Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous

au1994 · December 4

Plastics, particularly in the cooling system, has been a knock on BMW's for a while. Somewhere in Germany, Dieter in accounting is happy.

sda · December 4

VW/Audi are guilty of plastic cooling and engine parts. Not preferred.

andres3 · December 4

Tesla owes Toyota for a lot of sales; the Prius used to be such a bad eco penalty box that the Prius owners that went to Tesla couldn't help but think the Tesla's were "amazing."

kyfdx · December 4

Every make.. They all to save weight.

andres3 · December 4

kyfdx said:
Every make.. They all to save weight.

save weight to reduce destination costs (but not charges).

qbrozen · December 4

Speaking of insurance, did I mention Geico is charging me just $70 a year for the Vespa? As I told my son, they probably charge so little because you’ll be dead after an accident so they’ll have no payout to worry about.

jmonroe1 · December 4

@qbrozen said:
Speaking of insurance, did I mention Geico is charging me just $70 a year for the Vespa? As I told my son, they probably charge so little because you’ll be dead after an accident so they’ll have no payout to worry about.

——————————————————
That could be but I’m not positive about that. Now let’s say a husband and wife are owners of the bike, and one of the owners is killed do to and accident while driving the bike, doesn’t the insurance company have to pay the surviving spouse for damage/loss of the bike?

jmonroe

stickguy · December 4

I assume the payout value on a totaled used Vespa is pretty low. Not like totaling a Ferrari. And it is a lot cheaper for them if you don't make it instead of serious injuries and a long term hospital stay.

qbrozen · December 4

@stickguy said:
I assume the payout value on a totaled used Vespa is pretty low. Not like totaling a Ferrari. And it is a lot cheaper for them if you don't make it instead of serious injuries and a long term hospital stay.

Exactly. Besides, no collision. I mean, it is silly when you add that. I didn’t even check for myself, but my son’s was like $250 increased to $3500 with collision. Not at all worth it for a $4k bike.

jmonroe1 · December 4

@stickguy said:
I assume the payout value on a totaled used Vespa is pretty low. Not like totaling a Ferrari. And it is a lot cheaper for them if you don't make it instead of serious injuries and a long term hospital stay.

——————————————————-
I wasn’t talking about the value of the bike. I was talking about whether or not the insurance company was obligated to pay the surviving spouse whatever the bike was worth if collision was purchased. Which I think they are.

jmonroe

xwesx · December 4

jmonroe1 said:

I wasn’t talking about the value of the bike. I was talking about whether or not the insurance company was obligated to pay the surviving spouse whatever the bike was worth if collision was purchased. Which I think they are.

jmonroe

It doesn't matter if there are survivors or not; they are still obligated to pay the value of the loss. In the case of death, it would just go to the value of the estate and benefit others (debtors, beneficiaries, etc.).

Sandman6472 · 7:37AM

Looks like our daughter is going to buy a 3/2 plus den house in St. Augustine very close to her current rental. Think wife is going up next week for the paperwork part as I'm dealing with the vertigo right now so driving 4 hours is not ideal. So, looks like we'll be moving but the time frame is undecided as of now. Wife says she'll need a good year to leave her current job as she really likes it. If she goes back to TurboTax in January, she can do that from anywhere. Plan is for us to move in with her at first until we find something. Wife threw out the idea of renting near her at first as she's not sure she wants to buy. We'd need a 2/2 for just the two of us near our daughter so we, me, could take over taking care of Stan while she goes to work. But renting could work to be honest just to be sure we really like it there. Probably need a small storage unit or we could just put most of our stuff in her house and garage until we decide our plans. There's a bunch of stuff we have that is so old, might be worth pitching instead of moving it up there.

So, lots going on right now and I'm kinda out of it. Started physical therapy yesterday for a few weeks and hopefully, the vertigo will go away. Been out of work a week now and have no clue when I'll be going back. Hoping to be put on a leave status when the kid moves as I'll be needed to go up and be at the house for her move and all. Don't want to quit work at this point but put on a leave status just in case I want to go back. But, doubt that will happen.

