Jump to content

What are you driving now?


KhunDon

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, tko said:

Well I can't say that my new one will do as well, as I just passed 100km on the odometer yesterday.  But my last Fortuner did seven years and over 90,000km with only regular service, replaced wiper blades at five years, and a replaced battery at six years, both were caught prior to failure during regular service.  I probably would've needed new tires soon if I hadn't traded it in.  Vehicles are a lot more reliable these days.

Edit: The warranty on the "gimmicks" ran out at three years and on the drive train at five years.  Poor planning by the manufacturer I guess.

You did well with that unit and yes, vehicles do tend to generally be more reliable nowadays; mind you, in your warm environment over there they should last longer. My assumptions are based on a lifetime of motoring in a country with long, cold winters, and experience has taught me that if anything is going to break, fail or otherwise cause trouble, it will do so in the cold. I own several vehicles but only keep one on the road through the winter months, now that I am retired and don't have to face a daily commute to work; also, up until Covid I was  gone for most of those winter months anyway and dearly hope to start doing so again when I am able!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, maipenrai said:

You did well with that unit and yes, vehicles do tend to generally be more reliable nowadays; mind you, in your warm environment over there they should last longer. My assumptions are based on a lifetime of motoring in a country with long, cold winters, and experience has taught me that if anything is going to break, fail or otherwise cause trouble, it will do so in the cold. I own several vehicles but only keep one on the road through the winter months, now that I am retired and don't have to face a daily commute to work; also, up until Covid I was  gone for most of those winter months anyway and dearly hope to start doing so again when I am able!

Other than a couple years on assignment in Norway, I didn't have to face the cold.  I sold that vehicle as soon as I got back and it arrived.  It's a damn sight cheaper to ship a vehicle to Norway for personal use and ship it back than buy one there.

Down near the  Texas Gulf coast we dealt with the salt air, but that mostly affected outward facing metal, and could be offset with a wash, wax and under-body coat.

Before the mid 2000's, I spent a fair amount of time under my vehicles doing maintenance.   I don't miss that, and now I probably wouldn't fit under anyway 🤣

Edited by tko
spelling
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, tko said:

Other than a couple years on assignment in Norway, I didn't have to face the cold.  I sold that vehicle as soon as I got back and it arrived.  It's a damn sight cheaper to ship a vehicle to Norway for personal use and ship it back than buy one there.

Down near the  Texas Gulf coast we dealt with the salt air, but that mostly affected outward facing metal, and could be offset with a wash, wax and under-body coat.

Before the mid 2000's, I spent a fair amount of time under my vehicles doing maintenance.   I don't miss that, and now I probably wouldn't fit under anyway 🤣

Well, so have I and I have to admit that at my age and present weight level, it is really starting to be bothersome - I find that my legs are not quite as strong as they were and the constant up and down of working under vehicles is a real strain - I think I'm going to start slowly downsizing until the time that I don't wish to maintain a property and vehicles anymore, and then I'll retire to a foreign shore when this whole Covid thing has passed us by.

Happy motoring to you, I hope this new unit serves you faithfully....

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/30/2021 at 6:23 PM, maipenrai said:

I dunno, call me a dinosaur but to me "features" nowadays simply mean "electronic gimmickry" - more stuff to go wrong, resulting in more trips back to the dealer for repairs and god help you when the warranty runs out and all of those little electronic brains start failing (probably as planned by the manufacturer, lol) - I like simple vehicles that I can mostly maintain myself and will be driving them for as long as I can still obtain parts. 

Good advice, Modern cars are pretty much 100% reliant upon electronics, however I also own a car built in 1981 which has an electronic "brain" or ECU, without which it won't run, it is very rudimentary but considering it's 10 years younger than my Datsun, it is possible to see the reliance upon electronics beginning to develop.

You are quite right though, in the days where replacing the fuel pump involves a pre programmed item which is then coded to the ECU of the car (so you can't get one from a scrap vehicle) the planned obsolescence of some parts eventually makes the car uneconomical to repair, so then you have to go and buy a new one!.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Butch said:

Good advice, Modern cars are pretty much 100% reliant upon electronics, however I also own a car built in 1981 which has an electronic "brain" or ECU, without which it won't run, it is very rudimentary but considering it's 10 years younger than my Datsun, it is possible to see the reliance upon electronics beginning to develop.

