[s-cars] WAS gas prices, now racist subaru's

[R. Mair]

I'm pretty sure Audi/VW leaned very heavily on Bosch at some point when the MAF's began to fail in the late 90's on. they were initially $400+ but fell quickly to $45, and then in some instances were recalled. You can bet that it was Bosch who ate most of the loss. Then came coolant temp sensors. They were somewhere around $60 if i recall, they are now $4.. Bosch again. The japanese, for the most part, have pretty reliable engine management systems, but there are several that still use bosch components. I'm not aware of any gross issues with them however, only Swedish and German cars :-/.

Yes, I'm do have an advantage of cheaper parts and the tools/facilities to make repairs. But I will say this, that doesn't mean I'm happy about it. I've been at this since I was 10. 27 years later I'm no longer enthusiastic about it. I used to tweak and tune my own cars to death,even if they were running perfectly. I'd go racing and bring spare transmissions and hard parts just in case. Towards the end of my racing career, I hardly wanted to swap a spark plug, let alone an axle. and today, I almost loath working on my own cars. After diagnosing, wrenching and unbending customers cars for 40+ hours a week, I don't feel much like working on my own cars. Although I don't hate my line of work, I wish that I could do something else job wise so that I could enjoy tweaking my cars more. And guess what, I'm buying the extended warranty for my wife's 02 AR. There is no way I'M putting turbos on that puppy ;-)

Rolf

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Taka Mizutani 
  To: R. Mair 
  Cc: calvinlc at earthlink.net ; S-CAR-List at audifans.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 7:50 PM
  Subject: Re: [s-cars] WAS gas prices, now racist subaru's


  I think we agree on a lot of the issue- it's just that I do blame the manufacturer for a parts supplier's shortcomings. I don't mean to drag this out, but I don't think it's fair to the consumer to blame the parts supplier and not really do anything about the issue.

  In that regard, I think that since you are in the business of fixing the cars, you have a slightly different outlook on things- it's not hard for you to fix the problems (being professionally trained), it's not nearly as expensive (having a facility to work on the car as well as buying parts at wholesale and having free labor) and since you're very familiar with the cars, it's no big mystery.

  Same thing with some Porsches- I won't buy a 944 turbo because the upkeep is too pricey. If I were a mechanic and had the tools and facility to work on the car, that would be different. Replacing bearings in a 944 is not something the average home mechanic is inclined to do, nor is a clutch job an easy thing (not in an Audi, either).

  I love German cars, like how they feel and drive a lot. I also think they're some of the best engineered and safest cars out there. I just don't trust the dealership network or Audi themselves enough to buy a new one. Our '99.5 A4 was enough of a headache that it was replaced by a Volvo. On the other hand, if I could have afforded to do so, I would have kept my 200 as a daily driver- I liked it that much. I still want an UrQ and if I could afford to own and maintain one, I'd do it.

  Taka