2011 Tiguan Roof Rack Decision

Getting a new vehicle comes at a cost. Not only do I have a car payment again but I’m faced with the added costs of a new roof rack should I want to use my kayak or take my mountain bike anywhere without jamming it inside the car.

The complication I had was finding a roof rack that wouldn’t impair my ability to open my panoramic sunroof when installed. Having had a Thule roof rack stolen from my previous car even with the security locks I wanted to check out all the other options.

I could pick up the OEM roof rack but it’s ugly and you are limited to the space between the feet and the heavy plastic shields which isn’t enough to allow me to take 2 kayaks and my bike with me at the same time. It is important that I am able to take multiple things with me when I go on small road trips. The OEM rack just doesn’t afford me the space and look I want.

Yakima offers several options for the Tiguans. The lowest cost option is the Railgrab. While it appears that this option will give me the clearance with the bar it’s hardly an attractive option. The round cross bar is boring and pedestrian in appearance. The second option is the Whisperbar rails system. These are really low profile and are a very attractive option. They seem to barely change the overall all appearance of the car when in use however the fit tips indicate that you should remove the bars before using the roof. I really want to be able to leave the base cross bars on the car and only remove the attachments when not using them. Since it doesn’t offer the clearance needed its out. The third and fourth options are the Whisperbar Through Bar and HD Bar systems but those aren’t for vehicles which already have the roof rails.

That led me back to Thule. Thule also had several options for my car. The base mounts for my vehicle were the same but the difference was the bars. The basic SquareBar’s are not attractive and also any attachments have clamps that hang below the bar.  I would need to be very careful not to open the roof when the bar is in use or risk dragging the roof down a jagged edge of a clamp screw. It does appear that the bar can stay on the vehicle while the roof is in use. The second option was the Aeroblade’s. The aeroblade also have the same t-track that allows many standard attachments to use the adaptor packs that keep the bar clamp free. That means no hanging clamps or screws that could damage the roof.  With the Aeroblades there are two options like the Yakima’s WhisperBars. They offer an integrated bar and foot pack or the separate bar and foot pack. The integrated AeroBlade Edge fit guy mentions that the roof may not be used with the bars in place.  The separate bar and footpack didn’t say it would impact the use of the sunroof.

Just to be on the safe side I went to the local Eastern Mountain Sports and took a bar outside and held it about the height it would be with the Rapid Crossroad foot pack’s and tested the roof. It cleared but not with a huge amount of space so we will have to see when the rack is fully loaded if it clears. I plan to install it this week and will add another post when I do.
 

Paintless Dent Removal (PDR) - Dealerdents.com

Less than a week after purchasing my VW Tiguan I stopped for lunch in a local strip mall. It’s a place I go often in an affluent town. After picking up my sandwich I was walking to my car. I heard a loud bank like a door opening into a car but was not able to see where it happen since I was on the other side of a big truck.

As I approached my car I noticed a real beater of a vehicle parked next to me. It was an old Oldsmobile with its trunk lid held down by a bungee cord and multiple color panels.   Standing between my car and this beater was a very large woman who was looking at the side of my car. Immediately I saw what she was looking at. A large scuff and dent right on the body contour on my passenger door.

I asked if she did it and with cigarette hanging out of her mouth and a raspy voice she grunted “no” at me.  I knew it wasn’t there before I went into the store since I have a habit of looking at my car especially since it’s so new.  I replied “it sure looks like you did it especially since you were bent over checking it out when I walked up”. She just grunted and walked away.

Having not physically seen her do it and no real way to prove it I called her a variety of inappropriate terms before getting in my car and driving away.  It had me all worked up at how inconsiderate people can be.

On my way home I stopped at a place I know does paintless dent removal and they said they could get it about 80% of the way out but wouldn’t be able to get it perfect. Not satisfied I went to a few more placed and everyone seemed to say the same thing. That being if I wanted to not know it happened I would need to have the door fixed and repainted.

No ready to spend the $700+ to have that done I opted to live with it. On a routine visit to my mechanic I showed him the dent and asked if he had any ideas on who might be able to do the paintless dent removal on it.

He recommended Dana Berger who does work for the same dealership he had previously worked at. I checked out his website dealerdents.com and gave him a call. I shot him a few picture messages of the damage and he said “It won’t be easy but I can fix that” He gave me a quote and told me to call him at the end of the week to make an appointment.

Call I did and we made an appointment for Tuesday. I showed up at the set time in this residential neighborhood. While his bread and butter is the dealership gigs he also does side work in his driveway for people referred to him. Immediately upon seeing my dent he reassured me that he could take care of it. I also showed him the few other small puck marks on my car and said we can take care of all those.

