Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations

stickguy

I only looked at the extended warranty. Not going to buy a service package, especially with how few miles I put on.

sda

What is a good product to remove tar that is set up hard? My daughter and her boyfriend came over this afternoon so we could wax the Passat. The Passat lives outside at my daughter’s apartment. The was a fine spatter of tar all over the front bumper, hood and some on the front fender. What a mess and very difficult to remove. My daughter and her boyfriend worked diligently on the hood and fenders while I waxed and buffed the remainder of the car. We used Turtle Wax bug and tar remover, WD 40 , Go Jo. I did not use gasoline though I know that is effective. It still has numerous tar specs on it, but 95% better. Suggestions other than gasoline?

jmonroe1

sda said:

What is a good product to remove tar that is set up hard? My daughter and her boyfriend came over this afternoon so we could wax the Passat. The Passat lives outside at my daughter’s apartment. The was a fine spatter of tar all over the front bumper, hood and some on the front fender. What a mess and very difficult to remove. My daughter and her boyfriend worked diligently on the hood and fenders while I waxed and buffed the remainder of the car. We used Turtle Wax bug and tar remover, WD 40 , Go Jo. I did not use gasoline though I know that is effective. It still has numerous tar specs on it, but 95% better. Suggestions other than gasoline?

————————————————
I’ve always had success with paint thinner. Not paint remover or acetone. As always, test in an inconspicuous spot. FWIW, I don’t know why gasoline scares you. If I didn’t have paint thinner I would use gasoline. Soap and water after any chemical use should always be used before waxing.

jmonroe

sda

jmonroe1 said:

sda said:

What is a good product to remove tar that is set up hard? My daughter and her boyfriend came over this afternoon so we could wax the Passat. The Passat lives outside at my daughter’s apartment. The was a fine spatter of tar all over the front bumper, hood and some on the front fender. What a mess and very difficult to remove. My daughter and her boyfriend worked diligently on the hood and fenders while I waxed and buffed the remainder of the car. We used Turtle Wax bug and tar remover, WD 40 , Go Jo. I did not use gasoline though I know that is effective. It still has numerous tar specs on it, but 95% better. Suggestions other than gasoline?

————————————————
I’ve always had success with paint thinner. Not paint remover or acetone. As always, test in an inconspicuous spot. FWIW, I don’t know why gasoline scares you. If I didn’t have paint thinner I would use gasoline. Soap and water after any chemical use should always be used before waxing.

jmonroe

No issues overall with gasoline. It wasn’t handy. The gas container is in the shed, located in the backyard.

driver100

tjc78 said:

Pretty sure everything in the braking system is covered under warranty except the pads. On several cars I’ve had the rotors turned or replaced during the warranty period.

That's what I thought....but apparently not any more.....at least in Canukistan.

ab348

tjc78 said:

I’ve had plenty of IPhones, IPads, I watches and ear pods … but my laptops have to be windows. Old habits die hard

Same here. Even though I despise Windows and how complicated it has always been. I’m sure I’d adapt to a Mac easy enough with time.

imidazol97

I started with Apple computers for the desktop publishing that was available. Mac Plus. Mac II?, other Macs at work. Then I switched to Windows because of the availability of cheaper, better programs that weren't continuing the high profits to Apple with double the prices or even more.

The versatility and the wide internet, then and now, resources available make it easy. Now the help pages, mostly knowledgeable, and the videos on how to do many things, a majority helpful, make Windows better for me. Your experience may vary.

imidazol97

sda said:

jmonroe1 said:

sda said:

What is a good product to remove tar that is set up hard? My daughter and her boyfriend came over this afternoon so we could wax the Passat. The Passat lives outside at my daughter’s apartment. The was a fine spatter of tar all over the front bumper, hood and some on the front fender. What a mess and very difficult to remove. My daughter and her boyfriend worked diligently on the hood and fenders while I waxed and buffed the remainder of the car. We used Turtle Wax bug and tar remover, WD 40 , Go Jo. I did not use gasoline though I know that is effective. It still has numerous tar specs on it, but 95% better. Suggestions other than gasoline?

