Cars We Drive!

[A Y]

There is some truth to this. A mechanic's car is their CV. what they drive, how they drive, tells you what they are about. regardless of their income, or years in the game.

It sounds like I'm screwed then because my mechanic rides his bicycle to work.

Are they just following protocol? or are they actively students of the art?

To be more serious, I think you are freighting a mechanic's job with some level of artisanal romance that's not uncommon on these fora. Sure, sometimes a car has a mysterious issue or a delicate area that requires specialized knowledge and experience, but for the most part, car maintenance across marques and models are more alike than not.

My BMW just went over 189k miles, of which the first 100K were dealer maintained, and the remaining maintained by an independent. It also has something like 5000-8000 track miles on it as well as some of my own shadetree work (brakes mostly), and is a daily driver. I change its oil and filter approximately every 7500 miles, give or take (usually give) throughout its entire life, using synthetic 5W30 of different brands, mostly depending on what my mechanic has on hand.

It still has its original clutch, and has had the usual E46 issues, but aside from a leaking head gasket, nothing oil-related has ever happened to the car. The engine does not consume oil nor does it leak any of it. I don't know how much power it makes these days, but it still gets the same mileage around town and on the freeway as it did when new. I try to do sensible maintenance on it, but don't stress if I happen to miss an interval by a little bit.

The last things I did to it were to replace its driver side mirror (my idiocy) and the throttle pedal whose plastic hinge broke. I'm frankly amazed that hinge, which is just a piece of thin plastic with a fold creased in it, lasted so long.

Air filter- the cheapest worthwhile performance upgrade you can do.

Nah. It's a great way to mess with your engine though if you're not on top of its maintenance.

Brake pads- Do you want the cheapest blocks of wood that OEM offers? or do you want to really stop when you need to? It goes on.. .

For the kind of cars we talk about here, OEM brake pads are very good especially BMWs and Porsches. The only reason to go 3rd party is either to reduce dust or if you are a good enough track driver to stress your brakes (and I don't mean by misuse as most track n00bs tend to do). There is good reason though to use better brake fluid than OEM if you track. Fluid and tires are the best ways to upgrade your car's braking performance.

 

[nootje]

As for the oil changes and mechanics, here’s one to decifer.

The guy I go to specializes in MB, gets trained in the new software yearly and does have some ‘tricks’ up his sleeve. One of the things he does well is combining the fault codes, it happens almost weekly that friendly garages bring problem vehicles to him, he does a diagnostics check and can tell what the issue is right away. That does require a better understanding of the engines and systems around it though. A fun one was when a dealer contacted him for a SL63 AMG they had traded in that kept giving fault codes no matter what their mechanics did, it cost him about half an hour to figure out they had traded in three different ones made into one vehicle.. another ‘trick’ pertains the engine oil. The OM642 diesel V6 engine can eventually get catastrophic chain slippage once you get into higher mileage. To combat this happening, and he still maintains that it never happened to an engine on his watch, he uses 10w60 instead of 10w40 for oil changes. Nevermind that he’s the only garage willing to fix the engine if it does happen, dealers will recommend an engine swap in that case.. think 2k vs 8k repair.

And he drives an older diesel V6 Vito.

how does that fit the stereotypes?

 

[HRoi]

Air “filters” can be awesome if you do it right

 

[Texasmade]

In memory of better times . . .

Large in your face grills aren’t always bad...

 

[clee1982]

Well the upside is now front license plate is a must.

the best large grill they have done as of late is the CSL homage, though it’s slanted back, so probably can’t pass the pedestrian safety rules these days

 

[rocks]

As for the oil changes and mechanics, here’s one to decifer.

The guy I go to specializes in MB, gets trained in the new software yearly and does have some ‘tricks’ up his sleeve. One of the things he does well is combining the fault codes, it happens almost weekly that friendly garages bring problem vehicles to him, he does a diagnostics check and can tell what the issue is right away. That does require a better understanding of the engines and systems around it though. A fun one was when a dealer contacted him for a SL63 AMG they had traded in that kept giving fault codes no matter what their mechanics did, it cost him about half an hour to figure out they had traded in three different ones made into one vehicle.. another ‘trick’ pertains the engine oil. The OM642 diesel V6 engine can eventually get catastrophic chain slippage once you get into higher mileage. To combat this happening, and he still maintains that it never happened to an engine on his watch, he uses 10w60 instead of 10w40 for oil changes. Nevermind that he’s the only garage willing to fix the engine if it does happen, dealers will recommend an engine swap in that case.. think 2k vs 8k repair.

And he drives an older diesel V6 Vito.

how does that fit the stereotypes?

Love live the E46, I drove mine to just under 200k miles and sold it in 2016. Today I drive an M340I RWD and wouldn't even trust keeping it beyond the the 3 years I leased it for. These turbo BMW's are quick but no where as reliable as an NA inline 6.

 

[Beckwith]

What the hell is that thing? We need to keep discussing ring times and 0-60 time sin this thread as much as possible, cause apparently Elon reads Stylefo. After all this talk, my car will be faster in the next two weeks from a software upgrade.

Air “filters” can be awesome if you do it right

View attachment 1265415

 

[HRoi]

It’s something that sucks wind and emits a high volume of air....just like Elon

 

[clee1982]

Love live the E46, I drove mine to just under 200k miles and sold it in 2016. Today I drive an M340I RWD and wouldn't even trust keeping it beyond the the 3 years I leased it for. These turbo BMW's are quick but no where as reliable as an NA inline 6.

Thought B58 is pretty reliable

 

[rocks]

Reliable, for how long? I leased mine for 3 yrs/36k miles. Upkeep in the longterm will be expensive, maybe that's what I meant to say.

 

[Beckwith]

Touche HRoi. He has been a lot quieter in the past few months and I think that is partially reflected in the stock. That said, guy says he is gonna get a rocket to go and come back down and use it again, done, fly people to the ISS and bring the rocket back, done produce the worlds fastest production car for $250K, almost done.

It’s something that sucks wind and emits a high volume of air....just like Elon

 

[HRoi]

Dat Roadster is probably the only Tesla product (besides the home solar panels, but that’s off topic) that potentially excites me. But they have to understand that at that price point, it’s gonna have to be more than just performance. At the very least they need to come with vastly, vastly better interiors than what they make now. And I’m not sure how they’re going to address the wants of $250k sportscar customers on sound, steering and full-envelope, sustained performance. At least i hear that they’re pretty capable of making a sweet-handling car on the track...

 

[Piobaire]

My hunch is people buying that car will not care about interiors as much as people buying ICE 250k cars. It's just like the people buying the current crop of Teslas, as let's face it, the Model S has improved but still doesn't match up to comparably priced sedans for interiors as well as fit and finish. I'm not a Tesla hater in the least, and would happily drive a Model S if it fit my use needs and presented a good value proposition on a lease, so don't think I'm bashing them just to bash them.

 

[Beckwith]

+1 Piob on the fit and finish and the target audience of the roadster. There will be a subset of buyers who want the absolute fastest regardless of interiors. A bit out of my wheelhouse and need at the moment, but it will attract a buyer group that will be rather large. I am going to flip my 3 for the Y next fall as that will fit my needs a bit better.

 

[clee1982]

Well I intend to keep my 540 for a while, didn’t get 550 because I don’t need it and base on limited research seems B58 is the most reliable “bigger” engine (didn’t want 530) in the line up

Reliable, for how long? I leased mine for 3 yrs/36k miles. Upkeep in the longterm will be expensive, maybe that's what I meant to say.

guess I'll find, intend to keep my 540 for a while...