I love auto technicians, mechanics, and all who wrench. My brother is a Master Tech at a Subaru dealership and one of my best friends is a heavy diesel mechanic. If I have a problem with a car or bus that I cannot figure out, I know expert wrenchers worldwide who can help. They’re good people, as are Autopian readers — and when an Autopian reader is a wrencher, that’s double cool-person points.
Brian covered some good news about how Mercedes-Benz has developed a modular headlight that allows for easy recycling and easy repairs. Boulevard_Yachtsman shared this:
Nice to see some actual, good news. Another problem with most modern headlights begin a pain in the ass is unscrupulous shops trying to take advantage of people when things aren’t as bad as they first appear.
My neighbor, a nice older lady, recently stopped by and asked if I could look at changing a bad headlight on her Veloster. As we walked out to the car she said she had taken it to “a new place” as her previous mechanic retired earlier this year. She had been quoted $400 to change both headlights as the “front end” would have to come off and both headlights should be done at that time. Not knowing Velosters I told her that could be the case, but sometimes actually removing a bumper cover wasn’t so bad.
Nope, she popped the hood and the car just had the easy to remove halogen bulbs in the back of the head light assembly. I asked her if a six-pack of PBR talls sounded like a better labor estimate. Then I pulled the bulb, gave it to her with instructions stop by Walmart and pick up a couple of the cheapest versions they had after looking up what type she needed and I’d install them when she got back.
She was so happy that I got two six-packs out of the deal.
Thomas wrote a handy explainer on replacing your car’s broken speakers. Arch Duke Maxyenko hits the nail on the head for how awesome Crutchfield is:
Seriously, Crutchfield is the best. Customer service? Can’t get any better. Fitment guides? Hell yeah they got them. Speed of shipping? Rivals Summit Racing and Jegs for that. Knowledge? PHD levels.
Jason wrote a Cold Start that talked about how Pontiac had two rebadged Vegas. ChefCJ took a swipe at Pontiac:
I mean, you say heap, but I really think you mean pile.
William Domer went even harder:
Pontiac. We build excrement.
I think it’s a perfect time to post this commercial:
Have a great evening, everyone!
Top graphic image: Hyundai
Mercedes, thank you. I dont know if we are the best, but I do know you are the best writer in autojourno. Print and electronic
The Veloster story reminds me of a bullshit story I have from a Hyundai dealership on my wife’s Veloster. It was starting to have intermittant trouble engaging in drive. It’d rev and the car wouldn’t move, and the CEL was on with an O2 value low code.
She took it to the dealership. “Yep, needs a new (DCT) clutch, that’ll be 5 grand please!” I started asking questions, because I’ve never worked on a DCT but I know how clutches work and generally once they start slipping so badly the car won’t move, they don’t stop. So it didn’t sound like clutch to me.
They insisted, nope, gotta be the clutch, just leave it and we’ll fix it.
Did a little research, and turns out the crankshaft position sensor can, and in DCT Velosters often does, cause these symptoms. Got one for $60 and replaced it, it’s been working fine ever since.
I don’t for a minute believe they were trying to rip her off. I think they were simply incompetent and way too reliant on “well the computer says it’s this and I definitely shouldn’t stop and think about whether or not that makes sense.”
I don’t work on cars too much anymore, but at least I have a good working knowledge of how they operate. It’s kind of amazing to think about how much money people who don’t waste on bad mechanics.
Wow. I hate that ad. I’ve seen it on this site before. Don’t make me get a cease and desist order.
Ahem, Autopian readers are the bent!
So much Crutchfield. They might be the ONLY customer-facing company who has consistently knocked it out of the park every time in my 30+ years of working with them (Honorable mention to Discover Financial, RIP, now part of Shitti Bank).
How else can a teenager with no car or electrical knowledge change his own Head Unit in a driveway with nobody helping? They were like a third parent to me, but without all that polygamy/polyamory mess and my parents never really knew.
Agreed. They even have great info for newer cars that they don’t sell much stuff for.
Many thanks Mercedes! I’m honored to be called out as an example of the awesomeness to be found here at The Autopian. When it comes to cars most of my friends/neighbors/renters know me as a “will work for beer” kinda guy as long as I can find some time and the job isn’t too involved. I received a lot of free, small-town help when needed in the early days of learning how to wrench so I figure it’s good to pay that forward when possible.
Also, I have to admit I got a big ‘ol grin on my face when I saw that feature image of the Veloster next to COTD :-). It’s the same body style as my neighbor’s, except hers is silver with different rims.
Can confirm. I no longer play competitive ranked wrenching, I switched to teaching so now I’m in the casual and for fun wrenching leagues.
