What are these “Service Reminders” from Independent Import?

I’m sure you have received plenty of reminders in your mail box from shops recommending you bring your car in for service.  The trouble is most of them are sent based on a time interval and have nothing to do with how many miles you drive per month.  The service reminders from Independent Import are generated by a rather long process.  We look at each customer separately and based on your milage driven per month and the type of driving you do.  Then we create an individual schedule for each and every customer.  Every time you come in we check your odometer reading and adjust your entire service schedule based on your current driving patterns.  It takes a lot of work on our part, but it is the only way to get you the right service schedule that you can count on.  If followed it will extend the life of your car so that the next time you decide to buy a new car it will be because you WANT a new car.  Not because you are forced into it because your old car has broken down and will cost so much to fix that a new car seems to be your only option.  If you have more questions about our service reminder program feel free to call Matt or Thayne any time at 801.374.2115.  Thanks for visiting our site.  We hope to have the opportunity to serve you soon.

Welcome, How may we serve you?

Can I Really Go 15-20,000 Miles On An Oil Change?

The Answer is NO!!!  Not if you want your car to last much past the warranty period.  Today’s cars have much better engines and fuel injection systems.  The recommended oil is a high quality synthetic oil.  That will get you safely to about 7500 miles on an oil change, but not to 15-20k.  What has happened is that there is a lot of competition in the auto industry surrounding cost of ownership.  It is great to try and make vehicles that will not cost an arm and a leg to maintain, but in our opinion they have gone too far.  The vehicles we see that have followed this extended interval have extensive problems with sludge build up in the engine.  This leads to some very expensive and unnecessary repairs.  Simple regular maintenance will avoid all of this.  Todays vehicles can easily go over 300,000 miles with simple regular maintenance!

New Style Window Regulators

Ever wonder why today’s cars seem to have so many window regulator problems?  Seem like you don’t remember replacing regulators in older cars?  You are right to wonder.  The old style regulators in BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Volvo, were all a very heavy duty regulator.  It used to be the only time we usually had to replace them was when someone was in an accident and it got damaged.  They rarely failed from regular use.  I don’t know who had the bright idea, but all the manufacturers switched to a new style regulator.  Instead of the old regulator with large metal teeth that meshed with the window motor, they now have a very weak regulator that is cable operated with plastic pulleys.  Most have updated them recently and are improved, but still no where near the strength of the old style.  The good news is that most of the rest of the car is vastly improved and overall our vehicles today cost much less to operate.  Feel free to e-mail any car questions to Thayne@IndImport.com.  Thanks for visiting our site!