HELP DESK:Answering all your motoring queries, is MICHAEL McALEER
From RM:
I have a 2007 VW Touareg. The brake warning light is permanently on. I took the car back to the dealer who supplied it. They advised that the sensor on the main brake servo is faulty. The brakes themselves are fine. The only solution they say, is to change the entire main brake servo unit at a very significant cost.
My complaint is that it is obviously quite ridiculous that a simple sensor cannot be replaced alone. Is this not unreasonable profiteering and/or defective design by the manufacturer who have “over engineered” the design?
While I’m loathe to criticise the level of engineering that goes into modern cars – as the vast majority of it contributes to efficiency and safer cars – it’s clearly a problem that is only going to grow as electric cars start to take to our roads and the average car becomes even more complex.
In your case it does seem to be a case of bad design if so much work has to be done to replace one simple sensor.
Cars comprise hundreds of complex mechanical and electrical parts, and car firms are as gadget-obsessed as the rest of society. But these gadgets need to be able to be repaired at a realistic cost. Replacing the entire unit for the failure of one small – and normally affordable part – is something that we don’t want to see when ever-more complex cars arrive on our roads.
From FT:
The new prices of the BMW 5-Series seem to have been greeted as a great benefit for motorists. Not for us who own one. I have a 520d SE which I bought in 2007 for €55,000 and the price cut will hit the value of my car. I was hoping to be able to trade it in this year for about €30,000. I’m unlikely to get that now, considering you can get a new one for about €42,000. The new prices are not great news for me.
I think you were a little ambitious with your expected valuation, but there is no escaping the fact that when the latest version of your car can be bought new for €41,750, it’s going to push the prices of used cars down significantly. However, no more than when prices gradually rose over the last decade, it’s the cost of change that really matters. The capital investment in your car has deteriorated, but then cars are depreciating assets. The trade-in value will be lower, but the net cost of changing to a new version of the 5-Series, or another car in this class, will remain the same, and may even be slightly lower.
If you were cashing out of the market, you would notice the loss, but if you are trading in for a new car – even downsizing – then the impact will not be as noticeable.
Send your queries to Motors Helpdesk, The Irish Times, Tara Street, Dublin 2 or e-mail motorshelp@irishtimes.com