An update on Government Motors.

My brother has been a Chevy man his whole life. He has decided he will never by another one built past the 90's era. He has a 2011 Chevrolet 1/2 ton pickup. He bought it with 22 miles on it. As a mechanic he is disgusted. He has 5000 miles on it and it just had its second oil leak. I will keep you updated.

Apparently Chevy's suck. My dad had an old S10 way back in the late 80's - early 90's maybe, and like less than a year after he bought it something on the engine block cracked or snapped off completely and chevy wouldn't replace it so he swore to never buy another chevy ever again.

My brother is a mechanic, and a friend owns the shop..

they say GM pays the bills..

Chevy at least used to be a lil competition for Ford..


Good luck anyways my friend.

reply to post by JohnnySasaki


The 1997 Z71 was a beast. I have seen those with over 1,000,000 miles on em still tickin. That would be the only one I would own. I would never own an S-10 though. Your dad is completely correct.

1996 Buick Regal, LEMON - water leaks that would leave 2 or 3 inches of water on the rear seat floor. I could watch water drip off the headliner when I washed it. GM replaced it under the lemon law with a 1997 Regal. Water leak that they managed to fix, transmission went out, Alternator went out, Air Conditioner pump went out, Water pump leaked, Heater control broke and it took 30 days for the dealer to get a part from GM.

I now drive Ford and Toyota cars and a Dodge pickup

I had nothing but positive expericences with my Chevy's. I had everything from 1070's and 80's Malibus, a 90's Monte Carlo and Corvette's from the 60's to the 90's. No major problems, no serious quality issues. I however will never buy another General Motors product just on principle. I would rather drive a Ford, at least they did not steal taxpayers money.

Over here in Australia about 6 years ago (maybe longer) they started selling the locally made GM product with the US Gen3 V8 motor in it. I know a few blokes who had nothing but trouble with these motors, one had two new engines put in his car within the first 50k.

Ive got to say though, i hate the fact the Japanese and European cars are out selling the local product. Our local cars are very good, but price wise can not compete with the imports. I guess thats globalisation for you

Originally posted by 8om8erIve got to say though, i hate the fact the Japanese and European cars are out selling the local product. Our local cars are very good, but price wise can not compete with the imports. I guess thats globalisation for you

The following is IMHO.

If I remember correctly, back in the late 60's / early 70's, Japanese car makers wanted in the American market with their little "pee-cutter" engine vehicles (compared to North American big block performance cars). At first they didn't do to well, as people wanted a 454 Chevelle SS to go grocery shopping with, not a 600cc go cart with a windshield. Who wouldn't right? Then when the 1970's energy crisis hit, suddenly people didn't want to buy gas for their 454's and the little 600cc fuel conserving engines were looking all right. Japanese cars started to sell. The big three auto makers here didn't like the direction the car market was going, so they reactively started to make smaller cars and as well lobbied to have Japanese imports go through way above and beyond safety factors and being tariff-ed (whatever the correct term is) to make their cars more expensive in North America.

Well these new quality requirements and tariffs forced Japanese auto makers to get more creative with quality and cost efficient to bring their costs down to compete with the big 3 vehicles. They needed to have extra quality and safety features to attract people to their cars and at the same time, reduce production costs to get their retail price to a level, that even with the extra tariffs, the cars would still be price competitive with NA cars. Over time, the Japanese car makers succeeded with this initiative and Japanese cars came down to the same price, but with their all extra safety and extra quality features that the big 3 never had in their cars. Now the Japanese car becomes safer, better, and cheaper than NA vehicles.

So in a sense, the American auto makers kinda brought this upon themselves, didn't they?

Many times when we (westerners) can't compete, we react and look for ways to make the competition fail, rather than the eastern way that proactively looks for ways to succeed.

I think an automobile is only as good as how the driver maintains it. Be it a BMW or MERC or GM, I have driven several models and they all have their own unique problems. I have owned both domestic and imports and they all had their share of problems not due to maintenance but due to either defective parts and/or poor workmanship.

Vehicles that I have owned and been through.
(1971 Mercury Capri (Loved it), 1977 Audi Fox (Great car but many issues), 1981 Pontiac Bonneville Brougham (Hated it), 1986 Chevy Cavalier (Loved it), 1982 Chevy C10 Custom (Loved it), 1980 VW Golf ( Hated it), 1977 Honda Civic (Loved it), 1988 Mazda B2000 (Loved it), 2001 BMW 325 (Hated it), 2005 Mercedes M320 (Not too bad but not the best either), 1994 Chevy Astro (Loved it), 1991 Geo Metro XFI (Loved It), 1991 Ford Festiva (Loved it), 1991 Nissan 240SX (Loved it), 1991 GMC 1500 Sierra (Loving it), 1993 Toyota Camry (Absolutely the best), 2009 Honda Odyssey (Loving it).

