came with Windows 8. As soon as I started it up it asked if I wanted to install Windows 10. It was fairly easy to do....even for me.

I bought the new PC at Costco. It was funny, at Best Buy they advertise if you bought a new computer they would wave the $25 cost of downloading Windows 10 to your new computer.

Anyone could have pressed a few buttons and agreements and installed Windows 10!

[Deleted User]

fezo said:

Just turned our solar on Thursday. Breaking even initially.

Nice.  This is a high draw period with AC running, so if you're breaking even, then your system is well sized.   Congrats on the new system.

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

My new HP computer came with Windows 8. As soon as I started it up it asked if I wanted to install Windows 10. It was fairly easy to do....even for me.

I bought the new PC at Costco. It was funny, at Best Buy they advertise if you bought a new computer they would wave the $25 cost of downloading Windows 10 to your new computer.

Anyone could have pressed a few buttons and agreements and installed Windows 10!

Best Buy usually offers to do the initial set up of any computer for a fee, I forget what the fee is but it is easily saved just by doing it yourself. The computer walks you through the set up.

I just updated my lap top to windows 10 this evening, was fairly simple. Now to explore it. The only thing I am having an issue with on my laptop, using the track pad tapping on it does nothing I have to tap the buttons below it. With Windows 7 if I tapped the pad itself it acted like I hit the left button. I have to see if there are some settings to change that.

stickguy

interesting item about Wawa. They basically worked out a "non compete" deal with Sheetz to split the state and region. Wawa got the east side of PA, and Delaware, Sheetz got W. PA and VA.

very regional though. About time they started pushing north in Jersey!

oldfarmer50

tyguy said:

Michaell said:

I must have some really cheap electricity, then.

My June bill was $183 and the July bill dropped to $149. We have a hot tub connected full time and the A/C has been running. I suspect August will be a bit more.

In the winter, the heated floors consume a bit of electricity, but the house we're moving to doesn't have that feature.

June was the first time we've paid for electricity since installing solar in September.  $10.

What's your monthly payment for solar lease/finance? My house is perfectly situated for solar voltaic but I have never been able to make the numbers work on the cost return. We went with passive solar and extra insulation.

[Deleted User]

oldfarmer50 said:

What's your monthly payment for solar lease/finance? My house is perfectly situated for solar voltaic but I have never been able to make the numbers work on the cost return. We went with passive solar and extra insulation.

We have no payment/lease. We paid out of pocket for the installation, and after rebates the system is expected to pay for itself in less than 8 years. Life expectancy of the components is 25 years, so 17 years of positive return after payout was a no-brainer decision for us.

oldfarmer50

mako1a said:

Oldfarmer, don't feel all alone. I get a similar (but not as threatening) letter from Virginia DMV about every 10 years. Never had a lapse in insurance in 30 years, but they ask me to prove I have it. Online takes about 5 minutes and rest easy for another 10 years.

In my case DMV is asking me to prove insurance on a car I no longer own. Their online section provides no way for me to explain that.

I'll call my insurance company today and have them straighten it out.

houdini1

OF, I bought a 1993 MX6 back in 1993 for one of my boys. We traded in a 1990 Sentra. Shortly after we bought the car, the Mazda dealer went out of business. I didn't think much about it, but a few weeks later I got a letter from the finance company where we had the Sentra financed, politely asking me why we had stopped making payments. Huh ?

I called the finance company and asked them what was going on and they informed me that they had not received any paperwork or any payoff from the dealer. I tracked down the "sales manager" where we had bought the car and found he had been driving the Sentra for a month or so as his personal free car. I talked with the police and they told me that there was nothing they could do because it was a civil matter, but I still told the guy that I was going to have him arrested for car theft. The bluff worked and he made the payoff. If that had not worked, I guess I would have had to file suit, or just be stuck.

This was a Mazda new car dealership. Moral of the story is be careful who you do business with.

graphicguy

dino001 said:

verdugo said:

graphicguy said:

At first they claimed I was using the wrong gas. I explained that I only used Premium, and always used Tier 1 brnads of gas, so that's a crock. It really irritates me that Cadillac and the dealers are trying to blame me for some of the car's problems.

That is beyond lame. Cadillac should be ashamed of themselves.

Wasn't Graphic also accused of wrong gas on S4 MMI and binding AWD issues? Seems like gas is to blame on everything, including locust in the southern hemisphere...

