I guess I remember the days when a transmission could be fixed on the spot cheaper than shipping heavy transmission parts around. Back then they weren't that complex... good point though.
Agreed with the maintenance issues, my friend. I love driving our 2004 VW Jetta TDI, but see other posts in this thread I've just sent for the "damages" to the wallet (if we didn't have the 100K extended warranty, and got it CHEAP!) for maintenance. COVERED items are already above $11K on ours, counting the new transmission that's currently being installed at the dealership... we've owned it since new, and the thing is a hangar queen. Thank goodness for extended warranties and "loss of vehicle" rental car insurance... we're so used to the routine of having it towed to the dealer, and my wife driving the latest "rental du jour" that even our across the street neighbors remarked on "how many new cars have been in your driveway the last few years?" two days ago from their Toyota Sequoia as we waved in the street leaving the neighborhood.
We have been enjoying our TDI Wagon since 2004... but...
See my other post in the thread about maintenance issues, and GET the rather cheap extension on the warranty to 100K miles.
Our extended warranty company has paid out over $11K and climbing. Latest is a complete transmission replacement, but numerous major systems and minor ones alike, have failed...
See my other post in here about the maintenance problems with our 2004 Jetta TDI Wagon. Caveat Emptor! $11K and climbing... thank goodness for that cheap warranty extension out to 100K miles!
The latest is a complete transmission replacement at 80K miles...
See my other post about the maintenance hog that our 2004 VW Jetta TDI Wagon has been.
I assume that the dual-clutch transmission came along sometime after 2004, because the system in our 2004 is one of the SLOWEST automatic transmissions to shift (when commanded to, by the auto-stick in "manual" mode) that I've ever driven behind.
As an automatic, it's fine. Mountain or other driving when requesting a down-shift, it takes bloody forever for it to shift.
Of course, as you can see in my other post above, the dealership is ripping it out and completely replacing the transmission at 80K miles right now, and that car has been down for maintenance at least one month out of every year we've owned it so far.
Love driving it, great handling, yadda yadda -- but it's under an extended warranty that was CHEAP (or I normally don't do them) and the maintenance costs are well over $11K in four years in COVERED items, not including regular maintenance.
The warranty company's getting SCREWED on this car... but that's the risk they took offering the extension... boo hoo for them. Good for us.
I used to be a Jetta fan, but our 2004 VW Jetta TDI Wagon has been in the shop at least one month for every year we've owned it. Thank GOD I bought the VERY cheap extended warranty!
The vehicle is at 80K miles, and we've LOVED driving it, by far the best DRIVING car we've ever owned, especially sporty for a wagon -- and the fuel econ is about 35 MPH in mostly city driving, but we've seen way over 40 MPG highway...
But... and it's a big but...
On top of the already high maintenance items we've had done, here's the list of things that the warranty has covered:
- New intake manifold - TWICE - Sunroof motor assembly - Door window control switch assembly - Cracked high pressure diesel lines under the hood - Cracked/broken plastic in the diesel/water separator/filter assembly - Almost every sensor on the engine has failed, including camshaft position sensors and others that I don't even know what they do, or more frankly -- don't care -- but it sure made the thing a bitch to start... until repaired...
This isn't all... but at that point the warranty company is PISSED and sent an "auditor" to the dealership during the last round of sensor failures 4 weeks ago to make sure they weren't being ripped off. The camshaft position sensor and three others were found during the 80K mile major maintenance visit to the dealership. All maintenance (even fluid changes) were done at a VW dealership... yeah, expensive, but that's how my wife does things with her vehicles. And I don't have to mess with them. We just budget appropriately.
This week, my wife called and said the vehicle wouldn't go any faster than 20 MPH, after it stopped moving completely in traffic. She turned it off for a bit, and apparently it went into some new form of "limp home" mode.
It was towed to the dealership, and they called Tuesday saying that the $100 deductible would once again, be applied, and that they "had checked all of the transmission sensors and couldn't find anything wrong, so they were going to replace the transmission". Not repair... replace.
That tells me that they probably have a Service Bulletin stating that whatever they REALLY saw means that the entire tranny has to come out... because any shop worth their salt would normally just tear down the transmission and fix it.
Like I said, love the car and used to be a big fan, but WATCH OUT... parts are high (exchange rate), and if you don't have the warranty extended to 100K like we did... if yours starts acting like it's going to be a "hangar queen" get out, run, don't walk, to dump that car.
We'll be going back to Honda... sorry VW. The Civic was still running after the insurance company totaled it, after being hit six times in seven years. (Yes, dark green cars can't be seen by other drivers in bad weather, night, or other limited visibility conditions. We learned that one the hard way too.) In fact, it was sold on a salvage title, fixed and as far as I know, is still running today -- probably with over 200K miles on it.
