Chris,<br> <br> I had the same problem with my Mazda 323. But I took it a Mazda dealer and the part they put in broke twenty four hours later when I was in another town. When I returned it complaining the part had failed, they said they would only fix it if I paid them more money. What the mechanic didn't realize was that I was in process of buying a car from their dealership. Since they treated me that way, I went somewhere else to buy a car. <br> <br> Same story with Paradise Ford. They charged me for $70 for a car wash. I took my Ford Escort into the dealership to get the motors for the electric windows looked at. I told them that I think the window's motors needed replacing. They said they would charge $70 because they had to take the door panels off and test them. <br> <br> They called me six hours later telling me my car was ready. What did they tell me? That my windows motor was broken. Which is the same thing I told them. I checked the door panels
that could tell that they never removed them, the plastic pins have to be replaced in the door panel when removed, and the plastic pins were the same ones because they were scratched in the same place and in the same position. <br> <br> In addition, they quoted me a price for the window motors that was 3-4 times higher than every other parts dealership in Moscow, and the Ford Dealership in Spokane, which obviously get the same parts from the same place. <br> <br> I would never go to Paradise Ford in Moscow for their rip off attitude toward their customers. Same thing with Post Falls Mazda. <br> <br> I will say however, the Toyota Dealership in Cd'A is awesome, as is the Honda Dealership in Post Falls, very honest high quality people. I also miss that repair shop on Third Street that shut down, they were awesome. <br> <br> Best,<br> <br> _DJA<br><br><b><i>Chris Storhok <cstorhok@co.fairbanks.ak.us></i></b> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq"
style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> Ah yes, the good old Japanese engine tax. What is missing from the<br>story is some off the interesting side effects of this tax as there is<br>more to the story than a tax on the size of the engine. The same law<br>also pretty much mandates that once an engine hits 50,000 miles it no<br>longer will meet Japanese emission standards, if you want to keep the<br>engine you have to pay a tax; however, if you replace the engine, the<br>tax is waived. The result of this tax is an almost inexhaustible<br>supply of after market engines and parts that are shipped around the<br>world to non-authorized parts suppliers and mechanics. Have any of you<br>ever wondered how come there is such a price difference for parts<br>between shops that are certified by Honda, Toyota, Subaru and the other<br>guy who "specializes in foreign cars"? It's the parts. Believe me, I<br>found out the hard way many
years back when I had trouble with the fuel<br>pump of my Mazda 626 (at that time the 626 was built in Japan). I went<br>to an unauthorized repair shop in Moscow (it closed in the 90's),<br>naturally to save a buck, and they slapped on a really cheap fuel pump.<br>Six months later they put on another one, finally I took it to the one<br>dealer in town who had a certified shop and they explained the problem<br>to me. I did a bit of research on my own and found out that the<br>certified dealer had told me the truth; the cheap shop had replaced my<br>fuel pump with a used pump. <br><br>On the positive side of the equation, if you happen to own and race<br>Japanese cars in SCCA events, you have a really great supply of cheap<br>parts that usually need replacing after a race or two anyway...<br><br>Chris <br><br><br> <br><br>-----Original Message-----<br>From: vision2020-bounces@moscow.com<br>[mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com] On Behalf Of Paul Rumelhart<br>Sent:
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 5:26 PM<br>To: Vision2020<br>Subject: [Vision2020] engine tax<br><br>Fellow vision2020-ites,<br><br>While wandering aimlessly through the internet one day (meaning that I <br>don't remember where I came across it), I found out that Japan has an <br>engine tax. The smaller and more fuel-efficient the engine, the smaller<br><br>the tax. The tax apparently ranges from about $40 to $800 or so <br>annually, iirc. People who own more than one car would presumably be <br>taxed on both. In these days of higher gas prices, global warming, and <br>pollution concerns, it seems to me like it could be a good idea for our <br>country to adopt. We could start with lower numbers and add it in to <br>the registration cost. That's presuming, I guess, that the registration<br><br>cost doesn't already include it. Does anyone know what that amount is <br>comprised of?<br><br>Any thoughts on this? Is it a good
idea?<br><br>Paul<br><br>=======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br> http://www.fsr.net <br> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>=======================================================<br><br>=======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br> http://www.fsr.net <br> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>=======================================================<br></blockquote><br><p> 
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