Yep....must be the service guys "go to" excuse. Bad gas....hard to argue. What is "bad gas" to begin with? What makes it "bad". Low octane? Wrong solvents?

OF....doing smoky burnouts in a Caddy by the dealership personnel. Actually, I'd almost be OK with that. It means the engine, steering, etc. operate correctly.

imidazol97

Tim Card?

I am converting my larger HP laptop to Win10. Took it about 10 minutes downloading things and it said it was ready to be converted. I'm cleaning out a 10x10 inch basket I had a bunch of pens in and receipts for morning coffee and I found a TIM CARD for Tim Hortons.

I tried to find out how much was left on it, from 5 years ago or more. Website won't take it because it doesn't have a PIN on it: it just has a 16 digit number.

I'll have to try Tim's decaf coffee. As I remember it was too strong for me when I got it before. I'm used to a certain mellow flavor in decaf from our UDF (United Dairy Farmers) stores here in SW Ohio. But I'll give Tim a whirl again. I recall trying McDonalds and it was awful. Same for Speedway's decaf. Absolutely no control on age and heat-caused acidity in those places.

I had stopped at a name brand truck stop in lower Kentucky along I65 years back and it was awful. I think Speedway had bought it and still kept the original name on the stores at that time.

Upgrade to 10? It has been about 20-25 minutes. I like the graphic display where the timer visual is a circular thin blue arc that increases in degrees to match the percent accomplished of the total step. Now it's showing features and drivers. There are no spinning circles, now moving patches of blue racing along a line segment to indicate how much has been done.

So far, so good on the installation. But then it is Microsoft. I can't remember an installation there ever went perfectly. Any time I didn't have a blue screen of death at the end, I had to consider successful. This time may be better based on what my friends here have said about their installations. So I didn't wait 1 or 2 months to upgrade.

dino001

Why such a rush to Win10? I'm quite happy with Windows 7 on my desktop. I'll probably upgrade, but let MS issue multiple service packs and tweak some of their idiotic new policies, such as forced beta-quality updates killing the hardware drivers. Not to mention truly ridiculous $10/year on the Solitaire, or other equally stupid greedy crap. I heard it's a better system, but I'll probably wait to the last moment. That popup window annoys me to no end - truly obnoxious, seems like there is no option of "don't show it for X days/months". I hate it.

stever

Faster, better, more bells and whistles.

My minivan is at the Vista stage....

qbrozen

No real bites on the Fit. Keep getting offered about $1k below auction value. Doesn't make sense for me to let it go for that. Oh well. Really doesn't bother me either way.

Were we talking about houses here or in CCBA? I get so confused between the 2 discussions.

Michaell

qbrozen said:

No real bites on the Fit. Keep getting offered about $1k below auction value. Doesn't make sense for me to let it go for that. Oh well. Really doesn't bother me either way.

Were we talking about houses here or in CCBA? I get so confused between the 2 discussions.

House talk has been mostly here ... speaking of which, everything seems to be looking good for an 8/31 close on the sale of our house and the purchase of the new house.

Tentative occupancy of the new house is 9/10 and the move date should be 9/21 - we'll use those 10 days to paint and install tile.

qbrozen

so you are putting everything in storage during that time? Is a moving company doing it for you? We've given a little bit of thought to using that Pod company to keep costs down. Not sure, though.

That's a long closing period on both ends. I'm surprised nobody is more anxious. We have a tentative 10/9 date on the house we have a contract with (well, under attorney review at the moment), but no movement on our house yet, so who knows what will happen.

Speaking of attorney review, lawyers are a real PITA. For example, just got an addendum letter this morn from the sellers' attorney. He wants to add some clauses just for the sake of writing, I think. There is a new sentence about HOA statements being the responsibility of the buyer, yet the home is not part of an HOA! So why the hell are you bothering me with having to add that statement? Just silly stuff.

Michaell

qbrozen said:

so you are putting everything in storage during that time? Is a moving company doing it for you? We've given a little bit of thought to using that Pod company to keep costs down. Not sure, though.

That's a long closing period on both ends. I'm surprised nobody is more anxious. We have a tentative 10/9 date on the house we have a contract with (well, under attorney review at the moment), but no movement on our house yet, so who knows what will happen.

