WTF? This is progress?

[calcot7]

How many Mercury Milan / Ford Fusion owners have gone to replace a tail light bulb only to find out that it's gonna' be a $500.00 repair? We took my daughters car into the dealership (TWF) because it was stalling out and they discovered that the tail light / brake light was not working. So on top of the $800.00 some kind of valve repair I have to get thouroughly screwed on the tail light assembly. On top of that they also recommend the replacement of a tire that has impact damage and a big chunk out of the sidewall. My daughter did admit to hitting a very large chuck hole awhile back. I wouldn't have normally let the dealer replace the tire but since the car was there and they had a tire that matched I O.K.'D the replacement. I did decline on the tail light replacement pending further investigation. So after $1000.00 repair cost, plus a $75.00 tow my daughter takes off from the dealership to go to work. Ten minutes later I get the call. The car is stalled at a stoplight. The dealers response......"It must be something else......" I am really P. O.ed! But anyway......Anyone have any input or shared experience on the tail light issue?

 

[Bigtanker]

Are the tail lights LED? If so, that's why the dealer charged you $500. You could get one on eBay or Amazon for less that half.

Did a quick Google search and these lights a prone to going out prematurely. And since they are LED, can't just change the bulb.

 

[BiscuitNaBasket]

Gf drives a mercury Milan 2008. No tail light issues. Not LED.

 

[kawtech87]

If they run the code machine on it and they tell you there is a "massive leak in the evaporation system" tell them to put your gas cap back on.

A friend of mine used to be an auto mechanic at a local dealer garage. He told me the service managers were always telling them to pull stuff like that to drum up service money. He was fired for refusing to preform false repairs.

Find yourself a good independent mechanic or do your own service to the extent you feel you can. Avoid dealer service centers like the plague.

As to your problem, does your daughter use the original key or does she have a copy of the original that she uses? A lot of modern keys have transponders in them and will not allow the vehicle to start or may cause stalling if the transponder is either weak in the original or not a signal that is recognized by the ECU of the vehicle, like in a copy that has not been registered to the ECU. It is an anti-theft feature some cars have.

 

[Hogwylde]

Try replacing the HID assembly for the headlight on a Prius. That will run you a grand. My sister just drives around with one headlight for this very reason.

 

[Leadeye]

Stealership, the name says it all.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Funny (!) thing is, the LEDs should never go out during the life of the vehicle, so it's probably a circuit board misdesign.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Newsflash: Cars are designed to be difficult for the average person to trouble-shoot and repair. Cars are designed to have cool gadgets and stuff that attract buyers when they are new, but that often turn out to be money pits after a few years and many miles.

I just put a new water pump on a 2004 Sebring. The water pump on that engine is inside the engine, behind the timing chain, which you can't just take off and put back on without it's own idiosyncrasies and concerns. I spent $350.00 just on the parts, coolant, oil, gaskets and stuff, and it took me more than 3 entire days to do (since I'm basically a shade-tree mechanic). That repair would have cost well over $1000 at a dealership.

I feel like I should get a T-shirt that says: I fixed the timing chain and water pump on a Chrysler V6 - And it still runs!

 

[HoughMade]

Sounds like a mechanic has a boat payment due.

Cars are more complex than they used to be, but cars used to get tired by 80,000 miles and be about completely worn out at 100,000.

200+hp and 30 mpg? Not unusual these days, but try finding that in 1990. My minivan has has almost 300hp and will get 32 mpg on the highway. Read an old car mag from 1980 and you'll see econoboxes praised for 24 mpg with 60 hp. My Silverado has 70,000 miles and looks and drives like the day it drove off the lot.

I remember our family's first car with air conditioning- not easy to find one without now. No power steering or brakes? People won't buy them like that new, so very, very few are sold. They are selling what we will buy...and expensive though they are, they're a much better product than they used to be in about every measure....except for styling in some cases.

 

[BogWalker]

I've got a vehicle from 1978 that has had fewer problems than any of the newer used vehicles we've owned. There's something to be said about simplicity.

I've also got a late '70s Jeep CJ7 we use on the farm. It's a total rust bucket that has had several problems, but all of these problems have been fixed with hand tools and parts that can be had at the automotives store for a fair price.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I remember the good old days when I changed the spark plugs on my 1966 Mustang using only an adjustable wrench and taking about 10 minutes.

I also remember one brand new S10 I bought in '96 that I had to take back to the dealership because the wipers wouldn't work without major chattering. Then I drove my dad's old classic '63 Buick Riviera a few days later, with dried up old wiper blades that still worked perfectly.

 

[Doug]

Cars used to be pretty worn out by "100,000" miles. Many think its because by that time they had had 5 owners and each one took 20,000-30,000 miles off the odometer when he sold it!
Government regulations have an effect, too; soon it will be impossible to buy a new vehicle without a back-up camera.

I never saw anything easier to maintain than the flat-head six in my '52 Plymouth with the oil bath air cleaner.

 

[88GT]

Newsflash: Cars are designed to be difficult for the average person to trouble-shoot and repair. Cars are designed to have cool gadgets and stuff that attract buyers when they are new, but that often turn out to be money pits after a few years and many miles.

I just put a new water pump on a 2004 Sebring. The water pump on that engine is inside the engine, behind the timing chain, which you can't just take off and put back on without it's own idiosyncrasies and concerns. I spent $350.00 just on the parts, coolant, oil, gaskets and stuff, and it took me more than 3 entire days to do (since I'm basically a shade-tree mechanic). That repair would have cost well over $1000 at a dealership.