As he worked we talked about how he got into the business and his experiences. I learned that he was trained by Dent Wizard and worked for them for 5 years before deciding to venture out on his own. He has now been removing dents for 12 years and works for many of the big local dealerships as well as working from several local detailing shops on the side. 

Business he said was booming and he had another guy working for him and was training his wife his craft. She was in the garage working on a Honda Civic for a local dealership who bought the car sight unseen only to discover it had been a victim of a hailstorm.

It was very cool to watch as he used a variety of long tools some flat and some pretty menacing looking to slowly work the dent out. With each step you could see the progress being made. Several times he said “don’t worry I know it looks bad now but when I’m done it will be perfect” I wasn’t ever worried because even half fixed it was less terrible then it started.

When he was all done I couldn’t have been more pleased with his work. The dent which doesn’t look like much in the picture was pretty bad and very noticeable. He also removed for a nominal fee the few other small dents that I had. I would strongly recommend his services to anyone in the metro west area who may need a dent fixed. I managed to capture a few pictures while he was working of the progress.

04' GTI 1.8T vs. 11' Tiguan SE 4Motion

While I am meticulous about maintenance it’s no mystery that I haven’t had the best of luck the last few years with my car. After having a series of issues thanks to a bad mechanic that lead to a very costly repair I have been on the fence about keeping my car. On a recent routine trip to a new awesome mechanic it was brought to my attention that there were a few areas of concern. 5 things were looming and would need to be addressed in the up-coming months. Those were a bubble in one of my tires, worn & loose strut mounts, a worn catalytic converter, brakes on all four wheels, and some rust starting to show on the front left fender.

After a quick calculation and calling around for prices I had a decision to make, invest $2500 to make my car whole again or evaluate replacement options. According to KBB, Edmunds, and NADA my car was worth somewhere between $2000 and $4000 so investing another $2500 didn’t make a lot of sense.

Having decided that I would replace my car I wrote a list of the pro’s and con’s with my current vehicle. Pro’s: Fast, fun, sporty, easy to drive, fuel efficient. Con’s: low to the ground, small cabin space, 2-doors, no sunroof, 2-wheel drive. These are just a few examples of what I listed. This allowed me to decide that on my new car there were a few must haves. I wanted a larger 4-wheel drive vehicle that would maintain a decent MPG but would allow me more cabin space. I wanted it to have 4 doors and come with a sunroof.

Having loved the feel of my car I evaluated getting a new version of the GTI but I just felt the cost was too high for a car that lacked a few things that were important to me. VW wasn’t letting me walk quite yet thou. They had an alternative that seemed to meet all my needs. That perfect fit is the VW Tiguan.

Not ready to spend a ton of money on a new vehicle I put my retired father to work locating the perfect used Tiguan. He found a possible option in Quincy, MA just a few miles from where I had bought my current car. Along with my parents we made the hour long trip only to be disappointed that this dealer had misrepresented the vehicle. He claimed it had a clear car fax and that it had never been in an accident but the obvious indicators that it has not only been in an accident but a bad one dashed any hope that it would be the next car for me.

Since we had driven all that way I suggested stopping by the local dealer and seeing what they might have. Not much I would learn and the sales guy was definitely you’re typical snake oil salesman. He showed me one 2011 Tiguan S and went through a pretty impressive walk around of the car showcasing its construction and safety before we headed inside to talk numbers. We went back and forth about 4 times before it was obvious that a deal wasn’t going to happen.

After leaving there we started the long ride home and alone the way stopped at 2 more locations. What I learned was that the Tiguan S wasn’t going to be the car for me. I wanted a Tiguan SE 4-Motion. The price difference was minimal to upgrade to the full awd option and most of the SE models come with a full panoramic sun roof.

2011 VW Tiguan SE 4Motion

At the last dealership I found the perfect car. A Certified 2011 Midnight Blue Tiguan SE 4Motion with Navigation and the Panoramic Sunroof. Of course with all perfect options the price was less than perfect. I was hopeful however that a deal could be made. Sadly it wasn’t meant to be and we left. After a few days I got a call to see if I had any question or if I had given their offer and thought. I was honest with the sales guy that we were 2k away from where I wanted to be and if he would meet in the middle we could make the deal happen.

Unable to make any promises he took my offer to the bosses and when he called back he was able to come $500 bucks closer but would repair a few things that I had pointed out with the car that needed to be done and throw in a few extra’s. Given that those repairs/extras were well over the remaining $500 difference I agreed and left him a deposit.

Today I picked up the car. I will need to return in a few day’s for my registration and an inspection but I couldn’t be happier to have closed the deal and gotten the car I wanted. My parents were equally as please to see me in a larger and safer vehicle.