I have lost the rest of what little respect I had left for "gm"

154,000 miles on my 2005 Dodge with the variable displacement - no issues so far.

 

Them old crown vics were supper workhorses. Ask any police department how they like them. Our local police service now had Chargers, Explorers.

 

My son and some friends bought old police Crown Vics and Chargers to play with. Wow, they can really take a beating.

 

Sound like the 2012 Malibu I had I could not believe I had to remove the front bumper cover to replace the bulb. Do you think I changed both sides while it was apart?

 

They lost me back in 1993 after one shop day for every 746 miles on a new car (or whatever it was - been so long now I kinda forgot the math). Much of the time the same failures
reoccurred; some of the time service managers were remarkably clueless. "Um - no Mr. Shop Manager; that's a bad CV joint you hear clicking - there is no need to tear down a perfectly fine transmission. Please get me the number for the Chevrolet Zone Manager." LOL

 

Chrysler hemi cams.

 

Oh, I don't know, having been in this business since CCC carbs were the latest invention, I have yet to see any new system come in without it's share of issues. The root problem is not that they don't know how to make an ICE reliable, it's that they are balancing both EPA regs and the desire to make it as cheap as possible to produce.

The only thing we are taking out of the equation here is the EPA regs with the EV, and I will be really surprised if the government is not going to stick their beak in that pie at some point..

Until they decided that they value quality over profit, every consumer product, including cars, is exposed to monster that is profit margin.

And I have every confidence that the automakers will take a simple system, and complicate it.

We will just trade one set of issues for another..

It will be this way, until someday the work order reads "Suspect bad transducer on the warp drive coupler"- "customer complains of intermittent wormhole during warp speed"



JW

 

And folks wonder why I collect rust free 20 year old Suburbans..

My current one has 446K on it, and I would fix the transfer case bearings that are starting to get loud on the highway.............. if I was not in fear of the rusty body falling off it at any minute..

I can't complain.. I put 200+ K on this truck, cost me tires and oil, one pickup tube o-ring, one AC compressor and condenser and two water pumps..

Been a great truck, going to turn it into my snowblower truck... Like a plow truck, but with a snowblower attached to the front..

And I like driving around in a mint 20 year old vehicle.. when I do put one of the "new" ones in service... those who are not simply clueless, give you the thumbs up, a lot like driving one of our old Buicks.

JW

 

Could have removed the inner fender liners to reach the bulb sockets?
U can do that with the big Lincoln SUV. Dealer wanted to remove the front facia to replace burned out bulb in my sis-in-law's Lincoln = $$$. It was a relative who replaced the bulb by removing the liners.

 

You forgot to mention how warranty flat rate times like to compensate you for your diagnostic skills, especially with electrical problems.
Then there are extended warranty companies that like for you to tear things apart so they can send their "inspector" out up to a week later to approve your diagnosis.

Glad I left the business. Nothing like working 40+ hours and getting paid for 20 or less.

 

Went fleet six years ago. Wouldn't go back to retail under any circumstance I can think of.

 

I’ve said it before, these manufacturers have nothing left to tout their new vehicles, so they come up with wiz bang gizmos so the young crowd is all starry eyed.

 

I think all the manufacturers would love it if we viewed cars like people do phones-always be paying, waiting for the next ‘upgrade’ to get more features, never paying it off and never keeping one. Then they’d just recycle the old one, get their tax credits and carbon offsets, reduce the need for parts inventory and look ‘green’ while raking in a different kind of green. (People don’t bitch when their iphone starts failing, they just say ‘time to upgrade!’)
Patrick

 

I would love to drag an engineer by the short hairs from his office upstairs down onto the floor to diagnose an intermittent problem on a Flexray system in .3 and keep the vehicle owner happy. And, go. Time’s up!

 

Absolutely not on a 2012 Malibu. Great design. At least they aren’t HID.

 

I had to Google ‘flexray’. I see the companies that use it and that’s all I need to know!
Patrick

 

I bought my last brand new vehicle in May of 2005, a Chevy 2500 Duramax. The injector wiring was the only gremlin it had, it was a good solid truck and if it wasn't for my bride I would still have it. She fell in love with a black Denali 3500 Duramax crew cab. No problems it's a great truck, it has more power than the 05 did but gets the same fuel mileage. All of the car companies have had there problems over the years and have taken turns having the most or least recalls.

Bob H.

 

Wow . 100 posts !

 

Yeah, in only 5 days