Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 14:27:55 -0400
Reply-To: Ben huot <huotx@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Ben huot <huotx@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Subject: Re: The King's English
Good deal and good for you Stan.
There is some good guy out there, but don't forget that you know your stuff
Stan!
Ok, here i go again! (i will let my frustration out. To no one in particular)
I won't bash anyone (vendor, dealer or mechanic) here, just some fact!
-Mechanic:
-----
I don't personally deal with them anymore (good for me, I save a lot of
money), most of my surrounding friends either. I help them or they are
pretty good mechanic them self, good for them! For my few friends who have
to deal with mechanic, they are generally satisfied, but! They don't know
anything about mechanic, car, van and they never open the hood, and they
probably don't know anything about what's under this one! So, what you don't
know doesn't hurt. They all agree that sometime the invoice is on the high
side but they are generally satisfied. Good for them! I don't expect
everyone to be a mechanic! I have many friends in the field, some work for
dealer (the worse one) , other have shops and some others just work as
simple mechanic! Like my neighbor, let's talk for a second about this one,
24 years old, did a 2-year course/study to become a mechanic, he often work
with me at night in my garage, he is always impress when he see piston,
heads and stuff, he thinks he knows, but he doesn't, it doesn't get in his
head very fast. Well, all he learned in 2-years...was not much, he still
doesn't understand the basic stuff about how engine works. He now work for
a garage as an apprentice, I hope he will learn more with the mechanic than
the school he went to. It's somewhat scary to know that this guy could work
on my car.
10 days ago, I go for an oil change (I never do those myself on my car, to
dirty), a young new guy (2 days at the job) does my oil change with the
manager looking at him carefully, well not enough! First he is scared of
screwing back my drain plug (scared of stripping this one), I screw this one
my self, the manager laugh (I now him), same for the oil filter, the manager
double check, ok, the car go down, the worse is done, not so!!! He put the
oil, I start the car to check oil level, oil level is good, he put the oil
cap back... the manager goes away... he push on the hood to close this one
(it's a Honda), it doesn't close, he push harder...he bent the hood
completely, he as forgot the little lever that hold the hood.
I am still waiting to have that hood fix!
Parts:
------
I have 5600$ of invoice (mostly parts) in the past 3-4 years!
When I owned a Vanagon I was buying OEM parts when even I could (good quality)
Now I have a 73, I have to buy parts from aftermarket dealer (you know
them), there is only a few, I don't have much choice, anyway, most of the
parts are from the same company at all those retailer. 3/4 of the parts
bought at those dealers are of cheap quality! Most of them failed on my last
trip. No problem with the parts dealer, they will send me another cheap
parts! Ex.: Manual faucet bough for my 73 from one dealer, lasted one month,
seize at the top and leaking at the handle. Dealer says, send it back, you
should have a new one in a month or so if the original one is still on
warranty and we can prove it's defective, yea, summer will be finish when I
am gone a receive the other one!
Another one, all pushrod seal change before my trip (with a sip of oil on
each) with new aftermarket pushrod tube, they all start leaking badly in San
Diego (4000miles later). They where suppose to be very good silicon
replacement O-Ring, no need to add any silicon sealant to them they told me,
well, I had a set of 16 spare one, I had to replace them with silicon (I
didn't take any chance), they lasted for the remaining 7000miles without
leaking at all. 4 hours of my vacation time on a campground to replace
those, should I try to charge (my time) back the part dealer? I guess not!
New alternator regulator put before my trip (50$), lasted 5000 miles,
burned! Lucky I had an old VW spare. I do have other part failure story,
read my trip, you will know! The dealer won't exchange the parts, am running
a used OEM VW one right now!
The conclusion:
I am somewhat pissed off that I have to by cheap stuff to keep driving my
Bus, and not so inexpensive I should add. I don't have the choice! It's
aftermarket or nothing (for most of it). I am sure that most retailers are
doing their best, but they should remove articles (parts) that don't do the
job when a customer complains. But I like my old 73, I will deal with that
for the moment. But am better off with some used VW parts than new cheap
aftermarket one. They can sell whatever they want, we love our bus/van so
much that we are willing to try anything that could work to keep on driving,
sometime, at our own cost!
You can agree or not, this is my personal experience so far! I didn't bash
anyone also, like always, just for the sake of a nice discussion.
Best regards and have a good day, Ben
http://www3.sympatico.ca/huotx/engine1.htm
http://www.eurokitplane.com/intro.htm
-------------------------------------
I recently paid $55.00 labor to a independent VW shop to remove the gland
nut, replace the front seal, retorque the flywheel. Since this required a
big impact wrench, big socket, special tools to get proper torque, I
consider it a bargain. It took less than 15 minutes. Sure glad these folks
are around to handle my special needs.
Stan Wilder
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