Newest scam by dealers, no haggle pricing

Nothing wrong with that. A happy wife is a lot cheaper than a divorce. :wink:

That is what my mechanic had to do on multiple occasions.

2 Likes

Maybe the difference between VDC’s Volvo, my Rabbit, and Texases’ GTI is that Texas had access to a better quality of fuel. After I moved from Colorado to Calif, I never had to clean the Rabbit’s fuel distributor. On the other hand I never needed any fuel system repairs on my carb’ed Ford truck in Colorado. Go figure?

I don’t agree. Cars purchases aren’t like buying cheerios in a grocery store. Ever see the price of something that comes near a car in a grocery store? There are hundreds (thousands) of items in a store and dozens of different cereals. Not in a car lot. My experience with ‘no haggle’ they ended up reducing a different fee, not a lot, so that they could keep the price the same. They used a dynamic pricing of all their dealerships in the area and had the ‘daily’ price posted for the car.

When I’m buying a car, I don’t really care much about the listed price, so I’m not concerned about being scammed or to try negotiate.

I remember when I went to look at the Lexus I now drive and the asking price with 30,000k mileage was $28,000.

The dealer told me that the actual price for the car was $34,000 but he brought down the price since the car had met in a minor accident and had two physical blemishes: 1. Cracked mirror shell and 2. slightly bent side skirt.

Since I loved the car, and continue to being in love with it, I wasn’t concerned about the tricks dealers play on consumers.

I’m a firm believer in that if you like something and you really want it, and if you can afford it, go for it.

I’m also considerate of the seller’s expectation for his price.

Yes, that is entirely possible. In my area, it seemed that every station–except Amoco–had changed-over to selling only unleaded gas, and because the Volvo could use (cheaper) leaded gas, I bought almost all of my gas at Amoco stations.

My desire to save a few cents by buying leaded gas might have caused me to shoot myself in the foot. Maybe Amoco was selling poor-quality gas…
:thinking:

My area of Colorado had a lot of no-brand gas stations that sold less gas per day than actual gas stations, often just a pump at a retail store. I expect that was the source of my Rabbit’s problem, water/grit getting into these small operation’s underground storage tanks. Like I say above, once I moved to Calif and used actual gas stations that sold a lot of gas, didn’t have that problem again. By that time the Rabbit really needed to be taken off the road for a minor restore job, all new brake parts, suspension bushings, and struts. Alas, such was not to be.

It can, paid 30k for 2017 rav 4, bought out 3 year lease for 17k, 1 year later got offers for 28k

2 Likes

Why was it not to be?

I gave the Rabbit to someone who said they needed it more than I.

About a year ago a co-worker and her dad traded in their leased Kia’s for the new Niro EV and got $3,000 or more in equity along with $10K Lease Cash each. Brought the payment on both leases much lower than what the dad had been paying for a 2020 Niro EV that was due back from a 3yr lease and the co-worker’s 2022 Niro EV that she’d only had for a year. Based on the current market it doesn’t sound like they’ll have the same equity on the current cars.

Classic car magazine article about a fuel line repair on a 87 Mercedes 500 (which apparently also used the K-Jetronic fuel injection system), restorer-owner said afraid to use a hacksaw to cut the fuel line b/c any debris from the cutting operation would almost certainly clog the fuel distributor … so we are not alone @VDCdriver …lol…

1 Like

Our late friend–ok4450–also considered Bosch’s “constant” injection system to be extremely problematic. As far as I’m concerned, the only thing about it that was constant was the amount of problems.

1 Like

lol … still when it was working correctly, sweet, and when it didn’t, provided a good technical challenge for the diy’er-owner.

Nobody should ever use a hacksaw to cut any fuel line anywhere.

Agree, hacksaw seems like a bad idea for serveral reasons, writer eventually found his tubing cutter. Just humourous – given the prior discussion – that the old K-J fuel distributor clogging sensitivity seems to be well known among restorers .

There was no USA-spec 1987 Mercedes-Benz “500”

In 1987, there was a 560SL roadster, 560SEL full-size sedan and 560SEC full-size coupe

The 560 models used KE-Jetronic, which had some very rudimentary electronics

1985 was the last year for the “500” in the USA . . . and it would have been a 500SEL SEDAN or 500SEC coupe

It must not have been a USA-spec car then.

Puzzler for your amusement: Which was the first car that used the K-Jetronic fuel injection system? Answer below

1973 Porsche 911T

The last car to use it (in Europe anyway) was also a Porsche, 1994 911T.

This part seems hard to believe (to me at least), but the fuel injectors deliver fuel at a constant 72 psi uniformly in all but warm-up conditions; the amount of fuel delivered is controlled by the position of the fuel distributor’s control rod, which raises or lowers by the engine intake airflow metering vane. A separate gadget connected by fuel lines to the fuel distributer slightly varies the amount of fuel according to the engine temperature, colder engine getting more fuel.

The k-jetronic system seems to be considered very reliable by experienced classic car restorers, as long as the quite large fuel filter is replaced frequently. I replaced mine every 6 months. Unfortunately, at least in my own experience, the very process of replacing the fuel filter can allow debris to get into the post-filter fuel line and later clog the fuel distributor. I used NAPA’s store brand fuel filters rather than oem fuel filters, maybe part of the problem.

Isn’t that backwards? The vane moves in proportion to air flow, which changes the position of the fuel distributor’s control rod.

1 Like