Yesterday my stepson had his car towed into a Woodstock dealership for a new electronic ignition key. DeCraene's did a great job of picking up the car and delivering it safely to the dealership.
The dealership even did a good job of cutting and encoding the computerized key yesterday, instead of by their originally-promised service date of today. The battery was dead (for some unknown reason), and they charged it.
When he picked the car up at 5:30PM, the car was parked out front and the battery was dead. He went in for help and a service technician came out with the portable jumper battery and started the car. He was ready to close the hood and head back in, when I commented that, since the battery was dead there in their driveway, the car probably wasn't going to start after the engine was turned off.
Did he care? Could he have cared less? There was no offer to determine why the battery was dead. There was no concern about whether the battery might be dead the next time an attempt was made to start the engine.
Plus there was a little "attitude" on his part that they had just been told to cut a new key.
I know where I won't be buying a new car, the next time I'm shopping...
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12 comments:
I suspect the car was towed into the dealership because it would not start- the battery was dead.
Did your son instruct the technicians on the morning of the 31st to A) determine why the battery was dead and B) replace the battery?
Yes or no.
In my experience, I'm willing to speculate that the battery is 5-7 years old, and that the car was starting sluggishly as the weather got colder in the past week or so. The morning of the 31st was the coldest in the past week or so, and that probably did it in.
I could likely be wrong. It may be a parasitic draw, or it may be a vehicle with anti-theft and other items drawing small but steady current- all things that will shorten the life of a battery.
Thanks, John. There had been a problem unrelated to the battery and, for whatever reason, the battery was DOA, when the car arrived at the dealership.
I was unfamiliar with parasitic battery drain (or whatever the definition is), until a couple of years ago when my own battery drained after a period of low mileage and continuous drain by the GPS that I had left plugged in.
My issue with the dealership was that the guy was perfectly willing to let the car leave, with the high likelihood of a battery failure even that evening.
So- if the battery was dead when it arrived at the dealership, did anyone ask the dealership to look at it?
The dealership had to charge the battery in order to do the work on the computerized, electronic key and programming. That's why I thought they shouldn't ignore the strong probability for the car not to start later.
I'm not saying they should have made any repairs without charge. I did feel that they should have offered to diagnose the problem and suggest the remedy, not just walk away from it.
To be fair, Gus -
A battery is only good for 4, maybe 5 years now, if you're lucky. Parasitic losses and draining are not just subject to what you've inadvertently left plugged in. The car's "brains" are always plugged in and draining. All kinds of computer memory and settings are being kept alive by a continuous drain - whether for your navigation and radio/media/entertainment memories, your encoded key security data, the car's safety systems, as well as that of the engine computer's saved data. Lotsa drain, lots to be maintained.
In a recent syndicated car column in the papers, a gentleman who had purchased a brand new BMW 540i (retail, $45k-$50k), complained that if left unstarted for 10-15 days, had not only repeatedly drained the battery dead, but resulted in prematurely ruining the battery. All in a car less than 1 year old. You can't leave any modern car unstarted, un-run or un-charged for anything longer than a week or two nowadays without risking a discharged and/or un-ruined battery.
Worse, on many modern cars such as my own, in the pursuit of efficiencies of all kinds, many manufacturers are doing away with various systems' being powered by a belted pulley's turning force, engine vacuum or hydraulic pressure - utilizing only electric power instead.
In my case, my 4 year-old car wouldn't start. Turned out to have been a battery that went bad - that went "open". In the old days, you jumped your car, then drove it in for a new battery. Your alternator was able to do all the work until you got there. My car jumped fine - twice. But it has electrically-assisted power steering. Guess what? Every time I tried to turn the wheel, the alternator was not up to the task to keep both the motor running AND assist the power steering at the same time.
Sounds crazy, I know, but when researching this issue, discovered that this was the new normal. Had my battery been operational, the power steering draw on the system when turning out of my driveway or turning the corner; would have been primary supplied by the battery and not the alternator. In most driving scenarios, outside of gross steering input when turning out of your driveway, or when turning sharp and low speed corners? You steer relatively little at all otherwise. So for a reduction in gas-mileage-reducing drag and mechanical weight and complexity otherwise, your battery is now also the sole source of power for many other systems as well. In this case, multiple or continual draws upon battery power for steering is made up for by the battery charging after the fact under ordinary and cruising conditions later in the driving cycle. By an alternator that has not otherwise been up-sized. Because in so doing, would negate those efficiencies already being achieved otherwise.