Speaking of attorney review, lawyers are a real PITA. For example, just got an addendum letter this morn from the sellers' attorney. He wants to add some clauses just for the sake of writing, I think. There is a new sentence about HOA statements being the responsibility of the buyer, yet the home is not part of an HOA! So why the hell are you bothering me with having to add that statement? Just silly stuff.

q - no, we've got a "rent back" agreement with both the sellers of our new house as well as with the buyers of our house. Sellers will pay us $83/day for each day after 8/31 they occupy the home; we pay $66/day to the buyers of our house. So, the 21 days we stay here will cost us $1386. We've been told that the sellers of our new house will be out by 9/10, so $830 will be coming to us.

We aren't using lawyers; just plain old real estate agents.

cdnpinhead

Just remember the Microsoft motto: Everything's different and nothing is better.

graphicguy

Just called Cadillac to see what's going on. Really nothing. They said they have it in the service area. Something about being on the OBD machine (so, guess they think it's a pollution sensor of some sort). Told them I'm leaving out of town for work and won't be back until late Friday. Service writer said he'd get back to me later today to see if I can keep the loaner until then.

Not going to wait around for their reply or their permission. I've got work to do.

oldfarmer50

qbrozen said:

No real bites on the Fit. Keep getting offered about $1k below auction value. Doesn't make sense for me to let it go for that. Oh well. Really doesn't bother me either way.

Were we talking about houses here or in CCBA? I get so confused between the 2 discussions.

Who is it making these low ball offers? Flippers, dealers or just cheap SOBs hoping you're stupid or desperate?

bwia

I'm sitting here at the barbershop watching a repo guy in action. In a blink of an eye he was gone with a nearly new VW Golf on his truck.

I'm wondering what would I do in this situation but then again I do not have any outstanding notes.  

qbrozen

oldfarmer50 said:

qbrozen said:

No real bites on the Fit. Keep getting offered about $1k below auction value. Doesn't make sense for me to let it go for that. Oh well. Really doesn't bother me either way.

Were we talking about houses here or in CCBA? I get so confused between the 2 discussions.

Who is it making these low ball offers? Flippers, dealers or just cheap SOBs hoping you're stupid or desperate?

let's see... carmax was $11,500; blind offer through truetrade app was $12,200; autolenders was $12,500; and some mystery person or company on ebay is at $12,700. I'm not sure what this means, but Ebay tells me that bidder has 9 outstanding Best Offer bids.

driver100

graphicguy said:

Just called Cadillac to see what's going on. Really nothing. They said they have it in the service area. Something about being on the OBD machine (so, guess they think it's a pollution sensor of some sort). Told them I'm leaving out of town for work and won't be back until late Friday. Service writer said he'd get back to me later today to see if I can keep the loaner until then.

.

It would seem to me that it is pretty serious when you can't find out what is causing a problem after 24 hours! With today's computers and diagnostic equipment it is crazy to think it would take this long to come up with a cause for the problem. What if the car was out of warranty....what would the bill be at now? What if you were out of town and had to be towed to a garage out of town, who would pay for your hotel expenses? And what if you lost business because you were late for an appointment?

You don't expect these problems with a brand new car......let alone all the earlier ones.

graphicguy

driver100 said:

graphicguy said:

Just called Cadillac to see what's going on. Really nothing. They said they have it in the service area. Something about being on the OBD machine (so, guess they think it's a pollution sensor of some sort). Told them I'm leaving out of town for work and won't be back until late Friday. Service writer said he'd get back to me later today to see if I can keep the loaner until then.

.

It would seem to me that it is pretty serious when you can't find out what is causing a problem after 24 hours! With today's computers and diagnostic equipment it is crazy to think it would take this long to come up with a cause for the problem. What if the car was out of warranty....what would the bill be at now? What if you were out of town and had to be towed to a garage out of town, who would pay for your hotel expenses? And what if you lost business because you were late for an appointment?

You don't expect these problems with a brand new car......let alone all the earlier ones.

Driver....this has been SOP since I've had the car. Plug it in, no code. That means, no problem. Plug it in to a different computer. Still can't find the problem. Become upset when the multitudes of problems continue....claim it was either operating as designed, blame bad gas, say I'm imagining things, or who knows what other excuse they come up with.

I'm betting that even though the power steering goes out and it stalls, and all the compute diagnosis they're now doing, they come back with "can't find any problem so it's good to go".

Sad state of affairs for Cadillac. And they wonder why they can't sell them.