————————————————
I’ve always had success with paint thinner. Not paint remover or acetone. As always, test in an inconspicuous spot. FWIW, I don’t know why gasoline scares you. If I didn’t have paint thinner I would use gasoline. Soap and water after any chemical use should always be used before waxing.

jmonroe

No issues overall with gasoline. It wasn’t handy. The gas container is in the shed, located in the backyard.

I wonder if the tars of today are harder to remove due to improved chemistry compared to the asphalt tars of the past. I found Turtle Wax bug and tar (kerosene in a can I believe) to be best last time I had to use. I admit I often just pick up some gasoline from the lawn mower container.

ab348

imidazol97 said:

The versatility and the wide internet, then and now, resources available make it easy. Now the help pages, mostly knowledgeable, and the videos on how to do many things, a majority helpful, make Windows better for me. Your experience may vary.

I find it increasingly baffling and annoying. They change so many things to the user experience for no benefit and make using it more difficult and confusing. Without those 3rd party online resources it would be virtually unusable. As it is those often are incomplete or inaccurate themselves. I believe there should be what amounts to a “For Dummies” version that strips down the user experience to the basics with a heavy emphasis on consistency in the look and feel. As it is, it is like having to use a supercomputer as a calculator.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

I only looked at the extended warranty. Not going to buy a service package, especially with how few miles I put on.

My problem with extended warranties is that I would always run out of time before I ran out of miles so they were never of any use to me.

stickguy

well, the use is if you have a problem in those 10 years that would be covered.

laurasdada

Vacationing (retired, isn't everyday vacation?) in coastal DE. I've seen more than 2x as many Cybertrucks on the trip as Lucids. I dig exclusivity, but only a few days left to take advantage of the $7500 lease subsidy...
Still haven't fully made the use case in my mind for a BEV.

stickguy

I watched a legit street cars video last night, and Alex (Mr. LSC, seems like a really good guy) was buying his latest project car from a used dealer, across the street from a Tesla store and he commented that the entire front row along the road was nothing but Cybertrucks, and made a comment about how the bloom was off that rose.

corvette

@stickguy - I watched that video, as well. I was a little surprised he made that comment because my understanding was that the Elon fanboys lose their ever-loving minds the moment someone with a platform says something that isn't positive about the CT or Tesla in general.

stickguy

not sure that is much of an issue now. Plus, I highly doubt among his 1.5million subscribers, are many Tesla groupies.

graphicguy

Windshield Saga continues......

Funny story actually....Friday I went to the local Kia dealer to see if they could/would replace my cracked windshield. The short answer was "no".

But, while I was there, they said they would do a quick free inspection of my car. Sure...why not!

I was there every bit of 20 minutes, just milling about. My sister is kind of kicking tires on a Sportage. So, I was looking at those.

Long and short of it...wandering from one aisle to the next. I was approached by 3 different sales people asking to help me. I told them I was there for service. Eventually, the person who had sold me my Stinger came up to me. She didn't remember my name but remembered my face. She's a Sales Manager now and was on her way to help one of the sales guys close a deal.

Anyway, we re-introduced ourselves. She said she remembered the Stinger I had (not sure if she did or didn't) and said not to hesitate to contact her when either myself or my sister needed help with a Kia.

I get home and get a call from the GM of the Kia dealership. When I answered my phone, I knew immediately who he was because he was the Sales Manager at the Cadillac Dealership when I went through that whole fiasco several years ago. Cadillac and Kia Dealerships are across the street from each other and owned by the same family. We chatted cordially a bit. He laughed nervously as I recounted our last interface many years ago (which was not cordial) and said to contact him on his personal number (the number he called me from) if my sister or myself are looking to buy a Kia.

That was 5 people in total who wanted to help me buy a car.

Give them credit. They have the sales floor covered. Now, if they would only replace my windshield.

suydam

The Sportage is our first Kia. I have to say they’ve been pretty great so far with both sales and service.

explorerx4

When I had a windshield replaced about 3 years ago, I'm pretty sure I just went to Safelite, provided my isurance info and booked the appointment online.

roadburner

graphicguy said:

Windshield Saga continues......

Funny story actually....Friday I went to the local Kia dealer to see if they could/would replace my cracked windshield. The short answer was "no".

