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Comments
Those are light wheels for a normal sized person- obviously if you're a lightweight you can ride these 1000gm wheels.
Heavy tires though! I'm currently riding on Continental Grand Prix 4000 S- 205 gm, never had a flat despite rides through some pretty bad roads with a lot of debris. The only downside is they're kinda pricey.
tom
Bob
"I'm not sure it is worth the extra cost — you need to take some of the [manufacturer's] claims with a grain of salt."
Pragmatic, sure. But let's look closer.
Let's compare a mainstream full synthetic such as Mobil1 or Syntec with conventional oil and say that for your average vehicle the delta assuming a self change is only $20.
If you're then doing the average interval of 7,500 miles, when you reach 100,000 miles you have spent about $266 extra. I will 100% guarantee that there is a visible difference inside the engine regarding the wear of oiled parts that touch one another, such as the valvetrain. Does this difference matter? I have no idea, and it's not easy to gather the data that would tell.
Here's the real problem: if you're not doing the changes yourself, the delta for a synthetic change is WAY more than $20 thanks to profit-taking by the dealership or quick-change shop. The labor is the same, absolutely. And if you go to Wal-Mart or any chain autoparts store it's plain to see the difference in the oil cost. Let's give them some slack and say they use a premium filter too, which I actually doubt they do. The delta should be $25 at most, but usually it is $40-50 dollars.
Now you're getting ripped off, but it's still less than $700 additional after 100,000 miles. Considering all that you've paid for the vehicle, insurance, taxes, gas, routine maintenance and repairs (most cars don't have 100k mile warranties), is this $700 extra really all that significant?
Probably not, but I can see the reason to ask. The $266 additional sounds a lot better to me..
How many Crew members had engines die due to lubrication? Gaskets, leaky seals, usually something else.
I guess we've seen some bearings go bad on turbos, but that was due to a manufacturing error, not the type of oil used.
I have nothing against synthetics and for full disclosure I'll say up front I'd rather have longer intervals even if synthetic is required.
Funny thing is the first thing she said was that the seats are "itchy".
Next it was that she had to manually crank the windows. That thing is a time capsule.
As far as cars go, I thought crank windows, at least here in the USA, was a thing of the past.
Bob
And, I received notice of the emissions reprogramming as well, so I guess I need to take my car in at some point.
The "myth" debunk was stated to be that synthetics are not better for the engine nor do they result in better fuel economy. I have not seen significant evidence of a difference in fuel economy, at least not for any vehicle other than my 1998 Dodge Caravan, but that had larger engine and even then the change was an increase in the average of less than 1 mpg, which could have been due to something other than the engine oil as well.
As for the better protection, synthetics (not all created equally, mind you) absolutely do protect better. As AJ stated, is it significant? For most cars, probably not.
As for cost, an owner can get the cost down by using more expensive (as long as they're higher quality) fluids and parts, depending on the OCI used. Yes, there is some investment needed to reliably establish a baseline for an appropriate interval, but it will pay dividends over time.
kcram - Pickups/Wagons/Vans+Minivans Host
Even then, the powertrain would be covered anyway.
I would urge her to go with a longer term, maybe 7/70 or something, to get more bang for the buck, even if the price is closer to a grand.
I would not pay asking price under any circumstances. It's just not worth it. Pay yourself the grand and sit on it.
Out-of-pocket for me was $0.
Maybe I'm being overly optimistic here... ? I expect it to click over to 30,000 miles the next time or two my wife drives it, so I have about until the end of the calendar year to decide.
I've seen online quotes for the Gold 5/60 zero-deduct between $925-1225*, so I'm asking her to verify that the $662 offer is indeed for a factory Gold plan. If it is, that would be a great price. If it's only Classic or if it's aftermarket, I'm going to tell her to keep shopping.
