Toys4RJill

saw an old Toyota today

mmarshall

I can understand the ban......for simple aerodynamic reasons. (I am a former pilot).

That wedge-shape, with the front end raised like that, would act like the wing-flaps of an airplane, creating extra lift, and, particularly at higher speeds, the air-pressure underneath could take so much weight off both front and rear tires that traction and steering-control could be seriously compromised, particularly on a slick surface. Personally, I wouldn't drive anything like that at anything over typical stop-and-go/local-neighborhood speeds. Not only that, but forward visibility over that raised hood could also be a problem.

AJT123

Then this:


We talk about people getting huge trucks and never using them…. lol this guy lives down the street. I’ve never seen him do one truck thing with it, ever.

A 1500 or even 2500 or Yukon/Expedition to drive alone I get.. But this is a seriously heavy duty F-450. The guy is as nice as can be He’s a doctor who had to retire early because of so many back problems and surgeries, so we get along well with sharing horror stories.

Margate330

Plus that, it looks retarded.

Sorry, it does .. IMO lol

AJT123

Yukon has a raised hood but you can still see fine. It's remarkably easy to maneuver, as easy as our LX570 and it's much larger.

People who don't care for these that much, you do get used to it and the way they drive.

SW17LS

I'm going to find out from my independent what it would cost there.

Its actually a sealant not a gasket

mmarshall

Apples and Oranges. The Yukon's hood may be high, but it doesn't stick up at a 30-degree-angle in front of you like on that modded truck.

BayeauxLex

Stories like these keeps me away from Mercedes 🥴. Glad you’re under warranty

SW17LS

Get new ones and keep them under warranty lol

This is not at all a normal thing to have happen according to the dealer, this is the first valve cover leak on an M176 they have done. Lucky me.

Toys4RJill

‘Let’s say some leases for 9 years. 3 straight leases. $100,000 car each time. Interest at 3.99% how much would they pay in interest over the course of those nine years? And you can’t write it off to a tax scheme. I figure if you financed the car and once it’s paid off, you’d probably pay less interest. And if you pocket the difference between the interest and the lease, that pays for your big repairs. But I don’t know how the math works out

Striker223

Big ouch then if they have failures like this, I assumed it couldn't possibly be sealant and have failed that early.

JDR76

This is why I cringe when people say that reliability issues are not a concern as long as you're under warranty. No. I don't want to deal with any of this. My truck - 3 years - not a single warranty issue. My Highlander - 5 years - not a single warranty issue. My GS - 4 years - not a single warranty issue. I don't even like taking them in for oil changes. I don't want to deal with warranty issues too.

SW17LS

When you lease the whole car is an expense, I don't even think about interest...but the rate is extremely low, far less than 1%. But, at the end you have nothing so its really just renting a car. For me it is tax deductible, my payment is $1,494, X48, it cost $71,712 to drive the car for 4 years, and I save about 1/2 of that in taxes, so net cost to me to drive it for 48 months is approximately $35,856...or $747 a month. Obviously thats just the lease, not fuel or tires or maintenance etc...all of which is also tax deductible.

Buying something and keeping it for 9 years would be way cheaper, but I don't want to drive a car that long...to me its just a fixed expense for something I enjoy.

The dealer hasn't done one on this engine yet, and its been out since 2017 so there are plenty of higher mileage ones than mine. My guess is it was a flaw in the original construction of the engine. Who knows how long its been leaking, the only way to know is to remove the spark plugs which I didn't do until 50k miles. It could have always leaked!

With the "$3,000 in parts" and I know they needed additional parts once they started the job, they could have had to replace a valve cover or something who knows.

SW17LS

1,000%. Don't want to deal with this at all, this is a huge annoyance.

To be fair though...this isn't the longest one of my cars has been down for a warranty repair...that was my 2015 LS460...and it had 300 miles on it...it was down for over 2 weeks. Other than that though this is for sure the longest a car has been out of my hands for a repair, and until now the car was perfect. This won't stop me from getting another Mercedes but it sure does make it a lot less likely I would keep this one.

JDR76

If you have a car that you love, it's worth it. So I get that. I have a very busy life, as do you. If I remember correctly, your twins were born just after my son (my second born), so you get it. Everything is a chore, especially if it disrupts the schedule. I think my wife may take a sabbatical next year to help us take a breather. Maybe I can put the car maintenance off on her.