This was sad. Political correctness gone crazy

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Tiffany was "crushed" about the whole episode.

Sorry it's not Politically Correct, but the smaller the car, the bigger (no pun intended) impact your weight has on it. As to whether to try to address the issue with her in the car while they make adjustments - this is SOP for racing cars, why should it be an insult?

On the other hand, it's nice to see that the whole unrealistic political-correctness thing is not uniquely a US thing, but that our north-of-the-border brethren have to deal with it too.

 

I dont agree that auto makers have to contend with the fact that the US is a health poor region. I dont like how the KIA dealership handled the situation about her size....but she shouldnt be in a KIA. More like a larger-sized vehicle. And I say this due to the fact of how close she sat to the steering wheel. If and when those bags go off....I dont think they would hit her face. More like crush her sternum as it deploys and the steering wheel goes through her chest. But its not her fault its McD's fault. I can say that for most overweight people. I can understand medical issues relating to the cause but to not think a 300 plus ballast isnt going to affect driveability....come on....

 

That is just sad, the chick is huge, keeps bringing the car in for alignments, and then gets offended when they suggest she sits in the car during the alignment in order to fix the problem? It sounds like a reasonable solution to me, what else can they to do?

 

I remember my jr high history teacher who was bigger than this chick, drive a Sunbeam Alpine. The poor car leaned way over on the drivers side.

 

To suggest she sit in it is insulting, but every car should be aligned with the driver's approximate weight in the driver's seat. Big car small person, not an issue, but when you do your MINI, you should leave something in the seat.

 

The Mini is not a SMALL vehicle. It weighs approx 3000lbs. Thats pretty damn heavy. I wouldnt be offended to have the mechanics have me sit in the vehicle to align it. If anything the car would be spot on...

 

The easiest solution is for her to find a similarly built friend to sit in the passenger seat and go everywhere with her.

OK, so maybe that's not practical, but I don't think it's unreasonable to try to address the situation by putting the proper amount of weight in the driver's seat while doing the alignment. It's an absolute must for GT style race car alignments - they actually weigh the driver to decide how to set it up, down to the pound.

Maybe car dealerships should just keep an extra set of gym weights on hand and calmly and matter of factly let people know that if the primary driver is over 200 lbs, they should let the shop know so they can put some weights in the drivers seat while they align it. The first 200 really doesn't need to be adjusted for, but if someone is over 200, they should put 100 to 150 lbs worth of weights in the driver's seat. On average, that should work out for just about anyone who can fit behind the wheel.

 

I cannot express how much I HATE political correctness with a passion! This is just insane.


Having the customer sit in the car while aligning it is in no way insulting!!! Its tailoring the car to the person as it will be driven!! This is very common when setting up high performance vehicles. I have done at least 30 alignments where the CUSTOMER requested they sit in the car, or have me ballast the drivers seat to match their weight.

If you do it in this fashion, the car will have no pull and the steering wheel will be dead nuts on. If you ever get into your car and wonder why when going down a straight road why the wheel may be slightly cocked one way or the other, it may be because of the weight of cargo and passengers.


Every pound added to one side or the other of the car will throw off the suspension geometry.

 

Acutally I think the S 2009 cooper with auto is 2775 or so and the S 2009 manual is 2670 or so. I would have to look it up again but it's close.

A little ways from 3 K. The Clubman might weigh that but I have not looked it up. Actually Clubman curb weight is 2723. Curb weight for the cooper s auto is 2634 manual is 2546. This according to Left Lane Research. http://www.leftlanenews.com/mini-cooper.html But it's close to 3K. Give or take.

Pat

 

[quote=tc-mini;2667298]The easiest solution is for her to find a similarly built friend to sit in the passenger seat and go everywhere with her.


Or if it is an Automatic perhaps she can place a cushion between the two fronts seats, place one foot in each footwell and use the left foot for gas and brake.

 

The Kia Rio is only capable of carrying a little over 1200 lbs. If you buy a car knowing that you are between 1/4 and 1/3 the maximum capacity of the vehicle, then you shouldn't be surprised when it encounters problems.

