Important Info for you, if you own a car!

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released an FTC Consumer Alert entitled “Auto Warranties, Routine Maintenance and Repairs: Is Using the Dealer a Must?” in response to a complaint filed by the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA) and a few other groups.

Honda issued a release back in August 2010, which appeared designed to give car owners the impression that their warranty right would be jeopardized if they used “aftermarket” parts. The Aug. 20, 2010 Honda release stated that “only by purchasing Honda Genuine parts through an authorized U.S. Honda dealer can you be assured of the replacement part’s authenticity, reliability and compatibility.”

The Honda statement was “in direct conflict with the Magnuson-Moss statute,” which prohibits the conditioning of a warranty on the use of the manufacturer’s brand products as charged by the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Assoc..

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Happy New Year!

Thanks to our awesome employees, our great friends and customers, our trusted vendors, and other great partners who help us throughout the year. Special thanks goes out to Netsprinter and of course, all of our friends in the BMW and MINI world.

May all of you be blessed with good health, happiness, peace and love, in 2011.

Seriously, we wouldn’t believe it unless we actually experienced it! People are so very craaazy busy these days that they are running out of gas. OK. So what is the big deal? Well, they mistakenly think that something is really wrong with their car and it’s just plain ole “out of gas”. Whew! Saved some $$ there.

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Many of our clients will be headed to Tahoe and the Sierra this Christmas weekend. Others are headed to Park City.

Whatever your cold weather destination be sure to carry an emergency kit with you. That includes a blanket, flashlight, and some emergency food like nutrition bars and water. If you do become stranded or stuck in stand still traffic, you might want to use your heater for about 10 minutes each hour.

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San Francisco leaders could have another reason to celebrate this New Years Eve as the BMW Oracle Americas Cup location will be announced that day.

San Francisco has put its best offer on the table and now all we have to do is wait! The race has never been held in San Francisco, but was held in San Diego on 3 occasions. Reportedly, there are a few other locations that San Francisco is in competition with.

The vision of the BMW/Oracle logoed sails under the Golden Gate Bridge vying with other world contenders for the Cup would be a beautiful sight to behold.

It’s our turn! Keep fingers crossed.

Update: Mmmm…we will be wondering exactly what occurred for BMW to cease it’s eight year sponsorship with Oracle for the America’s Cup. Surely there will be speculation, as there usually is gossip surrounding almost everything that involves Mr. Ellison.

It was a partnership of champions that raced to victory in Valencia, Spain. BMW engineers played a great part in that victory. Perhaps their goal was reached, and it is time to move on to the challenge of another sport? Time will tell…

Wow. The hills are alive this morning with the sound of BMW and flash technology to literally burn the BMW image into viewer eyes/mind. Like was it a commercial? Or was it not? Or like some weird science project? Maybe both.

BMW produced a short film featuring the motorcycle racer, Ruben Zaus, that did not show the BMW name or logo anywhere in the film. But, when the audience was asked to close their eyes at the end of the film, they “saw” BMW.

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For your convenience, we created a map of food donations drop-off locations in Cupertino, CA area. If you would like us to add additional Food drop-off locations, please email us at and we will happily add your location to our map.

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In the spirit of the holiday season, we partnered with Second Harvest Food Bank to help feed hungry families in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.

We set a goal of raising $500 and 300 lbs. of food by December 30th, giving us 21 more days to reach out and ask for help from our community. Can you help?

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If you have a later model BMW you know a little about the “Condition Based Service”. The concept of the Condition Based Service, (CBS) is to allow for economical maintenance and service intervals. Let’s take an ’04 545 for an example:

Your Service Indicator systems are determining the maintenance service intervals based on your BMW’s fuel consumption, thereby assessing when it’s time to change the oil. That is the main function.

But, along with the monitoring the fuel consumption, there are also sensors that are detecting wear conditions of the oil, Microfilter, and the Front and Rear brakes. Your instrument cluster is collecting data, and then “manages” the service schedule for you.

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Well everyone who eventually has to get brakes, (isn’t that all of us) just got a slight reprieve from the CA legislature.

It seems that CA is going to implement SB346 that will change the friction materials that is used in your brakes. The intent is to reduce the copper content in the brake pads. At one point the bill was going to add a minimum of $1.00 fee on each set sold, with no guarantee that it would not increase. Of course, it would have been collected by the brake installers or retailers and passed on the the consumer. Thankfully, the bill was changed in many ways before our Governor Arnold signed it. So, now the fee is gone and there is at least some phase-in to changing the friction materials.

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