2 Wheelers that I owned/still own...1971 Honda CB 500 (Loved it), 1974 RD 350 (Loved it), 1991 FZR 600 (Loved it), 1994 FZR 1000 (Loving it).

I had purchased a 1994 Chevy Astro brand new and it never faced any major mechanical problem (Engine & Transmission etc). I traded the thing at 180K miles (during cash for clunker program) for a 2009 Honda Odyssey as it is fuel efficient and much more refined. It was still running strong when I had traded the Astro. I have very fond memories attached with that minivan. I also own a 1991 GMC Sierra 1500 4X2 which has a 350 EFI and Automatic Transmission. It has 156K miles but it is very very clean and sound vehicle mechanically and cosmetically.

I think what GM and possibly other vendors have not paid enough attention is the QA aspects of their assembly line and/or the component manufacturing. One needs to stop manufacturing everything under a single roof and contract out the key components to specialized companies like NorthStar and Yamaha etc who delivered some really good Motors to certain lineup of GM. Though these days there are several vendors providing the components to FORD, Chrysler & GM, it still lacks the quality for some of the components lookwise and reliability wise. Chrysler by far uses the most amount of IC chips in their vehicle but it also has the most electronic quirks as well.

Most of the UNION workers used to take it for granted that their jobs will be there forever working on the Assembly line screwing parts at a minimum of 35 to 50 bucks an hour to start (i may be off here but someone can correct the numbers). The morale and attitude among several of these employees was not the greatest. Obviously the companies paid the price as people opted for the Imports which were not necessarily cheap but definitely Reliable (atleast in the case of the Japanese cars like Toyota & Honda).

I also own a 1993 Toyota Camry which has 285K on a 2.2L 4 cyl engine with AT and Power everything. I use conventional oil and 87 octane. Thing still gives me 31+ hwy MPG. Never had any issues with the electronic/electrical features or the drive train. Now the difference here is that Made in Japan vs Made in US also makes a big difference. The 1993 model supposedly was assembled in US but most of the components were shipped from Japan.

Bottom line, its the Work Ethics and attitude of the Management and Employees that leads to the downfall of any major corporation be it GM, Chrysler or Ford or Boeing for that matter.

reply to post by IronDogg


Sorry i may have caused some confusion. When i said "local product" i was inferring to Australian cars. Here all local cars in the mid to late 70s had 5.4L (351 cubic inch) motors max. Large majority were 6 cyl......Ford with a 250, Chrysler with the 265 or 245, and Holden (GM) with a 202 or 186 (all quoted cubic inch).

Fast forward to today, the local cars are still the best long distance highway vehicles available in this country IMO. Times have changed though. The Toyota Carolla is the best selling car in Oz, proving the point that people are no longer shopping for comfort but for low on-going costs, including fuel economy. This also shows that GM, Ford and Mopar have been far too slow in designing, engineering and building cars relevant to todays market.

People always seem to forget that Government Motors also built the majority of our War Materials from M1 Carbine Rifles to M4 Sherman Tanks and B-24 Liberator Bombers...allowing us to outproduce the Germans leading to our victory in WWII.

The Germans could not keep up with our production rates.....thanks to GM's numerous manufacturing facilities.

After the war, GM and Ford kicked out the Quality Assurance teams that made good reliable products and focused on profits instead.

This is why many have had reliability problems with GM products...because where did the quality professionals and their knowledge go to after WWII ?

They went to Japan and taught the Japanese about Statistical Quality !

The Rockefellers bought GM years ago primarily to put the public transportation system out of business by producing automobiles .....affordable to most americans but more importantly that were fueled by their main product....OIL.

Of course people only look at the money and bailouts issue and what they are being told by the MSM ....

The entire purpose of Govt Motors crying the poor mouth and requiring the Bailouts was to allow them to go Bankrupt and "restructure" their debt which was mainly comprised of paying benefits to the millions of former employees...called pensioners.

That's really what the bailouts were really about....to allow GM to get off the hook from paying money in the form of benefits to millions of retirees....and thereby reducing their bottom line unfortunately.

Everyone knows that the auto industry doesn't make any money on the cars themselves but moreso on the financing....


Peace

As much as I don't care for the entire Government Motors debacle ....I do love Corvettes.

It is the only true two seater American Sports Car...at a reasonable price ....

It also is capable of attaining 30 mpg on the Highway.... and has a useable trunk to boot.

I know that politically the GM Corporation isn't thought very highly of but when it comes to what they've done....which Ford really hasn't.

I will always value the value in a basic 6 Speed Corvette without all the bells and whistles....it's still a great performing Car especially for what they cost....compared to BMW M3 and Porsche Cayman which they are able to compete or even surpass performance wise.

Peace

reply to post by AugustusMasonicus


Admit it, you still bleed cobalt blue!