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Excerpt: For you and your BMW, MINI, and all of your household cars; July 1, 2010, another mandatory regulation by the California Air Resources Board, (to be implemented by the Department of Consumer Affairs, Bureau of Automotive Repair) is finally in effect. So what does that have to do with me? In California, what this means for you, is that in most cases wherever/whenever you take your BMW, your MINI, or any other car for repair, service or maintenance, your tires should be inflated to the proper psi that is listed on the sticker on the door pillar by…
Tire Pressure Monitoring: Looking Out For Your Safety
Vintage Classic BMW – Sell or Keep?
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Excerpt: In the last 6 weeks, we have had 4 customers with older, classic BMW’s as the 1974 2002 or 2002tii. These 1970 era BMW’s are cute, mpg friendly, and fun to drive. Driving a BMW that is 36 years old has it’s upsides, but it’s not for everyone. The downside is that one has to make a serious decision. Am I going to keep this BMW baby goin or not? And how much do I want to invest to enjoy just drive my classic BMW? Do I want to perhaps bring it up to a…
Carbon Sensitive Check Engine Light? You are not alone.
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Excerpt: Not sure if you have thought about it lately, but the “smog” pollutants coming out of your BMW tail pipe are a tiny, tiny, fraction of what they were in the early 1980′s. In fact BMW and most cars have become so clean, that with our current technology, who knows if it even can get much cleaner. That’s until we all go MINI e, but we’ll save that for another post. The emphasis these days is more about the gases, vs. the actual pollutants coming out of your BMW exhaust system. We are talking CO2 which used to…
Battery Installation? Leave it to the pros
Do not be tempted to have a battery installed by a tow driver for your BMW or MINI. We know that many of owners have been putting off service.
Do you really know what is going on? Unless you are getting a charging system check or the battery tested correctly, and the BMW specified battery installed according to BMW procedures, you are not getting what you and your BMW deserve. Just say no!
Recall Reminder
BMW of NA has issued a recall that just began a few weeks ago at the end of March 2010. The recall is specific to year 2010 Sport Activity Vehicles, the X5 and X6 that were produced over a span of 2 days in December of 2009. Thankfully, there are only 210 of these recalled and it is related to the bonding of the windshield over a certain length that could affect stability of the roof in the event of a rollover incident.
Go to safercar.gov or nhtsa.gov for complete details on the recall.
Batteries, and more Batteries
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Excerpt: Reportedly, some scientists at Stanford are using facets of nanotechnology to develop batteries that are made of paper and also fabric. How awesome! They are using ink made of carbon nano tubes and silver nanowires to produce a highly conductive battery that is lightweight and dependable, and bendable. Using the same idea with a nano tube ink to dye fabric they have developed a textile that can hold up to 3 times more energy than a cell phone battery.Lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles should also see some gains in usage as a Japanese firm states that it has discovered…
FYI – They are at it again!
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Excerpt: There is a bill being considered that will most assuredly affect your future collision, (body shop) repair. It’s called H.R.3059, written by Zoe Lofgren D.-Ca, and it is being called the “Access to Repair Parts Act.”That name makes it sound consumer friendly doesn’t it? But, the real intent and the real ramifications may prove otherwise if this law is enacted.It basically negates patent law regarding automobile parts if the “copied” part is for used for cosmetic purposes. In other words, a producer of unlicensed automotive parts does not have to meet any quality, product safety or durability…
Why use High Quality Oil Filters?
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Excerpt: Is an Oil Filter, just an Oil Filter?There may not be a better way to protect that expensive BMW engine by following, (at minimum) the BMW scheduled oil service intervals. At our business, that will always include a high quality, German made oil filter. Not all filters are created equal. Of course, oil filters are sold cheaply at every big box parts place and even some hardware stores!Why risk a major expense that could result from errant oil filter “stuff”, due to a cheap, poor quality oil filter? An inferior cheap filter may deform upon installation…
More Good News
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Excerpt: According to the national figures from the Better Business Bureau, the largest number of complaints by consumers in 2009 was regarding cell phones, cable companies, and service plans, (that makes it number 1). What is nice to see, is that Auto Service and Repair is all the way down to number 10 on that list. Yeah. That is good news for our industry and also, you the consumer.As more and more States take actions to regulate the repair facilities across the country, the industry has at minimum improve how it communicates with customers. In recent…
Good News!
BMW is adding 200 jobs at the Spartanburg plant. It’s only 200 jobs, but considering the lingering high unemployment numbers across the U.S., this is a good thing.
Did you know that the Spartanburg plant draws methane gas from a local landfill to power about 25% of it’s energy needs? A cogeneration facility produces electricity and hot water for the plant, putting that methane to work.
