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Man do they ever suck. I brought my car in a couple days ago because I thought it was leaking a tiny bit of antifreeze. I get it in there and they said their isn't an antifreeze leak but there is a slight oil leak, great. Luckily the part is covered under the warranty (would've been about $500) but since I put an aftermarket intake on my car they charge me an hour labor ($100) to take it on and off (even though I asked them when I put it on if it would affect anything).

So they call me this morning and they said that the engine drive belts are worn and starting to crack. If I don't replace them they could break and cause a much bigger problem, so I fork out the $170 to replace those.

Now I need to also replace the rear brakes ($375) and get an oil change as well ($70). At some point here in the near future I'm going to need new tires ($500).

My car is sucking me dry!!

cardinalkarp wrote:and get an oil change as well ($70)

$70.00 FOR AN OIL CHANGE!!!! WHAT KIND OF PLANE DO YOU DRIVE!!!!

Do it yourself for $15.00

BigCat wrote:

cardinalkarp wrote:and get an oil change as well ($70)

$70.00 FOR AN OIL CHANGE!!!! WHAT KIND OF PLANE DO YOU DRIVE!!!!

Do it yourself for $15.00

F'ing synthetic oil (I'm sticking w/ what the manufacture recommends).

Never pleasant, but almost everything you listed is just normal wear and tear/maintenance items. And yeah, you DEFINITELY want to shell out the $170 for the drive belts. Not good if those go.

Do you run winter tires? If your tires are about to go out I would consider going summer/winter if I were you.

Anyway, my advice if you can is to just swallow the cost, get it right, and get back to enjoying it.

That's unreliable German cars for you...

jim wrote:Never pleasant, but almost everything you listed is just normal wear and tear/maintenance items. And yeah, you DEFINITELY want to shell out the $170 for the drive belts. Not good if those go.

Do you run winter tires? If your tires are about to go out I would consider going summer/winter if I were you.

Anyway, my advice if you can is to just swallow the cost, get it right, and get back to enjoying it.

Yeah, I did the drive belts today along w/ a faulty oil filter seal and housing that had a small leak (that was covered under the warranty though). He said the same thing, you don't want those belts to break because that could cause some major problems.

I just run all season tires. I doubt I get top performance out of them but I don't drive the car THAT hard.

Yeah, I realize its just normal wear and tear/maintenance on the car but it just sucks because it all seems to be hitting at once.

This is all after about 8k miles ago I had to do the 60k maintenance which was another $650.

ThatGuy wrote:That's unreliable German cars for you...

Pieces of junk I tell you!!

cardinalkarp wrote:

jim wrote:Never pleasant, but almost everything you listed is just normal wear and tear/maintenance items. And yeah, you DEFINITELY want to shell out the $170 for the drive belts. Not good if those go.

Do you run winter tires? If your tires are about to go out I would consider going summer/winter if I were you.

Anyway, my advice if you can is to just swallow the cost, get it right, and get back to enjoying it.

Yeah, I did the drive belts today along w/ a faulty oil filter seal and housing that had a small leak (that was covered under the warranty though). He said the same thing, you don't want those belts to break because that could cause some major problems.

I just run all season tires. I doubt I get top performance out of them but I don't drive the car THAT hard.

Yeah, I realize its just normal wear and tear/maintenance on the car but it just sucks because it all seems to be hitting at once.

This is all after about 8k miles ago I had to do the 60k maintenance which was another $650.

Alot of folks call them "NO season tires".

My wife has all-seasons on her Volvo and they suck. We have to get her some winter tires, I'm going to try to talk to the local shop and see if they can give her some deal if we trade in the allseasons with 20K for a pair of winter AND summer tires. With her it's more about safety, the no seasons are an absolute joke in the winter.

jim wrote:

cardinalkarp wrote:

jim wrote:Never pleasant, but almost everything you listed is just normal wear and tear/maintenance items. And yeah, you DEFINITELY want to shell out the $170 for the drive belts. Not good if those go.

Do you run winter tires? If your tires are about to go out I would consider going summer/winter if I were you.

Anyway, my advice if you can is to just swallow the cost, get it right, and get back to enjoying it.

Yeah, I did the drive belts today along w/ a faulty oil filter seal and housing that had a small leak (that was covered under the warranty though). He said the same thing, you don't want those belts to break because that could cause some major problems.

I just run all season tires. I doubt I get top performance out of them but I don't drive the car THAT hard.

Yeah, I realize its just normal wear and tear/maintenance on the car but it just sucks because it all seems to be hitting at once.

This is all after about 8k miles ago I had to do the 60k maintenance which was another $650.

Alot of folks call them "NO season tires".

My wife has all-seasons on her Volvo and they suck. We have to get her some winter tires, I'm going to try to talk to the local shop and see if they can give her some deal if we trade in the allseasons with 20K for a pair of winter AND summer tires. With her it's more about safety, the no seasons are an absolute joke in the winter.

Yeah, mine definately aren't the best for the winter. The tread pattern is more designed to shed water as opposed to snow. They handle really well in dry weather though.

I don't run the most expensive tires on it though. I just don't have the $$ to fork out $300 a tire (it came w/ Bridgestone Potenza's on it and they were crap, 3 out of the 4 of them ended up getting sidewall bubbles). The tires I found are about $125-150 at tire and they've lasted quite a while (for a perfomance all season tire that is, I think around 30k on them). I really like them though, they're pretty quiet, ride well, handle good in wet and dry pavement (but like I said just ok in the snow).

It has been my experience that dealerships tend to be much more expensive and have less qualified mechanics than shops owned by individuals. I would get an estimate on the wear and tear work from a privately owned shop, just for comparison. You might be paying more than necessary.