GM Shoddiness & Crappy Build & Materials Quality

Not interested. I know how shitty a 10 year old GM product is.

Any car 2003 and newer in California that is rated as PZEV, the cat warranty is 15 years or 150,000 miles.

This also applies to those states that require their cars to met California emission standards.

good luck finding a carb approved cat for $200. you're usually looking at around $500+ for the cheapest of the cheap, and that's usually for a generic weld in. and you appear to be only including parts cost in your cost to repair...

all that said, i think we're basically on the same page. ;D

1996 Accord, running fine at 209K(?) until heater hose blew and engine overheated. Kids don't understand when the gauge goes to the red zone to pull over.:huh

1995 Audi A6 190K, don't trust the Germans to build good electrical parts. Otherwise, engine is still strong and car actually is pretty solid on the highway.

2001 Chevy Cavalier, 209K, no major problems, replaced plug wires for a check engine light, turn signal switch for brake lights inop and one headlamp for a service light. Gets over 30mpg on regular and while pretty cheez car, been very reliable.

Been thinking about the New Sonic RS for the wife as a little round around to replace the Cav.

I can't say enough good about our 2004 Saturn Vue AWD with a Honda 3.5Lv6 and Honda 5-speed AT. Widely known as one of the better engines/transmissions that Honda put out, it was luck of the draw that it came in our car. (I had no idea, really, no research)

Bought the car in 2008 at 53k miles, it now has 141k miles, including a cross-country trip of 3600+ miles, 2200 of it pulling a 6'x12' 4500+lb trailer.

The max tow weight is 3500lbs, the DRY weight of the trailer is 1700 lbs. :huh Yeah, I seriously underestimated the size/wt of the trailer, and it almost killed the Vue. Around Amarillo, TX the truck started to lose power and burn oil. It was so bad that it almost didn't make it up hills with the accelerator pegged. I limped into a U-Haul in Albaqurque, NM and changed to a 5'x8' trailer, donated/gave away to some local homeless guys a lot of my tools/gear.


I changed the oil (it was two quarts low and pitch black) and ran another 5 quarts of dino through it to "rinse" out the engine, filled it with synthetic and made it to CA. (from NY)

To this day, the truck is no worse for wear. Still runs like a top. Recently developed a small oil leak, but the truck has FAR exceeded expectations in years, abuse, and value.

I've had decent luck with my chevy trucks, i think for the most part its a crap shoot with vehicles either they run forever or they are a problem child.

Depending on the application, about $400 installed for a CA certified cat in Frisco.

I bought an '05 Avalanche new, My first ever new vehicle. Also bought extended warranty. I babied that truck. Mobil One oil, dealer serviced. It took me three trips to dealer to get them to replace body mounts that were recalled early on. Dash lights started failing after the factory warranty was expired. Then 2 months out of extended warranty, a wiring harness shorted out under the dash, putting smoke into interior. After that, the AC fan did not do anything when set in the high position. The dealer said, Oh, it's the 'air handler' down under the glove box area. They wouldn't listen to me. Bull poop, the air handler was fine. A few months later the computer reset the elapsed time for engine hours from ~1750 hours to zero hours.

Fearing the worst, A few months later, with only 74K on the odometer, I traded for a '12 Subaru Outback. Four months after I got rid of the Avalanche, I get a letter from GM saying there was a recall due to a water leak that could cause a short in the wiring harness, which could lead to smoke being released into the interior of the vehicle, and also causing the fan speed dial to malfunction....


I might be wrong... Just ask my X...

If a man speaks, and there is no woman present,... Is he still wrong?


Sent from my party line rotary dial iPhone using Tapatalk

I had good service from my gm and dodges.

My astro had almost 200K on it when the tornado in Joplin ate it. Even after rolling over a couple of times, the drivers door worked, and it started right up with the AC and Radio still working. You could have kicked out what was left of the windshield and drove it off. Shame to junk something that still wanted to drive.

My 79 Bonneville went 260K miles and the ac still worked on it too.

Before that I had a 74 monte carlo that ran 170K but rusted badly. still, 170K

Then I had a 69 impala that ran almost 200K

Dad had a 67 chevy truck that ran over 200K. His neighbor had one with over 300K. It was so loose that you had to chock the wheels when you parked it or it would roll off. Still ran about 700 miles to the quart. Both needed front end rebuilds once, original clutches, and 3 speed manuals and engines.

