GK is for short trips and u guys know how i can care less about the car.

 

I don't even feel like I know the car or can speak about it's dependability until it has at least 100k miles. Even a POS can got that far.

We generally run our cars till they either have problems or we see that they aren't going to be a good high mile car. I won't run the Lincoln too high. It's too costly to repair and has too many things that are likely to fail.

The exception are vehicles that I decide I don't like. They could go away at any time. Dumped a few before they even reached 30k.

 

I can't think of a car that I have not put at least 100,000 miles on. If taken care of that mileage is nothing. If I had a car that was going to kill me in repairs I'd most likely move on to the next one. I've always taken care of my cars even the ones that I considered beaters. I'm thinking if I was going to flip cars every couple of years I'd look into leasing.

 

so lets see how many miles i put on my GTI this week.. 60miles. why? cause i was driving a rental 4 days out of the week for biz. you folks might drive the same car every day including weekends, i drive my commuter any where from zero to 200miles a week, in addition to GK, in addition to 2 other fun cars i have.

while this entire week, i drove 780-800miles not including 2 plane trips for work.
so in my lifestyle, even if i easily drive over 25k miles a year, it's not all in one car.

i honestly dont care if a car lasts 100k miles. i buy my 3 cars usually in rotation.. my current cars kinda jumped sequence a little as you can tell in the model years, but i usually buy a new car every 2 years, the oldest car id have would be 6yrs old or older. 30k miles is about when i sell my cars. the car i buy for my wife usually is swapped when it reaches 50k miles.

i dont lease cars. the cars i rent are rental cars that my work pays for. you guys keep doing wat you are doing as it appears to make sense to you, but you and i roll very differently.

 

Arrrgh --a big rock cracked Rolf The Golf's windshield yesterday. :-( I must have jumped a foot off the seat when it hit with a BANG.

There's no star pattern, just a crack about 3/4" long smack dab in the driver's view. It can't be repaired.

Happened on the Interstate. Sigh. Mrs. Alco will visit State Farm next week and I'm going to make a visit to the VW Dealership to ask if they know of a good VW glass man. The entire repair will be free, but we might pay for the extra cost of VW factory glass depending. Replacing a windshield on the modern car is a nightmare of trim pieces and clips. Sigh.

 

Sorry that happened to you Alco. Been there done that, not fun. Make sure the installer is familiar with how to do a Golf windshield. You don't want him learning on the job. The last windshield I had replaced was in my MINI, Pilkington glass was used & it was good.

 

Good luck Alco! I agree on factory glass and finding a decent place. Most aren't very good and non-factory glass is rarely as good.

 

kenchan, your automotive lifestyle is similar to my friends that have company cars.

One friend had a BMW 135M or something like that and then he changed jobs and lost his company truck, but got a car. Traded the BMW in on an F150 FX4. He then changed jobs again and lost his car, but got a truck.

He went and traded his F150 in on another BMW. Due to his work and company vehicles, he keeps on swapping based on having a full rounded assortment.

His wife drives a BMW 335 hard top convertible so that's been the constant.

I've always been jealous of those that have company vehicles or rental cars. Lets you experience diversity without owning it all yourself. For most of my adult life, I've had a comfy car, a truck, and a sports car of some kind. No one car does it all for me. I like diversity.

 

alco - sorry to hear, i know that pain cause my GTI's windshield cracked last year too. my suggestion is if your car has rain sensing wipers, MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE they use OEM glass, not the replicas. i had to get mine replace twice as the non-OEM would would not fit the back of the mirror cover correctly.

mine cracked so bad rain water was seeping inside. i had safelite do my glass. they were at my place the next morning and the young tech did a good job.

