Anybody know anything about cars?????!!

He's due back to me tomorrow with an offer, we'll see what he has for me. 

Ya, a lot of Nissans bought by me own family over the years, (none of them mine though ). Ma had 3 Micras, 1st one was mid 80's, rotted away as did all Japanese cars back then, 2nd one, the horrible looking bubble type yoke, was bulletproof, it was a '01 reg, I think tis still going somewhere locally, they may have looked horrible, but they would last forever.  3rd one, 06 reg newer model , fairly OK but a few things went like starter and wiper motor. Blaming the French lads for that. 

Oul fella had a Sunny, think '95 reg, and a '99 Almera same as the one you mentioned, both solid out & bulletproof. Think that decade, 90-00 they were as good as anything coming out of Japan reliability wise, but cheaper than likes of Toyota or Honda, who have long surpassed them quality wise since. 

Brother had a '06 Almera same as yours (that model ran for nearly 10 years), was actually reliable, but a f**king horrible yoke to drive, steering all over the shop (giant wheel too, with loads of play in it) horrible suspension that nearly put ya through the roof going over a speedbump if you hit it anywhere above 20mph, and the bit I never figured out, it was the model with the heater controls AND the radio controls merged in the 1-6 radio buttons . Think they only persisted with setup that for a year or so and did away with it, you would have needed a degree in engineering to get the heater to come on. 

More recently he had a 15 reg Pulsar petrol, engine replaced under warranty for excessive oil consumption, then gearbox started making noise going into 3rd- traded it for a Hyundai at that stage, he's finished with Nissan- a lot of people went the same way, though the Quasqui is usually up near top of sales charts. They mustn't be all that bad given the volume of them knocking about, but I'd stay away all the same. 

New Nissans are pretty poor, the 07-13 Qashqai is an absolute dirt box. The newer model seems an improvement but could age equally as bad. 

Randomly, the petrol model 08 has far worse rust issues, usually the rear subframe, than the diesel equivalent. Must’ve been built in different factories. 

That Almera centre console is the most ridiculous set up I’ve seen 

Ya still in the business Fochie ? I'm gone 3 years meself, but over the last few years I was there, it was getting rarer to see a mechanic (sorry, technician ) over the age of 40. Variety of reasons, between physically having enough of it (back trouble the main complaint, there's only so many times ya can rip out gearboxes etc) , or working in multi-brand dealers where they were expected to complete difficult training courses across a variety of brands that were assembled and configured differently (the diagnostic stuff more so than the physical stuff) or in some cases, having built up enough of a reputation locally to start their own business and not having to listen to service manager's unrealistic expectations of getting a warranty job done within allotted time. 

That and the fact pay isn't the greatest either in a lot of places, for what is becoming a very difficult job now that Hybrids and electrics are also part of the mix. 

PSA must have been bad if you thought BMW was handy enough . As for Opel, they went so bad that they are at the stage PSA will actually improve them. A warranty manager I worked with once turned down a free Opel Insignia as a company car in favour of an older Mitsubishi Lancer, his basic reasoning on it was that it would be one less warranty claim he would have to do somewhere down the road....

Im still at Deise yeah although for myself these days,17 years now to be exact,but sometimes I really do question why I bother lol,PSA was as bad as an apprentice,the work load became ridiculous.

Citroen more so than peugeot because of the LHM set up and the god awful design of the suspension and its piping and the routes they took,Jesus you wouldnt believe the places those things would leak wear out or just fail.

That and DS owners who use their cars as show cars and a daily driver, good god the drivel.

The ECOTEC Opel at first used the oul plastic runner guide on the belt tensioner which ended in tears 

under 5000 miles at first and then the experimenting began on what ft/lb to put them under,Jesus 

you would swear they had bets at Opel on the exact milage for bang time.Couple that with seatbelt tensioners not working and airbags not deploying it was an interesting time for drivers when all 3 failed at speed.Have seen some cars in worse states on the inside than the outside after they met their

conclusions.Dirt of the highest order,still are.

The Bimmers werent that bad at all tbf,an efficient bunch those boys when it comes to warranty.

I do enjoy the tech side of it tbh.Diagnosing yolks that have been somewhere else first,I get a kick out of that.I was offered a job at TESLA last year which I turned down solely because I would have a boss again,Im having none of that thanks very much.I couldnt handle being told what to do at this stage

of life, Ive gone way too stubborn and thick headed.Ill carry on as I am and see where it takes me.The arse will probably fall out of the economy now for a few years so its probably for the best.

BMW brought in the 'dealer authorised goodwill warranty' shortly before I left, they were utter undermining bollixes before that. Send them a goodwill claim (on a known fault), it would be rejected, eejit on the desk (me) has to give the bad news to the customer, then have the inevitable row with them, then afterwards customer rings BMW and they'd reverse their decision in about 75% of cases. Customer left with the impression dealer/fella on desk is acting the bollix with them, but BMW were a great bunch of lads altogether. Drove me fcuking mental. Presumably that was replicated elsewhere, so eventually led to change. 