Q, as an aside....this in on way is meant to denigrate your CTS, which by all accounts, has been fine.

thebean

GG, they're doing a "wall job" on your Caddy.  The service advisor told the lot boy "Go park it over there by that wall".

abacomike

thebean said:

GG, they're doing a "wall job" on your Caddy.  The service advisor told the lot boy "Go park it over there by that wall".

Funny you should mention "wall job"! I took my E 400 into my dealership last Friday to have the left wheels refinished. The wheel refinisher they use told me that the scratches are too deep and that if he buffed them out, it would ruin the wheels. So, he said he had to send them out to a professional wheel refinishing plant in Tampa to have them done correctly. So, they took the wheels off, removed the tires and sent them overnight to Tampa. They then put on two standard wheels and the service manager said to the wheel refinisher, "...park it over there next to the wall!"

I realize your "wall job" is a bit different than my "wall job" since they wanted my car out of the way so it would not get damaged by other cars.

ab348

It seems like I have to say this every time the subject comes up, but here we go again: please do not equate GG's exceedingly curious experience with that of all Cadillac customers.

oldfarmer50

abacomike said:

thebean said:

GG, they're doing a "wall job" on your Caddy.  The service advisor told the lot boy "Go park it over there by that wall".

Funny you should mention "wall job"! I took my E 400 into my dealership last Friday to have the left wheels refinished. The wheel refinisher they use told me that the scratches are too deep and that if he buffed them out, it would ruin the wheels. So, he said he had to send them out to a professional wheel refinishing plant in Tampa to have them done correctly. So, they took the wheels off, removed the tires and sent them overnight to Tampa. They then put on two standard wheels and the service manager said to the wheel refinisher, "...park it over there next to the wall!"

I realize your "wall job" is a bit different than my "wall job" since they wanted my car out of the way so it would not get damaged by other cars.

Mike, with your luck the wall will probably fall on it.

abacomike

ab348 said:

It seems like I have to say this every time the subject comes up, but here we go again: please do not equate GG's exceedingly curious experience with that of all Cadillac customers.

I do not see any evidence of "Cadillac" bashing here, ab. There may be one or two posters who overstate that a new car and an owner of that new car should be treated fairly, openly and honestly. But we all know that GG's experiences are rare, thank goodness, and not the standard in the industry. In this particular instance, it is probably the dealership who deserves a preponderance of the criticism because if that dealership had handled the situation properly and adroitly. it would never have gotten to this point.

I am not saying that Cadillac is totally innocent here. Their customer relations department sure did nothing to aid GG in his plight where they should have exhausted all means to correct the issue. It might even be Cadillac Motor Division causing the "log-jam" for GG in collusion with the dealership. Anything is possible, as we all know.

I sure would hate to read in the newspapers or hear on the news 10 years from now that there was a major recall of all Cadillac CTS's and ATS's for front end and power steering issues that Cadillac refused to address because the data was hidden by some engineer or designer. But we all know that could never happen, right?

abacomike

@oldfarmer50:

Yes, OF, with the way my luck has been going lately, a piece off a decaying satellite will probably crash into my car just before that wall caves in on it.

imidazol97

abacomike said:

...because the data was hidden by some engineer or designer. But we all know that could never happen, right?

I suspect that has happened at all companies even at the boutique brands, indeed. In recalling, I think first of toyota and how they misreported information to NHTSA about the unexplained acceleration events by turning them in as short time durations which kept the information from being noticed by those at NHTSA who should have been doing that. If they had been properly labeled as to duration, the agency supposedly would have noticed and considered it a problem. Where there's a will there's a way.

abacomike

imidazol97 said:

...because the data was hidden by some engineer or designer. But we all know that could never happen, right?

I suspect that has happened at all companies even at the boutique brands, indeed. I think first of toyota and how they misreported information to NHTSA about the unexplained acceleration events by turning them in as short time durations which kept the information from being noticed by those at NHTSA who should have been doing that. If they had been properly labeled at to duration, the agency supposedly would have noticed and considered it a problem. Where there's a will there's a way.

No doubt, Imid!

Mr_Shiftright

In my opinion, GG's wretched experience is 80% dealer, 20% Cadillac.

imidazol97

abacomike said:

I suspect that has happened at all companies even at the boutique brands, indeed. I think first of toyota and how they misreported information to NHTSA about the unexplained acceleration events by turning them in as short time durations which kept the information from being noticed by those at NHTSA who should have been doing that. If they had been properly labeled at to duration, the agency supposedly would have noticed and considered it a problem. Where there's a will there's a way.

No doubt, Imid!

