my lemon-scented Volkswagen

[cellio]

"Malfunction indicator light" is an awfully general indicator, don't you think? The manual reports that it's probably engine-related and important but not absolutely time-critical -- unless it's blinking, which it's not (yet). (Blinking means the catalytic converter.) Oh goodie.

That's the third failure in under a year, though the PA lemon law applies only to failures in the first 12 months. I've had the car 17 months, so I'm out of luck there.

Now, to see if a dealer other than the one I bought it from will do the work under reasonable conditions. Reasonable conditions include either a specific appointment time or transportation to and from work. (Sunday hours don't exist.) It appears that the closest non-Rohrich dealer is in Murrysville, which is kind of far from the South Side. My new developer starts Monday, so I'd really like to put this off a few days.

By the way, I never did get any response from the national office of VW after last year's problems. I know they received the letter. So even if I got unlucky with a specific car (and most Golfs aren't lemons), and even if I got unlucky with a scumbag dealer, VW itself has demonstrated a lack of concern for its customers. They will not get my future business.

Comments

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

Something tells me you need to craft a userpic of a VW bug shaped like a lemon (or the VW logo), for posts such as this. allah_sulu?

[cellio]

Ooh, I'd love it! Alas, I haven't got the kinds of image-editing clues that are called for. I don't think allah_sulu reads my journal. Know anyone else who could provide? I suspect, given the small size of a userpic, the lemon-shaped (and -colored) logo would be clearer than the bug.

[cafemusique.livejournal.com]

Yeah...given the screen resolutions that people are using these days, and the fact that LJ seems to be doing pretty well, you'd think that maybe it's time to find a way to use larger userpics. That 100x100 hard limit is awfully tough to be usable in the way people are trying to use it. There are so many userpics which only exist for me as a vague combination of colours, because it's just so small to see.

Of course, maybe a larger picture would encourage more busy-ness from people, who knows?

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

Well, I first thought about using the following image from http://www.lemonlaw.com/lemonbug-small.jpg:



But then I found some wonderful Bernbach Created Ads (http://www.ciadvertising.org/studies/student/00_spring/theory/nalini/william_bernbach/ads.htm), including the famous Volkswagon ad, so I created the following:



(yes, that was a real VW ad). But then I decided to modify it a little:



You should be able to use either of the latter two.

Speaking of new images. I thought you would get a laugh of a new userpic that I've got (see the one on this post). This was from an ad campaign (http://www.tortugamarina.com/) to get hispanics from eating turtle eggs for virility purposes. I couldn't resist making a pic, but I'm not sure when I'll use it.

[cellio]

Oh thank you -- that's perfect!

Last night I was trying to create something similar to the second one. I had a black-and-white VW logo and a photo of a lemon, but I couldn't figure out how to modify the first one to change white to transparent so I could then overlay it on the second. There was also some wackiness when I overlaid images and then resized and only the base image changed, so it's possible that cut/paste wasn't doing the right thing for me anyway. And the wheels you added are a nice touch!

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

Glad you like it. I originally thought about putting it on top of some roadside background, but the original old VW ad worked so much better.

As for the overlaying. I took advantage of Paint Shop Pro's layering, and after I did the lemon, did some smoothing on the edges to make it blend in.

[(Anonymous)]

It's perfect. More in the background would make it too busy. I love the perfect simplicity, and the subtle tones, even with the not-so-subtle message!

Your talent with icons continues to amaze.

[dragontdc.livejournal.com]

The "New Beetle" has the worst service record of any VW in recent history. i never buy a car without checking the Consumer Reports guide. It's a few bucks well spent.

[cellio]

My car's a Golf, by the way. (I never got the bug bug myself.) I did check CR; it appeared that this one had gotten better, but appearances can be decieving.

[dragontdc.livejournal.com]

A Golf, eh? I was looking at those recently. You're right, the report looked like they were improving. Guess you never can really tell. I know a person with an older Golf Diesel who is very pleased with it, especially the 40+ mpg fuel efficiency.

[cellio]

When I was shopping I wanted to get the diesel version for the better mileage, but my threshold was three gas stations within a few miles of my house and I could only find two. One has since closed. My suspicion was (and is) that diesel engines for regular consumers are being replaced by hybrids and won't be viable in a few more years. When I bought the car I was doing so for the long haul (my previous car lasted 15 years), though with all the maintenance problems I've revised that plan. I'll trade it in on something else (I hope a hybrid) before the warranty runs out.

[dragontdc.livejournal.com]

I'm still going for the diesel, probably an older Mercedes. I intend to make the mods to have it run on biodiesel. Not sure if I want to go SVO, but it's an option.

[brokengoose.livejournal.com]

"Malfunction indicator light" is an awfully general indicator, don't you think? The manual reports that it's probably engine-related and important but not absolutely time-critical

With Laura's car (not a Volkswagen), this light means "a sensor with a three-letter acronym has decided to eat itself." The result is that the car works, but runs poorly until the sensor is replaced. It also means that the car will fail an emissions test.

[sethg]

There's an old Unix fortune cookie about a car that lights up a big question mark on the dashboard whenever anything breaks, because "the experienced driver" will know what the problem is without any further details.

That was a parody of how one of the classic Unix text editors (ed?) behaved. It's good to see how real automotive technology has caught up.

[madfilkentist]

The consumer magazines have been giving VW poor quality ratings in recent years. It's a shame; they used to be one of the better brands.