RE: IML: Dealer won't work on a '90s Imperial

[Kenyon Wills <imperialist1960@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sour grapes, guys!  Frustrating not to have an easy
answer right there at the dealership for you, but.....

I rehabbed a 1915 Model T and drove it over to the
Ford dealership just for the hell of it.  Asked them
if they'd perform a tune up and tighten the wooden
spokes on the wheels with a straight face.

The first guy turned white and ran for the service
manager who politely declined, and I hassled them by
accusing them of not servicing what they sell and made
a small scene before relaxing and letting them know I
was just there to tweak their tails.  We got a good
chuckle out of it, and I gave rides and driving
lessons for 30 minutes.  

-This was after I called the 800 hotline "answer"
number on the back of the Chevron oil container and
asked them what oil I should put in that car and it
took them 24 hours to come up with an answer (30
weight).

The question is:  Where should anyone draw the line
between what's a reasonable expecation of a dealership
and what's just expecting too much.  Normandin's in
San Jose is known to accept older cars if they're
really stock, but the "current-car" industry doesn't
give a hoot about us.  We are not "grapes" that are
ripe for picking, and if we can't figure it out with
our skills and resources, why should they want to?....

The tire place on the corner always cringes when I
show up, because that means that it's something that I
can't or don't want to do myself, and those are
usually the least-appetizing jobs, like pulling
roasted drums with embedded shoes and so forth.

The independent shops are cheaper, being squeezed
unmercifully by current technology that is designed to
exclude them with "dealership only" diagnostic
procedures, and so forth.  There are some people that
actually excell at this stuff.  They call themselves
"spark-chasers" and can be found by calling around,
looking under "electro-automotive" in the phone book,
or maybe on CL.

Good luck.



Kenyon Wills
 
 






















      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Luggage? GPS? Comic books? 
Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search
http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=graduation+gifts&cs=bz

-----------------  http://www.imperialclub.com  -----------------
This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please 
reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be 
shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the
Administrators should be sent to iml.webmonster@xxxxxxxxx
To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm