new member-rant
December 1st, 2011, 8:16 AM
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new member-rant
Hello folks. I am a long time Chevy man, and have recently bought a 2006 Uplander. I love the vehicle so far. It only has 18900 miles and is super clean inside and out.
We also have a Montana van. It now has 155000 miles, and has been an excellent vehicle. We had one cluster put in it, and one hub bearing. That's about $800 in 7 years. Everything else we have done I consider universal to car ownership..tires, batteries, brakes, etc. I am looking forward to driving this Uplander more.
I always get a kick out of forums though. Generally speaking they turn into bitchfests. 20 or 30 people have a common problem, and suddenly it's an issue. So what. 30 out of thousands and thousands.
Seems everyone with a 3.4 has leaking intake gaskets. Guess what? I bought a set of intake gaskets when ours had 50,000 miles thinking oh boy won't be long now. They're still gathering dust. I'd be afraid to use them now if mine did start to leak!
All those intermediate steering shafts that were going to fail and cause someone to lose control...has anyone actually had one fail? Doubt it..the money hungry lawyers would be on GM so fast it would make your head swim. They have yet to issue a safety recall on them. They did establish a special policy to cover them I think.
It's not just with auto forums though. I bought on the spot a scratch and dent washing machine at Lowes. Got a great deal on it. When I got home, I read online. Everyone hates the thing. I almost took it back before I ever hooked it up. Well, a year later I have no complaints.
Maybe I'm just lucky? Maybe I don't buy into all the internet complaining? Maybe I don't get the anti American sentiment so common? I don't know.
I worked for a GM dealer for ten years. Some of our customers would complain "this is the worst car ever made" while under warranty..yet when it became their own dime, they loved the car. Nit Pickers.
I now work for a Toyota dealer. Guess what, they break too. They are also more expensive to fix. $1500 for a Toyota catalytic converter is about average. That display in your Prius? $4300 exchange PLUS labor. Inverter? Gave an estimate to a Sequioa owner this week for $3000 for a air injection pump, primary and secondary air injection valves. Air injection issues seem to be an uh hmmm, issue for those owners. Matrix/Vibe Air pumps really expensive also. Don't ask.
Flame me if you will, but a 20,000 mile car is used. Don't expect it to be perfect. Yes it is under warranty and you have a right to make them fix it under warranty. When it is no longer under warranty, you own it. Fix it. OK OK I hear the voices, it was doing it while it was under warranty. Call the manufacturer, give them the documentation and they nearly always help you. Manufacturers frequently do offer special policy coverages to help owners with repairs of parts that commonly fail. It really isn't an us against them situation. They want us happy. They want repeat customers.
The fact is they all break. Their really isn't IMO any such thing as an American car. Manufacturers contract out to many foreign companies to build things for them. Hondas, Toyotas, Kia's, BMW's you name it are being put together right here in the USA, while Chevies are being made in Mexico, & Canada. So when folks dis the ole US of A, who are they really dissing? We don't manufacture nearly as much as some thing we do, it's being farmed out..we just get the credit...or worse, discredit when it breaks.
One last rant, and I'm out. Lemon law. I have yet to see a car that was a Lemon. What I have seen is some hard headed/insufficiently trained service manager/technician who could not fix a car. There is this thing in many dealerships, where if a car isn't fixed right, it has to go back to the same tech, because "he has already been paid to fix it". I have a different mentality. If he had his chance and didn't fix it, back flag him for the job, and give it to someone else. If you give it to a tech who is over their head, he could work on it 20 times and never fix it. Yet he is ASE certified right? That car has got to be a lemon. Right. Cars are hard to fix right. It takes trained, open minded, forward thinking people to fix them...otherwise the car becomes a lemon. Why do you blame the car???
Thnks for listening to my rants!
We also have a Montana van. It now has 155000 miles, and has been an excellent vehicle. We had one cluster put in it, and one hub bearing. That's about $800 in 7 years. Everything else we have done I consider universal to car ownership..tires, batteries, brakes, etc. I am looking forward to driving this Uplander more.
I always get a kick out of forums though. Generally speaking they turn into bitchfests. 20 or 30 people have a common problem, and suddenly it's an issue. So what. 30 out of thousands and thousands.
Seems everyone with a 3.4 has leaking intake gaskets. Guess what? I bought a set of intake gaskets when ours had 50,000 miles thinking oh boy won't be long now. They're still gathering dust. I'd be afraid to use them now if mine did start to leak!
All those intermediate steering shafts that were going to fail and cause someone to lose control...has anyone actually had one fail? Doubt it..the money hungry lawyers would be on GM so fast it would make your head swim. They have yet to issue a safety recall on them. They did establish a special policy to cover them I think.
It's not just with auto forums though. I bought on the spot a scratch and dent washing machine at Lowes. Got a great deal on it. When I got home, I read online. Everyone hates the thing. I almost took it back before I ever hooked it up. Well, a year later I have no complaints.
Maybe I'm just lucky? Maybe I don't buy into all the internet complaining? Maybe I don't get the anti American sentiment so common? I don't know.
I worked for a GM dealer for ten years. Some of our customers would complain "this is the worst car ever made" while under warranty..yet when it became their own dime, they loved the car. Nit Pickers.
I now work for a Toyota dealer. Guess what, they break too. They are also more expensive to fix. $1500 for a Toyota catalytic converter is about average. That display in your Prius? $4300 exchange PLUS labor. Inverter? Gave an estimate to a Sequioa owner this week for $3000 for a air injection pump, primary and secondary air injection valves. Air injection issues seem to be an uh hmmm, issue for those owners. Matrix/Vibe Air pumps really expensive also. Don't ask.
Flame me if you will, but a 20,000 mile car is used. Don't expect it to be perfect. Yes it is under warranty and you have a right to make them fix it under warranty. When it is no longer under warranty, you own it. Fix it. OK OK I hear the voices, it was doing it while it was under warranty. Call the manufacturer, give them the documentation and they nearly always help you. Manufacturers frequently do offer special policy coverages to help owners with repairs of parts that commonly fail. It really isn't an us against them situation. They want us happy. They want repeat customers.
The fact is they all break. Their really isn't IMO any such thing as an American car. Manufacturers contract out to many foreign companies to build things for them. Hondas, Toyotas, Kia's, BMW's you name it are being put together right here in the USA, while Chevies are being made in Mexico, & Canada. So when folks dis the ole US of A, who are they really dissing? We don't manufacture nearly as much as some thing we do, it's being farmed out..we just get the credit...or worse, discredit when it breaks.
One last rant, and I'm out. Lemon law. I have yet to see a car that was a Lemon. What I have seen is some hard headed/insufficiently trained service manager/technician who could not fix a car. There is this thing in many dealerships, where if a car isn't fixed right, it has to go back to the same tech, because "he has already been paid to fix it". I have a different mentality. If he had his chance and didn't fix it, back flag him for the job, and give it to someone else. If you give it to a tech who is over their head, he could work on it 20 times and never fix it. Yet he is ASE certified right? That car has got to be a lemon. Right. Cars are hard to fix right. It takes trained, open minded, forward thinking people to fix them...otherwise the car becomes a lemon. Why do you blame the car???
Thnks for listening to my rants!