Sandman6472 · 7:47AM

They found why the Kona was leaking oil. Seems the oil plug was bent so oil was leaking out onto the garage floor. They did the new oil/filter/rotation and had her bring the car back a day later, where they found the bent oil plug. Cleaned up another leak yesterday, so it's going back on Tuesday to see what's up. Will monitor it the next few days to see if it's stopped. If no more leaks, will just cancel but just want it fixed. With just around 11K miles, too early to have oil leaks.

Don't understand why the bent oil pug wasn't changed when they did the oil change, guess the tech didn't notice the bent plug. Seems the techs just do the minimal and that's all. Unacceptable that she mentioned the oil leak when she brought it in for the oil change and they just ignored it. So we had to drop it off another day for something that should've been addressed the first time. Folks just don't seem to care much these days, just do the minimum work. Don't listen to what the customer tells them!

tjc78 · 7:49AM

One man’s opinion … but with your health, upcoming move and the support your daughter will need, maybe it’s time to fully retire?

Easy to say from someone who has 20 years to work, but something to think about.

Sandman6472 · 8:13AM

How many miles does the X1 have? Is it worth it to fix it and start looking around for a replacement? Being 8 years old, things are just going to start happening and it can be annoying. I know in my case, it was almost near 11 years of ownership and I was finally ready to get something newer with some warranty. Sure, could've kept it and put more money into it, things were needed once it hit 80K miles, and just decided the time had come. And it's nice to not have think about what might go wrong.

Sandman6472 · 8:19AM

Was very seriously considering a Toyota Corolla Cross before I bought the GTI, but deep down, just knew it wasn't the right vehicle for me. Besides the plasticy interior, the engine was very coarse at upper speeds, very load to under speed. And it just fit on my side of the garage but soon, that wouldn't have been an issue. Felt the Camry was a much better vehicle for about the same price even though it was way to big. All in all, getting the GTI was the best thing for me to do at this point and glad I did. Luckily I had the funds put away and they let me charge about half of the purchase so got cash back on my credit card and saved a bit on the purchase price.

Sandman6472 · 8:22AM

Re-upped for Sirius/XM a few weeks back. They threw out some ridiculous number at me so I countered with $5/month which I knew was a bit low. She came back at $6/month, what I was currently paying, so just did it. Got it for another year as I do like it. So am all set now with that done plus having the windows tinted. And still loving the car, a win/win for me!

Sandman6472 · 8:34AM

Tjc78, part of me is already thinking about doing just that. As much as I enjoy the job, might be easier to just hang it up since there's a good chance I could be spending at least half the month up in St. Augustine and the other part down here until we do finally move. Been working many years and since my health is throwing me so many curve balls as of late, the time might be at hand. All three kids have mentioned this to me that indeed, the time has come...the girls think we should be near at least one of them. And I've let the wife know that retiring at the same time is not something that will happen, no matter how much she thinks it will. But now, with the kid actually buying her own house, I'll be needed more than ever, at first, so retiring might just be worth it. A leave of absence might just be the right thing to do at this point.

oldfarmer50 · 9:56AM

Sandman6472 said:
They found why the Kona was leaking oil. Seems the oil plug was bent so oil was leaking out onto the garage floor. They did the new oil/filter/rotation and had her bring the car back a day later, where they found the bent oil plug. Cleaned up another leak yesterday, so it's going back on Tuesday to see what's up. Will monitor it the next few days to see if it's stopped. If no more leaks, will just cancel but just want it fixed. With just around 11K miles, too early to have oil leaks.

Don't understand why the bent oil pug wasn't changed when they did the oil change, guess the tech didn't notice the bent plug. Seems the techs just do the minimal and that's all. Unacceptable that she mentioned the oil leak when she brought it in for the oil change and they just ignored it. So we had to drop it off another day for something that should've been addressed the first time. Folks just don't seem to care much these days, just do the minimum work. Don't listen to what the customer tells them!

How do you bend an oil plug? Could they have mis-threaded it and stripped the threads on the pan? Either way it’s sloppy work.

stickguy · 10:06AM

Sounds more like that. You would need some serious torque to bend one.

jmonroe1 · 10:08AM

@Sandman6472 said:
They found why the Kona was leaking oil. Seems the oil plug was bent so oil was leaking out onto the garage floor. They did the new oil/filter/rotation and had her bring the car back a day later, where they found the bent oil plug. Cleaned up another leak yesterday, so it's going back on Tuesday to see what's up. Will monitor it the next few days to see if it's stopped. If no more leaks, will just cancel but just want it fixed. With just around 11K miles, too early to have oil leaks.

