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Marietta, GA Car Consumer Discussions

03 XC90 T6 Transmission and Radiator Failure at 83K

by shaforgacs on Sun Dec 20 10:54:17 PST 2009

On December 10, 2009, the dreaded Transmission Service Urgent message appeared on my console. Luckily, and just barely, I was able to limp the car home. The next morning, I called Volvo North America, LLC (800-458-1552) asking for their Goodwill consideration for the repairs. They were very sympathetic and opened a file. I then had the car towed to my local service department: Nalley Volvo in Marietta, GA. Upon arrival, I explained to the service advisor that I knew about the history of transmission failure on this vehicle (only because I had stumbled upon this forum; but, not before I bought the car—darn it), and that I had already contacted Volvo NA for assistance. I waited for 2 hours while they diagnosed the problems. Once, they came back to me asking for permission to perform a $250 diagnostic test to determine if glycol was present in the transmission fluid. It was. The final verdict was that the car needed a new radiator and a new transmission! Anyway, this story has a happy ending, because the repairs were almost entirely covered under Goodwill or Warranty, which is how they listed it on the invoice. However, I did “participate” in $952.45 of the repair costs, which I considered a bargain. Although I did not ask (I know not to look a gift horse in the mouth), I am sure that the repairs were easily $10,000. The parts list alone was a full page long, and the labor hours must have been in the double digits. Also, my Volvo is not under warranty. It is a pre-owned, trade-in that I purchased from a Toyota dealership. So, go figure. Miracles do happen. Anyway, after this scare, and knowing what I now know about the vehicle, I am looking to purchase an extended warranty for when this happens again. Does anyone out there know of a good, honest company in this business?

Re: Scratch Shield Paint [members78]

by bmmerm on Fri Dec 18 04:50:41 PST 2009

Thanks for the info. I will visit my dealer, Nalley Infiniti, in Marietta, Ga. next week and see what their body shop will charge and what type of guarantee they will give me on it.

Re: Passat CC Purchase [driver100]

by bronsonb on Thu Dec 17 16:16:16 PST 2009

Thanks Driver! I actually AM (or was?) an English major in undergrad and grad school. Although it was a long time ago, I did teach composition at Clemson during my grad school years, and I taught grammar and other lit courses part time when I entered the corporate world as a tech writer. I'm not as good at editing my own writing as others are, and I do wince when I see people refer to a person as "that", write "can not" rather than "cannot" (it's one word unless you mean to say, "Take this can not that one."), ask for "advise" (the verb) rather than "advice" (the noun), and talk about "alot" (wrong...it's TWO WORDS) of things. I am now a project manager for a major technology services company (three letters...and they aren't HAL...don't know if I am allowed to name the company here or not). Anyway, we did buy the CC. We bought it the same day we test drove it. We hadn't really planned on buying it that day, but my wife was just so taken with it, and it really WAS a great deal. I liked the Infinitis, but my wife smiles every time she gets behind the wheel of the CC. We've had it for almost two weeks now. I understand that the CC is based on the Passat, and for 2009, it was actually called the "Passat CC" but for 2010, it's just "CC." It's longer than the Passat, and the interior is completely different. I understand CC stands for "Comfort Coupe." But it's a four door sedan...not a coupe. Oh well, I'll let VW have their coupe name ;-). And thanks to roadburner for the lesson on the proper references to BMWs. I now stand corrected and "learnt" as they say in the south and shall now refer to BMW autos as "Bimmers." Thanks!

Re: Passat CC Purchase [imidazol97]

by bronsonb on Wed Dec 16 13:05:25 PST 2009

So sorry! Guess I should have split it right about the time my wife finished her test drive and then added, in honor of Mack, "To be continued..." My problem is I usually start something and then finish it rather than letting it sit. I hate letting projects sit unfinished...drives me crazy. I'll try to do better next time ;-)