You are quite right though, in the days where replacing the fuel pump involves a pre programmed item which is then coded to the ECU of the car (so you can't get one from a scrap vehicle) the planned obsolescence of some parts eventually makes the car uneconomical to repair, so then you have to go and buy a new one!.

As well as enriching the "stealership" who has to do the work for you because they've designed it so you can't do it yourself. What particularly irks me is stuff like coding the ECU so that if you lift a battery cable for some reason or other, the car won't start unless you pay the dealer to provide a code to make it go again - this practice should be illegal, IMHO.

One of my best  friends has been in the auto body business for over fifty years, and he told me about a visit the  dealership he was working in at the time had in 1974 by a factory rep; this dealership at the time did everything from rebuilding engines to full auto body service. Anyway, they got all the employees together for this meeting and they were told by this rep that the long range plan of the manufacturer was to eventually make vehicles impossible to fix in backyards, garages or even corner service stations so that the customer would HAVE to come to the dealership to have all of their mechanical work done - how prescient, and such a long time ago...

  • Like 1
  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What I found strange when I lived in the UK and took a work vehicle in for a service. From memory the dealership would order in the parts required for a service from a central warehouse. If during the service they found something that needed to be fixed they couldn't do it as they didn't have the parts. They had to order the parts in and you needed to come back on another day.

A lot of time wasting in my opinion.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, maipenrai said:

As well as enriching the "stealership" who has to do the work for you because they've designed it so you can't do it yourself. What particularly irks me is stuff like coding the ECU so that if you lift a battery cable for some reason or other, the car won't start unless you pay the dealer to provide a code to make it go again - this practice should be illegal, IMHO.

One of my best  friends has been in the auto body business for over fifty years, and he told me about a visit the  dealership he was working in at the time had in 1974 by a factory rep; this dealership at the time did everything from rebuilding engines to full auto body service. Anyway, they got all the employees together for this meeting and they were told by this rep that the long range plan of the manufacturer was to eventually make vehicles impossible to fix in backyards, garages or even corner service stations so that the customer would HAVE to come to the dealership to have all of their mechanical work done - how prescient, and such a long time ago...

They've been trying for some time to get "right to repair" bills passed. Not just for vehicles, but for tractors, phones and game consoles. Amazing the excuses manufactures come up with to oppose these bills. All BS of course since the real reason is they want to protect their after sale revenue stream.

Maybe this will be the year it'll happen; fingers crossed.

Right to repair movement gains power in US and Europe

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We do have a consumer law in the UK whereby you can take your vehicle to a VAT Registered garage outside the dealership for repair or servicing, and as long as they use genuine manufacturer parts the warranty is still valid.

However, as @maipenraistated, if something needs coding to the ECU on the car then that often (but not always) takes specialist "Dealer only" equipment to do so.

It's a bloody scam to be honest, and as usual it's the end user (us) who ends up with the large bills.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Butch said:

We do have a consumer law in the UK whereby you can take your vehicle to a VAT Registered garage outside the dealership for repair or servicing, and as long as they use genuine manufacturer parts the warranty is still valid.

However, as @maipenraistated, if something needs coding to the ECU on the car then that often (but not always) takes specialist "Dealer only" equipment to do so.

It's a bloody scam to be honest, and as usual it's the end user (us) who ends up with the large bills.

I may well be out of date, however my understanding was that there was a further condition that the service process had to be the identical process to that offered by the main dealer.  This entailed the smaller garage actually having documented each stage of the service process, which many did not, thus allowing manufacturers to escape warranty provisions as the consumer could not prove that an identical service had been performed.

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, john luke said:

I may well be out of date, however my understanding was that there was a further condition that the service process had to be the identical process to that offered by the main dealer.  This entailed the smaller garage actually having documented each stage of the service process, which many did not, thus allowing manufacturers to escape warranty provisions as the consumer could not prove that an identical service had been performed.

Good point, yes, I'd forgotten about that.

On the surface it seemed to be a fair deal for the consumer, go to an independent garage with cheaper hourly labour costs and get your car serviced for, in many cases, less than half the price of the main dealer, only to discover that the warranty was voided due to a disclaimer in the small print!.

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
×
×
  • Create New...