Would anyone buy a Kia Rio if they had to haul 400 lbs of equipment to and from work every day. The fact that the weight she is carrying around is hers is not the cars or the dealers fault. Sounds to me like they went out of their way to be as polite as possible.

 

For this woman to be offended and traumatized by the fact that her weight affects the driveability of the vehicle is a personal issue between herself and her therapist. For someone to suggest that driver weight affects the alignment of the car is just common sense subject to the laws of physics not the conventions of political correctness.

I am certain that no one at the dealership criticized her weight, but merely wanted to test a logical theory that weight might be impacting the vehicle tracking.

 

I get alot of different answers on what the Cooper weighs. It also varies by MY. I am too hungover to go out and look but I was throwing out an APPROXIMATE. I actually really dont care what it weighs stock as I am nowhere near that category. But thank you for the insight .

 

I'd be insulted if someone asked me to sit in my car - I'm paying you to do it for me. I'll tell you what I weigh and you can put something in the seat, but just to sit in the car for everyone to laugh at you - no thanks. We align cars all the time in the garage and we have water dummys and weights to put in them if there's a problem or we're doing durability with full curb weight in the car.

 

I can understand car manufactures having to offer seat belt extenders, that's easy enough. How are they supposed to "adapt" to too much weight on one side of the car? I guess she could get herself a McLaren F1.
I can't see more than a few feet in front of me I was not insulted when the doctor suggested I wear glasses. It's not my fault I can't see and if permanently looking through plastic lenses makes me able to see I am happy to do it. If you weight more than the average person and need to sit in you car while it is being aligned so be it.

 

Well, I dont think this story is particularly newsworthy. I'm another one who thinks this whole political crrectness thing is nauseating. She's a just a big (no pun intended) crybaby.

But, perhaps the shop should have requested she tell the mechanic her weight so they could align the car so that it would track straight for her safety, and then asked her if she wanted to sit in the car or they could use weights. That would have covered all the bases.

If she balked at any of that, then she should do the work herself.

And stop crying.

 

Well then, good for you.

I had a few return customers pay me damn good money, and request they are in the car while the alignment is done. They usually spend an hour or two with the car and I till they get it where they want it.

Who is laughing at the person in the car? The 3 other techs in the shop busy doing other work cause they are flat rate?

 

At my next alignment, I'm going to request to sit in the car. But I'm well under the 200lb your-weight-severely-effects-your-car category. I don't even have coil overs. However, there might be some toe or camber discrepancies from my weight. At the very least, I'll get to see first hand how they do the alignment.

 

Hummmm, I weigh 240 lbs. Should I request to sit in my car when I have it aligned? Personally I have never heard of that and I have been pretty heavy all my life. I've never had any alignment problems. I mean I've had to have cars aligned before but I have never sat in them and never had a problem after they were aligned. These are the first MINI's we have owned but it still seems kind of strange to me.

Pat

 

Keep in mind that the MINIs are designed for spirited driving and are sprung to handle weight shift of hundreds of pounds during cornering. The cheap Kia's are sprung to handle moderate straight line and conservative cornering speeds. If someone approacing 300 pounds sits in the Kia, it is probably close to its suspension travel limits without encountering any bumps on that corner. It is unlikely that your 240 lbs will have much of an impact on the tracking unless your at the limits of traction, executing a 4 wheel drift.

 

To those of you that want to sit in the car while the alignment is done, make sure you go to a specialty tire shop, and not a big box like NTB, Tire Kingdom, etc.

Most of them don't allow customers in the shop.

 

I think I will sit on the sidelines.

By the way not-so-rednwhitecooper, did you get the horsepower you were looking for in your sig?

Pat

 

My brother-in-law tips the scales at around 375, has been that way for well over 25 years.

He has always driven larger vehicles, Tahoe, Blazer(a bit tight)Expedition, etc.

Know what, he has always insisted upon being in his car for front end alignments. Even in a larger, heavier sprung vehicle, that much wieght can make alot of differance. It's nice to know there are people out there that understand that and don't take offense.

As for being PC, I still feel it's a large part of why this country is so screwed up.