what could cause my avg mpg to drop .3 in 2 miles?? dealer screwing me over?

[Zaggeron]

Originally Posted by chulooz

Whats with all this "why care" attitude; 3 months ago the big issue was 4miles or 7miles upon delivery.

Why did they need to drive it anything near a mile? Torque the lugs and she's good. Sorry to hear about your dealership issues, unfortunately its nothing new.

he had new wheels put on. Not a simple rotation of the stock wheels. They probably had it idling on the lift while they checked clearances. They likely had to drive it to load the suspension all while stopping and checking chalk marks on the tires to check for rubs, etc. Nothing unusual at all in any of that.

[sierra]

Originally Posted by Zaggeron

he had new wheels put on. Not a simple rotation of the stock wheels. They probably had it idling on the lift while they checks clearances. They likely had to drive it to load the suspension all while stopping and checking chalk marks on the tires to check for rubs, etc. Nothing unusual at all in any of that.

So if it normally takes 16.5 miles to burn the 1/2 gallon of missing fuel, how long do you think it would have been left idling on the hoist to do it?
2, 4, 8 hours?

[Zaggeron]

Originally Posted by sierra

So if it normally takes 16.5 miles to burn the 1/2 gallon of missing fuel, how long do you think it would have been left idling on the hoist to do it?
2, 4, 8 hours?

No idea. But we are talking about a .3 difference in the reading. As someone pointed out earlier, that's likely well below the error bar of the MPG gauge itself.

[sierra]

Originally Posted by Zaggeron

No idea. But we are talking about a .3 difference in the reading. As someone pointed out earlier, that's likely well below the error bar of the MPG gauge itself.

Lots of different answers to avoid the obvious one.

[Zaggeron]

Originally Posted by sierra

Lots of different answers to avoid the obvious one.

The obvious answer is they hooned it. But really, to get 4.3 MPG over 2 miles is likely not really possible. Like I said, they could have simply been malicious and put a brick on the pedal with the car in neutral.

[ngabdala]

I wouldn't rely on the onboard display over .3 mpg. The more I drive my BRZ the more accurate it becomes. Also, maybe your AC was on which resulted in the decreased mpg. So many possibilities.

Originally Posted by fluffy-reindeer-slayer

so I picked up my car from the dealer after being there for a week for some issues I had with my body kit and also to get my five ad wheels installed, when I got the car back it had 2.1 extra miles on it wich is understandable considering they probably had to drive it after wheels were put on. my question is my avg mpg whet from 33.2 to 32.9, .3 diffrence, that posted a red flag in my book, I talked to the manager of the servie department regarding the issue, and he said it was from the car idoling for a long period of time while it was there, i replied why would my car be idoling when wheels and tires are installed? he had not definate answer, needless to say i had a few choice words for him. so my question is, is this a logical explanation on the dealers part? or did someone just take my car out for a magor joy ride.my car had 1580 miles on it and I drove it back home 20 miles and the avg mpg meter did not move at all.

[SVTSHC]

Average MPG falls (usually a hell of a lot more than .3mpg) when vehicles are idling, it's a fact and it's not bullshit. They had your vehicle idling for the sake of QC'ing (quality control) it before they gave it back to you; you said it had been there for a week, imagine for a second that when you got it back something completely unrelated and likely coincidental decided to be defective. What's the first thing you do? You run back to the dealership with a case of the "ever since ya's" even though what they did had nothing to do with what had recently gone wrong. We let technicians check the vehicle over while the vehicle is OFF, KOEF (Key on engine off; IE. Accessory mode) and running for the sake of identifying any additional issues so that WE can cover OUR asses and let YOU the customer know what's wrong with YOUR vehicle. You should have been thanking him that he went the extra mile and did that for you, not giving him a few "choice words". He probably didn't want to tell you this because in my experience once a customer is that angry over something so illogical they're seeing black and white, there's no room for rationale. Try not yelling/swearing at your service advisor when you're concerned about something and approach him with a level head/open mind, you'd be surprised what you can learn (it's not as though we don't see your car and many others multiple times a day, all day, every day).

