Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

GRtak said:
Imagine the Big 3 trying to cover the abuse that snowplow vehicles gets from a company. I have seen transmissions go out in 60,000 miles, engines needing a rebuild in twice that, and the bodies tend to go to shit because they are out getting the salt when it is still fresh. There is a reason for it.
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I see what you're saying, and I guess it makes sense if you're plowing with an F150, then yes, you're going outside the scope of what Ford indented, but on the Super Dutys, Ford actually designs/sells with that in mind. The following wording was taken straight from the builder available to the public (not the commercial site)

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Kind of shitty to say "we're selling you this truck so you can plow snow, but by the way, if you plow snow we'll void the warranty"

Overall it makes sense for stuff like seats wearing out prematurely, but mechanical components, or leaks? Even if abused by renters, they're tested to much higher standards, so provided their properly maintained there should be some protection. Like if its found that the leak in Rick's 500 is caused by a manufacturing/supplier defect that was exposed during the last service (a plausibility), Fiat should need to fix the car, rental or not.

Note, I am speaking as myself here. A private individual and a consumer.
 
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Didn't Craftsman Tool's lifetime warranty exclude professional use?
 
Is it then safe to assume Snap-On and Mac Tools warranties cover professional use? As those are designed namely for mechanics and the companies go to great lengths to sell them to shops/companies, as opposed to Craftsman which seems to be more personal use.
 
CrzRsn said:
Is it then safe to assume Snap-On and Mac Tools warranties cover professional use? As those are designed namely for mechanics and the companies go to great lengths to sell them to shops/companies, as opposed to Craftsman which seems to be more personal use.
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Yes and no. MAC Tools doesn't exclude it specifically but they leave themselves the standard 'improper use and abuse' escape clause. http://www.mactools.com/en-us/customer-service/warranty-and-returns

Snap-On has two different warranties - one for personal use and one for professional use: https://www1.snapon.com/display/termsofsale.nws Guess which one's shorter (in general).

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NecroJoe said:
It's like that for a lot of things, not just vehicles...actually, in most cases, it's just commercial or even professional use. For example, There's a lot of retail-quality furniture that has a 5-year warranty, but they will reject a warranty claim if they find out it was used outside of a home (like, in an office for example).
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Or (as mentioned above) there's one warranty term for personal use and a different one for professional. Case in point: http://www.stihlusa.com/information/warranty-service-info/limited-warranty/
 
I dropped off the Fiat today. The Enterprise is but a cube in the Ford service area so naturally the employee was gone. With no way to leave a note, I dropped off the keys behind the "currently assisting other customers" sign and bailed.

I then picked up the Jeep: Apparently there was a lot of junk in the heater core that may have clogged it again after we flushed it. - they had to flush it, drive it, flush it, rinse and repeat while checking vent temps. The initial temp out of the vents before the flushes was 90 degrees and got better with each flush. He did swap the thermostat and regasketed the thermostat housing because it was leaking, i'm honestly fine with him doing it as, while it's easy, dealing with the cleanup is a giant pain in the ass.

He wants me to drive it for a bit, see how the heat feels, and bring it back for another flush if I feel it needs it.
 
rickhamilton620 said:
I dropped off the Fiat today. The Enterprise is but a cube in the Ford service area so naturally the employee was gone. With no way to leave a note, I dropped off the keys behind the "currently assisting other customers" sign and bailed.
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Was there not an after-hours key drop box? Be careful they don't charge you a lost key fee if they don't see where you put it.
 
Labcoatguy said:
Was there not an after-hours key drop box? Be careful they don't charge you a lost key fee if they don't see where you put it.
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There wasn't. On the sign it said to drop the keys behind the sign.
 
Labcoatguy said:
Was there not an after-hours key drop box? Be careful they don't charge you a lost key fee if they don't see where you put it.
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Usually the Ford dealer rental desks don't have one. When I was dealing with this over the summer, I'd leave the keys with a service writer if the rental person was not in the office. Alternatively you could've asked where their local office/lot is. 9 times out of 10, its less than 5 minutes from the dealer and they will shuttle people back.
 
PelicanHazard said:
You're a special kind of cursed, Rick.
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Honestly, I've figured as much since like 4th grade. I'm used to it by now. :lol:

I've dropped off the Optima the same way and things were fine so I'm sure things will be with the Fiat as well.
 
