grinner
06-01-2004, 10:03 AM
Drivers Want Code to Their Cars
By Julia Scheeres | Also by this reporter Page 1 of 2 next »
02:00 AM May. 31, 2004 PT
Rachel Seymour, a college student from Portland, Oregon, has had her 2002 Kia Spectra serviced 12 times for a Check Engine light problem. Each time, she's forced to take it to a Kia dealership, where a technician hooks her car up to a computer, runs a battery of tests and charges her $120 to diagnose and repair the same problem: a loose gas cap.
Seymour said she has no problem screwing a gas cap into place, and that the light has even come on while she's driving home from getting her car serviced. But the dealership has stubbornly stood by its computer diagnosis, saying the car's sensors are detecting a loose gas cap and triggering the Check Engine light -- a "consumer error" that is not covered under the car's warranty.
Fed up with wasting time and money, Seymour resorted to a low-tech solution to mask the high-tech problem: She covered the warning light with electrical tape so she wouldn't have to look at it.
"There is really no time in my schedule for sitting around a car dealership listening to some fat guy in a clip-on tie tell me that the problem is my fault," she said. "Instead of explaining anything to me they just pull out a warranty sheet with a highlighted portion indicating that they don't cover Check Engine light problems." article continues (http://www.wired.com/news/autotech/0,2554,63615,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1)
This is something that has stopped me from buying a car newer than a 1995 model year. There is too much computerization of the systems... that a shady tree mechanic(the owner of the car) can't work on the system.
By Julia Scheeres | Also by this reporter Page 1 of 2 next »
02:00 AM May. 31, 2004 PT
Rachel Seymour, a college student from Portland, Oregon, has had her 2002 Kia Spectra serviced 12 times for a Check Engine light problem. Each time, she's forced to take it to a Kia dealership, where a technician hooks her car up to a computer, runs a battery of tests and charges her $120 to diagnose and repair the same problem: a loose gas cap.
Seymour said she has no problem screwing a gas cap into place, and that the light has even come on while she's driving home from getting her car serviced. But the dealership has stubbornly stood by its computer diagnosis, saying the car's sensors are detecting a loose gas cap and triggering the Check Engine light -- a "consumer error" that is not covered under the car's warranty.
Fed up with wasting time and money, Seymour resorted to a low-tech solution to mask the high-tech problem: She covered the warning light with electrical tape so she wouldn't have to look at it.
"There is really no time in my schedule for sitting around a car dealership listening to some fat guy in a clip-on tie tell me that the problem is my fault," she said. "Instead of explaining anything to me they just pull out a warranty sheet with a highlighted portion indicating that they don't cover Check Engine light problems." article continues (http://www.wired.com/news/autotech/0,2554,63615,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1)
This is something that has stopped me from buying a car newer than a 1995 model year. There is too much computerization of the systems... that a shady tree mechanic(the owner of the car) can't work on the system.