[Vwdiesel] Stealerships

[doonboggle]

Pat:  As the original of this discussion, would like to clarify, if I may, that I was not necessarily commenting on the inadequacies of the working mechanics, or even the service managers.  My ire is aimed, 100%, toward the 'corporate' level, and in other instances, the 'owners'.  They are the ones who have raped our American, and even German as you touch on, way of customer services.  No ... if the 'owners', etc. would provide the training we as loyal 'customers', no doubt their pockets would buldge more with $$$ ... rather than complaints like this.

So with your experience in the industry, and if there are any other former VW employees reading this, I'd like to clarify that my comments were not aimed at you.  But I for one, do appreciate your honest input comments.  Seems that this is a scourge on our American car industry.

However, in my experience, I can say that I never had any sour opinions about the automotive dealer industry until ... i did business here lately ... 10 years ... with the VW folks.

We've owned Mercedes in the past, beginning in 1985, and without any doubt, the former dealership we dealt with in Reno (Streeter), they without any doubt went out of their way to keep a customer happy.  So much so that one time when we ran over a large rock that literally 'wrecked' our under carriage and other components, the company ... privately owned ... repaired at their $$, 100% of repairs ... even though the car was well out of warranty.

Of course, after that, every Mercedes we bought, and/or had serviced, was solely thru that dealership.  Unfortunately, Streeter no longer owns it ... and we no longer own a Mercedes either, partly due to them also fitting into my discussion thread points.

My 'schooling' comment was based on a 'guru' shop in Reno who I discussed the subject with the owner of that shop, and he indicated that he had in fact sent his TDI fellows ... and one very nice looking lady ... to certified VW Diesel training courses.

Chuck Timmerman
Citizen: W.S.A.
IN GOD I TRUST !
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:18:06 -0600
From: Patrick Dolan <pmdolan at sasktel.net>
Subject: Re: [Vwdiesel] Age, Diesel History, and Bonus TDI Tragedy
To: William J Toensing <toensing at wildblue.net>
Cc: vwdiesel at vwfans.com
Message-ID: <2dd610625f93.4b21f22e at sasktel.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

I wish I knew the answer to dealer technical incompetence.  I came into this business as a mechanic many decades ago, and over the 70s went into management and became a dealer principal.  I had my fill of retail business by 1980 and moved on, but I could already see the nature of the business changing.  It's not just a VW thing, it is a North American thing.  Money has become the religion of the continent, and there is no honour in work.  In Germany, a person becomes a tradesman, and rises threough the ranks by becoming a Master tradesman who is a respected member of society as well as the workplace - here we interpret "improving" or lot with getting OUT of the trades and we measure that success by how much money you are making.  Why would a really smart mechanic or parts guy stay in the trade, make relative peanunts and GET NO RESPECT when he can easily go to Wall Street and share in $18Bn worth of bonuses at Goldman Sachs?  On top of that,
 consumerism (part of the same cree
d of greed) has resulted in unrealistic expectations (always blame somone else, everyone else owes us a living).  None of this will change until we have a quantum shift in cultural aligment - and from the latest lack of change while the US economy re-structures itself to further rule-by-special-interest, it isn't going to happen.

I am not in the lubricants business any more, so I will qualify these comments with that statement first.  Be careful around Amsoil.  While they claim compliance to any particular standard, at least in my day, they refused to submit to any actual testing to qualify - relying instead on advertising claims.  Refer to the previous paragraph to know what I think about that.  I can tell you, though, that when such a weird and demanding spec is written, there is a good reason (note I said this without once attacking the incompetent engineers who would foist the design of PD engines on an unsuspecting public).  The wide variety of oils are to meet the greatly increased demands on oil specifications to be able to meet corporate average fuel economy, emissions and engine life REQUIREMENTS - for once we actually gain from government interventiion into our marketplace.  All of the European majors meet Euro specs - Agip, Repsol, BP, Shell, etc. with products
 in their market.

Sad about the probability of Toyota getting a pass while Audi was hammered nearly to death in the US market - for something related to consumer ineptitude, not design oversight.  Yes, VW used electronic foot feed an all TDI and FSI.  No real reason to run a cable anywhere because it would just be connected to the computer there anyhow.  Just be happy that Bill Gates doesn't sell the software in your ECU (although much of the programming and diagnostics DO rely on a Windows environment).  Other than physical damage, I have NEVER heard of an ECU "shutting down" in normal operation.

Electric power steering is not electronic, it is merely assissted by an electric power source, as is old fashioned power steering merely assisted by a hydraulic power source.  Difference is, the electric one is easier to control electronically - and is much more energy (read FUEL) efficient.