I have been driving and working on old German cars for almost years and along the way have owned many, mostly older so while I feel for him and his issue, I can tell you there is never an easy fix on AC systems on German cars that are years old like his And here is why AC was a new thing to the Germans in the 80's It has only been main stream since the late 70's and Germany hadn't figured out yet what heat really is It was actually the mid 2000s before BMW and Mercedes got it right The car in question is no exception to these issues With the exception of items that have been replaced, everything is years old When a year old car comes in with the AC system not working there is a standard protocol The first step is to pull all of the refrigerant out to see how much is in it If is low or empty, the first step is to charge with a proper charge and then activate the system If it was low leaks are first dealt with That is a must and required by law according to the standards laid out by the EPA To not seal up a system would be a violation and could result in heavy fines Then the system is checked for full function Items that aren't working are replaced or corrected and then it is all checked again If everything works at that point you drive the vehicle and see if all works at speed If there are no issues you return the car to the owner There is no on board diagnostics, no lights that tell you anything is wrong or about to fail What my staff probably did not tell [redacted] is that he should expect possible issues to ensue in the near future It is typical to see several failures in the AC systems on old German cars after reactivating the system after any amount of time not working Once again I have to reinforce this is a year old car, with year old parts and a system that is years old We can only fix what is broken at the time the vehicle is brought to us If it works when we return it that is the best that any shop or client can hope for and as it develops issues we can tend to those It is going to have issues And also it is real possibility that it will have multiple issues in a short period Once that is all worked out then you can expect to go longer periods in between services But definitely indefinitely These systems weren't all that good to begin with, don't cool very well when working and are under a tremendous amount of pressure and stress even in colder climates But you add to that the heat of Texas and it is magnified These old cars are no where near as efficient or as durable as the newer stuff, but even the newer stuff eats their compressors on a regular basisHis compressor was working when it was in the visit before and therefore we had no reason to expect it was failing or about to fail If it isn't making noise, isn't leaking and is working, meaning cooling the car, then we don't know any different If he would like us to make an estimate for everything that I think will eventually fail, that estimate will exceed the value of the vehicle probably a couple of times All components have a finite span, and years is pushing the outer limits of just about everything in his vehicle that has moving parts and many components that don'tI am sorry he felt that we didn't catch or should have caught something that hadn't failed, but that isn't really possible unless there is some sort of sign I can and do warranty all components we replace for months, but I can't do that on components we haven't replaced That just isn't possible [redacted] ***Lone Star Bavarian
Really! Shady marketing tactics? A postcard in the mail is shady? Our marketing is done by a third party and I have no idea where they get their list from but this is the first time in years of sending mailers that we have been called shady I get dozens of pieces of marketing in the mail daily and keep a recycling bin by the place I open mail I don't see businesses that send marketing as shady...I see it as a business trying to market their product or service to the public in one of the only ways available I can't imagine being offended by receiving mail like this since it is not being sent maliciously by anyone of the businesses that do so There are no threats, no condescending verbage or anything that could be construed as offensive It simply states we offer a service that you may or may not be interested in In addition, each piece of marketing cost those businesses money that is paid to the post office which helps to underwrite all of us getting personal mail Without these types of mailers being sent out in bulk by the businesses that do so, the post office would have already gone bankrupt or personal mail would cost several dollars for each piece So in the end you should thank businesses like us for helping to keep the post office in business and you being able to receive or send affordable mail I would suggest you do as I and millions of American's do each day, place your unwanted mail in the recycling bin in your home or business and move on
I have been driving and working on old German cars for almost years and along the way have owned many, mostly older so while I feel for him and his issue, I can tell you there is never an easy fix on AC systems on German cars that are years old like his And here is why AC was a new thing to the Germans in the 80's It has only been main stream since the late 70's and Germany hadn't figured out yet what heat really is It was actually the mid 2000s before BMW and Mercedes got it right The car in question is no exception to these issues With the exception of items that have been replaced, everything is years old When a year old car comes in with the AC system not working there is a standard protocol The first step is to pull all of the refrigerant out to see how much is in it If is low or empty, the first step is to charge with a proper charge and then activate the system If it was low leaks are first dealt with That is a must and required by law according to the standards laid out by the EPA To not seal up a system would be a violation and could result in heavy fines Then the system is checked for full function Items that aren't working are replaced or corrected and then it is all checked again If everything works at that point you drive the vehicle and see if all works at speed If there are no issues you return the car to the owner There is no on board diagnostics, no lights that tell you anything is wrong or about to fail What my staff probably did not tell [redacted] is that he should expect possible issues to ensue in the near future It is typical to see several failures in the AC systems on old German cars after reactivating the system after any amount of time not working Once again I have to reinforce this is a year old car, with year old parts and a system that is years old We can only fix what is broken at the time the vehicle is brought to us If it works when we return it that is the best that any shop or client can hope for and as it develops issues we can tend to those It is going to have issues And also it is real possibility that it will have multiple issues in a short period Once that is all worked out then you can expect to go longer periods in between services But definitely indefinitely These systems weren't all that good to begin with, don't cool very well when working and are under a tremendous amount of pressure and stress even in colder climates But you add to that the heat of Texas and it is magnified These old cars are no where near as efficient or as durable as the newer stuff, but even the newer stuff eats their compressors on a regular basisHis compressor was working when it was in the visit before and therefore we had no reason to expect it was failing or about to fail If it isn't making noise, isn't leaking and is working, meaning cooling the car, then we don't know any different If he would like us to make an estimate for everything that I think will eventually fail, that estimate will exceed the value of the vehicle probably a couple of times All components have a finite span, and years is pushing the outer limits of just about everything in his vehicle that has moving parts and many components that don'tI am sorry he felt that we didn't catch or should have caught something that hadn't failed, but that isn't really possible unless there is some sort of sign I can and do warranty all components we replace for months, but I can't do that on components we haven't replaced That just isn't possible [redacted] ***Lone Star Bavarian
Really! Shady marketing tactics? A postcard in the mail is shady? Our marketing is done by a third party and I have no idea where they get their list from but this is the first time in years of sending mailers that we have been called shady I get dozens of pieces of marketing in the mail daily and keep a recycling bin by the place I open mail I don't see businesses that send marketing as shady...I see it as a business trying to market their product or service to the public in one of the only ways available I can't imagine being offended by receiving mail like this since it is not being sent maliciously by anyone of the businesses that do so There are no threats, no condescending verbage or anything that could be construed as offensive It simply states we offer a service that you may or may not be interested in In addition, each piece of marketing cost those businesses money that is paid to the post office which helps to underwrite all of us getting personal mail Without these types of mailers being sent out in bulk by the businesses that do so, the post office would have already gone bankrupt or personal mail would cost several dollars for each piece So in the end you should thank businesses like us for helping to keep the post office in business and you being able to receive or send affordable mail I would suggest you do as I and millions of American's do each day, place your unwanted mail in the recycling bin in your home or business and move on