I feel like I should get a T-shirt that says: I fixed the timing chain and water pump on a Chrysler V6 - And it still runs!

I hear ya. I gave this exact speech to Mr88GT when he was considering the 2011 GT last summer.

Sounds like a mechanic has a boat payment due.

Cars are more complex than they used to be, but cars used to get tired by 80,000 miles and be about completely worn out at 100,000.

200+hp and 30 mpg? Not unusual these days, but try finding that in 1990. My minivan has has almost 300hp and will get 32 mpg on the highway. Read an old car mag from 1980 and you'll see econoboxes praised for 24 mpg with 60 hp. My Silverado has 70,000 miles and looks and drives like the day it drove off the lot.

I remember our family's first car with air conditioning- not easy to find one without now. No power steering or brakes? People won't buy them like that new, so very, very few are sold. They are selling what we will buy...and expensive though they are, they're a much better product than they used to be in about every measure....except for styling in some cases.

In 1908 maybe.

 

[HoughMade]

I sold used cars from 1992-1995. At that time, we had a very few vehicles that were over 200,000 miles, and those were always horrible (with the exception of a couple of diesels). At 100,000 miles, the vehicles needed quite a bit of looking after and very few people, even bargain hunters, would buy them.

Today, 100,000 miles isn't a big deal to many people and cars at 200,000 are not nearly as horrible as they were 20 years ago.

Step back 10 years before that to the carburetor era, and a 120,000 mile nice car was a rare commodity, indeed.

http://blog.allstate.com/high-mileage-cars-200000-is-the-new-100000/

 

[PaulF]

I hear ya. I gave this exact speech to Mr88GT when he was considering the 2011 GT last summer.


In 1908 maybe.

It's actually much more accurate than you may think. Talk to a mechanic in his sixties, and ask him how many times he has replaced rings on an engine. Many could honestly say "thousands". Ask that same question to a mechanic in his thirties...many will have never done bottom-end work.

You can buy a car today, drive for a hundred thousand miles and never replace anything...no spark plugs, no valve lash adjustments...no rope oil seals. In 1969 the mean age of in-service automobiles was a little over 5 (years). In 2007 that number is over 11.

Cars have gotten "better". It just depends on how you define "better".

 

[Leadeye]

Car on the left, 425 HP gets 25 mpg driving, car on the right 425 HP gets 8 mpg driving. Times have changed and for the better, but I still don't like all the electronic goodies. I bought the GT with as few electric options as I could.

 

[ModernGunner]

MOST of the time 'regular maintenance', or rather a lack thereof, is the issue. Most folks just 'jump in and drive 'em' and, except for maybe oil changes, don't fix or replace anything until the vehicle is 'broken'.

I grew up with mechanics. Dad, Brother, godfather, Dads buddies, Brothers buddies. ALL working mechanics but also 'shade-tree' mechanics. So, 'preventive' maintenance is somewhat ingrained. Change the battery, tires, fluids, plugs & wires (etc.), alternator, light bulbs, a/c system, and so forth before they're due, or quit working. Glaze twice a year, wax regularly (modern glazes and waxes are amazing), vacuum and / or wash carpets and mats a couple times a year, etc.

13 year old Blazer pretty much still looks great. No rust, everything works. Just wish I could get the Lady to QUIT parking against the curb by 'feel' and scrubbing off the raised white letters! Oh well, at least it almost always has a 'new' set of tires on it!

 

[88GT]

It's actually much more accurate than you may think. Talk to a mechanic in his sixties, and ask him how many times he has replaced rings on an engine. Many could honestly say "thousands". Ask that same question to a mechanic in his thirties...many will have never done bottom-end work.

You can buy a car today, drive for a hundred thousand miles and never replace anything...no spark plugs, no valve lash adjustments...no rope oil seals. In 1969 the mean age of in-service automobiles was a little over 5 (years). In 2007 that number is over 11.

Cars have gotten "better". It just depends on how you define "better".

I've never seen a car that didn't have to have something replaced on it before 100K miles. Cars may be better engineered, but they sure as hell aren't better built. And quality has done everything but increase.

Ask that same guy in his sixties how many of the cars he worked on had recalls.

 

[Bowman78]

I've never seen a car that didn't have to have something replaced on it before 100K miles. Cars may be better engineered, but they sure as hell aren't better built. And quality has done everything but increase.

Ask that same guy in his sixties how many of the cars he worked on had recalls.

Nhtsa didn't have quite the power and influence it does now... Old cars sucked on many levels!!! And some newer ones do also.. I've been a dealer tech for almost 18 years and have saw warranty repairs drop over 50% + in that timeframe.. Quality has went up price is ok and yes technology costs more to repair. All that said $500 for a tailamp assembly on a discontinued line seems cheap to me as I work on $6000 + diesel and gas engine jobs regularly... The highest so far under warranty ran just under $19k...

 

[Blown71X]

Last Saturday I replaced the overhead console on a `12 truck because one of the LED reading lamp modules (bulbs for you normal people LOL ) would go to disco mode whenever it felt like it,
They are not serviced outside of the console.
Nothing special, LED lights, Garage door opener and power rear slider switch, which did not come with new unit, Lights only.

The price.........740.00 Without labor.
For a piece of plastic.........Damn good thing it was still under warranty.

There is a reason I hang on to my `01 Diesel.


Rick..