Things Dealers tell Customers

I have never had my oil changed anywhere that they don't recommend 3000 miles or three months as the oil change interval, including dealerships.
That was kind of my point, that they recommend you change your oil at least twice as often as is necessary.

Ever considered you were buying the wrong brands of car, or all they all really equal in your viewpoint?

They never were in mine, even before I was working in the industry (residual values at the 3 and 5 year marks show which were made better to a degree - which ones hold on to their value?), and I now have tiers (in my mind) that each brand falls within based on engineering and reliability.

At one end of the spectrum we have the dodge guys that, despite being on their third transmission, still believe their trucks are superior to Ford and Chevies. At the other end of the spectrum are cars or trucks that run for 300,000 or 500,000 miles without needing a motor or tranny. Sure, not all models from each make are equal, but then we all know that as well.

For a while there I worked at a major military contracting firm, and it as interesting to see the vehicles the hoards of engineers would and wouldn't buy. There was a period where many of the engineers bought Mercedes and BMW's, but since the engineers I worked with tended to be long-term owners they all learned to not buy either of those makes again, lol. I was there at the end of that period where just a few still had the 6 or 7 year old Mercs or Beemers, and all had plans to get rid of them very soon. If they could, many would run a car or truck for 200,000 miles just to sort of prove to themselves that they made a sound financial and mechanical choice (and to not spend money on payments)... they just found it was too expensive to try that with Mercs and Beemers.

I mostly agree with this. My Subaru dealership is still trying to convince me that I need to change the oil every 3,500 miles. I reply by telling them that I am already over doing it by changing it every 5-6,000 miles and to be happy that I even bring it there for them to do.

The Ford dealership where we bought our Edge reccomends 5,000 miles which I do as I bought a service policy that states I can do so every 5,000 miles.

Our old Honda dealership never said anything as our Pilot had one of the oil meters which our Subie and Edge do not.

Rick G

Are you sure it doesn't just measure TBN? That's what inexpensive oil analyzers I've heard of do. It's a simple check to make and useful, but it doesn't tell you about viscosity breakdown, fuel dilution, etc. It's a good thing to know but it's not the end all determination of whether the oil has more life in it. I'd be curious to see a few used oil analyses from when those cars determine their oil needs to be changed. Get some idea how well it works in the real world.

I've done used oil analysis at well under the manufacturer's recommended oil change interval and found the oil was done. Never had a car that checked the oil itself though. Maybe that works better.

You may be over doing it, and you may not. Used oil analysis will tell you. I think going over 5k miles without some kind of check is risky--this is based on used oil analysis I've had done and reports I've read from others. The car's built-in check qualifies as "some kind of check", though I don't know how good. I guess if I had one like that I'd look into it further.

Anybody know what kind of oil Hitler used in his GS and how often he changed it??

(As long as we're turning this into an oil thread I might as well throw in some Nazi shit too.)

Fuck, here we go again.

My Transit calls for 7500 mi or 6 mos, oil and filter, and that's what it's getting. I change twice a year, and it's done at the local dealer 1/2 mile away. These snake oil threads get awful tedious after awhile.

No, most calculate the oil's remaining life by tracking the temperatures of the air and coolant, throttle position, car speed, etc. cool short trips will call for an early oil change as will hot heavy driving. Easy highway miles calls for a long interval. Viscosity breakdown stays pretty much constant among top brands, so it can be calculated. Fuel dilution is rare, and other concerns are usually addressed by the algorithms in the oil life monitor. GM originally planned their OLM to show 0% life when half the ZDDP was depleted. Keep in mind that the car makers have their money on the line for the length of the power train warranty including 100,000 miles with the extra cost extended protection plans.

When I was working for one dealer, I got Carbon Monoxide poisoning.
Doc said I needed a few days off to clean out my body.
Went back, told them that, they respond, we don't accept that doctor excuse, go back get a different one.

I did, the doc got pissed, said I could not return to work until dealer passes a OHSA inspection. First time in over 40 years dealer was not open as they
aired the place out for 3 days.

