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Does Location Play Into Your Car Brand Choice?

Tom K.

Skier Ordinaire
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Dec 20, 2015
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For several decades (!!!) I've always treated myself to a premium car brand, though staying at the "cheap" end of them.

Yesterday, I drove 65 miles into Portland to have my Volvo serviced. I love the car, and love the treatment I get from my service tech, but driving into "Gotham" has become so unpleasant that I think I'm done. Just not worth it.

Anybody else out there with this kind of experience?
 

Bad Bob

I golf worse than I ski.
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Dec 2, 2015
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West of CDA South of Canada
Yep! If there is a vehicle change there is a service center in my town. Won't buy anything too exotic (where would you get an Alfa Romeo SUV serviced in WY?)
All of the major vehicle manufacturers build a pretty decent machine, but when things go wrong is the test.
 

Sibhusky

Whitefish, MT
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Oct 26, 2016
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Whitefish, MT
I wouldn't buy a car that the brand service was over thirty miles* away, because as good as my service guy is (I left my Audi dealer for him) it can impact how fast you can get parts AND the familiarity of the brand for your service guy. (If there's no Mini Coops in the area, how's he going to learn what they are prone to?). Given where we are, that means Audi (the guy lost the franchise), Volvo, BMW, Mercedes, and many others (especially "premium" brands) are off the table.

*The thirty is arbitrary, because basically you jump from twenty miles to over 100 miles for car dealers around here. There's a reservation between here and Missoula and they aren't selling anything on the res I can't get here. I might even have to go to Spokane or Seattle for some cars. My VW Alltrack is pretty exotic.
 

Jilly

Lead Cougar
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Nov 12, 2015
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6,412
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Belleville, Ontario,/ Mont Tremblant, Quebec
Yup, my uncle bought some fabulous car and few others I know. Nothing like a 80km drive to get windshield wipers for your Volvo or Markar! My Chevy gets me where I need to go and not bad gas mileage either.
 

Bill Miles

Old Man Groomer Zoomer
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Nov 16, 2015
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Hailey, Idaho
The only dealer within 60 miles is a Ford dealer, and since I don't have a Ford and am past warranty, I mostly use an independent shop. I had a bad exzperience a number of years ago when I paid for a new starter at a different independent shop and when that didn't fix the problem, had to drive 150o miles to a Saturn dealer in Boise.
 

Jersey Skier

aka RatherPlayThanWork or Gary
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Metuchen, NJ
I have literally every car brand within 5 miles of my house, except Acura for some reason. This doesn't make getting a car repaired any better as most of the dealers are horrible.
 

Sibhusky

Whitefish, MT
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Oct 26, 2016
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Whitefish, MT
I have literally every car brand within 5 miles of my house, except Acura for some reason. This doesn't make getting a car repaired any better as most of the dealers are horrible.
Having spent 24 years in NJ, I know where you're coming from. They mostly acted like they were doing you a favor by agreeing to let you buy a car from them. Which is how I ended up with two Audi's. That dealer handed me keys and said here have fun.
 

Bill Talbot

Vintage Gear Curator
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Nov 9, 2015
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3,166
Location
New England
No, the car is the factor. If I was to need to bring a car in under warranty for work I'd truly feel like I made a bad decision with my car pick.
Once out of warranty I do 95% of the work if needed myself. My last two new cars never had any warranty work needed. I literally drive them till the wheels (almost) fall off...(salt diet chasing winter storms!)
 

EricG

Lost somewhere!
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Sep 16, 2018
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VT
I have to drive about an hour to drive to any dealer. We have multiple Subaru & Honda dealers which leads to a large majority of our local population driving Subaru’s or a Honda. We do 90% of maintenance at home which reduces the dealership issues.
 

Philpug

Notorious P.U.G.
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Reno, eNVy
When we were replacing the Jetta, because of the shape of it, I was mildly intrigued by one of the Mitsubishi SUV's but there was not a dealer in Reno at the time, the closest was in Sacramento. At that point, it was knocked off the list.
 

SShore

Resident Curmudgeon
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Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
556
For several decades (!!!) I've always treated myself to a premium car brand, though staying at the "cheap" end of them.

Yesterday, I drove 65 miles into Portland to have my Volvo serviced. I love the car, and love the treatment I get from my service tech, but driving into "Gotham" has become so unpleasant that I think I'm done. Just not worth it.

Anybody else out there with this kind of experience?

When I moved to Ennis, MT two years ago I got rid of my beloved but aging Volvo XC60 because the nearest Volvo dealer was in Billings, a 3 1/2 hour drive and the nearest shop that works on them was in Bozeman, an hour away. I bought a RAM 1500 4x4 to replace it. While I loved the Volvo (my wife still has a 16 XC70), you really need a pickup if you live out here, so no regrets.
 

Don in Morrison

I Ski Better on Retro Day
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Nov 13, 2015
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1,418
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Morrison, Colorado
For a few years, I found myself in a situation where if I wanted to keep my cars running, I had to get parts for them at the local junkyard. I have always driven cars that were fairly common, and I soon realized that if there were lots of some model of car on the streets, there would also be lots of them in the junkyard, so it was pretty easy to get decent parts for my cars. I often found myself taking parts off of junkyard cars that were in better shape than the one I was trying to fix. That would normally be a sure sign that it's time to get another car, but the inability to replace the car was why I was shopping at the junkyard in the first place.
 

Lorenzzo

Be The Snow
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Nov 12, 2015
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UT
When I transitioned from SoCal to Park City, I traded my fast and fun BMW for an Audi crossover. 6 years later I now face long drives and much of my time 275 miles away from an Audi dealership. So I traded the 80,000 mile Audi cross for a Toyota truck for the sake of reliability, cost of ownership and also function for what I'm doing now. No I'm not servicing my own car. Bless you that do.

If I'm going to be driving 25,000+ miles a year I'd rather not do it in an aging Audi a day's drive from a dealer. But also, fun and utility can morph with a change in environment and routine. I think each of those vehicles hit the target for what I wanted at those times. The greater peace of mind I get from the Toyota truck and the horizons it expands will hopefully max my fun now. It's just adaptation.

If it makes sense financially why not use different tools for different applications?
 

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