VW - Great ideas, poor execution in the engineering department, I guess. Not hanging on to this one.
You'd have to ask them. They just do. I haven't worked for a company larger than about 15 people yet in my life that didn't use LookOut/Exchange...
Your comments are valid, and even correct, but that doesn't change what they're using.
Entourage, last I checked, requires that the HTTP/HTTPS functionality of Exchange Server be turned on, it doesn't speak "natively" to the Exchange server. Maybe that's changed since I last looked at it.
I (technically) couldn't test it anyway... any "non-company owned device" isn't to be plugged into their Ethernet LAN anywhere in the world, anyway... according to policy...
The bad capacitor thing is rampant in electronics today. It's amazing the lower quality levels of these components from China vs. older equipment made here.
I have radio systems that have been operating near-continuously since they came off the GE assembly line in the 1980's, and bad caps are not common in them at all... but many more "modern" devices that have had dried out or leaking cheap capacitors since then.
So far everyone I've met (work-mates, friends) who have purchased a netbook have all had the same reaction after about six months to a year... "Damn this thing is slow!" This has led to my new public statement... "Netbooks are just the tiny Toshiba machines you could buy in the mid 1990s, and just as wimpy." They're last decade's laptops with small processors, tiny screens, and limited potential. The laptop manufacturers are pumping them out, but they're just not the same as buying a real laptop with modern CPU and drive speeds. If you need an underpowered, lightweight machine, for a little mobile computing when you're away from your real machines... fine... I don't. I just carry around an appropriately provisioned lightweight MacBook. If I had some aversion to two more pounds I'd get an Air... but then again, same problem... that's a technology step backward in speed and usefulness.
People that NEED machines like those (and the Mac Pro) would find assembling a machine to be a waste of time and their talent. All this blah blah blah on Slashdot about whether you can build a workstation cheaper is hilarious, while the people that needed an updated Mac Pro have already whipped out the company credit card and placed the order...
Nah, details don't matter to these guys trying desperately to figure it out... Ha. Seriously -- they think they're getting a "great deal" on stuff that isn't the same.
Right now the refurbs (well, until today's update of the store -- I haven't looked) didn't include the latest version of iLife, so you have to factor another $99 into the price (or the family pack, or whatever...) So you not only get "last year's" model, but also "last year's" software. I love buying "last year's" ANYTHING, PC or Mac... same thing with cars... but in this case, it's a detail some might overlook.
Correction: CRAPPY USB/serial adapters have those problems. Ones based off of solid chipsets and drivers (like FTDI chipsets), don't. Do more homework. Most of us did and moved on from real serial ports a few years ago, maybe after being burned by a $9 "special" back then.
Of course, the REALLY nice part about OS X and to a lesser extent, Windows... is that almost ALL of the "stuff" people do with the silly pointer and mouse/trackpad "clicks" is still available as keyboard shortcuts, and you really don't have to use the darn pointer at all, if you don't really want to. You just have to have the brainpower of a higher chimp to remember a few keystrokes.
The reality is... gestures, multiple buttons, whatever. I use all of the above, on all the different types of machines (PC, Mac, whatever), just fine. You just have to have enough brainpower to remember how to USE the computer you're sitting at. Supremely tough stuff, I know... but there are a number of us that do just fine running "all of the above", while getting work done on any of them...
I haven't seen any of the THREE Apple retail stores around here hurting for customers packing in every weekend, or real sales ringing up and walking out the door. You can say they're "hurting" themselves, all the way to wherever that leads, but it doesn't match the reality of what's happening at their retail outlets.
Uhh, at least in terms of what's really going on, you have it backwards. The euro is tanking, and the dollar is coming back strong again. Check your numbers.
The "higher" prices in the EU and UK are a reflection of that and Apple believing that trend will continue.
And as of right now, the pound's dropping off against the dollar again, and your Prime Minister says he's coming over here to "help us into the Global New Deal"...
Frankly, just like in the late 1700's, about half of us aren't interested in Old World "help"... but it'll help the other half figure out that our President is nothing but a socialist... tell him thanks for heading over!
We'll put his butt back on a boat and thank him for "helping" as quickly as we can! LOL!
Oh and let us know when the UK has a computer company worth bragging about. That'll be rich.
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I guess I remember the days when a transmission could be fixed on the spot cheaper than shipping heavy transmission parts around. Back then they weren't that complex... good point though.
