Getting Tired
We have two cars and I think its fair to say we feel like we need two cars. For short periods of time like when son Thomas was here for a visit, when he needed to borrow one of our cars, we can survive with just one car, especially because I have two two motorcycles in a pinch. Southern California is not New York City. In New York City you can survive on public transportation (or in my case, on Uber and Curb). In San Diego, you live and die with your car. I don’t think we planned it this way, but I feel like we have a near perfect vehicular configuration for our needs. Our primary family car is our Mercedes Benz G-Class, which has been our vehicle of choice for almost fifteen years. We have mostly had good luck with the G-Class, but I cannot say it has been trouble-free. I guess its safe to say that since this 2022 vehicle is our tenth one, we must like the car. The biggest reason it works so well for us has mostly to do with its size. It started as being more comfortable for us with out long legs, especially on long trips. But there is also the importance of the third row of seating (seating six), which we seem to use all the time for shuttling friends and family around town. Our other car is a Tesla X, which is a 2016 which has only 20, 000 miles and which we have now had for seven years. We also had a third row option in that car and can also seat six. Needless to say, the Tesla’s big difference is being an EV that I charge in the garage every night. It has a range of 230 miles, but from a charging practicality standpoint, it generally tops out at 200 miles. That makes it predominantly a local car even though Tesla has an admirable array of charging stations located just about everywhere in the country conveniently spaced out here and there.
Everyone who doesn’t have a Tesla thinks that its all about charging and range and that is certainly a part of the story, but there is much more. The biggest advantage of a Tesla may well be that electric cars like Tesla do not need the sort of maintenance that internal combustion cars do. My Tesla is not scheduled for its first service until it hits 125,000 miles, and that is for a brake replacement, not really even for a drivetrain reason. Now that I live here full-time, I’m averaging about 5,000 miles per year on the Tesla, so, at that rate, I take it into service for the first time in about 21 years, which will be when I am 90 years old. However, there is the issue of the tires. Tesla recommends changing them out after 30,000 miles, but I suspect that given the passage of time, I am supposed to change them out after about 20,000 miles. In fact, I recently did just that. Tesla seems to have a business model where they want to garner all the business associated with their cars. You simply cannot get after-market parts and are pretty much required to take your cars to Tesla for repairs. The one exception is tires…sort of. You can buy tires for a Tesla lots of places, but getting them properly aligned it a bit trickier since it involves the suspension and steering systems. Nevertheless, I had them replaced and aligned at a local tire shop and have been happy with the results so far.
For all my avoidance strategies vis-s-vis Tesla, I am a frequent visitor to the Mercedes Benz dealership here in Escondido, perhaps too frequent. I have had my issues with the dealership service department in the past, but have resolved that I simply have to deal with them. I lease my Mercedes and I have prepaid regular service visits that are either minor or major, depending on the mileage. I also have 20,000 miles on our Mercedes, but rather than seven years old, the car is a mere eight months old (a cross-country trip last summer is the culprit). I just took it in for its 20,000 mile service. Mercedes cannot help itself but suggest added work when I bring it in for prepaid service. I love it when they say they suggest I get an alignment, but that its not included as “normal” service. When they called to tell me the car was ready, they also told me I needed new rear tires. Given that I had less than 20,000 miles on the odometer, that struck me as way short and felt like a service department revenue play, so I took a pass for the moment. They told me it would cost $1,100. I called my pal, Mike, who told me that first round tires usually only lasted 20,000 miles. That made me feel better. He also told me I should go to Discount Tire or CostCo to get the best deal.
Before the Mercedes GL, we used to drive a BMW X5 (that was before the offered the more comparable X7). It was a good car, but just a bit too small for us. The one problem I had with it, strangely enough, was with the tires. They were not defective, but when I did have some normal mishap with them, like running over a nail, trying to replace them was near impossible. For some reason, they were a strange custom size that were simply not available easily. I remember wondering how that could be with such a mainstream and upscale car like a BMW. I took it to be a bit of a fluke and left it at that. Now, I am not so sure.
I must admit that I was a little surprised when the Mercedes Escondido service department told me that they needed to order the rear tires for me if I wanted them. They were a Continental brand tire, but their size was bit unusual he said. When I called Discount Tire in Escondido, I got a more complete story on the uniqueness of those tires. They carry the fullest array of tire brands and yet they told me that the only tires that would fit my car were the Continental or a Yokohama tire. Furthermore, they explained to me that the car did not have the same tires on the front and rear. That goes against everything I’ve ever understood about car tires. What with the normal rotational recommendations for most tires, I just assumed all cars used the same tire on all four wheels. Apparently not so. My car takes one size tire on the front and one size on the back. I don’t even know whether one rotates just side to side or whether you just run the tires aground and let that be that. But Discount Tire didn’t have my tires and had to go to Continental to fill the order.
When I asked for a price, I was even more surprised to hear that the front tires were slightly more expensive than the rear tires and that the four together would total about $2,400 installed. So, Discount Tire does not seem to be able to offer much of a discount over the standard price from an upscale Mercedes dealership. How is that possible? And despite their volume of business, Discount Tire wasn’t so sure when they would get the tires. I put down a small deposit to get the tire rolling. That was late last week and today I decided that I should check in since I hadn’t heard from Discount Tire. After a long hold while they researched my order, I was told the tires had not come in. Then I was told to hold on while they checked again. They came back and told me that they had actually come in four days ago. But hold on again. They then said that only the front ones came in four days ago and that the back ones had just come in today. I reconfirmed that they meant that they were ready to install them. They then told me that the first installation appointment was four days from now. I didn’t have much choice but to accept that appointment.
And here I thought Tesla was difficult to work with, but I got those tires put on same day. I still like our Mercedes GLS 450, even with its special 22-inch tires, but I will say that in regard to replacing tires on my upscale cars, I’m just getting tired.