$600 OR $3

September 17, 2007 Blog

How to sell new cars

The Buick Roadmaster station wagon is a great car (see my article about these wonderful cars), but it has one minor weakness. General Motors put cheap plastic sliders on the electric window channels, which break rather easily.

When a window slider breaks, it is either raining cats and dogs, bitter cold or blazing hot. It is no fun driving in such weather with a window down. The wife's new perm can be ruined and thieves like parked cars with open windows. So Roadmaster owners head straight for the Buick dealership.

The Parts Manager used to sell the sliders, but now he informs owners that they must buy the entire window mechanism for about $400. Installation will cost another $200.

My Buick Roadmaster is 15 years old and the newest models are 10 years old. Owners look around the showroom at all those gleaming new cars that only cost a few hundred Dollars per month. The dealer is also gleaming. Either he sells a car or gets a pricey repair job. It's a win-win situation for him.

Several times I replaced broken sliders myself, but when a driver's side window slider broke two weeks ago, I discovered this new development myself. Roadmaster owners don't like to part with their cars and I am no exception. I pondered the situation for a moment and came to two conclusions. 1) If a Roadmaster is traded in with only a broken window slider, it will NOT be junked. 2) If the dealer repairs the window, he will NOT install a $400 window mechanism.

I did what I usually do of late when this sort of thing happens. I went on line. Other Buick Roadmaster owners are faced with the same problem, so I checked a User Forum. Sure enough, some clever Sherlock Holmes had done research and shared his findings with the rest of us.

The replacement window mechanisms have nylon rollers instead of sliders, but they are otherwise identical to the original. If you order GM part number 9666748, you get a nylon roller that fits in the old window track and only costs $3. I bought a bag of 5 for $15. That should keep the Roadie running for another 100,000 miles.