Don't understand why the bent oil pug wasn't changed when they did the oil change, guess the tech didn't notice the bent plug. Seems the techs just do the minimal and that's all. Unacceptable that she mentioned the oil leak when she brought it in for the oil change and they just ignored it. So we had to drop it off another day for something that should've been addressed the first time. Folks just don't seem to care much these days, just do the minimum work. Don't listen to what the customer tells them!

——————————————————-
Someone is pulling your leg or worse.

Have you ever seen an oil drain plug? Well, I have more times than you can count and it’s very short, not even an inch long, made out of solid steel and at least 5/8 of an inch in diameter and probably larger than that. I doubt you could bend it even if you put it in a vise and whacked the hell out of it for an hour with a sledge hammer BUT you can cross thread it or cross thread the oil pan threads, which is even worse, if you’re not careful when installing it. Then again the so called tech that did the work reused the crush washer or didn’t use a new one, if your car has one, when he did the oil change.

Doing an oil change is not rocket surgery but for some it seems to be.

Good luck having them fix it.

jmonroe

roadburner · 11:44AM

On the issue of plastic engines components I think a lot of the problems can be traced to the high operating temperatures of modern BMWs.
My C43 seldom sees oil temperatures above 215F and as I have noted before its M276 biturbo is a reliable motor.

imidazol97 · 12:44PM

Wishing a joyous Thanksgiving to everyone.

jmonroe1 said:

@Sandman6472 said:

They found why the Kona was leaking oil. Seems the oil plug was bent so oil was leaking out onto the garage floor. They did the new oil/filter/rotation and had her bring the car back a day later, where they found the bent oil plug. Cleaned up another leak yesterday, so it's going back on Tuesday to see what's up. Will monitor it the next few days to see if it's stopped. If no more leaks, will just cancel but just want it fixed. With just around 11K miles, too early to have oil leaks.

Don't understand why the bent oil pug wasn't changed when they did the oil change, guess the tech didn't notice the bent plug. Seems the techs just do the minimal and that's all. Unacceptable that she mentioned the oil leak when she brought it in for the oil change and they just ignored it. So we had to drop it off another day for something that should've been addressed the first time. Folks just don't seem to care much these days, just do the minimum work. Don't listen to what the customer tells them!

——————————————————-

Someone is pulling your leg or worse.

Have you ever seen an oil drain plug? Well, I have more times than you can count and it’s very short, not even an inch long, made out of solid steel and at least 5/8 of an inch in diameter and probably larger than that. I doubt you could bend it even if you put it in a vise and whacked the hell out of it for an hour with a sledge hammer BUT you can cross thread it or cross thread the oil pan threads, which is even worse, if you’re not careful when installing it. Then again the so called tech that did the work reused the crush washer or didn’t use a new one, if your car has one, when he did the oil change.

Doing an oil change is not rocket surgery but for some it seems to be.

Good luck having them fix it.

jmonroe

Kia Kona oil drain plug.

I had mine on Cruze start to crossthead. I replaced it before installing it so I wouldn't damage threads on
pan. I'll bet they crossthreaded it and had to rethread for a larger size plug to fix the threads.

Might have damaged the seal, but they would just have replaced the seal from stock. Those are supposed to be replaced each drain, I suspect.

andres3 · 2:23PM

xwesx said:

jmonroe1 said:

I wasn’t talking about the value of the bike. I was talking about whether or not the insurance company was obligated to pay the surviving spouse whatever the bike was worth if collision was purchased. Which I think they are.

jmonroe

It doesn't matter if there are survivors or not; they are still obligated to pay the value of the loss. In the case of death, it would just go to the value of the estate and benefit others (debtors, beneficiaries, etc.).

I am going to write into my will that the executor is obligated to go full-tilt to trial on Diminished Value in the event of my death.

andres3 · 2:24PM

roadburner said:
On the issue of plastic engines components I think a lot of the problems can be traced to the high operating temperatures of modern BMWs.
My C43 seldom sees oil temperatures above 215F and as I have noted before its M276 biturbo is a reliable motor.

Has the C43 seen a track day yet?

jmonroe1 · 3:32PM

@imidazol97 said:
Wishing a joyous Thanksgiving to everyone.
Kia Kona oil drain plug.

