gm customer care

[p-impala]

i work at the factory that assembles assembles the engine acssesories for the equinox and we had 10-15 engine blocks come to our plant with the exhaust manifolds, and block all rusted to shit, even the head gaskets looked extermely decayed. im sure it was mostly surface rust on the manifolds and block but the gaskets looked like old witherd sun cracked elastic bands,and they still got built and put into vehicles. this pisses me off as a gm vehicle owner and as a member of quality control in the plant i work in. to have something that rusted and corroded before it is in the car, let alone the car lot is disgusting. gm better step up its level of quality before all i hear go by my house is stupid imports with dumb fart cans on their exhausts sounding like kazoos. it seems alot of people are moving from domestic to "more efficiant", "reliable" imports. c'mon gm pul your f'n socks up!

[bduff509]

p-impala,
Thanks for speaking up. I bought an '04 ZR2 Blazer new & I don't have much faith in the engine. My last vehicle was a '94 Safari that had 265,000 mi. on it & it still ran great when it got wrecked. I don't see the same comming from the Blazer despite having the same engine. The trans. is also flakey & GM has done everything they can to do nothing about it. I'm no wizard with trannies but I think it acts like the valve body is bad. When it starts it tries to roll forward until it takes up the slack in park. Uphill! I was told by the dealer that it's normal & that it's the fan making the car try to move. I don't think they put a turbo prop on the front of that motor. They even get to beat the lemon law by refusing to do any work on the car. If nothing gets worked on, nothing needed to be fixed. I feel for you. You're not alone. We're only allowed to take as much pride in our craftmanship as our corporate leaders want us to. It's become the new American way. The rest of the world gets to make good cars. We only get to make them money.

[Jaguar D-Type]

Originally Posted by bduff509

The rest of the world gets to make good cars.

So the Saleen S7 isn't a good car?

Or the new Mustang?

Or the new Cobalt SS?

Or the the new Corvette and 2006 Corvette Z06?

Or the new Cadillac STS, XLR, 2006 STS-V, and the new XLR-V?

Or the Panoz Esperante?

[Mines69Olds]

Originally Posted by Jaguar D-Type

So the Saleen S7 isn't a good car?

Or the new Mustang?

Or the new Cobalt SS?

Or the the new Corvette and 2006 Corvette Z06?

Or the new Cadillac STS, XLR, 2006 STS-V, and the new XLR-V?

Or the Panoz Esperante?

I thought they were talking about General Motors. I don't think i've ever heard about a GM Mustang. But production lately has been very shafty.

[bduff509]

I stand corrected. There are probably about a half dozen American cars that are really good. It depends on how deep your pockets are if they're worth buying. I just saw the inside of the engine in my son's Z24 the other day. The timing chain is smaller than any bicycle chain I've ever seen & was about to fall off. His intake cam housing was worn enough to fit a set of bearings in it but, wait a minute, there aren't even any bearings in it! Nor are the housings rebuildable. The oil pump chain looks like it's out of a toy. No, sorry but this isn't my idea of a good car. It's throw-away junk. I've bought 2 new cars in my life. The '94 Safari I wasn't real impressed with when I bought it but it turned out to be pretty good. The '04 Blazer is turning out to be just another piece of junk with a lot of very expensive parts. A friend of mine just spent over $500 on a fuel pump for his last week. It would probably be cheaper to buy 2 or 3 old chevys, register them as classics & just put 5k mi. per year on them. Cheaper to buy, cheaper to insure & cheaper for parts. Even big 8s with a good carb are better on gas than a lot of what's made today. In '73 I had a '63 Impala with 283 that burned oil something terrible & got 25 mi./gal.. Over 30 years later we can't build cars/ trucks that get better milage & don't fold in half in even moderate wrecks.

[Mines69Olds]

Originally Posted by bduff509

I stand corrected. There are probably about a half dozen American cars that are really good. It depends on how deep your pockets are if they're worth buying. I just saw the inside of the engine in my son's Z24 the other day. The timing chain is smaller than any bicycle chain I've ever seen & was about to fall off. His intake cam housing was worn enough to fit a set of bearings in it but, wait a minute, there aren't even any bearings in it! Nor are the housings rebuildable. The oil pump chain looks like it's out of a toy. No, sorry but this isn't my idea of a good car. It's throw-away junk. I've bought 2 new cars in my life. The '94 Safari I wasn't real impressed with when I bought it but it turned out to be pretty good. The '04 Blazer is turning out to be just another piece of junk with a lot of very expensive parts. A friend of mine just spent over $500 on a fuel pump for his last week. It would probably be cheaper to buy 2 or 3 old chevys, register them as classics & just put 5k mi. per year on them. Cheaper to buy, cheaper to insure & cheaper for parts. Even big 8s with a good carb are better on gas than a lot of what's made today. In '73 I had a '63 Impala with 283 that burned oil something terrible & got 25 mi./gal.. Over 30 years later we can't build cars/ trucks that get better milage & don't fold in half in even moderate wrecks.

Exactly, I see cars now a days that get in a little accident and they will never be the same. I had a 93 talon, but some lady ran me off the road and the car was never the same. The front end had a bit of a twist. A while after the front left tire was bald the front right was getting there, the back left was about the same as the front right and the back right was actually still pretty nice. I ran over the rock doing less than 5 and it wasn't that big but the frame was done.

[p-impala]

bduff is right. the average person gets stuck with crap if they cant afford a Cadillac STS or a Corvette.

[Jaguar D-Type]

bduff509,

The Cavailer is no longer made. The Cobalt has replaced it.

Check this link

New Cobalt

The new Cobalt SS has a 2.0 liter supercharged Ecotec I-4 with 205 hp and 200 lb-ft of torque.

