Answers to your car questions
QUESTION
Regarding oil changes: Back in the mid to late 60’s, my after school job was working at a Ford dealership, pre-delivering new and cleaning up used cars, including oil changes. So at an early age, I saw many filthy oil pans and black thick oil drain from the used vehicles. I promised myself back then that any vehicles or machines that I would own would have regular and clean oil to keep operating properly. Perhaps that is why on my former and now my son’s 05 Volvo wagon, the odometer reads over 400,000 kilometres and on my current 2011 Volvo XC70, I have well over 200,000 kilometres and the motors run quietly and smoothly on both vehicles. In 2003, my spouse purchased a new C230 Mercedes Compressor six-speed standard that she drove for 10 years. The engine did not have an oil dipstick to check oil level or quality, so we had to rely on the electronics to tell us if the engine was down on oil. The test for me was to rely on the dash message and then to pour a full quart of oil into the engine without a dipstick to measure if the engine actually needed a full quart or less. A leap of faith on electronics, much different from the old days!
Cheers, Paul Mailloux
ANSWER
Thanks Paul for taking me back to the good old days, if that is what we call it today. I remember when some cars did not have dipsticks and sometimes I would spend ten to twenty minutes looking for the dipstick and then finding out that it didn’t have one. I can still hear the technicians in the next bay verbally displaying their displeasure at the manufacturer for not having dipsticks in their cars. The longevity of vehicles with high mileage all have one thing in common; the owner regularly changed the oil based on the advice of their service provider rather than relying on the oil monitors.
QUESTION
Maybe you can help me! This problem deals with my daughter. She purchased a car from a used car dealer about two months ago and has not, as yet, put over twenty kilometres on the car. The unfortunate thing is that the day that she brought the car home, she found out that she had lost her job, as a result of the latest pandemic that we are all in. She has informed the dealer that she cannot afford the car now because she lost her job and all she got was their rhetoric, “she signed for and took delivery of the car.” When I called to plead with them, they told me that they could do nothing for me. What kind of a person takes this kind of advantage of a young girl that went from ecstatically happy to down right miserable, all in one day? Can you help?
A father in Halton
ANSWER
This story is a little more complicated than what you have described to us. First of all, she did not inform the dealer about her circumstances when she took the car back to the dealership. She just took the car back and left a note on the windshield that she did not want the car anymore and was going to stop any payments for the car. The used car dealer financed the car for her and told me that they had tried several times to reach your daughter but nobody answered the phone. They then sent your daughter a registered letter telling her that she had to pick up the car or they were going to start charging her storage. That registered letter prompted her boyfriend to step into the fray and that is when all correspondence stopped and the dealer is now suing your daughter. Most people, be it a used car dealer or anyone else that has a retail shop, never take kindly to insults and threats such as were perpetrated by the boyfriend. The dealer has told me that if your daughter had come back with the information that she had just lost her job, they could have worked with her in order to get her out of the deal, without the mess that she is now in. Dropping the car off and leaving a windshield message was not the correct thing to do if she wanted the dealer to help her out of her situation. Getting the boyfriend involved was even worse.
Even with all the abuse that the used car dealer has taken from her and her boyfriend, they are now still willing to work with your daughter to solve this without going to court, where she would surely lose. Here is what I have proposed to the dealer and they have agreed. To get out of the deal, I have suggested that your daughter pay the used car dealer’s cost, which is around five hundred dollars and they will take the car back without any further charge to your daughter. This is where you, as the father, comes in and helps her pay the five hundred dollars. Let this be a lesson to her that she should have taken responsibility for her actions and not rely on a passing boyfriend (mouthpiece) to solve her problems.
QUESTION
Is there a preference to storing winter tires that are mounted on rims in a vertical or horizontal position? I do not have room for a wall mounted tire rack so is stacking the tires on the floor in a vertical position a problem over the summer months?
Bob from Hamilton
ANSWER
Where possible, tires that are not mounted should be stored vertically rather than stacking them horizontally but to be honest, if you do not have the room, it is not going to harm the tires over the summer to stack them horizontally. Maybe half way over the storage time, you can reposition the tires. Mounted tires can be stored horizontally. More concern should be that mounted tires are stored in a dry area and wrapped in a plastic bag and sealed to keep out any moisture from settling between the tire and the rim, where rust can form over time. You might also want to take about 239 kpa (five pounds) of air from each tire. Stored tires mounted or otherwise, should not be placed directly on concrete but on a wooden platform if possible. To my readers: Please indicate the town, city or village that you live in. Be advised that not all emails can be answered. Send your questions (including address) by email to: dennis.osullivan@cogeco.ca