But, while I was there, they said they would do a quick free inspection of my car. Sure...why not!

I was there every bit of 20 minutes, just milling about. My sister is kind of kicking tires on a Sportage. So, I was looking at those.

Long and short of it...wandering from one aisle to the next. I was approached by 3 different sales people asking to help me. I told them I was there for service. Eventually, the person who had sold me my Stinger came up to me. She didn't remember my name but remembered my face. She's a Sales Manager now and was on her way to help one of the sales guys close a deal.

Anyway, we re-introduced ourselves. She said she remembered the Stinger I had (not sure if she did or didn't) and said not to hesitate to contact her when either myself or my sister needed help with a Kia.

I get home and get a call from the GM of the Kia dealership. When I answered my phone, I knew immediately who he was because he was the Sales Manager at the Cadillac Dealership when I went through that whole fiasco several years ago. Cadillac and Kia Dealerships are across the street from each other and owned by the same family. We chatted cordially a bit. He laughed nervously as I recounted our last interface many years ago (which was not cordial) and said to contact him on his personal number (the number he called me from) if my sister or myself are looking to buy a Kia.

That was 5 people in total who wanted to help me buy a car.

Give them credit. They have the sales floor covered. Now, if they would only replace my windshield.

I was really interested in a KIA Stinger GTS but the shopping experience at the local dealers coupled with the service horror stories took the GTS out of contention. First off, it was difficult to find any KIA dealer that wasn't installing those moronic brake light flashers. Just what I want; a brand new car with a factory wiring harness hacked up by a minimum wage "technician". Then there was the sales guy at a Louisville store who asked me what else I was considering. When I told him a CPO M2 Competition he said,"That's a Mercedes, right?"

snakeweasel

1

graphicguy said:

Windshield Saga continues......

Funny story actually....Friday I went to the local Kia dealer to see if they could/would replace my cracked windshield. The short answer was "no".

But, while I was there, they said they would do a quick free inspection of my car. Sure...why not!

I was there every bit of 20 minutes, just milling about. My sister is kind of kicking tires on a Sportage. So, I was looking at those.

Long and short of it...wandering from one aisle to the next. I was approached by 3 different sales people asking to help me. I told them I was there for service. Eventually, the person who had sold me my Stinger came up to me. She didn't remember my name but remembered my face. She's a Sales Manager now and was on her way to help one of the sales guys close a deal.

Anyway, we re-introduced ourselves. She said she remembered the Stinger I had (not sure if she did or didn't) and said not to hesitate to contact her when either myself or my sister needed help with a Kia.

I get home and get a call from the GM of the Kia dealership. When I answered my phone, I knew immediately who he was because he was the Sales Manager at the Cadillac Dealership when I went through that whole fiasco several years ago. Cadillac and Kia Dealerships are across the street from each other and owned by the same family. We chatted cordially a bit. He laughed nervously as I recounted our last interface many years ago (which was not cordial) and said to contact him on his personal number (the number he called me from) if my sister or myself are looking to buy a Kia.

That was 5 people in total who wanted to help me buy a car.

Give them credit. They have the sales floor covered. Now, if they would only replace my windshield.

As I am closing in on retirement sometime in 2027 I am strongly thinking of replacing my 2011 Sonata, not that it's bad, still running with less that 140k on the clock. Just want to go into retirement with a fresh new ride.

Well anyway I decided to kill some time Saturday morning and I hit 4 dealerships to physically check some SUV's that appeals to me. All four I visted prior to noon, they were all shy of customers but had alot of salespeople there so in each there were salespeople just standing around. In all four dealerships I was approached by a grand total of zero salespeople.

graphicguy

suydam said:

The Sportage is our first Kia. I have to say they’ve been pretty great so far with both sales and service.

In all frankness, I found my Stinger and current EV6 to be exemplary. No problems. Built well. Nice inside and out with up to date tech.

As @roadburner points out, their dealership sales personnel reflect what Kia was 15-20 years ago....a low end new car franchise catering to first time buyers and credit challenged customers (excluding @oldfarmer50 ). They ain't that now.