The advisor is the person that generally oversees your repairs, gives the work to the technicians and wants the work being done to vehicles expidited as quickly as possible (he's a middle man in a sense). That's how they get paid, and we also get paid based on customer satisfaction; so when something so illogical is thrown back in our faces and we really can't calm you down you're essentially taking money out of our pocket for a misunderstanding. They aren't the ones doing the work to the car, they have no control over how long it takes or if the technician runs into any problems, and if you had a fraction of an idea how bloody stressful it is dealing with customers like you all day that want take your anger and blast it at the middle man; you probably would never yell at another advisor again. I literally HATE customers like you. You look at us and talk down to us worse than most people talk to house pets; we're people too god damnit give us SOME respect. PS. you're car is new, think about it. What work could we possibly upsell you that you wouldn't need that wouldn't be covered by warranty? You think we can submit non-defective parts to whatever Franchise we work for's warranty department? You think that engineers that have a hell of a lot of indepth product knowledge could be fooled by a sabotaged part? You think we want you to come back to the dealership a week or two later after we just let your car go, like that wouldn't hurt our dealerships public image?

Use your brain for more than rage. Maybe you won't get so angry over stupid misunderstandings.


/endrant

P.S. not all of this is directed at you, some of it is a lot of what I wish I could say to customers without losing my job. Don't know why people think dealers are out to give them the sandpaper dildo, when all most of us (I can't speak for everyone) are trying to do is fix your car, make you happy, and provide our shop with a longtime happy customer.

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by sierra

I get it and understand your concern.
If the average dropped by 0.3mpg in just 2.1 miles they must have thrashed the guts out of it.

The problem is that you've lost faith with the dealer and with good reason by the sounds of it.

Actually I can get it to drop more than that in 0.0 miles. For all we know it dropped .6 and they drove it 2.1 miles gently to bring it back up to just .3 less.

Assumptions never make for good evidence.

As for worrying about this, I agree with the others.

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by chulooz

Whats with all this "why care" attitude; 3 months ago the big issue was 4miles or 7miles upon delivery.

Why did they need to drive it anything near a mile? Torque the lugs and she's good. Sorry to hear about your dealership issues, unfortunately its nothing new.

lol I said that wasn't worth worrying about too if you remember

[mkiisupra]

Originally Posted by S2kphile

Chill out fellas. Everyone is currently 'anal' about their cars at the moment. I agree with the statements above it's probably because it was idling which most shops do.

Yup, don't use AVG MPG data for anything other than a quick check of MPG. Don't backwards engineer an issue due to a gross averaging calculation of MPG. btdt, with the Nissan 350's mpg calculator and the 06 Outback's.

Eric G

[SVTSHC]

Originally Posted by chulooz

Whats with all this "why care" attitude; 3 months ago the big issue was 4miles or 7miles upon delivery.

Why did they need to drive it anything near a mile? Torque the lugs and she's good. Sorry to hear about your dealership issues, unfortunately its nothing new.

Quality Control. Manufacturers require you to road test after EVERY repair. And if I just had wheels put on I would rather my car be road tested for 2 miles than for me to come back because I'm getting a vibration at highway speed.

[chulooz]

Originally Posted by SVTSHC

Quality Control. Manufacturers require you to road test after EVERY repair. And if I just had wheels put on I would rather my car be road tested for 2 miles than for me to come back because I'm getting a vibration at highway speed.

I realize he had his wheels put back on but a lot can happen in 2 miles, its excessive... besides nothing should go wrong when it comes to torquing wheels to spec.

They probably gave the car a quick rompin'

[SVTSHC]

Originally Posted by chulooz

I realize he had his wheels put back on but a lot can happen in 2 miles, its excessive... besides nothing should go wrong when it comes to torquing wheels to spec.

They probably gave the car a quick rompin'

No, they probably didn't give the car a quick "rompin" they likely see dozens of FRS's during the week, what makes his so special that they would want to risk doing something stupid and beating on a CUSTOMER VEHICLE. 2 miles isn't excessive, what is with this mentality that's flying around? In a perfect world nothing will go wrong torquing wheels to spec but in the real world where technicians that put wheels back on DON'T use torque wrenches and instead use impact guns without torque sticks because torque sticks are considered an unnecessary expense and they're flat rate so torquing EVERY SINGLE NUT, BOLT and LUG down to spec takes forever; a 2 mile QC road test is a godsent. Want a quick piece of knowledge? Four out of five times an impact gun - torque stick = Brake pedal vibration


How about this, if you're so paranoid do the work yourself.


They told us in school that surveys have shown people would rather go to the dentist than bring their cars to a dealership due to irrational paranoia. After being out in the field I see what they were talking about. The amount of customer claims and unrealistic expectations that I see on a daily basis is astounding.

[SVTSHC]

Also, I don't mean to offend anyone with what I'm about to say so please don't take this the wrong way.


But it kills me how people would sooner accept the random baseless assumptions and opinions of anonymous internet forum members over the trained professionals that are trying their hardest to please them.

Like I said, I don't mean that as a personal afront to any of you. I'm sure MANY of you have your credentials and boat loads of automotive experience.