I am one of about 200 master certified VW techs in the USA. I do everything from basic maintenance, to advanced diagnosis. I eat, sleep and breathe VWs. I also have my own website dedicated to helping everyone to understand their car, and see the behind the scenes of being an auto mechanic. You can see more at
Short answer, no. We actually slowed down too. Some of that was due to changes in the shop. Most was due to the "economy" The truth is, people will find anyway to cut corners and save money. The weird part is the "needs" are generally cut before the wants. People will save money on food to afford the Starbucks. I found that people would still do oil changes, but anything else preventative was put off. It is was not completely broken it didn't need to be fixed. Looking back it was strange to see. Great question Jay!
Thanks for the question Ray.
That amount of oil is considered acceptable by almost every car manufactorer.
Generally oil is lost one of a few different ways:
Hey The Sid, I have mixed feelings about them, especially on newer cars. I do think that a good alarm can help. It will help with rookie thieves looking to "smash and grab". I had a fairly high dollar alarm on my Acura. It got broken into 3 times and they only got my radar detector. Most modern cars have some type of immobilizer system. This will prevent the car from being started with out a matching key. What would stop a thief from just towing the car? I do agree that a good thief will get what they want. But hopefully they will choose another car, if they see you have an alarm. It is much like a lock on your door at home. It will keep honest people, and people that are on the fence out. You will still lock your door when you leave the house. I like the alarm that I have on my Passat. I use it for the keyless entry.. ;)
Sorry for the delayed response. I wrote an entire post talking about this exact question. Please let me know what you think.. http://bit.ly/15vbi0V
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Many are. At my dealer, only 2 are. They will by cars that need some work, fix them up and sell them. It is kind of frowned on by the company. They see it as a mechanic competing for customers. I have bought 2 cars like that. 1 was a 1996 VW cabrio. I got it for $450. It needed a top, a battery and an ignition coil. I had the battery and coil, so I was able to drive it home that day. The other I got was a Jetta. I bought it for my sister.
What did they say was wrong? Battery lights generally come on when the battery or the alternator are failing.
That will really depend on the shop. We are open Monday-Friday 7am-6pm, and Saturday 7-4. I would say that Tuesday and Wednesday are the slowest days of the week. It feels like around 3pm is the slowest time of the day. I don't really have the hard numbers to back that up. It is more of a feeling. That is just my dealer. You can bet that most service departments will be really busy every morning, during lunch hours and right at the end of the day. We are usually really busy Fridays, Saturdays, and Monday mornings.
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