Car Rant!
So I was out to dinner with a few friends last night and we all work in the automotive business in one way or another and are generally all car guys. Well one friend brought his buddy who proceeded to go off on us about how mad he was that he had to bring his Audi S4 to the dealer for warrenty work and all this and that and how he thought Audi build better cars......... Blah Blah.
Are you kidding me? I am sick of always hearing people bitch about every rattle and little problem they have with their BMW, Merc, or other cars. A car is a mechanical device. They have thousands of moving parts and brands like BMW are extremely complex in build and electronics. It is unrealistic to think that they will operate flawess all the time. Even a shopping cart will develope a wobbly or stuck wheel at some point in its lifetime. The belief that some poeple have that if they buy from a premium brand that the car should be perfect is pure nonsense. These people obviously buy them for status only. People who own a Ferrari will tell you that they are not the most reliable cars on the planet, however they are more then just the sum of their parts, it is how the car makes you feel. I have a client who owns a 08 Rolls Phantom Coupe. It has been back to the dealer 3 times since he bought it ( the closest dealer is over 1000KM away) mostly for electrical issues. He doesnt care though. He understands the point I am attempting to make. One thing he said to me was " I dont mind that the car has a few problems, because when I do express a concern, the dealer corrects the problem quickly and always attempts to make up for the product failing in the first place and that is something I do expect when owning a car like this."
That is something I totally agree with. Whenever I have had a problem with my 1 series or our Merc CLK, the dealers are professional and fix the problem, treat me great and never argue with me regarding the concern I have expressed. This to me is way more important then having a boring, drabb car that when there is a problem is extremely stressful to have corrected. Case in point is my sisters Civic. When she had a problem with the car, it was like pulling teeth to get them to fix the vehicle under warrenty and all they did was seem to blame her for the problem. Anyone who has been following the Toyota and Lexus recall, they seem to do the same thing.
Just love the car you have and enjoy it. If you really are a car fan, the problems you may have every now and then are nothing compared to the fun you have when all is well.
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