Passat CC Purchase

by bronsonb on Wed Dec 16 12:34:57 PST 2009

New VW Story I'll add a story to the forum just in time for the holidays. My wife and I recently bought our third VW. After the last one, we swore we'd not have another. When you pick your car up at a VW dealer after service, they generally show you to the F&I office to take care of the bill. Anyway, my wife's 1999 Passat has 150,000 miles on it, and we've been eyeballing cars for the past few months as a replacement for it. All along the plan had been to get a used 1 - 2 year old Infiniti, either a G or an M. After looking locally and on Ebay, we felt fairly confident we could get one with 30,000 miles for less than $30,000. We test drove a few and looked at some other makes and models as well. We were looking at Roswell Infiniti outside of Atlanta, and the sales person we talked to was very low pressure. The cars rode well and were nicely equipped. This would be my wife's car so she would have the final say so. We also took at look at Audi and considered taking advantage of their end of year lease specials, but the special prices evaporated fairly quickly. There was no way we could get near the $299 per month they were advertising, and my wife was not impressed with the stereo system and felt the basic system on a car priced north of $30K should be good enough. To upgrade the system would cost another chunk of change - $1500 or something to get the better package with a better stereo. Plus, Audi has dropped the comprehensive maintenance, which was the main reason we looked at them. So we passed. We considered the Buick LaCrosse, but there are so few available that deals are hard to come by. We couldn't even make arrangements to test drive one. Same with the new Ford Taurus. We used the Costco Buying Service to set up an appointment to test drive a Taurus. We go to meet the salesman I talked to at the time we had agreed to, and the sales guy is not there. He's gone for the day and has not left word about our appointment with anyone. We ask to test drive a Taurus and they say they haven't had any available in over a week. We'd made our appointment earlier that week, so they guy knew he had nothing on the lot when I talked with him, but he still asked us to come in, and then he didn't even show. We tried the Costco service for the Buick and struck out there too. Same for Audi. Overall, I am less than impressed with Costco on this and have let them know. But that's another story. Anyway, every time we looked elsewhere, we kept coming back to the fact that Infiniti was what my wife liked best. BMW was out because they get costly to repair after the warranty expires. And let's be honest, in Atlanta, you toss a rock, you hit a Beamer. They are ALL over the place here. And the 3 series just does nothing for my wife with the styling. It seems so dated. Lexus lost out because the ES350 did nothing for my wife either. She wants something sporty. So we're pretty much back to Infiniti. We're on Thanksgiving vacation and stop at the Costco in Montgomery, AL to gas up on our way to Sandestin, FL. We go in to get the kids a snack, and they have a 2010 VW CC on the floor. This is the first time we've seen the CC up close. We'd already ruled out a new Passat, but the CC was so stylish and so different. My wife said, "I've got to test drive one of these." After Thanksgiving, she priced one out on the VW site, and it was north of $41K equipped the way she wanted it. I told her I'd not pay $41K for a VW in 2009 or 2010 or 2015 for that matter. The base sport model was nice ($29K) but just didn't have what she wanted. We'd almost dismissed it when I saw an Internet special on the local VW dealer's Web site. It was for a 2009 CC VR6 sport, the last VR6 sport left over for 2009. The car had been on the lot for the whole year and hadn't sold. The GM had been driving it for the past few months, so it had 4400 miles on it but was still new. They were marking it down almost 10K from MSRP. I e-mailed the Internet guy to talk about it. At first, he wanted to push us to the 2010 models, but I told him we'd not pay top dollar for a 2010, and unless he could get under $30K for one nicely equipped, we couldn't consider a 2010. I said we wanted to look at the 2009. We set up an appointment. That Saturday, we drove to the dealership. It's in Marietta, and they've always had issues with not having enough parking. Now they are renovating it and making it very nice, but they have almost zero room to park new cars. Anyway, we pull in, and I was already impressed that the car was sitting out front waiting for us. We parked and went in with the rug rats in tow and met the Internet sales guy. He took my wife out and showed her all the features of the car, and I must say this car has features on top of features. It had everything but Nav, Bluetooth, and rear side airbags. We didn't Nav, and Bluetooth could be added. The extra airbags would have been nice. I was impressed that it had the xenon headlights that turn with the car (the kids love that feature), heated seats, nice stereo, XM, tire pressure monitoring, power seats for driver and passenger, rain sensing wipers, 18" rims, etc. Wife takes it for a spin with the boys and I stay behind. It's a four seater if you didn't know. That doesn't actually bother us. We don't often haul five people around, so it shouldn't be an issue. Plus, there's a firm dividing point in the backseat to keep the kids separated. Wife comes back and after she gets out, she pulls me aside with a huge grin on her face. She loves the car. I then take it out as well, and I was very impressed with the handling and acceleration. Sales guy notes that wife put it through its paces (she can be a lead foot). I am impressed with the touches VW put in it, like that you can bump the turn signal to get three clicks for lane changing without having to fully activate it. The info display has just about any piece of data you can request, and you can set alarms for speed and such. Most new VWs are now on a 10K service interval, so its fewer oil changes (with synthetic, of course). The seats were VERY comfy and were real leather and could be adjusted to a million positions. The trunk was cavernous. Overall, it drove well, and the styling was incredible. It turns heads. After we got back, I popped the hood to look at it from a maintenance standpoint. I change the oil on our 99 Passat and my 04 Expedition, so I was curious how things were set up under the hood. It was very compact but neatly laid out. The battery is actually in the trunk too. Internet guy gives us the pricing sheet and notes that the price they've given, $29,700, is the lowest they will go. Wife and I head out and thank him for his time. On the ride home, wife notes that she LOVED the car and the way it drove. She said it inspired her so much more than the Infinitis (G or M) did. She said for the same price as a used G, we could get a new CC. So we go home and talk about it. I look up some pricing on

G37 2009 Obsidian Black

by bmmerm on Wed Dec 16 11:33:28 PST 2009

I bought the car new 3/30/09 and have noticed what appear to be water marks on the roof line and rear bumper. The dealer tried to buff them out but said they are under the clear coat and they can not correct the problem. They are going to look into whether they can get warranty $ to repaint the areas, but claim they can not guarantee matching the paint, Obsidian Black. Wonder if anyone else has had a similar problem and can comment on matching the paint. I am in Marietta, Georgia and would like to know if someone can recommend a good detail shop that can also give me good info on the paint and correcting the problem