I had mine on Cruze start to crossthead. I replaced it before installing it so I wouldn't damage threads on
pan. I'll bet they crossthreaded it and had to rethread for a larger size plug to fix the threads.

Might have damaged the seal, but they would just have replaced the seal from stock. Those are supposed to be replaced each drain, I suspect.

——————————————————-
You could beat on that oil drain plug till your arms fell off and you’d still not bend it. You could, however, ruin the threads.

An indie shop could tell you if the threads on the drain plug and/or the oil drain pan itself are stripped but going to an indie shop would only create a finger pointing contest so it’s best to let the dealer handle it…if they can. I’d want to be there when they pull the plug so I could see for myself what they screwed up and I wouldn’t want to hear “customers can’t go into the service area because of insurance reasons”.

jmonroe

xwesx · 4:45PM

andres3 said:
I am going to write into my will that the executor is obligated to go full-tilt to trial on Diminished Value in the event of my death.

We expect nothing less!

xwesx · 4:48PM

jmonroe1 said:
<
You could beat on that oil drain plug till your arms fell off and you’d still not bend it. You could, however, ruin the threads.

An indie shop could tell you if the threads on the drain plug and/or the oil drain pan itself are stripped but going to an indie shop would only create a finger pointing contest so it’s best to let the dealer handle it…if they can. I’d want to be there when they pull the plug so I could see for myself what they screwed up and I wouldn’t want to hear “customers can’t go into the service area because of insurance reasons”.

jmonroe

For sure! Sounds like a bunch of malarkey to me.

I'm a big fan of installing Fumoto oil drain valves the first time I do an oil change on my vehicles. It makes any future changes so much faster and cleaner. And, no worries about replacing gaskets, stripping plugs, cross-threading, etc. Even at about $40/per nowadays, it is still a no-brainer.

stickguy · 5:14PM

seems like a lot of dealers (and probably shops) just do the suck it out the top method. No worries about the drain plug doing that.

fintail · 6:11PM

roadburner said:
On the issue of plastic engines components I think a lot of the problems can be traced to the high operating temperatures of modern BMWs.
My C43 seldom sees oil temperatures above 215F and as I have noted before its M276 biturbo is a reliable motor.

My wagon has the same engine, indeed, it never gets hot (I don't push it too hard, however).

Only issue at all noted as the car heads for 7 years old is a little seepage at the front of the cam covers noted on the last inspection - grime, nothing near actual liquid. Dealer shop said it wasn't an issue yet, and if it becomes one I have a few years to go on the warranty. Apparently it's an issue on this engine, and as the car ages, I am not upset at a quirk like this.

roadburner · 8:06PM

andres3 said:

roadburner said:
On the issue of plastic engines components I think a lot of the problems can be traced to the high operating temperatures of modern BMWs.
My C43 seldom sees oil temperatures above 215F and as I have noted before its M276 biturbo is a reliable motor.
Has the C43 seen a track day yet?

Not yet- for a number of non car related reasons. Hopefully next year.

stickguy · 8:40PM

I like this one. Love the color. pretty unique. And has a lot of the tech goodies I like.

https://www.bmwofsouthalbany.com/new/BMW/2025-BMW-X1-Albany-fde6f226ac181d81f9177e71e35c2c00.htm

Michaell · 8:44PM

stickguy said:
I like this one. Love the color. pretty unique. And has a lot of the tech goodies I like.

https://www.bmwofsouthalbany.com/new/BMW/2025-BMW-X1-Albany-fde6f226ac181d81f9177e71e35c2c00.htm

OK, I like the green!

What are you waiting for? It's the weekend, take the wife and go for a test drive.

stickguy · 8:53PM

also love this one. About as loaded as you can get. Just not a fan of black interior.

https://www.bmwoflatham.com/used/BMW/2025-BMW-X3--889fe190ac184480c58fd2b3d7edae4a.htm

Michaell · 8:57PM

stickguy said:
also love this one. About as loaded as you can get. Just not a fan of black interior.

https://www.bmwoflatham.com/used/BMW/2025-BMW-X3--889fe190ac184480c58fd2b3d7edae4a.htm

Love the exterior color on that one, as well.

Like you, I don't much care for the coal black interiors most cars have these days.

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