My father's 4.0 Jeep had a similar flush, flush and flush again treatment. Seems to have done the trick.
 
CrzRsn said:
I see what you're saying, and I guess it makes sense if you're plowing with an F150, then yes, you're going outside the scope of what Ford indented, but on the Super Dutys, Ford actually designs/sells with that in mind. The following wording was taken straight from the builder available to the public (not the commercial site)

En2TOmB.png


Kind of shitty to say "we're selling you this truck so you can plow snow, but by the way, if you plow snow we'll void the warranty"

Overall it makes sense for stuff like seats wearing out prematurely, but mechanical components, or leaks? Even if abused by renters, they're tested to much higher standards, so provided their properly maintained there should be some protection. Like if its found that the leak in Rick's 500 is caused by a manufacturing/supplier defect that was exposed during the last service (a plausibility), Fiat should need to fix the car, rental or not.

Note, I am speaking as myself here. A private individual and a consumer.
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It doesn't say you can't snowplow, it says you can't make money while doing it and have the full warranty. You need to read the fine print and have that translated by a lawyer
 
JCE said:
14 > 12.7

LOL. I do know what you mean though. We are getting ~25mpg with mostly highway driving (70/30). The Fiat 500X has the same size tank... What a crock. We should of bought the Juke anyway. My wife has a vendetta against premium octane gas...
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Grand Cherokees are pretty great from what I hear. My new boss has the old boss' 2012 and aside from it being slow (pentastar) and having water leaks (sunroof), it's a great highway cruiser. He especially likes the radar cruise control.
 
If I could get a job where I'd just be able to inform customers about their options within a brand w/out having to do sales (and the math that comes with it) that'd be awesome.

Or a product trainer for a brand where I'd show dealers vehicles and the different functions/etc.
 
*listening to the latest "This Week in Tech", one of the commenters espouses how he finds cars boring and essentially an appliance....yet proceeds to say how he wrote a article on cars*

what? Why are you writing about cars yet you seemingly are annoyed/bored by anything not signed off by Tesla or Toyota?....the fuck outta here.

Another gem: the dude lamenting that the Bolt was ugly and the other pundit (who hilariously thinks her Prius C is "infinitely better looking") agreeing - "Why can't it look like a sedan?"

areyoufuckingkiddingme.jpg

The same guy who called the Bolt ugly also, of course, thinks the Soul autonomous EV is great looking...ironic.

I'm no GM fanboy, trust me, but God the Cali "import cars are just better, because import!" bias is annoying as fuck.
 
The Renault went French yesterday. Got home from work and went to put the windows up, and I noticed the near side front window made a weird noise. I put it down a little and up again, still sounded strange. Stupidly I thought 'oh maybe it will sort itself if I lower it all the way and raise it again'. Because it went down fine. Then only motor whirring and a graunching noise, but no movement on the return run.

So I have no passenger side window at the moment. I pulled the door card off to have a look, for some reason Renault attached the regulator to the door trim rather than the door. I don't know if this is normal practice but it seems stupid. All the other cars I've taken door cards off have had manual windows. You take the trim off and the regulator is just flopping around. Anyway it appears that one of the steel cables had gotten caught on something and snapped. The other side came off when I was trying to keep it all together.

Of course this happens the day after I take a deposit on the Hilux...


on another note, I have had a strong urge to buy an X300 Jaguar again.
 
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No, that's not normal. Usually the window regulator is affixed to the door or to a metal panel that bolts to the door shell. Attaching it to the door trim seems both stupid and very French. But I repeat myself. :mrgreen:
 
Spectre said:
No, that's not normal. Usually the window regulator is affixed to the door or to a metal panel that bolts to the door shell. Attaching it to the door trim seems both stupid and very French. But I repeat myself. :mrgreen:
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Yeah, that makes much more sense to me. The whole door trim seemed needlessly complicated. Just when you thought you had all the screws out, there was another one hiding somewhere. Everything is attached to or goes through the bloody door trim so to take it off you have to disconnect everything. Plus you have to pull half the bits off it first just to get to the screws.

I'm taking it to a specialist to fix because I have no idea how to put everything back together and I'm the one who pulled it apart. The window regulators seem to be a common failure in the Megane II (albeit mostly electrical modules failing due to moisture ingress) so anyone who knows the car should know how to remove and reinstall the stupidly complicated door trim.
 
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