Hopefully it doesn't happen, but myself I believe companies will strive to cover up things that might cost them.

abacomike

@imidazol97 said:

"Hopefully it doesn't happen, but myself I believe companies will strive to cover up things that might cost them."

I think that's what they call "survival" or "the profit motive"!

imidazol97

Mr_Shiftright said:

In my opinion, GG's wretched experience is 80% dealer, 20% Cadillac.

Good point. I believe there's a conflict over something about the troubleshooting process between the dealers and GM. Probably GM is wanting not to pay for the troubleshooting sans a code or malfunction of a part. The dealer and service dept are footing the cost for that on top of already slim payments for warranty work when there are codes and fault parts verified upon diagnosis following a code.

I know my Buick dealer of the past had a service manager and a couple of techs each with fortes in certain areas of troubleshooting. They fixed things and kept abreast of what techs at other stores were finding. I don't get a sense of that happening with GraphicGuy's dealer.

stickguy

the most ironic part of the GG saga, is that the dealer practically killed himself to convince GG to buy the car in the first place, to make up for the terrible experience with his Mom's STS,

thinking at this point, they probably regret ever talking to him.

bwia

stickguy said:

the most ironic part of the GG saga, is that the dealer practically killed himself to convince GG to buy the car in the first place, to make up for the terrible experience with his Mom's STS,

thinking at this point, they probably regret ever talking to him.

Think of the odds, three(?) CTS's all with problems? At some point the dealer and GM had to cut their losses. Meanwhile, GG has hardened his position and anything short of getting his money back is unacceptable to him. No matter the final outcome there are no winners under these circumstances.

Guys if you the arbitrator in this case how would you rule?

robr2

bwia said:

stickguy said:

the most ironic part of the GG saga, is that the dealer practically killed himself to convince GG to buy the car in the first place, to make up for the terrible experience with his Mom's STS,

thinking at this point, they probably regret ever talking to him.

Think of the odds, three(?) CTS's all with problems? At some point the dealer and GM had to cut their losses. Meanwhile, GG has hardened his position and anything short of getting his money back is unacceptable to him. No matter the final outcome there are no winners under these circumstances.

Guys if you the arbitrator in this case how would you rule?

Hard to rule on it without hearing the dealer's side of the story.

[Deleted User]

Consumer reports thoughts on used car brands (pretty generalized): newsday.com/classifieds/cars/consumer-reports-best-and-worst-car-brands-in-2015-include-lexus-mazda-and-toyota-1.10387053

Surprising comments on reliabilty for some brands.

fezo

bwia said:

I'm sitting here at the barbershop watching a repo guy in action. In a blink of an eye he was gone with a nearly new VW Golf on his truck.

I'm wondering what would I do in this situation but then again I do not have any outstanding notes.  

Don't know but I imagine it would take a few weeks for your hair to grow back in.

graphicguy

tyguy said:

Consumer reports thoughts on used car brands (pretty generalized): newsday.com/classifieds/cars/consumer-reports-best-and-worst-car-brands-in-2015-include-lexus-mazda-and-toyota-1.10387053

Surprising comments on reliabilty for some brands.

Cadillac...."plagued by shaky reliability".

Kind of sums it up.

Robr2....I think I posted what the dealers and Cadillac corporate said on the service receipts, BBB docs and phone calls several weeks ago in some posts.

I've repeated their responses several times here.

dino001

imidazol97 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

In my opinion, GG's wretched experience is 80% dealer, 20% Cadillac.

Good point. I believe there's a conflict over something about the troubleshooting process between the dealers and GM. Probably GM is wanting not to pay for the troubleshooting sans a code or malfunction of a part. The dealer and service dept are footing the cost for that on top of already slim payments for warranty work when there are codes and fault parts verified upon diagnosis following a code.

I know my Buick dealer of the past had a service manager and a couple of techs each with fortes in certain areas of troubleshooting. They fixed things and kept abreast of what techs at other stores were finding. I don't get a sense of that happening with GraphicGuy's dealer.

But that means that Cadillac has a broken process and toxic relationship with their dealers. Seems like exact opposite with BMW and their dealers, where I heard from multiple sources that those guys have phenomenal relationship, supporting each other. There is no way they can get anywhere close to the leadeing brands, if they don't fix those. Besides the product, there is experience, especially in upscale market. It has to be fostered by the face of the company, even if the face is an independent contractor. Looks like GM still has hard time understanding it.