Re: Feds Investigate Toyota Highway-Speed Random Stalling Problem

Toyota, Honda, BMW and others have found F1 racing a bit rich for their blood, especially when the global market is as distressed as it is now.

The F1 teams may be set up in different ways, some with direct factory sponsorship, and other that are privately owned and may use components such as engines from some of the major manufacturers.

We are talking about budgets of several hundred million dollars per year in some of these cases.

If you are not winning a world championship, or in that league, you might wonder why you would spend this kind of money...and you may well decide to get out of racing.

It is a bit of a shame that a major sophisticated company like BMW couldnt be a success in F1....an embarassment maybe.

Ross Brawn took over the Honda effort and used the Mercedes power plant. He and the team won the World Constructors championship and the World Driving championship, coming from nowhere.

Bottom line...there is an immense amount of prestige and fame that comes from competing well in this sport. It has made Ferrari and McLaren Mercedes into legends. You can also lose your magic beans in trying to keep up with the really serious players.

Toyota opted out. Too bad, but probably the right business decision. Honda left last year, after a very embarassing time in the sport.

This is no poorboy sport, and I am not sure who, if anyone, makes any money from it, other than the drivers.

If you are cruising along on the Interstates at the top legal speed and if an 18 wheeler is nosing your tail and if your car stalls/engine quits running,,,,,, cuhulin

snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net wrote in news:29129-4B20349B-175@storefull-

There's a Sprint car driver in hospital right now. That's exactly what happened to him, except it was the car in FRONT that stalled.

And since Sprint cars are direct-drive, that car came to an almost instant dead-stop. Travis Rutz was immediately behind this particular car, and crashed into him.

Travis Rutz is still in a coma.

On Wed, 9 Dec 2009 23:39:45 +0000 (UTC), Tegger wrote:

Only dealership I ever dealt with was Tom Todd Chevrolet in Wheeling, IL. Bought my '88 Celebrity there in Feb of '91, and a 2-yr warranty for $450, their cost. Right there was a good start. The used car guy had told me the car was still under warranty, but when I did the financing, turned out it wasn't because the dealership had taken ownership after the first owner traded it in so they could use it for a loaner. Finance guy called in the big boss in and they quickly offered me the warranty at cost. That paid for itself the first year with a PS pump replacement. The car had been dead quiet, and I started hearing the pump. Took it in and a mech jumped in the passenger seat to hear what I heard. Said "Yep. Needs a new pump." Went to work in their courtesy car and picked it up that afternoon. Brought it in the next morning because I could hear a different noise. Mech jumped in passenger seat and I drove out in the parking lot and right away he said they put on the wrong hoses for the new pump. Courtesy car to work, and after work it wasn't ready, so they gave me a loaner because they had to keep it overnight. Good for a year, then it failed emissions. Ran fine and quiet though. Took it in and they replaced a bad injector, put in new wires and plugs, and told me to use OEM AC plugs. I had but Bosch in it. Probably didn't even need plugs, but I was used to doing them once or twice a year on my carbed, points ignition cars I'd had until then. Couldn't adjust I guess, and had to tinker. Took it in once more when a power window switch failed. Every time it cost me a 50 buck deductible. A bargain overall. Oddly, after the warranty expired it never needed any work the warranty would have covered. Just normal brake work, and I put new front coils and a dogbone in it. And an alt. I beat that car to death for 10 years. But it didn't die, it rusted away. Still the best car I ever had. If I could buy a new one today, I wouldn't hesitate for a second. That dealership died some years ago. Don't know why. I got real good service from them. They actually sent me customer service surveys/questionaires. I think the key to dealerships is finding one with a good rep, and close to home or work. Make sure they have a service to get you to and from work, and provide a loaner if they keep the car overnight. Doesn't get better than that. Assuming the problems are infrequent and fixed the first time. The first clue is the service manager. He's the key to the operation. If he's a slug nobody will come out alive.

--Vic

We had a bunch of them in our fleet back then. They were one of the best cars GM has made. Mostly bulletproof.

Every one of my graduates and buddies that work at dealerships get the cars service history and tsb histories before the open the hood. Most of the TSBs are factory paid and gravy for the technicians, and the perform all tsb stuff before anything else. Thats BMW, Honda, Ford, MBZ, Hyundai, Kia and VW/Audi. Maybe its a SoCal thing. I do a tsb search on Mitchel on demand on every car that my students service prior to any work. HTH Ben

It is a quality thing. Any dealership should strive toward quality in what they do. Some achieve it, some just pimp a brand.