Zoom, zoom ... fail! Getting one over on the car dealership

Who's Zoomin' who?

Bubbs, that's who.

 

Five years of premium fuel is only about $400 more than five years of regular (based on typical mileage assumptions).

 

It's the principle of the thing...

 

awesome. awesome. awesome!!!!!! ;D ;D ;D

i've always been of the mind that NO ONE gets over a car dealership. ever. no matter how much wheeling and dealing and comparsion shopping is done the dealership always gets over.

sounds like we've got an exception here!!! A VICTORY FOR CONSUMERS EVERYWHERE!! ;D ;D ;D

 

I find that extraordinarily difficult to believe. We had an '07 as a loaner and the cost of fuel for it was significantly higher than it would have been otherwise ... and that was just for one tank.

 

Plus the whole "must use premium fuel" is a myth. I've got a 10 year old Lexus that supposedly requires premium. I've never put a drop above 87 octane in the tank and I've never had a problem.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2003-07-30-premiumgas_x.htm

 

Disagree. Have taken two vehicles from my mother, who always tried to get by on the cheap stuff. One them recommended premium and the other basically required it.

On both occasions, I got the vehicle with the engine knocking, pinging and not doing what it should do. Twice, after a tank or two of premium, no more strange sounds out of the engine bay. No trips to the dealership or mechanic needed.

As usual, though, results may vary.

 

I've got a 20-year Lexus that requires premium, and that's what it gets.

Check back with me in 10 more years and tell me how the car's running.


Actually, there are two designations that these cars get. Some say premium "recommended", and others say premium "required." Regular is fine for "premium recommended" cars (though you may see a slight drop in performance and/or mileage). But regular will do harm to a car that requires premium.

 

Last summer ran into a dealership that tried to screw me over every way it could and I ended up walking out after they offered $500 for the truck I was looking to trade in, and the dealer told me, in a hush-hush voice, as though he were kindly imparting some good advice my way, that I'd never be able to sell it for more than $1,500.

After a week with a 'for sale' sign, I sold it for $5K. Get a follow-up call from the dealer the next week, trying to sell me a car they'd just gotten on the lot similar to what I was looking for the first time I came in. Suffice it to say I was ungracious in telling him just how wrong he was.

 

A car that "requires" premium needs premium because of the higher compression ration. The ECU will sense the lower grade gas and to prevent knocking and premature detonation, which can fry the motor, will lower the compression ratio. You'll get less power, especially up high in the power band and worse gas mileage.

I'm glad my car needs good old regular and nothing more.

Nicely done Bubbler. Screw the dealer before he screws you.

This is in marked contrast to my buying experience. I went looking for a used 07 Corolla. There was none I liked. I was showed a 07 Scion TC and I liked it. But the price new was a bit more than the Corolla and it had far more bells and whistles. I did a little research on the old iPhone, gave them a pretty lean lowball offer and prepared to get rejected. I left with my new car five minutes later. Guess they wanted to go home on New Year's Eve!

 

I mistakenly did my calculations based on premium being 10 cents a gallon more than regular, when in my area it's almost always 20 cents a gallon. The rest of the calculations were straight from fueleconomy.gov -- EPA mileage figures, 15,000 miles a year, etc. So it's actually $800 over five years based on that, which is only a few bucks a week. I still don't get why people get so worked up over premium versus regular, especially for vehicles that are engineered to perform better on premium. Such as a CX-7.