 

GAFIT- i work for a huge company and they have a fleet of cars i can use along with all sorts of rentals, shuttles at my disposal. ive never had my boss reject a trip request and its not like i request for just travel, expensive dinners and lunches with clients, etc are also included. im not bragging or anything im just an upper middle class guy, but this is just the norm for employees at my work in managerial positions.

i travel for work often during the week so my personal cars expire by time or boredom, not milage. im okay with that because i change or dont change cars on my own terms.. plus, the cars i like arent that expensive. STI, Golf-R, i couldve easily bought a bimmer or a maserati and have change to spare. im not talking exotic cars here, price is not the issue. its more if i really need to spend that kind of cash (80K-90K) to buy something i really like. so far, not the case, i luv my STI and R mainly because they are MT and super fun to drive. if i had more space, id get the abarth today.

 

Thanks for the glass repair tips guys. We'll see what transpires next week when we gather up the details. I'm trying to keep in mind that most all windshields are tough to replace in this era and that Rolf's is probably no worse.

I think what I worry with most are broken trim clips that the tech won't have on hand. When I checked our Fit's spark plugs, I had to remove the upper and lower cowls and half of the clips broke in the removal process. Maybe glass guys carry what they might need knowing what they'll be working on.

 

alco - when i had the tech come by, i removed the cowl and wipers so he could to start right away. i recommend you painter's tape the a-pillar just in case he/she bumps it or uses paper towels to wipe off finger smears, etc. there's really no clips to worry about.

removing the glass apparently wasnt too bad for the tech. he was able to remove in one piece with only a few areas where the glass cracked but nothing he couldn't easily vacuum.

 

Great idea on the painter's tape and thanks for putting my mind at ease with clips.

Years back, a knothead glassman severely scratched the paint in places around the windshield on our old Mitsu. It was a very old car, so I didn't much care, but I called the Manager and negotiated a settlement of a few hundred dollars in cash to repair the damage. I spent about $20 on materials and fixed it myself enough to prevent rust. I'd be out for blood if this happened to any of our current vehicles.

 

Felix The Fit is encased in ice this morning in the mountains. Not going anywhere. Brrrr.



2013 Fit Sport On Ice

 

alco - no problem. the only 'clips' are on the cowl which you can easily remove before the tech gets there.

nice pict of Felix.. looks brrrrr..! really miss my GE now that i found severe paint failure on my GK yesterday. i am extremely unhappy with my GK. i cant recommend this car to anyone. just a pos from day one.

 

I'd recommend a 2018 GK, but not the early Mexican built cars. The amount of failures of different types is astounding.

Talking to Honda people, the first year at the new Mexico plant did NOT go well. I suspect that created quality problems that took some time to work through.

Dealers report that they didn't know when, if, or what would come off the truck and didn't know how much dealer attention the cars would require to get them ready for sale. It was a mess.

Out of curiosity, what was the production date of your GK? Was it an early '16?

 

yah, its one of the first 16's the dealer got. such a hassle. i wouldnt recommend a 2018 either. if it must be a GK, find one that was assembled in japan or get the 12-13 GE's.

every single honda built outside of japan has had some kind of problem and the GK is by far the worst. next is the civic out of ohio. so sad, yet so glad i went out and tried a VW 2yrs ago. im real happy with my Golfs!

 

I agree on the 12-13 GE. Those are a standout among Fit's IMO.

Generally speaking, Accords and CR-V's regardless of plant, have done very well in the marketplace. They have been some of the highest rated vehicles when it comes to dependability year after year.

Based on my experiences with recent family and friends vehicles, I'd pretty much agree with this...

https://www.consumerreports.org/car-...they-stack-up/

 

Interesting that the Golf shows as VW's least reliable car (and that the Passat is VW's most reliable). We chewed our nails over this, as we kept the Mazda3 hatch in the running until the last minute and it ranks as Mazda's best and Mazda is four steps up overall from VW.

I guess time will tell whether we made a mistake. Our '10 Golf Sportwagen TDI was excellent overall.

Interesting too that Audi consistently shines. I wonder if Audis are built in different plants than VWs?

 

alco - from my experience, euro cars are a hit or miss. there's a saying if you get a 5pm friday car it will be a pos. it really depends on luck.

at this point, i was willing to take the risk getting a VW since honda and nissan sucked so bad for me lately. im glad i took the risk.