SwimFinsSF

This weekend

Quick weekend update.. Was a good one, despite the CRAPPY weather. Our buddy Ray from Calgary came down to visit on Thursday and stayed until last night. Had a rather mellow time - at least as compared to his trip down for Folsom a few years back which was crazy as you might expect - but still nice. Kevin took him to SFMOMA friday while I worked and then that night we went out for dinner and drinks with some friends.. Saturday was VERY chill (it was stormy) - TV time and out to Blowfish for sushi. Sunday we went out to Chrissy Field to run nina and then drove around the city.

Like I said - mellow but still pretty nice..

Tags: friends, weekend

Audi and a disposable society…

What ever happened to cars that were made to last. Its becoming more and more clear that these days even car companies that I would have considered reputable (Audi, Mercedes, etc.) are conducting business in a way that encourages people to replace their cars regularly.

Case in point. Our Audi just fell out of warrantee. While it was in warrantee they covered EVERYTHING. Oil changes.. repairs.. tune-ups… the works. I got lulled into a false sense of security thinking that these guys were great and the car was a great car. But now that I’m out of warrantee its a completely different story. All SORTS of problems are starting to come up and every one of them seems to require very expensive repairs. Most recently the check engine light came on (again) and when I took it in (to a repair shop that wasn’t at the dealer) they asked me how often I changed the oil. Turns out that the oil changes they were doing under warrantee weren’t frequent enough and now the engine is showing signs of the damage that results… I was furious…

What’s worse is a friend of mine was considering buying his Audi that was just falling out of lease and was asking around for advice.. He is basically hearing the same thing from everyone he’s talked to (and I had heard it from another friend myself). I don’t know if its unique to audi but it clearly isn’t unique to my car..

Anyway.. I suppose its not entirely surprising.. The car makers need to sell cars to make money so why not make cars with a self destruct so they can sell you another one.. It just pisses me off - like the world needs big landfills full of cars that are less than 10 years old… its nuts…

Sorry… Just ranting

Tags: audi, auto, service