I suspect that they are simply trained to do this for every customer so that they don’t make a mistake and not add enough oil. Once upon a time, someone must have erred and sent the customer out without enough oil, or the customer claimed the the mechanic hadn’t added the oil. When they show you the dipstick as part of every job, this guarantees that A) they will catch a low oil error, and B) the customer witnesses the adequate oil and can’t complain about the mechanic not doing their job.
That’s worth reporting him to his manager, or someone higher up. If you’re a weenie like me, do it after you’ve got the car home… sans Stargard.
Unless you think a manager might give you a better deal or free… curb feelers? for treating a customer like that.
Do you think that the manager of a car dealership is going to have a problem with one of his salespeople trying to upsell a customer? I think the manager would be more upset if the salesperson didn’t try to do so.
I don’t mean to be contrarian, but I used to work the oil change bay at a Honda dealership and we were told (confirmed by the service manual) that halfway between the two dots was normal. I just looked up a bunch of sources and they all same the same thing – anywhere between the two dots, or L and F, or however it’s marked, is good to go. It’s also what you’ll get if you just drain a hot engine and add in the specified oil capacity, which is generally what the lube techs are going to do. (They’ll check it, but if it’s within the two dots/lines/whatever, they’re just gonna send it. And that’s fine).
If you live close to the oil change place, to where your oil doesn’t have time to get up to temp, it may not drain as well as a hot engine but they’re gonna put the same amount in regardless; whatever the computer says. So that may explain some variance.
You may prefer to run it a little closer to the top mark, especially oil consumption is higher than normal and you expect some of it to burn off, but it’s not bad for the car to run it at the midway point. I run all my personal cars that way. I run my racecars slightly above the full mark.
I didn’t say call him out in front of a manager. But you may want to record it on your cell phone so he can’t slip you a charge for something you don’t want.
OP here with an update. I did call the salesman and said, “No Stargard or no deal”. He said, “Let me check with my manager and get back to you”. 20 minutes later he called back and said, “OK”. There was no pressure or attempted negotiation on his part. Several hours later we were in the dealership closing the deal. He did seem surprised that were were paying cash. I had filled out a credit application and was considering a loan in hopes of getting a better price on the car. I don’t know if that any impact on the final price or not but if he was disappointed with a cash sale, he didn’t show it. He was also a bit surprised that the title was going to be in both our names (we are not married) but insisted it was no big deal to change things and I’m sure it wasn’t.
He then turned us over to the finance manger for payment. He offered an extended warranty with zero pressure and we declined. A short while later we were out the door with our new ride. The is the first (and probably last) time I ever purchased from a dealer. I have zero complaints about the whole thing. (which makes me think I got robbed!). Not really. I did a fair amount of research and think we got a fair deal. That’s all one can hope for.
BTW, this model has the large multi-function screen sitting “on edge”, sort of propped in front of the dashboard. The salesman said that, in his experience, customers are either neutral or hate the big screens. No one seems to really like them. I fall into the second group but I’ll get used to it, I guess. I blame Tesla.
Congrats! Here’s hoping you get a lot of troublefree enjoyment from it.
While I don’t disagree with you in that anywhere between the two marks is just fine as far as the amount of oil in the engine is concerned. My problem is that I consider a proper oil change is to drain the existing oil, replace the oil filter, and fill it with fresh oil. If you don’t fill it to the “FULL” mark, you didn’t fill it, you just put in the minimum amount of oil in to prevent it from being low.
What is it about Stargard that you didn’t want? This is the first I’ve heard of it, and their website describes something akin to LoJack (or other ways of recovering a stolen car). Are dealers using it for some other (or nefarious) purpose?
I’m not challenging a preference for not being tracked, I’m just curious about the opposition to it. I just bought a new vehicle and now am wondering if I should be concerned about this.
I imagine that anything the dealer is pushing is something with a fat profit margin or commission on it. If it’s something you want, see if you can buy it yourself after buying the car. It will probably be available for less money elsewhere.
Ahhh. That makes sense now. I thought maybe it was something that disabled the car if you missed a payment. I know something similar has been used by small used car lots, but was unsure about this product.
Now you’re going to try and convince me my Nitrogen filled tires weren’t worth the extra money, aren’t you? (kidding, kidding)
The Stargard was $995. Unasked for. It seems you can get the same thing or similar on Amazon for $30 and you have to wire it in. I don’t really care about geo-fencing and being notified on my phone when the car moves. Its a high tech undercoating sort of thing. Or so it seems. Their doc fee was $599 (a bit high for New Jersey), also a mostly BS think in my opinion. But there was no negotiating that. We tried.
I created a thread on small cargo vans 8 years ago and now the market segment is gone.
Alive and well in North Africa! Tiny vans everywhere.
And in Japan… you can import them through places like Duncan Imports. And they are NOT expensive. A friend bought a Nissan Tiny Van, and I almost bought a little Kei Car (Honda Beats are SO cute!)…
… but then realized that they’re all right-hand drive, and for a quarter of the year I wouldn’t be able to get out the right side of a car (up here in Baja Canada, we have massive snowdrifts on every street).
Sigh…and only $14k…
New Microbus finally announced for the US market.
Ref the blurb in the Discourse preview box …
It could hardly come with “less power” and still be capable of motion.
Anyone want a killer drag strip car?
It’s cool they are bringing back the Dragonsnake, but it’s never going to be the killer track car the originals were, because the state of the art has moved so far. 500 hp in a light vehicle is pretty good, but we’re in the era of 1,000 HP Chargers and 800 HP Camaros, and a Tesla Plaid will beat all of them.
But as a unique collector’s car and a fun driving experience, they’d be awesome.
The #1 selling automobile in Q1Y2023 was the Tesla Model Y.
Does anyone recall? I was thinking two or three posters here were thinking a Rivian would be one of the vehicles they were considering purchasing.