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  1. #76
    Oneheadlite's Avatar
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by Dan View Post
    The 2.7t 02 sensors is something I can live with. A few google searches and you can figure out that you just need about 4 ft of socket extension and to go in from the opposite side. On a B5S4 its a 30 minute job that way, probably 6 hours book time.

    ...
    The above is the kind of stuff that keeps me from getting another german car. Random little things failing and boom, engine is done. Inexcusable. Engines are supposed to wear out, not blow up.
    I get what you mean (extension trick), it was just a frame of reference for packaging differences - Needing to cheat vs not having to, and how that relates to general working space.

  2. #77
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by Oneheadlite View Post
    I get what you mean (extension trick), it was just a frame of reference for packaging differences - Needing to cheat vs not having to, and how that relates to general working space.
    The refrence wasn`t missed, I was just weaving what yoi posted to make my point about hard to work on vs imploding on itself.
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  3. #78
    Oneheadlite's Avatar
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by Dan View Post
    The refrence wasn`t missed, I was just weaving what yoi posted to make my point about hard to work on vs imploding on itself.
    For sure. I`ll be honest - the stuff I`m seeing fixing these things, and hearing from friends in the industry completely bums me out. One of the BMW dealerships by us has 4 engine/trans tables for dropping the whole shootin match out of the bottom of the car. They`re all constantly tied up by cars getting engines, timing chains, head work, etc.

    We just had an F10 Alpina B7 (Fancy 750i) here that needed a timing chain replaced due to stretch (Google - "Road and track N63" . For shame...). Book time here was 40+ hours. We`ve done a stack of mini timing chains.

    Ironically, I`m actually really pro-German cars, though I think I`m actively painting a picture against them.

    Another way to look at it: For the 4 cylinder cars with chain issues (VW, Audi, or Mini), the dollars involved for replacement of the chain and related parts doesn`t fall that far from what an old Timing belt/water pump job that the old cars would have gotten. The more involved cars, it just hurts no matter what.
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  4. #79

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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    As we learned decades ago with the Audis we had then (and it`s even more true today), with some vehicles it`s utterly binary: you`re either in it for the Long Haul with zero regard for what that might add up to, or else you`re short-timing it and letting the big expenses be somebody else`s problem. Any middle ground is the domain of fools and dreamers....and those rare people who can DIY the tricky stuff (all respect to those folks).

    BUT...do today`s cars engender the same kind of auto love affair that keep me putting five-figure repairs into the older cars? Everybody I know with a modern [anything] is either leasing or running a pre-owned until it`s ready to need the big repairs (at which point they`ll dump it). There`s no "I simply love everything about this car and nothing on earth would please me as much" like we feel about ours.

    Heh heh, there`s a (very) short list of vehicles I`d really like to have, but even after selling off the ones I *can* live without, I`ve still accumulated too many already and I wouldn`t part with any of them, not to make room for *anything*. Unless that meteorite falls out of the sky and hits one....
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  5. #80

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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by Accumulator View Post
    As we learned decades ago with the Audis we had then (and it`s even more true today), with some vehicles it`s utterly binary: you`re either in it for the Long Haul with zero regard for what that might add up to, or else you`re short-timing it and letting the big expenses be somebody else`s problem. Any middle ground is the domain of fools and dreamers....and those rare people who can DIY the tricky stuff (all respect to those folks).

    BUT...do today`s cars engender the same kind of auto love affair that keep me putting five-figure repairs into the older cars? Everybody I know with a modern [anything] is either leasing or running a pre-owned until it`s ready to need the big repairs (at which point they`ll dump it). There`s no "I simply love everything about this car and nothing on earth would please me as much" like we feel about ours.

    Heh heh, there`s a (very) short list of vehicles I`d really like to have, but even after selling off the ones I *can* live without, I`ve still accumulated too many already and I wouldn`t part with any of them, not to make room for *anything*. Unless that meteorite falls out of the sky and hits one....
    I`m sure income and mechanical ability have a lot to do with how long you hang on to something and the threshold for repair expense pain.

