Thursday, June 30, 2011

The inconvenience of temporarily unavailable convenience features!


I have been very inconsistent lately in my posts. I was having car trouble that got on a lot of people's nerves. It all started a few weeks back when, while driving, a message came up in my car's instrument cluster" Battery protection: convenience features temporarily unavailable". Next day it was gone, I drove for a few days and then it came again. I called the local dealership and took the car. In the diagnostic tests; both the batteries were charged (yes the car has 2 batteries) battery control module fine, alternator working. No malfunction was found and the car got a clean bill of health. Next day the same message came and then within few minutes replaced by another message "convenience features available again". After that the 2 messages started coming simultaneously, on their free will. Oklahoma is hotter then hell these days I was in no mood of getting stranded on a highway in three-digit heat.

I have an excellent relationship with the local dealership, I get the best service one can get, but they said they couldn’t randomly replace a part without pinpointing the fault. And they were right. Since the messages were gone most of the time when the car would reach the dealership, it was hard to figure out what was going on. Seemed car was playing tricks.

How can you feel good if someone you love, is sick and the doctors are unable to find the cause of sickness? My cars and I have a close relationship, and since this is my daily driver it is even closer. I was in a bad mood.

Feeling frustrated I sent an email to Dr. Ernst Lieb, President and CEO of MBUSA, asking if they had some magic at the headquarters to help fix my car. I was pleasantly surprised that next working day I got a call from MBUSA, I was assured that company cares for it's customers and will work with the dealership to solve my problem.

The car went back, my dear friend Mr. Sims, Director of service and parts drove the car for a day and discovered a lot of spooky stuff with the car. For example on a highway when he was doing 72 mph, the car was showing 45mph in the cluster.

It was discovered that battery control module needed a software update and so did the instrument cluster. It was basically a software glitch. During this ordeal discovered that 25 computers, 24 to run all the systems and the 25th to make those 24 run smoothly, control my car.

I am glad I got my car back today; it is fixed and runs as it is supposed to be. I am grateful to all the mechanics, my service advisor and Mr. Sims at the dealership and Dr. Lieb's office and Mr. Romy at the headquarters who made efforts to get the car fixed.

There is a car company in these times that stands by it's products and its customers, I was starting to have doubts in their slogan "Best or nothing" but I am happy to say they have eliminated my doubts.

I am back to normal, will soon do the next post.


3 comments:

  1. There’s a solution to every problem! I am happy that your car was fixed and you can use it again without any fear of running into any problems again. You got yourself a reliable mechanic! Good job!

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  2. "Best or nothing". It’s safe to say that they were able to live up to your expectations! So, what was wrong with your car all this time? There’s no car problem that a good mechanic can’t repair.

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  3. Have you considered buying a new car? It looks like you have spent a lot having your car repaired for quite some time. Aside from saving you from costly repairs without any guarantee, a new car can assure you of safe, long, and fun drives. Think about it.

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