GM is A JOKE!

[sadgaowner]

While I appreciate all the free advice given here by the GM techs, I can't help but wonder why the #1 car manufacturer in the world continues to put substandard cars on the market. I can't begin to tell you how frustrated and downright mad I am. I work hard for my money and try to buy american. But I will NEVER buy another GM product as long as I live. The 98GA I bought 5 months ago had the same chronic intake gasket problems I have read about here numerous times. I replaced them only to find out the engine was toast. Why does GM continue to use this piece of @*&# in its engines? So honest hard working consumers have to keep paying to fix them? This car had 80000 miles on it. The gauge never showed it got hot! My last car was a 85 Prelude. I put 265000 miles on it and it was still running fine when I sold it. I never had any major engine problems with it. As far as I am concerned GM is nothing but a money grubbing corp. that cares nothing for its consumers. The way they rip people off should be a crime! Everytime I tried to ask a dealer service tech a question I got the same line of crap, bring it in, we have to look at it, for an overrated fee, of course! They wouldn't even tell me how to see if the car I bought came with keyless entry. I found that out here. Suffice to say this is my last post as I will never need to ask about any of GM's lousy, rotten, piece of SH*T lemons AGAIN!!!!

[C_Sephiroth]

Well first off sorry to hear about your bad experiance. Second if use Mechanics gave free advice all the time we would be out of bussiness. There is such a thing as a Lemon LAW. I am sure your car would have been covered in that. I am willing to bet if you would have contacted them, the dealer, and Threatened to get a Laywer They probably would have done something about it. No matter the Maker all Car have problems Some a bigger problem than others. I have only owned GM cars , but I work on all Types, and find GM to be great. So don't let one bad thing ruin your thoughts on a good car company.

[T. Hazuki]

I, myself am not a domestic car guy. My family has alway bought Japanese except for our pickup. Japanese cars go forever and they are just great all around cars! never buy american!

[Oldengineer]

I too quit buying GM cars because of recurring quality issues. GM's simply amazing. They took the number 1 selling car in the 1970's - the Olds Cutlass and improved it to the point that nobody wanted to buy it anymore. A year ago my daughter was interested in buying a new Saturn. On the test drive, a vacuum line fell off the engine and the car quit on us. So much for their quality control. She ended up buying a new Toyota.

Regards:
Oldengineer

[MagicRat]

I would be inclined to agree. Its infuriating to buy a new car and have it break in an expensive and premature way.
I bought a BMW 733 from a friend who was the original owner, at 120,000 miles. They had dumped many thousands of dollars into it, and I got it for a song. I loved the car, but it had persistant electrical, head gasket and structural problems along with lots of little things that would go wrong.
The dealer had a monopoly on parts and would soak all their customer, so, although none of the problems were too severe, the car was not worth fixing.
My friends new 735 was no better and started breaking in a big way early, to the benefit of the dealers bank balance.

I have found GM is very inconsistent in their product quality. The 3.8 L V6 is incredibly reliable and is excellent. The 2.8 to 3.4 L family of engines is poor due to gasket and camshaft issues.
Customers should not have to do relaibility research to find out what is going to last or not. Everything should be built to meet certain standards. The Japanese companys generally do this. GM does not and is paying the price for it.

[Oldengineer]

The Japanese are not immune either. I bought a new Honda Accord several years back, and, it had so many problems I traded it as soon as the warranty ran out. Two of my kids bought Nissans and both had numerous, expensive problems with both of them. Parts are every bit as pricey as BMW. For example - a distributor replacement for one son's Nissan' Sentra was $1000 at the dealer. My daughter had a Honda Civic. The exhaust manifold develped a crack at 50,000 miles. The parts alone were $800 from the dealer. Anymore - no matter what brand you buy it seems to be a crap shoot. Best advice I can offer is:
1. Avoid the first year after a model has undergone major changes.
2. Buy a few less options and get the extended factory-backed warranty if available.
3. Shop at a dealer who has a decent, competent service department complete with techs that can actually fix something proficiently - hard to find these days.
4. If you have a major problem and the dealer gives you the run-around - don't be afraid to call the factory toll free and get them involved.

Regards:
Oldengineer

[veyron 16/4]

well.. id go with chevys, they last forever ive had my corvette since I graduated high school.. thats over 30 years without having one problem.

[Oldengineer]

I'd agree with you that your Vette is a great car. However the Chevy 4's and V-6's on the market pale in comparison to Chevy's V-8s.

Regards:
Oldengineer

[MagicRat]

There is some merit to buying an older car in really good shape and fixing it yourself. This is not an alternative for most people, but its worked for me.
I find my '88 Pontiac is very straightforward to repair. Even though it has electronic fuel injection, it is far more simple than a more modern car. Most of GM's electronic controls were common across their entire line, for many years, so the skills one learns are adapatable to many vehicles.
Of course, cars up to the late '70's seem rediculously simple and easy to repair, by comparison.

[Oldengineer]

I agree with you. I picked up an old 1983 Chevy S-10 pick-up several years ago. The thing is so easy to work on - no electronics at all except for distributor. The old 2.8L V6 still has a plain old 2bbl carb sitting on it.

Regards:
Oldengineer

[syr74]

Sometimes it is as much the particular model you buy as the car company that made it. The Grand Am is just a disaster, has beem through every redesign actually. Everytime someone I know buys one I ask what in the hell they were thinking.

[Hypsi87]

Every company has ther good products and bad products. Everyine fro m GM to Ford Hell even the coampy I work for Caterpillar. Nothing is designed perfectly. Now saying that you would never buy certian brand car just because of one mess up. I think is kinda fast to jump to conclusions.

[syr74]

HyPsi did a better job of making my point than I did. I would never buy a Grand Am unless GM went to extreme measures to prove to me that a new one was superior to the old. However, my mom recently bought a clean, low mileage 97 Catera based largely on my advice. (she loves it btw) Same car maker, totally different car.

I built Toyota's once upon a time, and I can tell you from experience that everybody throws out a "loser" or two. The Camry's designed and built during that time.....sorry, no way am I gonna buy one. I have seen what they are made of an how they are made. And, it frightens me.

If they make somebody else happy cool. That's all that really matters. However, I just advised my sister to buy a Land Cruiser without hesitation. Same maker, different model....As I said, model matters as much as brand.

[Oldengineer]

You're right - The Catera is a totally different car because it's basically a German Opel Senator at heart. All Caddy did was make some cosmetic changes and stick their name oni it. It should give years of good service.

Regards:
Oldengineer

[MexSiR]

GM is a piece of shit period. No quality. Look at the corvettes interior for example, fucking ugly. Gm sucks!