On 10/13/2012 8:42 AM, bob haller wrote:
On Oct 13, 8:06 am, "
wrote:
On Oct 12, 11:17 pm, "





wrote:
On Fri, 12 Oct 2012 22:53:36 -0400, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On Fri, 12 Oct 2012 08:05:01 -0700, Smitty Two
wrote:

It might be a reflection of the fact that consumers have caught on to
the fact that the average dealer mechanic is no more competent than the
average independent mechanic, but charges 3-5 times as much.

Only advantage I'm aware of is the dealer mechanic has more
familiarity with that particular brand. That can be a plus if you have
a problem peculiar to a specific model or a recent service bulletin
has been issued.

I bought a new car a couple of months ago and the first oil change is
free so I took it in today. They gave me a price list and the regular
price for an oil change is only $29. Of course, they always try to
sell something else too. They gave me a coupon for $5 off the next
one so I may use them again.

I used to take my car back to the dealer for oil changes, $18.95 and they
rarely tried to "upsell". Sure, it's a loss-leader for them.

WRT the fancy features on cars "nowadays," I like my power windows and
cruise control. The airbags, anti-lock brakes, and other hyped-up
"refinements" designed to protect me from my own stupidity are things
I've never wanted, nor wanted to pay for. I don't need to control my
radio from the steering wheel. I don't need a sensor to take care of
turning on my lights or windshield wipers for me. My g.f. has the
****ing tire pressure sensing modules, and has spent a few hundred
dollars just keeping the stupid warning light on the dash extinguished.

I like and have all that stuff. Add remote start too!. With my new
car, I don't have to push buttons to change radio stations if I don't
want to. I can just push a button and give a command to dial the
phone, find a destination with the navigation.

I'll never have remote start again. Bad idea, once the car gets older and the
battery weaker.

It would seem there are two simple solutions to that.
Replace the battery every 5 years or so as part of preventative
maintenance and if the car gets to the point that it's so
unreliable that starting becomes an issue, then just don't
use the remote starter any more.

i replace my vehicles batteries around every 3 years....... I used to
have alternator failures till a alternator rebuild speciality shop
owner said the higher load from bad batteries damage alternators.

My last experience with a dead battery was that it started fine and then
a few hours later the battery was toast and unable to spin the starter.
Mechanic said the maintenance free batteries tend to fail that way
compared to the older batteries where you would notice the starter would
be less vigorous than usual and you would have a chance to change the
battery.


in the last 20 years since his advice only one alternator failure.....
from bad bearings