    Personally, I`m low on both and it would have to take a really special car for me to hang on until the suffering point. I`ve only owned two that would make me think about irrational financial decisions, but not really suffer. One of which I still drive and the other was reluctantly sold due to a trans-oceanic move. Both are German by the way...

    However, going forward, I wonder if my feelings will start to change. As cars continue to grow, get heavier, and isolate the driver from the act of actually driving, I may be more inclined to keep a vehicle that still offers that analog driving experience even if it humble vehicle of only respectable performance. It will offer an experience no longer available and end up forcing my hand to keep it far beyond when it makes sense.
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  6. #81
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    I think I had one of the fools come through today. Oil change on an ‘06 A8:

    “Tom, we notice it’s been about 21,000 miles since your last oil change here- just wanted to check that you’ve gone somewhere else?”

    “It was that soon? No, the last one was here. I’ve added a few quarts since then.”

    You can imagine the car...

    Accumulator- I hear you on the short list. Recently got rear ended in my avant and had the insurance company call it a total loss. Especially given my budget, there was really nothing else I’d rather be in right now (even a used same model replacement wasn’t appealing given other people’s maknten habits terrify me). Ended up keeping it and will slowly get it stitched back together as parts surface.
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  7. #82
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by Oneheadlite View Post
    I think I had one of the fools come through today. Oil change on an ‘06 A8:

    “Tom, we notice it’s been about 21,000 miles since your last oil change here- just wanted to check that you’ve gone somewhere else?”

    “It was that soon? No, the last one was here. I’ve added a few quarts since then.”

    You can imagine the car...
    They should put warning lights on the dash about oil changes. Clearly his low oil pressure light reminded him he needed oil. RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.
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  8. #83
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    All this talk about maintaining a car makes me wonder how astronomical the prices will be for all the safety/automated/self-driving systems will be to maintain, repair, or more likely replace in 4-5 years when the systems start failing.
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  9. #84
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by Dan View Post
    They should put warning lights on the dash about oil changes. Clearly his low oil pressure light reminded him he needed oil. RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.
    Audi just leaves the display at “Service!”. BMW shames you showing a negative counter. People do quite well ignoring both. :facepalm:
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  10. #85
    dansautodetailing.com Stokdgs's Avatar
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by Oneheadlite View Post
    I think I had one of the fools come through today. Oil change on an ‘06 A8:

    “Tom, we notice it’s been about 21,000 miles since your last oil change here- just wanted to check that you’ve gone somewhere else?”

    “It was that soon? No, the last one was here. I’ve added a few quarts since then.”

    You can imagine the car...

    Accumulator- I hear you on the short list. Recently got rear ended in my avant and had the insurance company call it a total loss. Especially given my budget, there was really nothing else I’d rather be in right now (even a used same model replacement wasn’t appealing given other people’s maknten habits terrify me). Ended up keeping it and will slowly get it stitched back together as parts surface.
    Oneheadlite !!!
    Wow !!! 21,000 Miles !!!!

    Well, to look on the most positive side, if he added like 10 quarts, that would be like a quart every 2,100 miles no ?
    Can`t even imagine how long ago the poor oil filter gave it up..
    Remind us to NOT ever buy that car, ok ??

    Sorry to hear your Avant was hit.. I really like the shape of those models too... Remind me to tell you the story of what I found growing in a beautiful new Avant one day..
    I am amazed the Client and his kids did not wake up dead in there, before I got to it.. Had to be driving it all Winter with all the windows down..

    To be clear, I am NOT running down Audi Cars, I rather like them, but I just can`t afford to maintain all the stuff if they go ker-blammo on me..
    I am very happy to hear from here that at least they might have the oil consumption issue eliminated..
    Dan F.