Took another 2 weeks for them to install new air ducts in my area before I was able to return, as they told OHSA that my ducts had malfunctioned.

I will never forget the looks on their face, and the ass chewing my boss got for that, they also ended up replacing the whole air exchange system in a 1.5 acre building.

Wow!

We've got a problem in our area with grocery store gas. Car will start hard, surge, idle weird, at worst stall, but no MIL and no codes. One of our standard questions for this is, "Where do you buy your gas?" due to how often this crap causes these problems. (BTW, I know that the plural of anecdote is not data- but none of us at work buy that brand, ever.)
So my coworker was recommending to a woman that perhaps she try a refinery-branded fuel- Shell, Chevron, Exxon, etc as we've had better luck with them. She wanted to know where she could find them. "At a gas station." replied my coworker. Her: "I know, but where?" He listed several, and she continued to be baffled. He finally drew her a map showing several of the gas stations around town. "And you can buy gas at these?", she wanted to know.
Holy crap- Lived here all her life and had no idea there were gas stations in town, despite driving by many of them daily; or that they actually sold gas. And this is not a big town- 50,000 or so people.
Since the grocery store she'd been buying shitty fuel from only started selling gas ~12 years ago, how did she get around before? She insisted we check her car out, so we did, spent an hour checking codes, active tests, and such. She paid us an hour to tell her to buy better gas, after we told her to try different gas at writeup.

It amazes me that such people make it through life without adult supervision.


1911fan

They probably also had to deal with workmans comp for the doctor visits, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were fined by OSHA. I worked in a shop like that once, and I'd have a splitting headache every evening.

Thing is, none of my dodges ever needed a transmission, most I ran to over 250K. That was 3 of them. one a car with the infamous 604.

BUT I always put in a drain plug and drained out the pan, and replaced those 4 quarts every other oil change. New filter at 15K, then only every 100K.

Total cost was MUCH less than a transmission, and I follow this on my current Buick also. In fact, I have never had to rebuild any auto tranny that was not raced, since I started driving in 1970, including tow vehicles.

Rod

Back in 2009 I traded my 2001 GL1800 in for a new '09. I had a rough idea of what the old bike was worth considering the fact the bike had been crashed once requiring some parts (mostly cosmetic) to be replaced. The dealer I worked with was aware of the crash since they did the insurance estimate on it.

So when I sat down with the sales manager, he did the predictable "Ohhhh we'd love to give you top dollar for your trade in but times are hard and the bike needs some work and oh by the way it's been wrecked before and that hurts the resale and of course we'd have to be totally honest with the next purchaser about that." Still, we worked out an amicable figure for my old bike and some other things tossed in.

A week later, I'm at a sporting goods store when one of the store managers noted my motorcycle related T-shirt and struck up a conversation. I asked the predictable question "What do you ride?" - he answered that right now he's on a Sportster that his wife isn't comfortable on, but he's all excited because he's just put a deposit down on a Gold Wing.

"Congratulations" I respond - "what dealer?" He states the dealer's name and it's the same one I'm dealing with.
"You buying new or used?" I ask. He says it's a used one.
"What year?" I ask. He says 2001. A little bell starts ringing in my head.
"What color?" I ask. He says Illusion Red. Dingdingding. I know there's only one bike like that at that dealer.

I advise him it's my old bike, we do the 'Hail Fellow Well Met' thing, and I eventually get around to asking him whatall they'd told him about the bike. He thinks for a moment and rattles off a list of stuff.

"Did they tell you the bike had been wrecked?" I ask. He goes :eek1, then says WTF?

We spent another 15 minutes or so talking. Later I emailed him an extensive list of everything I knew about the bike, what'd been done to it, what it needed.

He had a fun time renegotiating the purchase - I even invited him to call me from the dealership if they tried to deny it'd been down before.

Been there, man. I'm not in a service department, but I've had this conversation with people since cars putting out impressive performance numbers for their respective engine sizes means good gas and oil has to be used, yet some are baffled at why they can't just go buy gasoline from a 55-gallon drum in central Mexico (or something).