Go sit in a new EV, SUV or a K4. They're impressive. I think this is more a dealership thing than a car brand thing, though.

andres3

roadburner said:

mlevine said:

What are the thoughts for extended warranty by veritas for MB GLE 2018 with about 38,000 miles? I think it would be a waste as heard they will deny repairs or not cover everything.

I only buy extended warranties from the car's manufacturer; everything else is a gamble- and the house will almost always do anything and everything to win.

I did get back a check for over $2K on my X3 m40i 5 year warranty that I only used 20% of. Figure the fees/penalties were reasonable as that's about 3/4's of the cost back. I am a happy camper - never needed to use the warranty though!

andres3

Kia of El Cajon is on the black list along with Kia Finance, Rite Aid, Circuit City, Chrysler/Dodge and as you can see, it's not a good list to be on.

Lexus of Escondido gets an "A" for ultimately doing the right thing. Wouldn't hesitate to do business with them again.

jmonroe1

graphicguy said:

suydam said:

The Sportage is our first Kia. I have to say they’ve been pretty great so far with both sales and service.

In all frankness, I found my Stinger and current EV6 to be exemplary. No problems. Built well. Nice inside and out with up to date tech.

As @roadburner points out, their dealership sales personnel reflect what Kia was 15-20 years ago....a low end new car franchise catering to first time buyers and credit challenged customers (excluding @oldfarmer50 ). They ain't that now.

Go sit in a new EV, SUV or a K4. They're impressive. I think this is more a dealership thing than a car brand thing, though.

————————————————
That sounds like something the Kia regional rep should be made aware of.

jmonroe

xwesx

I'll be heading out mid-night to take my truck back down to North Carolina. This week is turning out to be overly busy, so I opted to just grab a flight back instead of driving. Amazingly, my wife found an inexpensive flight that basically goes door-to-door (Jacksonville to Erie) using comparatively few air miles. So, in the interest of time (and the fact that a information on a one-way rental was tenuous at best), I decided to just do that. I should be able to leave in the wee hours, arrive, hop a flight, and be back to the house by about 10pm.

I should probably think about getting some rest ahead of time, but I haven't quite worked out when I will squeeze that in...

stickguy

As much as I don’t care to be gang tackled of stalked at a dealership, nothing drives me more nuts that being ignored.

28firefighter

I find Kia and Hyundai dealers to generally be insufferable. To the point I don’t even want to think about them.

stickguy

no experience with Kia (and not sure what my son thought of them, since he is the only person local I know with one), but I had 2 Hyundais, bought at 2 dealers (and shopped a 3rd a number of times and serviced there). And all 3 dealers were perfectly fine. Just as good as the Honda dealers local. This was in NJ (TJC would know at least 2 of them).

oldfarmer50

graphicguy said:

suydam said:

The Sportage is our first Kia. I have to say they’ve been pretty great so far with both sales and service.

In all frankness, I found my Stinger and current EV6 to be exemplary. No problems. Built well. Nice inside and out with up to date tech.

As @roadburner points out, their dealership sales personnel reflect what Kia was 15-20 years ago....a low end new car franchise catering to first time buyers and credit challenged customers (excluding @oldfarmer50 ). They ain't that now.

Go sit in a new EV, SUV or a K4. They're impressive. I think this is more a dealership thing than a car brand thing, though.

I found the Kia dealer to be professional and easy to deal with, much easier than the Honda dealer where I bought my truck who thought he was selling a Honda not a Ford.

stickguy

I have very little experience with dealers up here in the 3 years I have been here. the Acura dealer is very nice for service, but never talked to a sales guy. Ford, they are nice in the service department but not very efficient. Also have not talked to a sales person. I did test drive a Honda and that dealer was good to deal with, and shopped (for my in laws) a different Honda dealer where the internet person was great.