  11. #86

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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by Desertnate View Post
    However, going forward, I wonder if my feelings will start to change. As cars continue to grow, get heavier, and isolate the driver from the act of actually driving, I may be more inclined to keep a vehicle that still offers that analog driving experience even if it humble vehicle of only respectable performance. It will offer an experience no longer available and end up forcing my hand to keep it far beyond when it makes sense.
    Maybe it`s just our ages, but yeah...today`s cars have too many, uhm....(supposed) features...that you gotta live with along with things like improved performance. And not all new cars are as serviceable as one might expect.

    We can operate all the controls in our vehicles without taking our eyes off the road, know what every knob and switch does and how to use `em just by feel. Simply can`t imagine it being like that with anything newer... ?!?READ A SCREEN`S READOUT?!?USE A TOUCHSCREEN?!? No thanks, that kind of stuff just isn`t how we go about driving.

    Oneheadlite- I hope your Avant goes back together OK. Accumulatorette`s beloved Ur S4 was just never the same and it wasn`t even written up as a total. Yet some other worse ones turned out just fine.

    And yeah...I *REALLY* like certain pre-2005.5 avants (esp. the VWs with their squarish cargo areas) and the hotter Volvo wagons, but the ones available are always trashed or otherwise story-cars. Eh, I take consolation in how well the current dogs *LOVE* their Tahoe, it`s obviously preferred over anything else they`ve ridden in.

    LEDetailing- From what I hear, there are already a few generations worth of High Tech stuff that can`t really be serviced other than by just throwing parts at `em and hoping for the best.
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  12. #87
    Dan's Avatar
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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by Accumulator View Post
    LEDetailing- From what I hear, there are already a few generations worth of High Tech stuff that can`t really be serviced other than by just throwing parts at `em and hoping for the best.
    You know, that throwing parts at things, at least until they are NLA, I like to think that the majority is just planned obsolescence. One of the things I love about the VW forums is the amount of ingenuity some of those guys have. Nothing is unrepairable, really. The issue is time vs money vs the desire for newness. Sometimes your want just needs that little push to justify getting rid of the old.
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  13. #88

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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Dan- One of the things I like about the Tahoe and Crown Vic is that somehow, some way, they can indeed always be repaired.

    BUT..sigh..that `93 Audi of mine, which I know first-hand can last for many hundreds of thousands of miles (drove a perfectly OK one with over 450K, so of course I figured.. ..) simply has too many weird proprietary parts that are NLA. My standard line is "pretend it`s Bill Gates` car and he just wants it fixed no matter what", and my guys would *LOVE* to rack up some invoices, but it just isn`t always possible, at least at the shops I`m willing to trust

    The A8 is in that "sometimes gotta get inventive" gray area where most stuff can be fixed (again, somehow some way, bring big money), but even that`s getting kinda iffy. The S8 is just sitting around neglected and mothballed...but we`ll probably never find it another home as it`s kinda like a Spare in case that meteorite hits the A8...or some stupid little part breaks (or some twit breaks a tail/headlight lens) and turns the `93 into a paperweight.

    [INSERT usual rant about how they sure don`t tell ya such stuff when you buy their flagship cars..]
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  14. #89

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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    Man, posts like this make me grateful for my mechanical inclination.

    Brakes, I do it.
    Induction System Service, I do it.
    Replace any suspension part, I do it.
    Replace timing belt and all related ancillaries, done it.
    Replace cam seals and front main seals, yup.
    Valve adjustment on my 2JZ, this is the one thing that makes me a bit nervous, luckily I *don`t* have to do it yet. Definitely doing my homework.
    Start an engine for its very first time, not as nerve wrecking as the impending valve adjustment^.

    Pretty much anything our cars need, I do it.
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  15. #90

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    Re: RANT:My Love and Hate of German cars.

    I`ve m0aned about the cost of upkeep once outside warranty.
    Same applies to German appliances as well...

    Just ordered a set of OE struts for our washer...wild guess is they are 8 inches or smaller, and there goes the christmas budget for paying the piper for the struts.....aka, manuf, has a closed parts model, so the only place to get the parts if from them direct.

 

 
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