*links:
http://www.premiersubaru.com/subaru-added-security.htm
http://www.hot-subaru.com/warrantyprices.htm
kcram - Pickups/Wagons/Vans+Minivans Host
The problem I see with the extended warranty of that length is that it only does a couple things: extends roadside assistance by two years and adds coverage for some non-drivetrain issues. But, it doesn't cover things like persistent rattles (fit/finish), which are (in my opinion) the most likely manufacturing defect an owner will come across during that span of the car's life.
Thanks for the assist, Crew!
kcram - Pickups/Wagons/Vans+Minivans Host
By the way, my friend managed to talk the dealer down from $662 to $625 - she's very happy!
kcram - Pickups/Wagons/Vans+Minivans Host
We had some rodents chew some wires in the engine bay - $700 damage to the wiring harness.
Unfortunately not covered by warranty! Ouch.
Bob
Drive over it, and wrap the car up from the bottom!
I've seen people do this with tarps when they go backpacking and don't want little wild critters climbing into their cars!
tom
Maintenance replaced the ripped screens with more of the same mesh, but said squirrel has not returned.
kcram - Pickups/Wagons/Vans+Minivans Host
Obviously just stropping his claws so that they are sharp enough for attacking the window seals on your car...
Cheers
Graham
http://www.autonews.com/assets/PDF/CA7497888.PDF
Just 19 days' supply of cars, about 1/3rd the ideal supply.
Outback is hotter than even the Forester with its interrupted production!
I have a nice circuit around the neighborhood where I do 7 miles in 30 minutes... not uber, but considering the cobblestones and intersections I'll take it. We do a big ride once a week on Saturday or Sunday, 15 miles at least. And I'm sprinkling in some mountainbike trails too!
I'm logging all my rides on CardioTrainer, an android application. It's helpful to see my improvement, total miles & calories, etc. It has a desktop widget that shows calories for the last 7 days and, it's silly, but I like seeing a gold medal which is 2,000+ calories over the past 7 days. One week I had some work travel and it got below 1,000 which was a very sad shade of blue. That's right.. below a bronze medal.
Anyway, I hope my fellow Crew bicyclists are enjoying their rides too.
Keep it up before winter comes!
tom
One of my co-workers, a pretty new guy actually, convinced me to do a 50km (31 mi) ride for charity on Sunday. Actually he was originally talking about their 100km ride and I thought that was too much to bite off, since our weekly 'long' ride is 15-20 miles.
It's going to be a blast!
Pace yourself- don't start too fast, keep hydrated, and stop once in a while. May not be a bad idea to have a cliff bar 1/3 of the way through as well. Oh yeah, don't cross your front wheel with the person in front of you (or assume the person in front of you won't do something stupid!).
Enjoy the ride!
tom
Anyway, I just realized that I forgot to mention something from our trip. Driving in London we ended up next to a Mini for a few blocks. It stood out because it was LHD and had real Florida plates on it.
I laughed and commented to Sandra that here was a classic British car, made by Germans, and sold to an American in Florida so he could who bring it back to Britain.
....she didn't see the humour, but I was dying to roll down the window and ask the story at numerous stop lights.
she didn't see the humour
You're back in America now - check your "u's" at the border - unless you are from Cunuckistan, then carry on.
If they were on work term, they are required to register with UK plates over more than a month or so. Hard to see an employer footing that bill. Plus, he didn't look like the type to have his employer paying for those extravagances. Car allowance is much more typical and even then usually upper end positiions for European jobs.
He's generally only over there seasonally in the winters.
Once there, explore the additional footage and the 'making of' (people & planes over the past 90 years). What an incredible advertising campaign! Maybe one of the best I've seen.
I flew them this summer to the UK and Italy, and I must say it wasn't as good as the first time we flew them in 1997. Of course, the industry was a lot different back then, but still, I was expecting a bit higher level of "sophistication" for lack of a better word.
If Michael didn't poke thru them all, here are the 5 primary clips. There are a few secondary films as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4JdQi60an0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chjN5SerNeQ&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUQJiFARd80&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiC7pnqhEcM&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4gJpOq-qYw&feature=BFa&list=SP0DD6B4B26F0BD3C3&l- f=list_related