European Car Ownership

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Aug 30, 2004
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I think FRM sums up the situation fairly well and his experience matches mine. In the indy world, you see a lot of European car owners who purchase the cars secondhand for Camry/Accord money but also expect the car to have the same upkeep costs of an economy car.
 
The man is an idiot IMO. He is prejudging every customer, if they dont want to go to the dealer then they are a low class of customer, what kind of person is that?
Explain to the person the job will be this much and possible a bit more if this or that also needs to be replaced or service, surprisingly they seem to understand. I do a lot of strange Euro cars and charge a fair price (not working so much anymore at my age) I explain in detail what has to be done and what possibly may be wrong once it is opened up.

This joker doesnt know what he doing with these cars, he cant anticipate the other issues that may be around the corner with the job so he gets caught with his pants down, plays the victim and the customer is the cheap bad guy.
 
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Around here, my local Euro indy shop charges a diagnosis fee, which varies based on complexity of the issue, but is usually no more than 1 hour of labor (around $100), and after that they present the customer with a fairly accurate estimate of what it'll cost to repair. And at that point the customer either says "go ahead" or "no, thanks" and pays the $100 and takes the car home. This way the shop doesn't lose money either way, and so they don't care if it's a "tier 1, 2, or 3" customer.

In this video, FRM comes across as poorly equipped to service Euro cars, or he just doesn't have the right process in place. He also talks too much. What he tried to convey in 9 minutes could have been captured in 1.

Not sure if it's his usual style or just this one video, but he comes off as very arrogant, mister know-it-all. Based on this video alone, I don't think I'd want his shop working on my car.
 
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I totally get what he is talking about Tier 1 / Tier 2, and Tier 3 customers. But frankly, I cannot see how he distinguishes between brands. Doesn't matter. Tier 3 customers could buy a BMW just as easy as an Audi or a Land Rover or a Mercedes. Regardless of brand, there are always going to be those that go into owning a European luxury car without being educated on the risks.

I don't buy his line that BMW drivers are more willing to drop money into their car than a Mercedes driver. Or a Jag driver. Or an Audi.

Any car guy recognizes all the BMWs that can be seen parked in a driveway, or alongside a house, or in the street. The ones that haven't moved in months, sometimes years. These are the cars that someone was super excited about buying because they were going to drive a BMW for the price of an Accord. Then they find out that their BMW is one with a bad engine or bad electronics. They don't have any repair skills of their own. And they can't begin to afford to to pay someone else to fix it. So it sits in the driveway while they continue to make payments on it.

The local news recently ran a short human interest story about a young 20 something kid from the town I live in, who bought a high mileage Audi A4. No PPI. The car he had dreamed about for years. Within two weeks the timing belt failed. He blamed the dealership because the salesman told him the car was in great shape. Now he has a $5k - $6k bill to get a new engine.

This kid went in to his Audi purchase unprepared. If he had done his research he would have known that timely replacement of the timing belt is critical. This kid had no business buying an Audi. He didn't do his homework.
 
Did not listen to him … but working with a guy who bought a 5 year old 7 series cheap … why? Massive electronic system and previous owner had all kinds of modules replaced … but kept killings batteries. It continued when he bought it.
He finally routed in heavy wire and a hidden Perko switch … never looked back.
(does not have an alarm, but hard to steal) …
 
To me, being business oriented means treating your customers with some humility and respect. He seems like a jackass.

I've dealt guys who come across like this in the past, and they generally wanted huge money and didn't understand what they were looking at. He's mocking the Range Rover about the body coming off, but that's super common with body-on-frame. Would he have the same attitude if it was a Ford?

The attitude is a huge red flag.
 
I think his comments about customers comes off a bit blunt and crass, but he's probably right on the money when it comes to making money and keeping customers happy in that line of work. We'd all probably say the same things if we had to work with some of those "third tier" customers.
 
On the other hand these third tier customers have sold me their cars cheap because they couldn't afford to fix them, even the parts at a discount were too much.

One (an old new style Beetle) is getting converted into a mini truck, just think of it as a VW Ridgeline. LOL
I don't know anyone who could be a tier one customer on vehicles like this. Everyone is willing to spend money on their cars but none of them can afford German car repairs.
 
In the comments section we can find a Tier 0 technician.

“I had a 2018 Mercedes G550 AWD in last week. They just wanted to look at the vehicle before purchasing. When I had it in the air the front axle was nothing like anything I had ever seen. Big spheres at each wheel that looked like a ball and socket setup for steering knuckles. After they left I looked it up on Alldata and could not find info for this vehicle. This is the biggest reason I don’t like working on European junk.”

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
 
I totally get what he is talking about Tier 1 / Tier 2, and Tier 3 customers. But frankly, I cannot see how he distinguishes between brands. Doesn't matter. Tier 3 customers could buy a BMW just as easy as an Audi or a Land Rover or a Mercedes. Regardless of brand, there are always going to be those that go into owning a European luxury car without being educated on the risks.

I don't buy his line that BMW drivers are more willing to drop money into their car than a Mercedes driver. Or a Jag driver. Or an Audi.

Any car guy recognizes all the BMWs that can be seen parked in a driveway, or alongside a house, or in the street. The ones that haven't moved in months, sometimes years. These are the cars that someone was super excited about buying because they were going to drive a BMW for the price of an Accord. Then they find out that their BMW is one with a bad engine or bad electronics. They don't have any repair skills of their own. And they can't begin to afford to to pay someone else to fix it. So it sits in the driveway while they continue to make payments on it.

The local news recently ran a short human interest story about a young 20 something kid from the town I live in, who bought a high mileage Audi A4. No PPI. The car he had dreamed about for years. Within two weeks the timing belt failed. He blamed the dealership because the salesman told him the car was in great shape. Now he has a $5k - $6k bill to get a new engine.

This kid went in to his Audi purchase unprepared. If he had done his research he would have known that timely replacement of the timing belt is critical. This kid had no business buying an Audi. He didn't do his homework.

Many people that buy high end used cars don't do their homework and only after they own it, they find out these vehicles need thousands of dollars of expensive repairs.

I'll stick to the cheaper cars to own and repair. There is nobody I'm trying to impress with what's parked in my driveway.
 
In the comments section we can find a Tier 0 technician.

“I had a 2018 Mercedes G550 AWD in last week. They just wanted to look at the vehicle before purchasing. When I had it in the air the front axle was nothing like anything I had ever seen. Big spheres at each wheel that looked like a ball and socket setup for steering knuckles. After they left I looked it up on Alldata and could not find info for this vehicle. This is the biggest reason I don’t like working on European junk.”

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Agreed, another village must be missing its idiot. I wouldn’t let that so-called tech come near any of my cars.
 
Even cheap Volkswagens and Fiats have the same high costs as the expensive Euro cars :cry:

How is the Saturn Astra to work on? Also a German car (as are a few other GM cars, like the Regal, Verano, and Saturn L-series)
 
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FRM on BMW's is sensitive, and failure is caused by owner. They play with electronics not knowing what they doing. Their are coding using shady softwares. They are jumping cars directly from battery not using ports under the hood, etc. etc.
If they could only open manual, or pay for reliable softwares and not trying to save $50.
As for this guy. Idiotx4.
 
I don't know anyone who could be a tier one customer on vehicles like this. Everyone is willing to spend money on their cars but none of them can afford German car repairs.

It is all relative. Millions of average Germans own domestic cars (German cars) and have no big problems getting them serviced and repaired. That is something to think about.
 
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