It includes the following:

- Forged steel crankshaft
- Semi-permanent-mold cylinder head casting
- Stainless steel intake valves with undercut stems
- Sodium-filled exhaust valves
- 12.5-mm-wide chain cam drive
- 6.5-quart oiling system with crankshaft-driven pump
- Engine oil cooler
- Coil-on-plug ignition with 58X crankshaft position encoder
- Oil-jet-cooled pistons

The Cobalt SS also has aluminum lower control arms, larger brakes (11.6 inch discs up front with 10.6 inch discs in the rear), more aggresive brake pads, Pirelli P Zero Rosso ties (215/45R-18), bigger front (24 mm) and rear (22 mm) anti-roll bars, sport-tuned front struts, sport springs that lower the car 10 mm, a larger radiator with larger cooling fans, revised power steering, a short-throw shifter (by 1 inch), a heavy-duty F35 five-speed manual transmission which includes two equal-length halfshafts with higher torque capacity, and some other stuff.

It would look better with a smaller rear spoiler.



A performance package is available for the Cobalt SS. It includes leather-appointed Recaro seats and a Quaife limited-slip differential.





The new Cobalt SS has won two races in Grand-Am Cup.

check the links

racing link one

racing link two

Mosport







Is the 2006 Chevy HHR junk?

http://www.chevrolet.com/hhr06/

HHR stands for "Heritage High Roof." Styling is from the 1949 Chevrolet Suburban.

Many critics point out that Bryan Nesbitt, the designer of Chrysler's PT Cruiser, was on the HHR project, too, after he left Chrysler and joined GM in 2001. But officials at GM say the HHR was under way before Nesbitt joined GM.

The new HHR uses the new Cobalt's chassis.

"The HHR's hood with its deep concavity and delicate accent lines requires five seperate "hits" from the presses and ranks as on of the most complicated sheetmetal parts GM has ever produced, says small-car vehicle line executive Lori Queen. The holes for the HHR's taillights are carefully punched out of the quarter-panels in a ballet of robotic tooling."

- Car & Driver September 2005

[bduff509]

Jaguar D-Type,
I hear what you're saying but I think we have different ideas as to what constitutes a good car. Maybe I'm too old school. Even older heavy horsepower cars could only tolerate being thrashed for so long but I doubt that if you drove that Cobalt the way it was designed and advertised, as a daily driver, it would last 2 years without needing some serious drive train work. If it slid off the road it would probably twist. I don't know of anyone who has ever been satisfied with having a frame pulled. A kid on a 24hr test drive in an '05 Equinox ran a stop sign in front of my wife & she t-boned him behind the driver's door. It totalled my 10 yr. old Safari because it was only worth $2900. The left frame rail got pushed back about an inch. That Equinox looked like it got hit with a loaded 10 wheel dump truck. She was doing about 35 mph when she hit him.
With all due respect, I think the HHR is a waste of money. I haven't even been interested in Vettes since the early 70's. HHR's may be great performance vehicles but it's resemblance to a '49 Suburban is nearly nonexistant. I don't like the T-bird remake either. The only thing it's got that that the old Birds had is the round window. Impalas, good looking car but the styling has changed so drastically that it's not an Impala anymore. Chrysler has come out with some interesting nostalgic designs but, with the exception of recycling the 300 name, I don't think they're trying to ride on their predecessor's coat tails. Not that I've noticed, anyway.
As I said, maybe I'm just too old school. Or too purist. Or that I come from a family where money was just too tight & now I walk in my father's shoes. I wouldn't buy a pickup that I have no intention of loading. I wouldn't buy a Cadillac because I can get everything I'm interested in in a Chevy a whole lot cheaper. I don't need a car that does 0-60 in 2 sec. I need a car that has enough snot to get me out into traffic every time I ask it to at least until I'm done paying for it. Again, with all due respect, HHR's, Caddy's ( what the hell's up with the Caddy pick-up? It just don't seem right), Hummers... All vehicles for people with way too much money to play with. As for the rest of us, we get the junk.
By the way, how big is the chain on that crank driven Cobalt oil pump? Sounds an awful lot like the Z Cav.

[Jaguar D-Type]

Originally Posted by bduff509

I wouldn't buy a Cadillac because I can get everything I'm interested in in a Chevy a whole lot cheaper.

The Cadillac CTS, STS, and SRX don't use a Chevrolet chassis. The Sigma chassis was first used and only used by Cadillac. Neither Cadillac's 4.6 liter 320 hp DOHC Northstar V-8 is not used in Chevrolets and nor their new 4.4 liter supercharged Northstar V-8 be used in Chevrolets.

I guess the real test for the Cobalt will be how it holds up over a long time and it first went on sale around last November.

Also, the 2006 Corvette Z06 is the best Corvette since 1967. It is also the fastest, most powerful, best engineered Corvette ever built.

[powerinit]

bduff I agree with you, I honestly don't think we will ever get cars like they used to be made. I have a 86' chevy caprice got hit in the rearend the other ladies car smashed the front end halfway to the windshield all that happened to mine is a little piece of rubber fell off the trim of the bumper. I mean this 305 v8 with a 4bbl carb gets just as good of gas milege as any new car i'v seen. Plus along with that this car has 205,671 all it's needed since it was brand new was a rebuilt tranny, rare tune up, and normal oil change. Unless companies step up they will never be as good as they were. Sorry but I think i'll stick with my classic.

[tom3]

Lots of hype for the HHR, but who in the world thinks a 1949 Surburban is good looking? Maybe a 57 Ford pickup, but 49 and 50 were dismal styling years for any car line. And I could write a book on GM customer care, read like a Stephen King novel.