The disappointing quality of used cars even at main dealers

[fastwunz]

Just a reflection of the country as a whole. Go down south around Greater London or Birmingham.
What dumps. What were once nice houses are now multi-occupancy ruins with knocked over front walls rubble and mattresses and 3-4 cars where neat lawns and colourful tended flowerbeds once were, sheets at the windows. Many of these cars are owned by these people too and they change them out as soon as they need money spending.

This so much this.

I now Work in Surrey but I have spent a huge amount of time in houses around Southall, Northolt, Greenford etc - a depressingly huge part of the communities there treat their homes and their belongings like shacks.

Crap everywhere, concreted over gardens, 3-4 Toyota Prius’s, trashed washing machines and broken televisions, beds, furniture and general waste across the driveways, 10 to a property and it’s all either nicked or on finance.

The cars are used as taxis and are run into the ground and then either dumped or chucked in for another.

When I was growing up, my dad had company cars (Vauxhal Omegas were lovely - v6, big, swift and well equipped).

He treated them like his own because he appreciated having them. These days it’s all on finance so nobody cares.

I have a company car and I wash it properly in and out once a week. Same with my house. I worked damn hard for it and I therefore appreciate it.

 

[Journey]

Interesting man maths there.

I literally have been turning work away left, right and centre this year. So to me it's applicable, maybe not to you or others, but to me it makes zero sense.

 

[Nasher]

This so much this.

I now Work in Surrey but I have spent a huge amount of time in houses around Southall, Northolt, Greenford etc - a depressingly huge part of the communities there treat their homes and their belongings like shacks.

Crap everywhere, concreted over gardens, 3-4 Toyota Prius’s, trashed washing machines and broken televisions, beds, furniture and general waste across the driveways, 10 to a property and it’s all either nicked or on finance.

The cars are used as taxis and are run into the ground and then either dumped or chucked in for another.

When I was growing up, my dad had company cars (Vauxhal Omegas were lovely - v6, big, swift and well equipped).

He treated them like his own because he appreciated having them. These days it’s all on finance so nobody cares.

I have a company car and I wash it properly in and out once a week. Same with my house. I worked damn hard for it and I therefore appreciate it.

London is a dirty **** hole these days. An expensive one. We cannot even convince people to take posts there any more and the ones already there are trying to move out. Working in London used to be something to aspire to, not any more.

Probably why house prices there are finally starting to slump.

 

[cuke2u]

I thought the point was this was impacting the long term reliability of your car for the next owner .. so, arguably, not looking after your car ?

You obviously don't understand anything about tuning boxes. I refer you back to my answer to the first question.
Just because Ilike to drive around in a pristine car has f all about who the next owner will be. Obviously you are confused..

 

[HangTime]

I've seen loads of adverts from dealers showing details of the car interior and the interior is covered in dust and sometimes with the seats still covered in dog hairs and they'll always want top money.

Makes sense, no point wasting time and money tarting up cars if you can offload them for top dollar anyway. I guess that sort of thing gets fitted around other more serious jobs, they will want to get the car up for sale ASAP.

 

[jpaul]

Obviously you are confused..

maybe I am - in your reply, you did not seem to refute that your car has had a remap of some kind, despite being well detailed.

Beyond the detailing aspects of a car that I can visually inspect/appraise at a dealership.
If there have been any modifications to the car then I would be disappointed if the dealer did not reveal them.
I would not want to buy a car that has had a re-map (are you saying they will never be detrimental?)
If the car subsequently failed and a mechanic traced it to a re-map, I would have some warranty comeback against the dealer, if he had not revealed that.

[edit I realise you can get re-maps that intercept and modify sensor/control data, so in theory undetetctable. ... apart from impact on component reliability ]

 

[Amp34]

That's a bit harsh I think. My house is extremely clean, my daily driver is dented on almost every panel and permanently dirty (on the outside at least). I don't see the point in spending money repairing it when it's mechanically perfect and does everything I ask of it: it's just a tool to get me to and from work.

Plenty of people who drive battered cars are often like me and have another, much nicer car which they drive at weekends.

It's a bit of a weird argument really, you don't spray dirty water and dust into every room of your house every time you use it, which is what happens to the exterior of a car. Some of us have more busy lives than cleaning the **** off the outside of our vehicles every time we drive them, especially in winter.

I like a clean car as much as the next person, but on the other hand having some proper mud and mess all over it looks nice sometimes, like it's been used for it's intended purpose. General grime not so much, but then as it'll go back to that mess within less time than it takes to clean it off it's a bit of a fools errand unless you really enjoy cleaning stuff.

 

[Agent_Smith357]

I bet all these filthy poors have corner sofas too

 

[jpaul]

You obviously don't understand anything about tuning boxes.

case in point - interesting article about how you will make the day for the next owner of your detailed car, with your clandestine bmw tuning box.

Spoiler: excerpt

....
Today there are 3 versions of this cylinder: UL, OL and TOP.

• UL stands for lower-performance, the piston is made out of a simple aluminum-alloy, the crankshaft is simple-forged and uses a sintered connecting rod. It can cover up to 25kw/75nm per cylinder and is used in models like the x16d, x18d and x25d (exept the f10 model after 2011)
  
  
• OL stands for upper-perfomance, the cylinder path is honed several times, it has forged connecting rods and the bearings of the rods and crankshaft are sputtered bearing. It can cover up to 35kw/100nm and is used in models like x20d, x30d.
  
  
• TOP is for high performance, including a special treated crankshaft as well as laser-treated cylinder-paths. With this it is possible to increase injection-pressure and rated speed. This cylinders are used in models like x23d, 525d (after 2011) and x35d/x40d.

...
Through supercharging you can give any amount of power to a engine, but it will not be able to handle it. So when you think your 118i with its 170hp could do way more, but the stupid people at BMW are just to lazy to get more power out of that engine let me tell you: a 118i is capable of over 300hp, even keeping all emissions in the green zone, but he won't make that for long.
Basically in the automotive industry you can say:

• not everything is at it seems
• wenn there is a way to save €, it will be done
• espacially in the automovie industry many facts from media or magazines/books are incorrect

...
Regarding damage, these mostly occure long time after the tuning. Usually after 50k-80k km the problems start. Many people do not own the cars anymore by that time, and the subsequent owner doesn't know about the bad suprise that might happen. If a damage is found in the repair shop, they often just change the part and thats it. Often nobody suspects a tuning chip as the main reason (you know.. tuners say "its all good man!)....