Posted on 10/25/2025 7:24:28 AM PDT by Twotone
Try telling that to someone with bad knees that can't squat down for very long to manually check tire pressure. I am not in that category, but my new car tells me what the tire pressure is versus displaying an alarm when tire pressure hits a minimum threshold. Tire sensor replacements are a ripoff if you let a dealership do it. After 8 years any worthwhile tire shop should be able to replace the sensors at a resonable cost.
I rented a Chevy Trax for two weeks recently. Paired my iPhone quick and easy before driving off. CarPlay worked well.
Three days later, it “forgot” my phone. Oh, well. Re-paired it. CarPlay works again.
Four days later it “forgot” it again. I’m getting steamed. Re-paired it. CarPlay works Again.
Three days later, it “forgot” my iPhone and CarPlay went completely dead. Spent and hour trying to get it running again. Bluetooth sound worked, but no CarPlay. GRRRRRR….
I complained to Alamo about that and worn-out, chattering wiper,blades and got $75 taken off the bill! Alamo treated me right.
The web is chock full of people complaining about these problems with the Chevy Trax entertainment unit. Stay away!
The TREAD Act was a byproduct of the Ford Explorer tyre failures. This law as passed as feedback following numerous crashes.
From what I’ve read, you aren’t protecting your freedom when pairing a smart phone to a rental car. Maybe so if you know how to clear it out before returning the car..
Made the mistake of going to the dealer for a replacement key - over $200. (I was in a hurry)
Could’ve bought two on the web for about $20 and had them cut and programmed for about $60. Less than half the price for twice the product.
Most people are unaware. They just pay the money.
Same here, my mechanic takes care of such things, and when I had the “problem” of the monitor flashing it didn’t bother me.
If the mechanic says ignore something, I am happy to do so!
I have a rather old car, it works, it’s paid for, it’s good. My dad collects vintage auto and I could get into something sexier, but they attract unwanted attention. I’m not one for shows and parades.
Still, old cars are a lot more fun to drive, and you can see the threats. Hackers can’t be seen. :(
All these mandatory features drive ip the cost and are a poor value in my opinion.
I generally question all mandates other than the first 10.
1. I never ever download all my contacts to a rental car. It’s always an option when you pair it.
2. I usually forget to delete my phone from the rental car when I return it. In fact, I usually delete from one to three previous phones from earlier customers. But there’s no way I’ve found to view any of their information. At least no way I’ve found.
Yes, but the 10,000 idiots driving with one or two under-inflated tires “cost” the nation 100 gallons of gas every single year! (/s in case you cannot tell).
The damn busybodies have done everything they can to cars to make them 0.01 mpg more efficient.
My wife’s car starting leaking oil on the garage floor this summer. I thought “Crap, a crankshaft seal is blown and we are faced with an enormous repair bill.” Turns out it was a leaking oil gallery plug in the engine block — made out of PLASTIC!! Instead of a threaded metal plug or metal permanently-inserted plug, they used plastic which, after 10 years, got brittle and cracked. It was all to reduce vehicle weight by 0.1 ounces! Fortunately, it was just weeping engine oil and didn’t blow out with a huge fireball under the hood!
My wife drives a 2014 Mercedes GLK. Good car, but the repair costs! Egads! And those proprietary tire pressure sensors! I think we paid hundreds to fix a bad one.
My 2014 Ford Expedition has been very reliable.
Talk about getting sidetracked...our oven door gasket is failing and you can see serious leaks of hot air during the self-cleaning cycle. The display is going dim, too. We could not find the model or serial numbers anywhere on the unit. It’s a Thermidor stacked unit with controls on top, microwave, warming drawer, and oven on the bottom. I called our local appliance company and they sent a guy out yesterday. I figured he’s know what he was doing, would know where to find the model and serial numbers, and have parts on his truck.
Nope. He did not know where to look for the model number / SN tag so he pulled the entire unit out of the wall chipping our wood cabinet in the process! He borrowed some of MY tools and MY gorilla tape (to hold the flex conduit in place when putting the oven back in the cabinet). He used MY labor to help him pull the unit out.
He wrote up an invoice and said he charges out at $250/hour PLUS travel mileage PLUS travel time (at $250/hr). He wanted $300 for the “service” call.
I went ballistic. He cut the one hour to a half hour, but the total is still in the mid 200s. For NOTHING getting done except retrieving the numbers. They later sent us a message saying “Parts not available.”
Talk about infuriating!! $250/hr for an appliance repairman!
OK, enough ranting.
Wise choice. I bought a new car about 9 months ago and I am still trying to figure out some of the “features”...
Amen brother
brave to admit owning a Pious
Ugh! Then again, I find rental cars useful in just this fashion for that purpose.
And it can’t hurt to have your own dial or digital pressure gauge. If that tire pressure light kicks on and your tires seem fine, check the pressure against the number inside the driver’s door. If it it’s fine, it could be a sign that your TPMS has been compromised.
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My car has a 10 psi “correct” tire pressure range. When a tire’s pressure falls to 25 psi the dash light comes on. Then if I fill the tire to 26 psi the dash light should turn back off. Right?
Wrong. I have to fill the tire to 37 psi and drive the car before the dash light will turn off. This means that tire pressures between 26 and 36 psi may actually cause legitimate false dash TPMS messages.
A more informative article would describe how the inventor of this system lobbied the government to make it a law and how much kickback money was paid for a yes vote.
Now a captured market has to pay for this system. One of many reasons why cars are overpriced.
2008 federal tire inflation warning legislation saved your lives,
coulda saved millions of lives if enacted 100 years ago since there weren’t tire pressure gauges back in the olden days..
Saw a lot of problems with those systems when they came out & I still don’t see where they are worth having. Now it looks like they may be more of a detriment than ever.
Sure glad my car is just old enough not to have much of this new fangled crap on it. Don’t miss it at all. Every one of most of those newer systems should have a way of working around it.
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