I took my daughter's Mazda for service. no sales interface there also.

and that I think is all my experience.

roadburner

I no longer use my BMW dealer for service as the one remaining BMW in the garage is older than 90% of the techs. Even when I knew all the service writers problems would often occur because the techs didn't know very much about the car.
My Jeep and Mercedes dealers are both first rate, and I'm really disinclined to shop other brands when their nearest dealers are all uniformly terrible.

driver100

My older brother decided to stop driving so I phoned his Hyundai dealer and asked what they'd give me approx for an 8 year old Accent with low mileage. They said it should be worth about $6400.
I drove it there and that was not fun, it was flimsy and loose, steering was like a toy car at the grocery store, not much of a suspension system. They walked around the car and took off $100 for a ding, $200 for a scratch....etc, and came up with $4000. I wanted to take it to some indies I checked but my brother just wanted it sold.
It was about the 25th of the month and they told me they didn't want any money going out of the dealership until after the 1st of the next month....come back then and they'd have a check all ready for us, and they would give us a ride home....about 10 miles.
We arrived on the 1st, of course the check wasn't ready as promised and we had to wait. They didn't have a ride back organized so they had to get some newbie sales guy to take us back, and that guy wasn't too happy about doing it......he drove like a maniac.
I needed a shower when I got home....both times.
Glad I am treated like a human being at my MB dealership.

stickguy

no Carmax type place in Canada? Not always the best price, but super smooth process!

suydam

If you have a bad experience, you’re not going to forget it. Even if you know people who had good experiences or it was 20 years ago with a different management.

graphicguy

jmonroe1 said:

graphicguy said:

suydam said:

The Sportage is our first Kia. I have to say they’ve been pretty great so far with both sales and service.

In all frankness, I found my Stinger and current EV6 to be exemplary. No problems. Built well. Nice inside and out with up to date tech.

As @roadburner points out, their dealership sales personnel reflect what Kia was 15-20 years ago....a low end new car franchise catering to first time buyers and credit challenged customers (excluding @oldfarmer50 ). They ain't that now.

Go sit in a new EV, SUV or a K4. They're impressive. I think this is more a dealership thing than a car brand thing, though.

————————————————
That sounds like something the Kia regional rep should be made aware of.

jmonroe

Funny you should mention that. But the Regional Kia Rep was there when I took delivery of my Stinger (bought late one night and took a couple of days for PDI). Didn't know who he was until he approached me about buying the Stinger....mostly small talk about the car. But, when he asked about the sales process, I was frank with him about the less than stellar experience (mostly about being hounded by sales reps).

From the looks of it, I guess it fell on deaf ears. That said, this dealership group is notorious for those sorts of high pressure tactics. I have no problem in telling them "no" over and over. A "newbie"? Might get them in the chair and clubbed.

Same dealership group also owns one of the 2 Mercedes dealers locally. Wonder how that sales process looks? And, the same dealer family bought my Acura dealership about a year ago. Not wanting to walk into that show room these days.

tjc78

@stickguy said:
no experience with Kia (and not sure what my son thought of them, since he is the only person local I know with one), but I had 2 Hyundais, bought at 2 dealers (and shopped a 3rd a number of times and serviced there). And all 3 dealers were perfectly fine. Just as good as the Honda dealers local. This was in NJ (TJC would know at least 2 of them).

I bought two Hyundai’s and had big problems with one but have to say the Hyundai dealer was truly a gem. They worked with Hyundai corporate to fix my Genesis when they were stumped. They own a Buick dealer too and all three were from there and the same great service.

All in all for service most of the NJ dealers around me have been great. As for buying… I haven’t bought in my area since 2015.

andres3

stickguy said:

As much as I don’t care to be gang tackled of stalked at a dealership, nothing drives me more nuts that being ignored.

Take a suitcase full of cash and you will not likely be ignored.

Michaell

@andres3 said:
Take a suitcase full of cash and you will not likely be ignored.

You won’t need a suitcase unless you’re buying a super car.

It’s amazing how little space $10k takes up - 100 $100 bills is maybe an inch thick, or less.

suydam

I wouldn’t know. 😃

roadburner

graphicguy said:

jmonroe1 said:

graphicguy said:

suydam said:

The Sportage is our first Kia. I have to say they’ve been pretty great so far with both sales and service.

In all frankness, I found my Stinger and current EV6 to be exemplary. No problems. Built well. Nice inside and out with up to date tech.

As @roadburner points out, their dealership sales personnel reflect what Kia was 15-20 years ago....a low end new car franchise catering to first time buyers and credit challenged customers (excluding @oldfarmer50 ). They ain't that now.