I'd suggest the reason they are so efficient at processing them is to do with getting plenty practice......

To be fair to them, their linked Kerridge/ADP systems with the FRU times etc are actually out of this world technology wise, probably a full decade ahead of everyone else in that regard, nobody I've seen has anything that comes remotely near it for processing invoices or warranty claims. 

Tech side Vs physical side always interesting to observe in lads, I've probably worked with close on 50/60 technicians, and probably only 2 of them equally adept (to master level) at both, most lads eventually find their strong points in one or the other, but rarely both. Good tech lads are very undervalued in the industry too, most Joe/Josephine Publics think tis just a matter of plugging in the magic machine and it spits the answer back out to ya 12 seconds later. 

Question for the 3 of you while you're there; am I mad for doing this this?

For the 3 years I've had this car, I've been getting main dealer services. My rationale is, that by getting that stamp on the service log, I'm preserving the sell-on price of the car, while taking out an 'insurance policy' against  known manufacturer defaults. The engine I have, the Audi 2.0 TFSI, was prone to major oil consumption issues up to early '12, with class action lawsuits in the States about it and huge problems for owners over here with it. I think mine's escaped it, but can't be sure and I've heard of Audi telling owners who've had this problem that if they don't have full Audi service history, they won't pick up any of the bill for the fix/engine replacement.

I'm due a good service, the one that does plugs and filters, and thats €360 bills iirc. Should I not bother my hole going to the main stealer and get it done at an indie (I have a really good Audi mechanic in Portlaoise), or is there merit in continuing on with this? The car is an import and the fella who owned it before me, a retired engineer, had a perfect service history with main dealer and had the thing in mint condition. 

Thoughts?

Don't know an awful lot about Audi, but as far as I know, their warranty claims are processed in Ireland at VW HQ, same as SEAT and Skoda. That used to be the case anyway, may have changed since. Short answer, if you think there's both a likelihood of the problem happening your car, and you are aware of other cars/customers that had that work covered under warranty by Audi- stick with the main dealer, manufacturers use anything & everything to reject warranty claims, and service history is the main reason they use for rejection. 

Longer answer, there's a few aspects to look at; 

Firstly how old is the car ? - Tis rare that anything over 5 years old gets a goodwill warranty on anything, but note 'rare' not 'never'. That can depend on the nature of the issue, and an engine replacement would obviously be a serious job financially- some manufacturers might make a decision on the nature of issue rather than year of the car. 

If there is no realistic hope of getting anything due to the age of the car, ya may as well go independent. Regarding keeping the value of the car with the dealer history, if selling privately, that remains the case, but a trade in to a garage, they'll tell ya they are giving you €500 extra for it, while adding most of the €500 back on to the price of the yoke you are buying.  

The 'keeping value' is fairly minimal and will decrease the older the car gets. A ten year old Audi with a perfect service history might be worth say €6000, one without it will probably still get €5500 if in decent condition. 

Other side of that coin is how much are ya really going to save by going independent, maybe €100/€150 a year- is it worth that for the sake of keeping the perfect history which may be of benefit either selling it or in a warranty situation. 

If it goes legal, 'goodwill' warranty is exactly that- it is goodwill, and it would probably take a good bit of time & money in court to prove a design flaw, or safety issue or whatever. I'm not going to attempt to dispense legal advice, SD might be the man there. 

There are other things going on in the background that you can't see or know- for example, some manufacturers allocate a budget for warranties to local importers each year. So if you claim in a year that they have already spent most of it, you will be lucky to get much more than a token gesture. That can work the other way too, and I've been surprised as some claims that got the green light in the past- they will always try spend that budget fully, in case it is reduced on them the following year. 

Wider circumstances, VW were a lot more receptive of goodwill claims around the time of the diesel emissions scandal than they were normally- they simply didn't want further bad publicity when they were already in the papers every day. That had nothing to do with any individual car or issue, it was a case of the wider circumstance influencing their approach temporarily. 

Dunno if any help to you or not, but a few more things to think about there before ya make a decision. I'd try do a bit more research on how Audi treat that problem warranty wise first though, as regards age of cars or contribution percentage they make to repairs of cars with that issue. 

Ha! Yep, would agree with that alright. 

Just on full service history on an 8year old Audi, I don’t think it’s going to add to the resale value at this stage. Nor will Audi step in imo at that age. 

On the industry itself it’s poxy, everyone who had a car poster on their wall reckon they can diagnose issues, if you can’t tell what’s wrong with a car while someone holds their phone to the engine theirs something wrong with you and yeah It’s pretty cut throat, ie you’re only as good as your last job and outside of a main dealer you’re expected to know the quirks of every make & model that’s ever existed.