The labour barter system and/or prohibition water exchanges work well for me as payment. Since I’m really just looking for an excuse to tinker anyways.
Same here. I’m lucky that I live where I do, my neighbor across the ally has all the yard tools, the one two doors down does all the welding, and I do the car and appliance stuff. We all trade off and help each other out, and while we all do it to be neighborly, truth is it’s really just fun to play with our toys. We’ve been collectively keeping the widow next door to me going for the last 5 years.
It brought a smile to my face to think about a little ol’ lady driving a Veloster. Just like my Aunt Betty (RIP) driving around LA in her ’71 Camaro SS350 back in the day.
Your Aunt Betty had excellent taste in cars! The Veloster works great for my neighbor. It turns out to be a nice fit for a little old lady – low to the ground, cheap to drive, easy to park in her one-car garage. I smiled when I saw it in her driveway the first time as my wife had driven her and her partner to a local car dealer when their decrepit old Neon bit the dust.
Definitely some car-enthusiasm in her blood as one of her relatives shows up from time to time in a mint condition Merkur XR4Ti of all things.
LOL, my aunt had a ’68 442. She drove that car for 20 years.
The 442s were the best-looking of that era, in my opinion. I am afraid to see what 442 HOs go for these days.
A few minutes later… they are not cheap. But not stupid money either. Under $100K.
It would be a good race in the quarter-mile, between a 442 and a modern day Camry or Accord V6, but they were beautifully sculpted. And around corners, sorry Oldsmobile, but you’re probably not going to do well.
GM’s ad agencies in the 1980s (Campbell-Ewald for Chevy, DMB&B for Pontiac and Cadillac, Leo Burnett for Oldsmobile,McCann-Erickson for Buick) were mostly writing checks their product development people couldn’t cash, really too bad they couldn’t both get on the same page.
Except maybe for Leo Burnett toward the end of the decade- even Cramblin-Duvet could have come up with something better than “Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile”
“Why would you put in the ad that our wigs aren’t from dead bodies?? They aren’t!” “See, I feel we’re saying the same thing here.”
I wonder how much GM could have saved if they had consolidated on one agency. On the other hand, I wonder how less creative the ads would have been.
I just got an email from my dealer telling me not to sleep on the maintenance I’d deferred last time, and then listed it with their quotes.
It include replacement of my cabin air filter, which my car does not have, and my favorite, $1600 to replace two malfunctioning TPMS modules. Which I’d had done last month at a tire shop for a grand total of $80, using my own supplied OEM modules bringing the grand total to like $115.
My favourite dealer move was them trying to deny warranty on my wife’s Optima (engine replacement, under the recall). Claiming that because she didn’t have it serviced by a licensed technician, it voided the warranty.
So I supplied the maintenance records I keep of all the work I’ve done to her car, and showed him my trade license.
I’d have shown them the law that states they cannot make that claim. Then I’d blast them online for it.
Usually Service Advisors finally shut the fuck up when they find out I’m licensed. That’s why I do it.
My “GM Preferred Dealer” keeps sending me offers for oil changes. I drive a Bolt and they know it – they’re the ones who replaced the traction battery under a recall. I’d share the offer with my son for his car, but it’s so much faster to do it yourself.
I got a call from one of those Extended Warranty companies. My only car at the time was a Nissan Leaf.
“The engine would be covered!”
“It doesn’t have an engine”.
“But the transmission and cooling system is covered!”
“Doesn’t have those either.”
“Please Hold.”
…..
“Sorry, we can’t help you” *click*
For me I ask them which car they’d like to cover. The 20 year old pickup, the 25 year old sedan, or the 50 year old coupe?
Go to the dealership and demand they make good on the offer. Refuse to leave until they do.
That’s what I’ll do in my retirement. Just go there and live until they figure out how to do it. Perfect plan!
Sounds like Honda wanting to charge me $700 to replace a loose underpan when my mechanic put new fasteners in for $40.00.
Our Odyssey’s satellite radio antenna went out (about 3 months after warranty) and they wanted $800+ for it because “you have to drop the whole headliner, it’s a lot of labor.
$25 part and about a half hour of work — flying blind. You only have to drop the rear portion of the headliner a few inches. I don’t blame the dealer, just the shop manual. Sadly, I think they still would have done it in 30 minutes and charged the shop time on the job.
2 local Toyota dealers that don’t know the service for a GR Corolla. I had to argue with two service writers that it was due for an oil change at 15k, not 10 and 20. The other didn’t have enough trans fluid to do the change that was scheduled a month earlier, and didn’t even try the brake fluid change that was also due.