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Automotive News & Views Toyota in decline in 2009?
3845 messages, Last post on Dec 07, 2009 at 9:39 PM
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Replying to: fezo (Jul 07, 2009 10:20 am) Funny, though. This was before cell phones. How would I have called them? LOL, that reminds me of something that happened a few years back, when one of the security guards at the Safeway grocery store got a wild burr under his saddle and tried to accuse me of shoplifting. I called the cops on 'em, and said I was being held against my will....essentially, kidnapping! So, if the car dealer's keeping you there against your will, it's sorta kidnapping too, right?  FWIW, years ago when my Dad wanted to get a car, after being car-less since around 1984, we went by the toyota dealer, same place where my uncle bought his '03 Corolla. Almost as soon as we walked in the door, it's almost as if they could smell fresh meat, and the salesmen started circling us like
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Replying to: andre1969 (Jul 07, 2009 1:29 pm) |
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Replying to: bumpy (Jul 07, 2009 10:50 am) |
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Thought this might be an interesting story as we were earlier talking about HID headlamps. The first part of the article mentions a fiasco with a taillamp bulb: By CHIP CUTTER Associated Press NEW YORK - When the taillight of Laura Musall's five-year-old Nissan Altima burned out, she hoped to avoid the repair shop by letting her husband replace it at home. It seemed simple enough: Buy a bulb, pop off the cover and make the switch. But her husband struggled to remove the plastic casing, and when he used a screwdriver to pry it off, it shattered. What came next was even worse. Her Nissan dealer wanted $250 to order a new one. Musall, a real estate agent from Fishers, Ind., figured "10 bucks, we'd be done." "But apparently," she said, "it's not a do-it-yourself thing if you don't know what you're doing." Car owners looking to trim expenses are sidestepping the mechanic and plunging into their own repairs. Or trying to, anyway. Their efforts can backfire, costing more in the end and creating do-it-yourself horror stories. Mechanics say they've seen it all in recent months, including incorrectly applied brake pads and antifreeze poured into engines. "A lot of people, they're in dire straits," said Pam Oakes, owner of Pam's Motor City Automotive in Fort Myers, Fla. "They try to do this stuff at home in their driveway." The results can be frustrating, and sometimes outright dangerous. Beth Riggs, who lives near Lebanon, Ohio, took her Chevy Trailblazer SUV to a car-savvy neighbor nearby who charged $500 to replace her front and back brakes, far less than the going rates at nearby repair shops. Later, on a highway ramp, her car suddenly froze up and pulled to the side of the road. The problem? Riggs says her neighbor neglected to put a certain part on a bolt of the wheels, setting off a chain reaction that caused the tires to lock up. The car had to be towed, and Riggs ended up paying an additional $400 to have it fixed at a suburban Cincinnati auto shop. While well-intentioned, many people forget that today's cars are vastly more complicated than models made just years ago. Most are so computer-controlled that owners can't spot problems without access to specific tools and data programs, said Dave Striegel, owner of Elizabeth AutoCare in Elizabeth, Pa. Even jobs that were once simple, such as changing the oil, can take hours to complete now. "They're not able to do nearly the work that they used to do - it's even going beyond the heads of a lot of technicians who aren't keeping up-to-date," Striegel said. The urge to cut out the middleman extends to even the wealthy, said Stephen Viscusi, a New York-based author and career consultant. "We feel the need to be frugal and save money." However, people who try the at-home tinkering are usually out of work or low on cash, said Evan Brodof of Evan's Auto Repair in suburban Cincinnati. Many work as contractors or handymen in another trade and think they can apply those skills to car repair, said Craig Douglas, owner of ASG Automotive in Indianapolis. "It's those people who have that mindset, 'Hey I can fix this, I can fix that,' " Douglas said. "Bob the Builder-type people." Auto shops say there's an easy way to save money: Just be upfront about the repairs you've tried at home. Most do-it-yourselfers, perhaps out of sheer embarrassment, play coy when mechanics start asking questions about what went wrong with the car, said Paul Lambdin, owner of Cary Car Care in Cary, N.C. "Rather than saving themselves time and money by telling us the whole story, they'll just say, 'This doesn't seem to be working.'" Musall, with the broken taillight, says she's learned her lesson. Her husband won't be working on the car. "It's all fixed," she said, "and he's not going to do any more car repairs." *
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Replying to: lemko (Jul 08, 2009 6:43 am) Is this a Honda vs. Toyota thing? What's it like on other makes these days? |
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Replying to: fezo (Jul 08, 2009 6:57 am) Anyway, I could already see disaster when the lady with the Altima's husband got a screwdriver to pry the taillamp lens loose. These days, taillamp lenses are usually fastened to the car via umpteen plastic wing nuts hidden behind the trunk lining. I practically had to disassemble the inside of the trunk of my 2002 Cadillac Seville STS to change a bulb. The whole taillamp assembly comes out in one big long piece! I sure do miss the days when a bulb change only required a phillips head screwdriver and took about 30 seconds. |
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Replying to: fezo (Jul 08, 2009 6:57 am) All the other cars have the old-style suspensions with the grease gun fittings, that need to be lubed regularly. I always hated doing that, so simply because of that, I usually take the old cars in to get an oil change. A few weeks ago, one of the taillight bulbs on my buddy's 2006 Xterra needed to be replaced. It's actually not TOO hard...just take out two long screws and then pop the assembly out at just the right angle. However, it does look like it would be very easy to break it, if you tried to pull it out the wrong way. I think my uncle changes his own oil on his 2003 Corolla, so I guess it can't be that hard.
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Replying to: yup8 (Jul 06, 2009 8:57 pm) Dealers do not work for Toyota. |
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Replying to: andre1969 (Jul 08, 2009 7:20 am) |
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Replying to: fezo (Jul 08, 2009 6:57 am)
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