Locate an Auto Repair Shop in Benton City, Washington

Benton City, WA Car Consumer Discussions

Re: Benton City, WA [jkinzel]

by ruking1 on Fri May 02 21:15:06 PDT 2008

Have a safe and wonderful rest of the trip!!

Benton City, WA

by jkinzel on Fri May 02 20:56:57 PDT 2008

The wife and I have been on a road trip to eastern Washington, ID and MT. RUG has been as low as $3.53 and as high as $3.59 Today we stopped at a Conoco Station in the little spot in the road called Benton, WA. Diesel was $4.44 a gallon and RUG was $3.69 a gallon. Gas was highest in Washington due to the tax.

BMW X3 hesitation on acceleration

by arthurw on Wed Jul 11 07:13:15 PDT 2007

Latest communication with my dealer: I’m just taking a few minutes to document what we’ve talk about yesterday. My 2007 X3 was brought in to Park Ave. BMW by my son for emergency service on the morning of 4/23/2007 with only a few thousand miles on it. The claim check number on the vehicle was #2318 (I have it). On the evening of 4/22/2007, I was traveling over the GW Bridge when the X3 lost all forward mobility and started to slow completely down in the middle of traffic. I pushed the gas pedal and the engine revved but it didn’t help. I noticed that the D indicator wasn’t showing. I also noticed a transmission waning indicator was amber on the console. I shifted the X3 into S for sports drive and the D came back up (not the S) and the vehicle continued to move staying in one gear until I was able to exit off of the bridge. When I pulled next to the curb and attempted to put the X3 in reverse it wouldn’t move. After turning the X3 off and letting the vehicle rest for 10 minutes, I was able to resume driving and the warning indicator did not appear again. The next morning the X3 was brought in by my son as mentioned above. After several hours, the vehicle was brought out and my son was told that alarms were cleared and adjustments made and that all would be OK. He wasn’t given any service report of the work done… I am amazed that Park Ave BMW claims there is no record of this service. Especially since the X3 hasn’t been right since then. So, after four more visits to your service area and your recent statement that the car is functioning as it should, I started to do some research and here’s what I found and, I think the reason why BMW may not want anything specific recorded about this problem. Please follow this URL, http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f11ffdc/13. The problems detailed about how dangerous the hesitation I am experiencing is explained by numerous other X3 owners and they say it better than I can. I am most upset at the fact that initially Larry W. told me he never heard of any problems with X3s of the type I am having. The best explaination I can give about what BMW did that caused some of my problem from the many postings was: “In DRIVE mode the trans software is programmed to start off in second gear as an economy measure to help save gas. BMW did that on purpose. If you're fairly light on the throttle it will stay in Second, accelerate, and eventually shift into Third, Fourth and Fifth. Try it out and count the shifts. (You may need to watch the tach to notice the shifts, this trans can be really smooth at very light throttle and the higher gear shifts may only vary a few hundred rpm) But if you put a little more foot into the throttle on take-off (i.e.: from a dead stop) the trans will shift down from Second to First to give you better acceleration. This is what it is supposed to do. It happens in an instant but you can still feel the car start to move, then "hesitate" from the shift, and then take off. If you have a light enough foot it may never even happen to you. If your foot is rather heavy you may notice it more at first but it will "teach" your trans really quick that you want a fast start most of the time. Now in SPORT mode the trans ALWAYS starts in first, thus no "hesitation". The drawback to always using SPORT mode to avoid the "hesitation" (gear change) is that it almost NEVER shifts into Fifth gear in city driving. The vehicle has to reach a certain speed before it will upshift to Fifth. That can really hurt your mileage in town if you never get over 35-45 mph. AND your trans never gets a chance to "adapt" to your style in DRIVE mode.” Nevertheless, what really sticks out is the concern about how dangerous many of the X3 owners feel the hesitation problem is. I have experienced it first hand and am afraid to pull out of a gas station onto a highway without a very large open window in the road – people honk at me, but I can’t trust the car. Moreover, my wife feels she cannot put our grandchildren safely in it. Next, let’s discuss the other issue – I hit the jackpot – I have both of the major, hidden problems that BMW has with this vehicle. The transmission failure I experienced and the resulting inability to shift into reverse. It’s all over the place, Consumer Affairs knows it and it’s been there for several years – good job BMW on the PR front, if a potential buyer doesn’t do their homework on the internet, they’d never know there was a problem. By Joe Benton ConsumerAffairs.Com January 11, 2007 BMW owners find themselves facing thousands of dollars in transmission repair bills while the highly profitable German automaker refuses to accept any responsibility for the mounting number of failures. The complaints being filed with ConsumerAffairs.Com are similar and describe a transmission that hesitates or refuses to be shifted into reverse. Therefore, Phil, please don’t insult my intelligence by offering that an expert take a ride with me in the car so I can show him what’s wrong. You know the problem is intermittent, persistent and for the most part unfixable. Either you get a good one or you don’t. If you get the good one, you are a happy X3 owner. If you get what I have, it’s a well-rehearsed policy line. Let me know if you want to try the software fix again – it has improved some but not all of the issues for other owners as far as the hesitation goes. In the mean time, I’m looking for a new group that wants to do a class action against BMW and sending this e-mail to as many interested parties as I can find. Who would have believed what BMW is knowingly doing to people. Let me know if I should bring the loaner back today or if you want to try and improve the performance of the X3 to a non-dangerous state.

