Although I love life here I do get really angry when I see how the public are conned by car companies and oil companies etc
It’s because the economy is built on oil and the sale of oil to line the greedy pockets of Republicans. My first job here was as a car sales rep for Fords and the new Focus had just been launched, I orriginally launched the Focus in Europe and knew that the Zetec engine was made to go 10 to 15k between oil changes, Ford US altered the manuals to show a 3 t0 5 k max between oil changes just to sell oil no doubt.
The new Chevy Volt is a joke It does 40 miles on one charge and then uses a petrol engine … amazing or so they say The British version (the Vaxhall Ampira) will travel well over 100 miles and is supposed to be the same car ?
The Nissan Leaf does well over 140 miles before needing a recharge… does the US auto industry think the US public are so stupid that they don’t research things like this ?
All these cars are infact a waste of money and research because the future lays with fuel cell cars like the Honda Clarity.
Maybe Robbie is right about some things being wrong in this part of the world.
My car (a Dodge) has 6000km service intervals well that’s what it says in the book, I run synthetic oil in it, so it goes in twice a year for new oil, the rest of the crap they want to charge for, like checking and flushing the (sealed, therefore contamination proof) PAS system doesn’t get done
Pat, you’ve sold cars, I’ve sold trucks, we both know the dealers get their money from achieving targets set by the manufacturers & from finance commissions, not by making huge profits on selling new vehicles, that’s why they sell them so cheap & offer buy now, pay later deals, they also make their operating profits/cashflow through the service department, hence the ridiculously short service intervals
A gallon of engine oil here costs about $13.00 or even less, a gallon in the UK costs equivilent to about $50.00, if the US manufanturers told the truth oil sales would plummet, same as far as fuel comsumption goes, if Chevy built their useless Volt to european specs the oil companies would loose out big time … whats the point of a car that only travels 40 moles before needing either a charge or switching to a regular engine ?
Tests over here show that the Volt has the same average fuel consumption as a Toyota Prius so whats the point in investing all that bail out money in such a total pile of junk ?
Pat Hasler:
Although I love life here I do get really angry when I see how the public are conned by car companies and oil companies etc
It’s because the economy is built on oil and the sale of oil to line the greedy pockets of Republicans. My first job here was as a car sales rep for Fords and the new Focus had just been launched, I orriginally launched the Focus in Europe and knew that the Zetec engine was made to go 10 to 15k between oil changes, Ford US altered the manuals to show a 3 t0 5 k max between oil changes just to sell oil no doubt.
.
I was in a quick lube place once ( yes, i’m a lazy bugger ) and an elderly women brought her car in for an oil change, the tech asked how many miles on the car, she said 20 thousand, tech asked how many miles since last oil change, she said 20 thousand
The oil companies lost money on her
Trouble is that if you don’t get you rip off 3k oil change and something goes wrong your warranty is void.
They have you over a barrel just by altering things to sell more oil, The US Gov’t say’s they want to reduce the use of oil but they don’t really bacause Republicans have all their money invested in the stuff and they are not about to cut their own throats, if what they promised was true the Volt would get more miles under it’s electrical power than a measly 40 miles, it would equal the European version.
They think that even in this day and age people believe them without checking on the web.
The British version (the Vaxhall Ampira) will travel well over 100 miles and is supposed to be the same car ?
well that’s what it says in the book, I run synthetic oil in it, so it goes in twice a year for new oil, the rest of the crap they want to charge for, like checking and flushing the (sealed, therefore contamination proof) PAS system doesn’t get done 
