Oil Filters

[Burnerman]

I owned an Audi A1, 61 plate 3 door. Great little car, well built etc.
I went back to Audi, needing a quattro drive....thinking that they would want to keep me - loyal customer etc and they could do me a deal on a new Q3.
No interest shown whatsoever.....clearly they had met their sales quota for that month. When I asked for a test drive, the retort was 'come back when your serious about buying'
OK buddy, stick the Q3 where the sun don't shine.....Cramlington Skoda welcomed me with open arms and I left with a 4x4 Yeti.
Some folks never learn.
John

 

[EddieM]

I wonder how Ford (Europe) feel about selling their cars, as they make a $100 loss on each sale

 

[mointainwalker]

Yes the manufacturer does insist that a part of equal quality is fitted, I'm not sure how that invalidates what I have written.

Only for the warranty period and not forever as you have been indicating.

It does not do as you say exempt manufacturers from the ruling for the warranty

What you wrote there is not clear to me. What I said was, the exemption allows the manufacturers to act in a way that would otherwise be illegal under EU free-trade rules: it allows them to lay down their own standards for the limited time that they are at risk because of the vehicle warranty.

 

[Stivino]

I owned an Audi A1, 61 plate 3 door. Great little car, well built etc.
I went back to Audi, needing a quattro drive....thinking that they would want to keep me - loyal customer etc and they could do me a deal on a new Q3.
No interest shown whatsoever.....clearly they had met their sales quota for that month. When I asked for a test drive, the retort was 'come back when your serious about buying'
OK buddy, stick the Q3 where the sun don't shine.....Cramlington Skoda welcomed me with open arms and I left with a 4x4 Yeti.
Some folks never learn.
John

The very same thing happened to us in a Toyota dealership in Edinburgh, exactly the same words were used “come back when you are serious about buying a car”.
Our only sin was to ask what they were going to give us for our trade in.
We walked out and went to the Mazda dealer and came out with a nice little Mazda 2.

 

[mointainwalker]

“come back when you are serious about buying a car”.

I think under those circumstances I would have returned to the first dealer and shown the sales director/top-dog, the consequences of the salesman's off-hand manner.

 

[Stivino]

I think under those circumstances I would have returned to the first dealer and shown the sales director/top-dog, the consequences of the salesman's off-hand manner.

That was about 10 years ago and thinking back, we didn't leave of our own accord, we were shown the door.
I wanted some figures before taking a test drive but he wanted us to fall in love with it before he would talk numbers.

 

[Burnerman]

I have to admit, I did think about raising a stink for a few minutes but then I thought a) There are other Audi dealers b) Who would want to be a car salesman anyway....living a life of lies?
I probably look like a tramp anyway but I can live with that.
Anyway, the Yeti is great, probably around £10k cheaper so I'm happy with that.
'Er indoors (not someone you'd want to lock horns with - too bloody bright ) fancied a SEAT Arona much more recently and got a similar reception.
On the other side of the Scotswood Road there's a Honda dealer so she has a HRV now.
Compared with a Triumph bike dealer in the same location I went to.....
'Fancy a test ride?'
'Aye'.
'Give us a tenner for the insurance and bring it back when there's no juice left'
SOLD!!
John

 

[johnny2007]

I used to maintain properties for a multimillionaire who looked like a homeless man.
Always unkempt, old clothes on, no fashion labels, driving an old fiat brava.
On one of our long conversations while I was fitting new doors in one of his properties he mentioned treating himself to a nice car and I offered my assistance for the weekend, knowing i would've got a posh meal in a nice upmarket restaurant (never knew how they could spot he was rich)
We went to bmw and we were treated like ****: the salesman was asking odd questions like "do you work?" Have you got a deposit? Etc. Basically he pushed us out.
We went to Audi.
Salesman was talking to me at all time despite me telling him that it wasn't me buying.
Anyhow, they let us test drive an A8 saloon, beast of a car.
The boss wanted me to try it and off we went.
He sat in the back.
TBH at one point i thought he was gonna buy it for me, so when he asked me if i liked it i went on and on about it.
After this 5 minutes private conversation we went in and bought the beast.
£55K on a bank card, all in one go.
The salesman was having an heart attack.
We went for lunch, came back a couple of hours later, car was ready, we left the fiat (i'm sure he shed a tear at this point) and off we went.
He didn't want to drive, my hope to have that car for myself grew more solid.
He directed me to the bmw dealer who kicked us out.
"Watch this" he said.
We parked at the front, went in to the salesman and he showed him the invoice with the card receipt stapled to it.
"Here boy, you lost a good sale today."
Manager heard and the receipt was shown to him.
I bet the salesman was unemployed next day.
We left with a massive smile.
One of the best days of my life.
Unfortunately the car wasn't for me, he kept it until his son crashed it.

 

[mointainwalker]

Did he negotiate the price at all?

 

[johnny2007]

No, he paid the money the guy told him.
However, i think they gave him a good deal because he got £3k for his scrap fiat brava under the scrappage scheme at the time.
Also i still think the salesman thought it was a wind up until the card went through.
He probably went along with it having been sacked by BMW for kicking a multimillionaire out

 

[DIYspanner]

Never be afraid to haggle folks! .....the worst they can do is say no.
Its a buyers market out there with the state of the current economy although sadly, far from being the best of times.

 

[sxturbo]

Only for the warranty period and not forever as you have been indicating.


What you wrote there is not clear to me. What I said was, the exemption allows the manufacturers to act in a way that would otherwise be illegal under EU free-trade rules: it allows them to lay down their own standards for the limited time that they are at risk because of the vehicle warranty.

I never said forever, but as vehicle lifecycle have a warranty that can last upto 14 years then it would be reasonable that the parts sold as OE quality will be that for the lifetime of the vehicle.

You are tryy to make me out to be wrong, but you never actually say much different to what I have said.

There is products out there that do not conform to OE standards, this is legal.

But as I keep saying if you stick to a well branded supplier of which advertises there products are of OE quality or better (and some are better) then everything will be fine.

 

[ReganAndCarter]

Interesting thread.

Referring to my op, I took fright and replaced the Crosland oil filter today that I only installed 600 miles ago with a Mahle. No one was complimentary about Croslands and the link with Eurocraparts spurred me into action. Always change oil and filter regularly, using quality oil but blindly wandering into Halfords for their own filters - or Crosland as it turned out on the last visit. Pointless using good oil and not doing the same with the filters. Lesson learned - Crosland in the bin. It's Mahle and Mann only from now on.

 

[DIYspanner]

Crossland was a quality brand of filter until the name was purchased for its reputation but now the filters made under the label are made in China.

Hengst, a respected name in filters actually have a factory in China.

Mahle is German based with manufacturing in Austria and Mann, also German based, has manufacturing in several countries and supply the likes of Bosch. Mann now own Wix (American) and Filtron (Poland).

Mann seems to be OE for the majority of cars in the UK.

 

[Keithmac]

I use OEM Mann filters (the actual filter housing on the car.is made by Mann Hummel iirc).

Theres lot to a filter really, how well it filters and flows the design and integrity of the anti drain back and bypass valve (latter is very important).

You get a filter with a crap element and before long it'll just open the bypass valve (NO filtering at all).