Re: Ethanol Works for Me [nascar57]

by jkinzel on Sat Jun 02 13:32:44 PDT 2007

Read this and tell me I'm supose to be happy about ethanol. I'm paying more for gas AND food. :sick: Give us diesels/bio diesel and we can eat the corn. A pricier T-bone this summer? Demand for corn edges hay production, meaning farmers pass on costs MARY HOPKIN; Tri-City Herald Published: May 31st, 2007 01:00 AM KENNEWICK, benton county – Corn is popping up in mid-Columbia fields where hay, beans and peas were harvested last year, and dairy farmers, ranchers and horse owners will likely pay more in an unexpected spinoff of the demand for ethanol. And that translates to higher costs for consumers, too. Prices of corn, milk and meat are expected to go up this summer. Washington farmers planned to seed an additional 50,000 acres of corn this year, according to a March survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Dave Losh, a statistician in the service’s Olympia office, said farmers planned to plant 190,000 acres of corn this year – a 36 percent increase over last year. Blooming demand for corn to make ethanol pushed corn prices to $3.36 per bushel in March, compared with $2.06 a year ago. But the increase in corn acreage means cutbacks in other crops – mainly hay, which already was in tight supply. Chep Gauntt, owner of Gauntt Farms in Kennewick, replanted one of his hay fields into corn and expects as much as a 20 percent to 30 percent reduction in hay acreage overall. “Without a good corn market I wouldn’t have done it, and I expect there will be a tight supply for domestic and export hay,” he said. Shawn Clausen in Warden, Grant County, hasn’t cut the amount of hay he’s growing, but he has replaced some dry beans and peas to double his corn crop this year to 1,400 acres. “Corn prices were really good early this spring so you couldn’t contract on the futures market and the risk was low,” he said. His corn is already sold to a local feedlot. Feedlots and dairies need the corn, but they also want hay, which will be expensive and in short supply. “We have to have both,” said Cody Easterday, vice president of the Washington Cattle Feeders Association and owner of Easterday Ranches in Mesa. “Corn is energy and hay is fiber and protein.” The entire livestock industry will be hurt by a hay shortage, he said, noting hay already has been in short supply for the past two years and that alfalfa can cost up to $170 per ton. “We are going to be paying more and that will raise our production costs, which ultimately affects consumers,” Easterday said. “The consumer is going to have to pay for it one way or another.” Les Wentworth isn’t necessarily replacing hay for corn, but he has turned to corn for a rotation crop on five-year-old alfalfa fields. This year, he planted 150 acres of corn. Wentworth said the 500-acre farm his father first planted in the 1950s primarily produces alfalfa hay, but he also has grown green peas and dry peas, wheat, soybeans, watermelon and cantaloupe. “This is the first time I’ve planted corn,” he said. Nationwide, farmers are expected to grow the largest corn crop ever, planting 90.5 million acres – a 15 percent increase compared with last year, according to the USDA. The hay shortage also has companies offering premium prices to lease land for growing hay. “Normally, hay ground leases for $320 to $340 an acre,” Wentworth said. “But right now every time someone calls me they are increasing their offers. I got an offer of $400.” Wentworth said he’d take the $400 if he was retired and was looking for safe, reliable income off his property, but the income is better if he works the land himself. “I make the money on the gambling,” he said.