My mother, God bless her, is in her eighties, diagnosed with dementia four years ago, but still somewhat independent. My brother lives with her, but she still gets out on her own to run errands. She's on an "honor" system--she has good days and bad and its up to her to determine if she should go out alone. So far no wrecks, no tickets, no phone calls concerning her, and she hasn't gotten lost. The age old question, when do you ask her for the keys??? But that's another thread...
She has a nice four door sedan. I'm not bashing brands so I'll just tell you that it sounds a lot like Aoyota Tavalon from 2010. It still only has 63K miles and is garaged. It will be her last car.
She loves the local dealership where she bought it. She thinks they are her friends and has always had it serviced there.
About a year ago, she had a nail in the tire but it was still holding air. She went to the dealership and $128 later had the tire patched. While she was there they changed the cabin air filter AGAIN and did some other non-essential junk just to run the bill up. My mother has assets but only around $20k in annual income. I went to the dealership and asked them why they ran a $25 tire repair up to $128? "We asked her and she said 'yes'" was the reply. I explained that she was in her 80's, had dementia, and could be talked into anything. They agreed to call me in the future before making any more repairs. We'll see.
This week, the automatic sun shade on the rear windshield started making some horocious sounds as it went up and down. To me, they are a nuisance even when working properly so I thought I would see if it could just be disabled. The operators manual said the shade operation could be "customized" at the dealership. I was hoping that meant they could simply disable it via the car's computer.
I took the car to the dealership to ask about it. The twenty year old who was called for his "experienced" opinion said the only way to disable it was to remove the rear dash and sever the wiring connection. $420 was the quote. I won't repeat what I told him.
I went home, googled the fuse diagrams for the car, and pulled out #24. Rear blind disabled. Time elapsed: 15 minutes.
They're dead to me.
Thanks for the rant.
She has a nice four door sedan. I'm not bashing brands so I'll just tell you that it sounds a lot like Aoyota Tavalon from 2010. It still only has 63K miles and is garaged. It will be her last car.
She loves the local dealership where she bought it. She thinks they are her friends and has always had it serviced there.
About a year ago, she had a nail in the tire but it was still holding air. She went to the dealership and $128 later had the tire patched. While she was there they changed the cabin air filter AGAIN and did some other non-essential junk just to run the bill up. My mother has assets but only around $20k in annual income. I went to the dealership and asked them why they ran a $25 tire repair up to $128? "We asked her and she said 'yes'" was the reply. I explained that she was in her 80's, had dementia, and could be talked into anything. They agreed to call me in the future before making any more repairs. We'll see.
This week, the automatic sun shade on the rear windshield started making some horocious sounds as it went up and down. To me, they are a nuisance even when working properly so I thought I would see if it could just be disabled. The operators manual said the shade operation could be "customized" at the dealership. I was hoping that meant they could simply disable it via the car's computer.
I took the car to the dealership to ask about it. The twenty year old who was called for his "experienced" opinion said the only way to disable it was to remove the rear dash and sever the wiring connection. $420 was the quote. I won't repeat what I told him.
I went home, googled the fuse diagrams for the car, and pulled out #24. Rear blind disabled. Time elapsed: 15 minutes.
They're dead to me.
Thanks for the rant.
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