Motor Trend has been a joke for DECADES.
@db4690
"Every time we order parts, it’s like rolling the dice
We get the correct parts only 1/2 of the time"
Umm, isn’t that the fault of the guy ordering the parts instead of the guy delivering them?
@Docnick
The only physical paper car magazines I read . . . very occasionally . . . are Petersen’s 4 Wheel and off road and Hemmings
Online, I regularly read Motor magazine, which is clearly targeted only at professionals . . . although anybody can access it for free on the website.
I used to read autoinc online, but their website is undergoing drastic changes, and I 'm not sure how much longer they’ll be around
I enjoy Top Gear, Octane, Car, Classic Car, Street Rodder, and occasionally Hot Rod. I used to read a few trade magazines, one being on the industry of automobile manufacturing rather than on the cars themselves, but cannot remember the names of them.
@asemaster
I was specifically referring to ordering parts for the 1997 Ford F250 “light duty” truck, because one of the other guys mentioned that he had one. And I mentioned that our fleet also has them, and that it was frustrating getting the correct parts
I also believe the parts counter guy at the Ford dealership who processed the order is the one that dropped the ball. “Our guy” faxes him the name of the part we need, plus all of the pertinent vehicle information
Year
Make
Model
Engine
Cab configuration
bed length
RWD versus 4x4
GVWR
etc.
I believe when the wrong parts show up, the Ford parts counter guy made an assumption about what we have/need. Instead of calling us and making sure, he probably just made the decision “99% of the customers need this. We’ll send this part out.”
It’s actually somewhat baffling, because any “light duty” car dealer can decipher the VIN to figure out exactly what vehicle the customer has. At least as far as the mechanicals go.
It’s a little different with off road equipment, construction equipment, class 8 trucks, etc.
But that’s not the case right here
@db4690 , Perhaps I came off as being a little snarky, I didn’t mean it that way. I know I work retail and you’re in-house, so you might not be under the same time constraints, but no matter what when a car is on the hoist and the wrong parts show up you’re losing money–on the car that’s in the shop and on the next one that should be in were it not for the dead one in your stall right now.
So tell your parts guy to stop ordering the wrong parts. Period. If the wrong brake rotors/calipers/water pump/whatever show up it’s his fault and his alone. I don’t know how far away from the shop he is but surely he can walk over and look at the part in question and make sure he’s ordering the right one. I don’t know of any ordering system that doesn’t provide pictures/dimensions/OE part numbers of the item in question. In this day and age there’s simply no excuse other than catalog errors for a wrong part to show up.
You guys aren’t really using a fax or phone to order parts, are you? Surely you have online cataloging/ordering from your major suppliers and the dealers in the area.
Sorry if I seem a little worked up over this, but it’s a pet peeve of mine. I see hundreds of dollars a month in lost labor time because of wrong parts and it’s a problem that is very easy to remedy and has no excuse.
I get a couple of the car magazines-can’t really say which ones though. Only because I got a year subscription for $10. Don’t think I’d go as high as $12 though. A quick look through them and into the recycling bin. Although once in a while, I’ll clip an article of model comparisons etc. I just don’t find them very useful. I also get Forbes and Inc and This Old House, etc.-some for free but treat them the same way. Just not like they used to be.
@asemaster
Don’t sweat it
I don’t think you came off as snarky
As for the parts guy, that’s a tricky situation
I fill out an order form and give it to my boss
He faxes it to some guy within our fleet
That guy is nowhere near the actual vehicle, so he literally can’t look at the part
It then gets faxed to the parts counter guy at ford
Unfortunately, we really are faxing in our orders
Our parts ordering situation is archaic beyond description
That is why I’m doing my part to keep our own modest warehouse stocked with the parts we need the most . . . so that we don’t constantly have to keep trucks overnight because of a trans filter or a set of brake pads. I constantly do my own research to determine what we need the most, and are constantly ordering. Then we request these parts be added to “the system” so that they can be stocked in the warehouse. Yet almost nobody else cares enough to do this.
I’ve learned something the hard way . . . if you really want the correct part, go our of your way to find the part number. That could mean wiping clean the old part, and straining your eyes to make out a number. It could also mean spending 20 minutes online, on various websites, until you find the number. And if the part number has changed, find the newest part number. There have even been situations where I specifically requested an aftermarket part, because I could easily find the number, and I knew from experience that the parts counter guy at the dealership was incapable of getting me the correct part.
It sounds to me as though someone went out of their way to design a system that is as inefficient and cumbersome as possible. How much time and effort is spent returning wrong parts?