Agreed with the maintenance issues, my friend. I love driving our 2004 VW Jetta TDI, but see other posts in this thread I've just sent for the "damages" to the wallet (if we didn't have the 100K extended warranty, and got it CHEAP!) for maintenance. COVERED items are already above $11K on ours, counting the new transmission that's currently being installed at the dealership... we've owned it since new, and the thing is a hangar queen. Thank goodness for extended warranties and "loss of vehicle" rental car insurance... we're so used to the routine of having it towed to the dealer, and my wife driving the latest "rental du jour" that even our across the street neighbors remarked on "how many new cars have been in your driveway the last few years?" two days ago from their Toyota Sequoia as we waved in the street leaving the neighborhood.
We have been enjoying our TDI Wagon since 2004... but...
See my other post in the thread about maintenance issues, and GET the rather cheap extension on the warranty to 100K miles.
Our extended warranty company has paid out over $11K and climbing. Latest is a complete transmission replacement, but numerous major systems and minor ones alike, have failed...
See my other post in here about the maintenance problems with our 2004 Jetta TDI Wagon. Caveat Emptor! $11K and climbing... thank goodness for that cheap warranty extension out to 100K miles!
The latest is a complete transmission replacement at 80K miles...
See my other post about the maintenance hog that our 2004 VW Jetta TDI Wagon has been.
I assume that the dual-clutch transmission came along sometime after 2004, because the system in our 2004 is one of the SLOWEST automatic transmissions to shift (when commanded to, by the auto-stick in "manual" mode) that I've ever driven behind.
As an automatic, it's fine. Mountain or other driving when requesting a down-shift, it takes bloody forever for it to shift.
Of course, as you can see in my other post above, the dealership is ripping it out and completely replacing the transmission at 80K miles right now, and that car has been down for maintenance at least one month out of every year we've owned it so far.
Love driving it, great handling, yadda yadda -- but it's under an extended warranty that was CHEAP (or I normally don't do them) and the maintenance costs are well over $11K in four years in COVERED items, not including regular maintenance.
The warranty company's getting SCREWED on this car... but that's the risk they took offering the extension... boo hoo for them. Good for us.
I used to be a Jetta fan, but our 2004 VW Jetta TDI Wagon has been in the shop at least one month for every year we've owned it. Thank GOD I bought the VERY cheap extended warranty!
The vehicle is at 80K miles, and we've LOVED driving it, by far the best DRIVING car we've ever owned, especially sporty for a wagon -- and the fuel econ is about 35 MPH in mostly city driving, but we've seen way over 40 MPG highway...
But... and it's a big but...
On top of the already high maintenance items we've had done, here's the list of things that the warranty has covered:
- New intake manifold - TWICE
- Sunroof motor assembly
- Door window control switch assembly
- Cracked high pressure diesel lines under the hood
- Cracked/broken plastic in the diesel/water separator/filter assembly
- Almost every sensor on the engine has failed, including camshaft position sensors and others that I don't even know what they do, or more frankly -- don't care -- but it sure made the thing a bitch to start... until repaired...
This isn't all... but at that point the warranty company is PISSED and sent an "auditor" to the dealership during the last round of sensor failures 4 weeks ago to make sure they weren't being ripped off. The camshaft position sensor and three others were found during the 80K mile major maintenance visit to the dealership. All maintenance (even fluid changes) were done at a VW dealership... yeah, expensive, but that's how my wife does things with her vehicles. And I don't have to mess with them. We just budget appropriately.
This week, my wife called and said the vehicle wouldn't go any faster than 20 MPH, after it stopped moving completely in traffic. She turned it off for a bit, and apparently it went into some new form of "limp home" mode.
It was towed to the dealership, and they called Tuesday saying that the $100 deductible would once again, be applied, and that they "had checked all of the transmission sensors and couldn't find anything wrong, so they were going to replace the transmission". Not repair... replace.
That tells me that they probably have a Service Bulletin stating that whatever they REALLY saw means that the entire tranny has to come out... because any shop worth their salt would normally just tear down the transmission and fix it.
Like I said, love the car and used to be a big fan, but WATCH OUT... parts are high (exchange rate), and if you don't have the warranty extended to 100K like we did... if yours starts acting like it's going to be a "hangar queen" get out, run, don't walk, to dump that car.
We'll be going back to Honda... sorry VW. The Civic was still running after the insurance company totaled it, after being hit six times in seven years. (Yes, dark green cars can't be seen by other drivers in bad weather, night, or other limited visibility conditions. We learned that one the hard way too.) In fact, it was sold on a salvage title, fixed and as far as I know, is still running today -- probably with over 200K miles on it.
VW - Great ideas, poor execution in the engineering department, I guess. Not hanging on to this one.