My current Buick I hope for 200K also. So far it has been flawless at 70K.

Now I did have a lemon 86 monte carlo ss. Still ran to over 80 K when I sold it for 2/3 of what I paid for it, so not too bad.

Hated that car.

so only one lemon.

Rod

I've pulled one of those 6x12s twice with a 4-cylinder Camry (once 700 miles and the other 900, the first time at 3,300 on the scale and the other estimated at 4,000) and didn't have any problems at all. Yours is not a rousing endorsement for the Vue.

Oh, and I would have swapped for a box truck and tow dolly before I gave away half a trailerload of tools, but you might not have had that option.

Depends. Depends if it's a generic and how many of that size they make. Depends on the amount of metals they use and construction methods and where you buy it. I recently paid $150 + labor for one at the local muffler shop and was quoted $2k for another at the dealer. I once had a car that was much cheaper to slap a cheapo cat on before smog than to fix the reason for the emissions.

The max tow weight listed for the vehicle is 3500lbs, which is what my hitch setup was rated for as well.

Seeing that the trailer alone weighs 1700lbs and was packed like a fucking game of Tetris, I would guess it weighed close to 5000lbs. Every inch of the trailer was used.

Driving 2000 miles, in the heat of Spring, on Rt40, up hills into a headwind much of the trip.....I'd say it did really well.

Looked into a Box truck. Not practical for our 2 week vacation/sightseeing trip across the country.

*I gave away CDs, a small air compresor, clothes, queen mattress, air conditioner, etc. It was triage of materials. In the end, everything worked out well. Additionally, I have a very hard time believing you pulled 3300lbs with a Camry for any amount of miles.

My wife has the same VUE as yours. The Honda tranny is the weak link. Have the ATF flushed on a BG machine and put in fresh Honda ATF, or else you will get the dreaded torque converter judder, if you haven't already.

That's what the truck scale said. GCW was 7100. The second time I knew I had a bunch more weight aboard and didn't want the highway patrol to make me unload part of it, so I didn't weigh it. I kept it out of overdrive both times, and the second time I ran 57 mph. Going up the long grade between Murfreesboro and Chattanooga on I-24 was fun, though. I used the truck lane and dropped to second, then left it there on the long downhill.

I added a tranny cooler and flushed the transmission fluid before the first trip or I probably would have smoked it. Oh, and fuel economy drops to the mid-teens with that much weight on.

and designed to that price point....that is why they are a POS and you don't see much of that cross branding.

The bottom line is that NOTHING has changed at GM....they still build the exact same stuff they did before we gave them all that cash.......so tell me just why the "new" general motors should get my business.....they will not and they will never get my business again.

Some may beable to take a $50k gamble on something from them....I will not....and I wait for the golden car of GM to show its true colors....trust me they are there.

I will stick with my 2000 scoobie that has 200k on the clock and nothing but the normal stuff done to it....it is even still on the original clutch....and it has been driven hard.

well, there is that.

Never owned one, but driven quite a few. Seems the motors are alright, but the interiors/build quality are garbage.

I've been test driving lots of new(er) vehicles lately, and I can say the GMs are night and day in build quality to Mazda, Ford, Subaru, Toyota, Nissan, Jeep and Honda. The Silverado I drove was crap. Gramps swears by Buicks and buys a new one every few years; but even those seem to be built cheap.

In 2006, my boss at the time bought 2 brand new 3500s with the duramax. After a couple of months, we would have to climb through the windows to get in because the door handles broke on one of them, as did the power locks. The other one's dash was literally peeling off, and our mechanic had to zip tie the 6 month old dash back into place. Those Duramax's had some nut though.

As I said, I considered buying a ~2010 Silverado for the slightly better fuel mileage and 5.3 motor. Then I took it on a test ride for a few hours and realized it was a steaming pile of dog shit.

My F150 was much nicer to drive than the Silverado but it disintegrated before six years and 65K miles. The bottom line is that you cannot buy your way out of car problems any more. No matter what you get there's a good chance it is going to puke an expensive component the moment its warranty expires.