I understand the need for accountability and making sure all the parts ordered are for the shop and not the mechanic’s side work, but perhaps you could talk your boss into getting you online. We’re just a small shop but I order online from 6 local suppliers and several dealers. Perhaps just having the catalog would help immensely. I’d bet that you could have the part number for both aftermarket and OEM for whatever you were looking for inside of 5 minutes.
@asemaster
It’s not that somebody went out of their way to design an inefficient and cumbersome system
it’s that “somebody” doesn’t want to modernize the system
And that “somebody” isn’t just one single individual
I’m all for change, as long as it makes sense and is for the better
How independent can you be when your very existence depends in part on the makers of cars you comment on. It’s just the nature of the beast. They are entertainment publications with pretty pictures and obliging commentary. They have a place and I see nothing wrong with reading them with that in mind. Some can argue they are informative in a very general way, much like a car company needs a little legitimacy to back up their claims for their adds on their products.
"See, it says in MT or C and D that we make great cars, so it must be true. " That’s fine. Just remember the source and the motivation. I could never take them seriously beyound that. Like many mags, they are there to jack up and promote general interest in the world they serve; in this case, the automotive world. The mag racks are filled with them as well as the waiting rooms at repair and service shops. You read them to pass the time and be entertained.
@db4690 , yeah I understand. Policies and procedures become so embedded at some point that change becomes excruciating. In the retail market I think change comes faster because the bottom line is efficiency. And ordering parts by phone or fax is grossly inefficient.
I remember it being the greatest thing that someone could fax me a parts diagram so I could identify what I needed. Now, the fax machine has been broken for 5 years and I don’t miss it. Now, the dealer just emails me a pdf and I can send a guy out to the truck with the diagram on his phone so he can tell what he wants. Or I text a picture of a box van clearance light to O’Reilly’s so they send the correct one.
I don’t know what the problem is with ordering parts for the “light duty” F-250. They show parts on the parts diagram that are not the parts in my truck. I don’t think it is all the people behind the counter. I have had parts from the 1996 or the 1998 that have to be used instead of the ones meant for the 1997. I have gotten in the habit of taking the part I need in when getting a new one as this works best for me.
The parts department at a Subaru dealer where I worked ordered a manual trans gearset one time. Twice it was ordered by the book; twice it was the wrong part. They ignored my suggestion to bring the factory parts rep in and ordered it twice more with the parts being wrong each time.
Four orders by the book; four orders that were not even close to being right.
The factory parts rep pulled his hair out and it took him almost half a day to discover that a change had been made during mid-year. No one below the factory level had been told about the change including the factory rep.
I own a '96 Lincoln Mark and my understanding is that the intake manifold runners are a one-year only part while being different from the 95/earlier and 97/up. Why they would do this is unknown.
Old cars used to be very comfortable in the summer without a/c as long as they were moving. My Studebakers all had low mounted side vents to cool your feet and a large cowl vet for your body and face. If that wasn’t enough you had wing windows.
I would love to have a modern car with good ventilation.
^
So…there are no bees, wasps, yellow jackets, and other stinging insects where you live oldtimer?
I vividly recall having to deal with some kind of stinging insect at least once on every warm-weather drive, and so, our family welcomed air-conditioning…once we could afford it.
I love the side vents on older vehicles. my old 75 ford super cab is like a wind tunnel with the back slider window open . we often drive in the country during summer and there are bees and such, but there is also the smell of honey suckle(which I sometimes stop and grab a few branches for the kids to suck on. there is also the smell of manure which causes me to say “umm, smell that fresh country air”! this always gets a laugh, just like it did when my dad said it when he used to drive us out in the country in his well ventilated 442
I think the center vents had screens on them on the Stude anyway.
Its a good idea to put something over any opening on a car to keep the vermin out,if I remember correctly a 53"Plymouth had hardware cloth over the fresh air intake and when I was younger,here in the " Ridges" it wasnt too hard to live without AC( a lot cooler then the towns and Piedmont) it seems like the Sun is hotter now(just my imagination I suppose)-Kevin
Gee, I can remember sweating like a stuck pig riding in old cars without air. Were they better then cars designed for them but with the air off ? Sure, if you didn’t mind the wind blowing your wig off. IMHO, cars without air can stay in the past. I’ll tell you how cheap my bro is. He bought one of the last Accords you could get without air because it was so cheap and gave it to his wife to drive…while he drives his F150 with air. They still drive it on trips but only the two of them and why we take ours when the four of us go anywhere. Guess he isn’t that dumb. ;=)