General thoughts on Venture and GM

[Peter TZ]

I've tried most of my life to buy a North American vehicle. I'd like to support the jobs here not elsewhere. I just can't do it any more. This 2004 Venture is my 5th GM and 7th North American car. They just are not built to last. I know of what I speek. I drive 100,000 miles for work every year. I bought a Honda Odessey that was faultless for 500K till an accident.
The Venture is well designed and well feature laden. Gets pretty good fuel economy. But It's having constant issues and many are very expensive. This is my second one. The first a 1999 lasted 4 years and I almost put more money in it than the purchase price. Intersting thing is that the problems that I had the first time are now the same ones happening with this one. So clearly the design is for this vehicle to break down at certain points in it's life. Frankly to sell parts and service.

The vehicle before that was a Grand Am and all I can say there is the only thing that did work correctly after 3 years of use was the engine. That was solid but absolutely everything was repaired or replaced at least once. (3 tranny's etc).

As for Chysler We bought a Van from them that broke down (brand new off the lot) that had a major engine failure 3.5 miles from the dealership on the very first day of ownership. They wouldn't replace the van. They told us to sue them if we wanted a new Van.

If the North American companies want to stay in business then it's time to build something that will work for more than a few miles. This Venture is worn out far sooner than it should be and I guess it's Honda or Toyota for me.

Is anyone at the 'big 3' listening.... I think not.

['97ventureowner]

You made some good points there and I agree quality has been lacking in the past. However, the Big 3 aren't the only ones who have problems. Every car maker has it's issues and bad press. Also, the Japanese automakers don't have as many issues to deal with as the Big 3 do in this country such as employee health insurance costs, other benefits, and government mandated items which cost the companies money, money that could be better spent on design and production improvements. Here are some interesting links I found on the web:http://members.tripod.com/~juan_espero/hype.html http://www.consumeraffairs.com/autom...nsmission.html
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/autom...ta_engine.html
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06214/710304-185.stm

[iceman2]

Originally Posted by Peter TZ

Is anyone at the 'big 3' listening.... I think not.

They hear ya, but, guess what? They don't care. As long as there's the attitude, "My Daddy bought Chevy, his Daddy bought Chevy, so I buy Chevy!" out there, GM will continue to make inferior products. It's not because they're incapable of making quality passenger vehicles for consumers, it's because they don't have to. I graduated with a Master's in Bus Admin from the University of Toledo, in the heart of Big 3 Auto country, and I was able to surmise a couple of reasons why Japanese vehicles are of higher quality than American. 1) They have to be! In order for the Japanese cars to be able to sell in this country, they had better offer something above and beyond. 2) Retooling American factories to meet or surpass Japanese standards will be a major expense that would set the Big 3 back, financially, for many years. Right now, as long as there's a certain level of demand, this will not happen.

[bigcoconut]

I'm the son of a Chevy owner, and yes I have bought Chevy's in the past. I've owned one Suzuki SJ-10 and a Mazda 323 when I was stationed over seas. I currently own 2 Chevy's; a 99 Venture and 92 1/2 ton pick-up. My wife drives the Venture to school and back so it only has about 75-80K miles on it. The only issue we have had is the head gaskets blew on it during a trip to Dallas. Oh , and the front wheel bearings went out, got loose, at about 70K miles. Since we bought it new it has been a reliable work horse/school bus for my wife.

The only issue I have with GM is their electronic replacement parts. I recently bought an alternater from a GM dealer for my pick-up and it was not holding the voltage steady. So I took it out and returned it for another and it did the same thing. Statistically speaking that is not possible, to have two bad parts in a row like that with the exact same problem. I finally went to an after market alternator with no further problems.

Now my pick-up is getting old so I'm in the market for a new truck and yes, I am looking at Chevy's, but only out of habit. I'm going to have to force myself to stop at the Toyota dealer to look at their trucks, they have some nice standard features I'm interested in that Chevy only has as options.

['97ventureowner]

Originally Posted by bigcoconut

The only issue I have with GM is their electronic replacement parts. I recently bought an alternater from a GM dealer for my pick-up and it was not holding the voltage steady. So I took it out and returned it for another and it did the same thing. Statistically speaking that is not possible, to have two bad parts in a row like that with the exact same problem. I finally went to an after market alternator with no further problems.

That happens to aftermarket parts as well. About 3 years ago I had to replace the alternator in my father-in-law's 1995 C1500 pickup. I went to Autozone and got a replacement which turned out to be defective. Took it back and that one too was defective. When all was said and done I think we went through 5 or 6 alternators from two separate Autozone's in my area. We didn't leave the store until they tested the new one to make sure it was operating properly. Years ago, I used to sell auto parts. Believe it or not something like that can be more common than you think. It can occur during manufacturing/remanufacturing process where a part is used from a substandard lot. This can affect many units based on how big the lot is and how many defective parts it contained. Also human error can play a role, either untrained or poorly trained workers or even the time of day/day of the week could play a role in the chance of getting a defective unit. Luckily, the rates at that happening today are less than a few years ago due to better quality parts/quality control, and computerization,or use of newer machinery in production.

I'd like to add one more link to my post above in the discussion about Japanese vs. American automakers. It's about the latest J D Power survey which places Ford ahead of Toyota in quality:http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...y.14bb809.html

[Peter TZ]

The replys are exactly what I'm talking about. The Van I had from Honda lasted 500K and the only part over the normal brakes and oil changes was an alternator. That part blew because of me and I can't blame the Van. I had a 3000 watt Alpine system and just overtaxed the alternator. A 1M capacitor cured that issue. I'm not saying the Honda's of the world are perfect. But at least they make the design effort to satisfy a customers needs. I know a guy who owned the Odessy and was approaching 1 million miles. He was a medical courier and drove up to 750 miles every day for organ transplants. His car had to work and he loved that van. Trusted it more than his wife!! (that's another story for a different forum Lol.

I'd gladly pay a couple grand more for a North American built vehicle that I know will give me the service I deserve. My current Venture just had the wheel bearings replaced for the second time. Once at 85K and now again at 192K. Isn't that funny that the second repair happened 87K after the first? I guess I need to save my nickels for the routine bearing job at 277K.
I'm just waiting for the head gasket to go now. That seemed to happen every 125K last time, so I'm overdue on this van. And everyone knows how common that issue is.

Anyway I'm done my rant. I just wish companies would make it easier for me to spend my money at home and not just the repair shop.

[chinflip4u]

Unfortunately my Venture has left a VERY bad taste in mouth for GM. I plan on getting rid of it as soon as I can. My next car will probably be a honda or nissan.

[broughy84]

I will guarantee you I will not buy another gm van!!!