Go sit in a new EV, SUV or a K4. They're impressive. I think this is more a dealership thing than a car brand thing, though.

————————————————
That sounds like something the Kia regional rep should be made aware of.

jmonroe

Funny you should mention that. But the Regional Kia Rep was there when I took delivery of my Stinger (bought late one night and took a couple of days for PDI). Didn't know who he was until he approached me about buying the Stinger....mostly small talk about the car. But, when he asked about the sales process, I was frank with him about the less than stellar experience (mostly about being hounded by sales reps).

From the looks of it, I guess it fell on deaf ears. That said, this dealership group is notorious for those sorts of high pressure tactics. I have no problem in telling them "no" over and over. A "newbie"? Might get them in the chair and clubbed.

Same dealership group also owns one of the 2 Mercedes dealers locally. Wonder how that sales process looks? And, the same dealer family bought my Acura dealership about a year ago. Not wanting to walk into that show room these days.

I bought my C43 from Mercedes-Benz of Fort Mitchell in December 2022 and the sales process was fine; I had a great salesman and no issues with F&I. Wyler also owns the Louisville dealer and so far service has been exemplary and I've never had to deal with a pushy salesperson when I'm checking out cars in the showroom or on the lot.
I think Mercedes makes their dealers toe the line -even more so than BMW does- so the bottom feeder sales/service tactics would cost the dealership greatly.

jmonroe1

Michaell said:

@andres3 said:

Take a suitcase full of cash and you will not likely be ignored.

You won’t need a suitcase unless you’re buying a super car.

It’s amazing how little space $10k takes up - 100 $100 bills is maybe an inch thick, or less.

————————————————
If old @oldfarmer50 wanted to pay cash they’d probably still ignore him because he’d bring in a few coffee cans but they’d be the store brand, so the sales folks would be thinking he was trying to schmooze them so he could get a good deal.

jmonroe

corvette

@roadburner - the Ariya service visit at Wyler went fine, despite the software update not wanting to take (not their fault, probably just the bad aura of Big Altima Energy in the air). The service writer was very nice.

corvette

I used to handle real estate closings, and occasionally people would just show up with the purchase price in cash, unannounced. We hated it, our bank hated it, the buyers were generally smug and acted like they were "sticking it to the man."

ab348

When I first went to work for the liquor board here in the early 2000s, I was astounded to learn that about 50% of sales back then were still cash. I could never understand businesses that would offer a discount for paying cash, since you were taking on the cost of handling it, counting and depositing it, risking theft, etc. I suspect now their cash sales percentage is a lot less.

explorerx4

@ab348,
Sales were more like 75% cash but reported sales were 50/50.

corvette

Yeah, getting paid in cash was (is?) a common tax strategy. There was an attorney I used to practice with who primarily handled criminal defense. The accused are more likely to voluntarily pay in cash, or to only be able to pay in cash. He kept a separate ledger for client receipts and just told his CPA he averaged $500 per week in cash deposits.

driver100

stickguy said:

no Carmax type place in Canada? Not always the best price, but super smooth process!

That's a great idea but my brother is obsessive compulsive and was in bad shape....insisted it had to be sold to the dealer....I tried some indies who would have made more....they need cars like his old one.

driver100

We sold our books to a chain of franchised cigar stores. The books sold for $4.99 and with tax about $4.39....so the owner would keep his thumb in the till so the door wouldn't close, when a customer was paying for a book he'd ask for $5 and leave out the change....the customer was happy, and the cash was never recorded.
The owners bought a franchised smoke shop to get into the country....and then worked from 9 to 9 for minimum wages!

nyccarguy

As a small business owner, paying out credit card fees as a convenience is just a cost of doing business. I’ve mentioned before that my business is in a bad neighborhood. The money from credit card sales is in my business bank account the next day.

Michaell

nyccarguy said:

As a small business owner, paying out credit card fees as a convenience is just a cost of doing business. I’ve mentioned before that my business is in a bad neighborhood. The money from credit card sales is in my business bank account the next day.

Our corporate owners of the cooking studio changed the vendor for CC transactions, and our total fees went up.

In addition, they are now subtracted from the transaction amount before the money is moved into our bank account. Not cool. But, nothing we can do about it.