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Automotive News & Views Toyota on the mend for 2010?
7427 messages, Last post on Mar 19, 2010 at 8:45 PM
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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 7:43 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 7:57 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 7:57 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 9:57 pm) Dealers do not work for Toyota. |
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Replying to: andre1969 (Jul 08, 2009 8:20 am) |
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Replying to: fezo (Jul 08, 2009 7:57 am)
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Ours ( every buyer ) are Free for Life so I'd never consider doing it myself even if I had the inclination.
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Replying to: mcdawgg (Jul 08, 2009 9:30 am) oil/filters every 5000 mi air filter ( cabin air filter? ) every 30,000 mi plugs at 100,000 to 120,000 miles alignments, rotations, brakes and tires as needed. On my 2005 Prius with 120,000 miles as of today the total expense outside of 'rubber-related' service is $600.
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Replying to: kdhspyder (Jul 08, 2009 9:46 am) Even back in the late 1970's, it seemed manufacturers were pushing for longer service intervals. I have a sales brochure for a 1979 Malibu and a 1979 Nova, and one of the selling points on the Malibu was a 100K mile interval on the transmission! The Nova called for 60K...the difference being that the Nova used the older THM350 transmission while the Malibu used the lightweight THM200 that was famous for early failure...and again, I wonder if it's partly because of those longer service intervals they were pushing? What about the serpentine belts these days? My Intrepid calls for every 60,000 miles. I overlooked that part though, and it was more like 86,000 miles when I had them replaced. Have the intervals on those gone even longer in more recent years? I guess the rubber they use in the hoses is better too, these days. I almost had to twist the mechanic's arm to get him to change my radiator hoses back around the 7.5 year mark. He kept insisting that they didn't need it, but I figured I'd rather pay a little extra for a bit of prevention, than have to foot the bill for a melted down 2.7. Anyway, sure beats the hell out of the old days when they'd call for changing the belts/hoses/coolant every 3 years/36K miles...not to mention those tuneups every 12,000 miles. Although I did discover that a 1968 Dart actually can go about 40K miles on a set of points, and 50K or more on the same spark plugs. 
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