Crazy, I know. But that's how all them new-fangled things work nowadays. For the want of a battery (or knowing my battery's new role in all of this), like your stepson; I too had to resort to a costly tow for something previously simple. Had I known what I know now, I would have bit the bullet, and done the battery exchange and replacement myself to save more than the $100 towing fee. Yours and my own experience and practicality in these matters sadly no longer apply.
For you, your stepson, and your readers?
1) One set of keys is never enough, especially nowadays. Make sure you always have 2 sets of keys. Three, if you can afford them. I was provided with 3 sets when new, one set of which is a "valet" set, which only disallows you to open a locked glove-box. Your loss of any one key set will cost you at least $135 to replace. Yep - more than $100 PER KEY. And then there's the towing fee.....
2) Always carry 2 keys at all times. One in your right pocket, one in your left. That second key, if just only a single key, is hardly an imposition in bulkiness. In 35+ years? That 2nd key? Saved me DAYS and hundreds of dollars, as when I needed that other key, and was more than 1,000 miles from home. While having been essential only 3 times? It was also VERY convenient dozens of times beyond. Never had to roust family or friends at the wee hours, or many miles away, and then wait hours.
3) Your keys are "electronic", and are likely no longer compatible with a swim at the beach, nor a washing machine and tumble dry cycle.
3) Your battery is just not a battery any longer. It no longer just starts your car. In many ways nowadays, it also POWERS your car and its systems too. Surprise!!!!
4) My car sits inactive no longer than 3 days at any one time. And at least twice per week, my use is of a longer, multiple-hour driving cycle.
5) You'll find out soon enough for your own needs, whether or not you need to trickle charge your newer, more modern car between lengthy periods of disuse. If you park outside, there are solar-charging trickle-chargers that can be plugged in to your cigarette lighter. Oh-that's right - I'm old school! LOL! They're not cigarette lighters! They're power ports now! LOL!
Anyway - for those of us of a "certain age"? So much of what we used to know? It is now in fact, wrong and obsolete!
To be fair, further still -
You'd have to know whether or not either:
1) Your stepson related a sluggish battery issue otherwise, or allowed as it had been many days since he attempted to start the car....
2) Absent that info (and granted, the service writer should have asked about it otherwise), the need to charge/substitute the existing battery in order to re-code a key set is not necessarily an indication of a battery needing replacement otherwise - at least nowadays. Unless the service writer asked, or your stepson volunteered; how long it had been since the car was last started.
3) It could be reasoned alternatively that the service writer's not looking at this issue further results in either a lost opportunity for revenue for the relevant dealer, or conversely; a lost opportunity to solve a legitimate problem otherwise. You either lucked out on a non-opportunistic dealer service regime, or else you lost out on a dealer regime that should have been attuned to all the possibilities - whether it was profit that beckoned, or else whether ultimate service to the customer beckoned.
4) Having worked at a dealership, I sincerely doubt that any sort of a "technician" came out to jump the car. The guy that came out to jump? Had he not otherwise been engaged, is otherwise employed to wash cars, exchange plates, hike cars, sweep the floors, empty garbage, etc.
It would be nice if such an employee felt "empowered" enough to bring your concerns to the attention of at least a service writer. But he didn't, and they usually don't. That's why he would otherwise be engaged in washing cars, hiking cars, sweeping the floors, emptying garbage, etc.
DBTR, many thanks for your words of wisdom about today's batteries and auto systems.
And thank you Gus -
Until my last unnecessary and multi-hundred dollar experience? I had NO idea.
Now I "know", and sincerely hope your readers now "know" as well.
The "future" is here.
And it sucks.....
Buy Batteries! Early and often!
LOL!-NOT!
Just curious, were you thinking of buying a new car? Or just ranting?
Oh ... just ranting, I see.
Actually, I might have considered the dark grey, four-door sedan with legally-darkened windows, if they would have added a spotlight.
It would have been a better "undercover car" than my red VW Beetle.
But no salesman bothered to come out. I guess these days you have to actually go into a showroom and make noise to wake them up.
It could have been a battery dead issue :)
Regards
.A-
auto transporters
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