And one Slashdotting to get my State government to take down retarded information in less than 24 hours! Yay.
You'd have to ask them. They just do. I haven't worked for a company larger than about 15 people yet in my life that didn't use LookOut/Exchange...
Your comments are valid, and even correct, but that doesn't change what they're using.
Entourage, last I checked, requires that the HTTP/HTTPS functionality of Exchange Server be turned on, it doesn't speak "natively" to the Exchange server. Maybe that's changed since I last looked at it.
I (technically) couldn't test it anyway... any "non-company owned device" isn't to be plugged into their Ethernet LAN anywhere in the world, anyway... according to policy...
Dumb, yes. Lose my job over it? No. :-)
Interesting. Thanks for sharing.
The bad capacitor thing is rampant in electronics today. It's amazing the lower quality levels of these components from China vs. older equipment made here.
I have radio systems that have been operating near-continuously since they came off the GE assembly line in the 1980's, and bad caps are not common in them at all... but many more "modern" devices that have had dried out or leaking cheap capacitors since then.
I know a few. They make an ass-load of money. It's a rare talent.
For his desk, sure.
So far everyone I've met (work-mates, friends) who have purchased a netbook have all had the same reaction after about six months to a year... "Damn this thing is slow!" This has led to my new public statement... "Netbooks are just the tiny Toshiba machines you could buy in the mid 1990s, and just as wimpy." They're last decade's laptops with small processors, tiny screens, and limited potential. The laptop manufacturers are pumping them out, but they're just not the same as buying a real laptop with modern CPU and drive speeds. If you need an underpowered, lightweight machine, for a little mobile computing when you're away from your real machines... fine... I don't. I just carry around an appropriately provisioned lightweight MacBook. If I had some aversion to two more pounds I'd get an Air... but then again, same problem... that's a technology step backward in speed and usefulness.
People that NEED machines like those (and the Mac Pro) would find assembling a machine to be a waste of time and their talent. All this blah blah blah on Slashdot about whether you can build a workstation cheaper is hilarious, while the people that needed an updated Mac Pro have already whipped out the company credit card and placed the order...
You're both annoying. So there. :-)
Nah, details don't matter to these guys trying desperately to figure it out... Ha. Seriously -- they think they're getting a "great deal" on stuff that isn't the same.
Right now the refurbs (well, until today's update of the store -- I haven't looked) didn't include the latest version of iLife, so you have to factor another $99 into the price (or the family pack, or whatever...) So you not only get "last year's" model, but also "last year's" software. I love buying "last year's" ANYTHING, PC or Mac... same thing with cars... but in this case, it's a detail some might overlook.
Correction: CRAPPY USB/serial adapters have those problems. Ones based off of solid chipsets and drivers (like FTDI chipsets), don't. Do more homework. Most of us did and moved on from real serial ports a few years ago, maybe after being burned by a $9 "special" back then.
A real computer geek carries a FTDI-chipset based USB to serial adapter, usable on ANY OS.
Of course, the REALLY nice part about OS X and to a lesser extent, Windows... is that almost ALL of the "stuff" people do with the silly pointer and mouse/trackpad "clicks" is still available as keyboard shortcuts, and you really don't have to use the darn pointer at all, if you don't really want to. You just have to have the brainpower of a higher chimp to remember a few keystrokes.
The reality is... gestures, multiple buttons, whatever. I use all of the above, on all the different types of machines (PC, Mac, whatever), just fine. You just have to have enough brainpower to remember how to USE the computer you're sitting at. Supremely tough stuff, I know... but there are a number of us that do just fine running "all of the above", while getting work done on any of them...
I haven't seen any of the THREE Apple retail stores around here hurting for customers packing in every weekend, or real sales ringing up and walking out the door. You can say they're "hurting" themselves, all the way to wherever that leads, but it doesn't match the reality of what's happening at their retail outlets.
Then do it. We'll take the money, either way. :-)
Uhh, at least in terms of what's really going on, you have it backwards. The euro is tanking, and the dollar is coming back strong again. Check your numbers.
The "higher" prices in the EU and UK are a reflection of that and Apple believing that trend will continue.
What's "distasteful" about a company saying, "Buy it or don't" and making a profit on it? Good lord...
And as of right now, the pound's dropping off against the dollar again, and your Prime Minister says he's coming over here to "help us into the Global New Deal"...
Frankly, just like in the late 1700's, about half of us aren't interested in Old World "help"... but it'll help the other half figure out that our President is nothing but a socialist... tell him thanks for heading over!
We'll put his butt back on a boat and thank him for "helping" as quickly as we can! LOL!
Oh and let us know when the UK has a computer company worth bragging about. That'll be rich.