Fancy cars with no gas in them.

[Allaneddie]

 

[earlyre]

one lady mom used to work with was driving a new Lincoln MKVIII... you know, this guy:

as I said.. brand new... one day she said she was going to "give the car a Treat" by putting a whole $5 worth in the tank...
this would have been around....1996(?) national average gas was around $1.20/gal...

 

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

Myself and a co-worker joke about how 99% of all the German and other "high end" cars on the road only have a full tank of gas and all 4 matching tires a couple times in their life - when they are sold new and when they are sold used at Carmax....

 

[Oillover]

It could have to do with gas prices.

Or the "living" prices.

 

[k1xv]

I tend to top off the tank any time it is at 1/2 or less, and I am going past a known cheaper station.

We have one station around here that sells ExxonMobil 93 for about 50 cents a gallon less than any other station's 93. I don't know why they sell it so cheap, but its connected to an independent Supermarket in a small town. Maybe its a come on to get people to shop in the supermarket.

 

[97prizm]

Don't know about VWs but when I bought my 17 Buick then my 19 Caddy and even my 24 wife's Yukon they were all in transport mode when I bought them. Dealer told me in transport mode the battery has less drain on them when sitting on the lot and they are supposed to leave it that way till sold, it never affected the speed while test driving them. When I go on vacation that is longer than 2 weeks(sometimes a month) I put my vehicle in transport mode when left at airport parking lot to save battery life so the computers don't all drain the battery. Even Onstar or XM is not activated fully until bought.

Oh wow! How do you put your vehicle back into transport mode? I thought that required some type of dealership software/hardware.

 

[SC Maintenance]

I like to run mine down till the light comes on about once a month - out with the old. Of course no one would ever call my rides Fancy.

 

[vavavroom]

Or the "living" prices.

Theft is at an all-time high. That includes fuel.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Sorry sis, can't come get you. You've run out of gas X times already (I'd start with 3 personally) and I'm not rescuing you from your own stupidity anymore. But I'm mean I guess.

You would go get your sister the 8th time - just like I would. And complain the whole time.

 

[LDB]

You would go get your sister the 8th time - just like I would. And complain the whole time.

I actually don't have any living siblings. And if I did, no, by the fourth time they'd either have learned or be given up as unteachable.

 

[grisby]

Oh wow! How do you put your vehicle back into transport mode? I thought that required some type of dealership software/hardware

This is a copy and paste from TSB that I got from the dealer when I bought my car. This works on my 17 Buick and 19 Caddy, have not tried the GMC yet as have not took it on any extended trips where it will sit a while.

To turn the Transport Mode On/Off, it will be necessaryto start the vehicle, activate the hazard flashers, pressthe brake pedal (automatic transmission) or clutchpedal (manual transmission) then press and hold theStart/Stop button or turn the ignition key to the crankposition for 15 seconds. (The engine will turn OFF onpush button vehicles.) The same steps are used to turnon the feature

 

[eljefino]

There are a bunch of different transport mode implementations. Sometimes it's a couple fuses need inserting. Sometimes it happens regardless until the odometer hits 25 miles. It'd be cool if the alternator ran at 15.1 volts then, too, since you know the car will only be on for a minute at a time.

 

[proveitwithdata]

For toyotas isnt there a fuse they takeout to activate their transport mode?

 

[Chris142]

Being that we are in close proximity to the San Andreas fault I always keep enough fuel in my car to get home. I may have to go around broken bridges and what not

 

[priler]

Then there's the other side of the coin. Customer brings in car with 100% full tank for an issue that requires no test driving, customer leaves, car fixed but 1/4 tank missing and more miles on odometer.

 

[GSCJR]

Fancy car, yes.

Expensive? No.

The depreciation on that car (and it’s a W220, made between 2000-2006) has been fierce- they’re worth less than 10% of their original price.

So they’re often bought by “posers” who want to look like they have money and are attracted to the low price, not realizing what they are getting into.

And then they find out that there is nothing more expensive to fix than a cheap Mercedes.

So, 90% chance that the owner of this car doesn’t actually have much money. They bought it cheap, don’t do the maintenance properly, and will complain about the cost of repair… 90%…

Perfection

 

[GSCJR]

fun tidbit, everytime i needed a fuel pump repair or gas tank repair the fuel gauge reads full...

I hated it when that happened.

 

[Nick1994]

Another thing I never understood is why people only put in $20 of gas or so at a time. I don't want to spend my time going to the gas station every other day. I guess if you've gotta buy that pack of Pall Mall Menthols everyday you might as well toss in some gas while you're at it.

 

[supton]

You mean, E doesn't mean Enough?

FWIW, I usually run to around there. But I fill up once a week, sometimes more, and we have gas stations every 10 miles or less. And I fill to the top (when I had my VW I'd fill literally to the brim for max cruising range). But I can't imagine taking it to a shop with a tank that low, I'd fill it up before then, if I expected them to do any diagnosis--or I wouldn't blame them if they charged me $5 or $10 to add a gallon or two, on account of my foolishness.

 

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

Then there's the other side of the coin. Customer brings in car with 100% full tank for an issue that requires no test driving, customer leaves, car fixed but 1/4 tank missing and more miles on odometer.

I recently acquired a used boat that had not been run in 2 years. It had about 17 gallons of 2+ year old gas in it. I pumped out about 14-15 gallons the best I could. I did a 300 hour service on it (even though it probably has less than 100 hours on it). I thought it was ready to go, stopped by the gas station on the way to the lake, put 20 gallons in it (a little less than 2/3 of a tank) and go to the ramp/marina.

Boat wouldn't run well, I left it there for the service department to figure out. Took them about 3+ hours in labor, new plugs and remove/clean/replace injectors. I go pick it up 3 days later and me and the wife go out on the boat for a few hours. Next thing I know, the fuel light is on. How did we burn 20 gallons of fuel? I didn't take notice of the fuel gauge when we launched. I suspect the service department ran the boat a good while during those 3 hours....

It wasn't a big deal, their charge was over $750 for 4 plugs, the diagnosis and cleaning of the injectors. $60 in fuel was a drop in the bucket.