Really, though, the dealership terminology doesn't help the customers figure it out any better. I've heard the term "Tier 1" gasoline or gas stations/companies thrown around to customers, but obviously that's like the discussion in an oil-thread (for many here) to them. But then so would be the discussion of 'healthy' foods vs. McDonalds to many an American... I guess it all depends on the amount of knowledge they bring with them.

Now back in 2003 or 2004 we had over a million south Florida vehicles (according to the news - probably more like 2 million) affected by too much Sulfur in what is otherwise generally considered a Tier One gas refinery / company. Shell Oil did eventually pay for one of my fuel pumps to be replaced, but due to lack of receipts and time I just didn't pursue the other vehicle's repair costs, towing costs, and ways it screwed my life up.

Two top-tier or Tier 1 fuels I don't use anymore unless I really need to are Shell and BP (and any commuting motorcyclist in Florida will eventually see why I don't like BP if they pay close attention to the residues left behind - car owners aren't as in touch with their fuel on a daily basis).

Now that was interesting looking that up.

Not sure where you became familiar with the term (unless you're British?), but I've never heard the phrase, nor ever would have thought the action would be coined in a term. Thank you for that.

I feel like I was raised in an isolated hole that was western Pennsylvania while the rest of the world learned the perfect french phrases and descriptive English terms to throw into their language.

Welcome. I was a bit of a bookworm growing up

I had hit a large falling rock on my 05 Wing. 8 K in repairs. Then in the '07 IBR I tapped a Moose. Finished the Rally rode the bike home. It was written off by insurance company in March '08.

That August I get a call at home (on my unlisted number) from a guy who has questions about the suspension set up in on my old wing and wants to know more about it. I told him that Paul Theade at Race Tech had built the first gold valve set-up on my Wing, and the rear shock was a Works setup that a bunch of IBR vets had worked with them on the design.

So we are chatting back and forth and he says well that explains why it seems so smooth and why it is quite tall. I said what do you mean and he announces I have your old Goldwing.

I said it was written off and the phone goes quiet. Apparently it appears someone had bought it for salvage, fixed it up and it had managed to maintain a clear title. He was getting it serviced at the same ship where it had been written off and they told him I was the original owner and that he should call me.

He asked me if I would ride the bike and I said well... likely not. It had had two big accidents with hits to the front of the bike.,

The phone goes quiet and he says "two accidents"?

He said but the shop gave me the complete service records. I said that I was really sorry but I sold the bike to the insurance company so he should talk to them and he could get that from the dealer.

Poor guy, I would have been pissed if I was him.

I had a good one in the shop last week. A lady brings in two waverunners in for service. Both ran when parked, but the batteries has been removed for storage and she didn't put the batteries back in.

So we open up one of the skis and find a battery inside and it test good. When we try to start the ski, nothing happens. Dead as a door nail.
So we put the service on hold and give her a call. We can do the service work, or she can pay for a diagnostic to figure out why it won't start. Or we can do nothing and she won't pay anything for that ski.

She goes on a rampage on how there is nothing wrong with that ski and we installed that battery and are trying to swindle her out of money for a diagnostic. Names are called, words are spoken, but I won't go into that.
I guess she just figured we give away batteries now. Of the WalMart brand we don't even sell.

Out of dumb luck, one of the techs jams the start button very hard, to the point of almost breaking it, and it starts and runs fine.

So a call as made back to the crazy lady and she admitted that the start button was hard to push, and that she may have left the battery in that one ski because she could not find it. :eek1 No apology was made.

Place I worked for in College maintained a list of customers that were forbidden to have work done there. I also had a description of what they did, tried to do. I was working the counter when one came in. He asked for an appointment and I checked the list. Well he was on it. Had tires put on, claimed we busted the radiator. Told him he was on the list, we would not work on his car, and asked him to leave. He got irate. Boss called the police. We wanted to argue with them till they showed him the handcuffs. Some people.

Rod