quote:Originally posted by Mrs.M.:
So true, Mike!
I recently had acceleration problems ,driving through the mountains in my van. The dealer, in the town I stopped in, put it on one of those confounded machines and I was on my way..$500.00 lighter and a major tuneup. Well, as soon I drove up the first mountain, it bogged down again. I drove it on home anyway. I took it to another dealer. It turned out to be the catalitic converter(under warranty)! I am still arguing with the first dealer about the charge, but all I hear is what their machine diagnoised!
Hi Shirl - nice to hear from you, by the way.
That is indeed how dealers operate. Fortunately, up to now, I have managed to avoid cars with catastrophic converters.
We were told that they were fitted because they were environmentally friendly. Pah! (this is a family forum
)I think the design went like: 'Now, how can we create a part that must be fitted when it fails, is very expensive, and cannot be supplied by aftermarket factors. Oh yes, we also need to give the marketroids something to brainwash the punters into believing they are a Good Thing.
Gottit - a catalytic converter'
Sarcasm apart:
Unleaded fuel was created because of the cats.
Unleaded fuel contains all sorts of carcinogens - benzene, toluene et al.
Cats give off hydrogen sulphide until they are warm (bag egg smell)
Cats give off CO2 - hole in ozone layer - when they are warm.
Cats can be damages in all sorts of ways - going over a puddle, fuelling faults, oil consumption.
Cats reduce power, so using more fuel.
A new car typically causes the same environmental damage as running it for 15 years.
<rant over>
Over here - there are stockpiles of brand new cars that lying in fields by the hundreds - the market brainwashing is really intense, TV ads are full of it (none of them actually say anything about the cars!)
The gubmint exhort us to recycle everything - their mantra is 'green and environmentally' - while at the same time, the motor manufacturers are in their pocket and motoring costs are escalating.
Viable cars are scrapped all the time.