Open letter to GM

Lanze wrote: love those auto headlights.

James replied : Not going there !

Christ - I hope nobody goes there !

========= Harryface =========

1991 Pontiac Bonneville LE 3800 V6 ( C ), Black/Slate Grey _~_~_~295,726 miles_~_~_

~_~_~_~_U.S.A._~_~_~_~_~_

~~~The Former Fleet ~~~

89 Cavalier Z 24 convertible 78 Holiday 88 coupe 68 LeSabre convertible 73 Impala sedan
Reply to
Harry Face
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Oh yes, bring me back to the days of Bias belted tires blowing out, points constantly out of adjustment, sticking carburetor plates,

13 mpg, fading drum brakes, wipers with no intermittent, AM mono radios 4 year bio-degradeable bodies, mechanical cooling fans, holding on for dear life at 130 MPH, etc, etc, etc.

Oh "the good old days" please... The crap GM is making now is 100x better than the crap they were making 30 years ago. Might not be as good a new Mercedes or Lexus but more than good enough to keep me satisfied.

Reply to
Full_Name

No, it's not the first; also had: rear power window failed, mirror on passenger side cracked from heating element, check-engine sensor failed (this fixed under warranty), running lights burned out (GM uses crap bulbs. I first lamps of any sort burned out on our 1992 Toyota after 7 years.) . Not bad, really...until the fuel pump went. That pissed me off.

Reply to
GRL

Yes you do. And you need Japanese cars to show GM the way. If it were not for foreign competition GM (and the other two) would be making MUCH worse stuff than they do now (they proved that years ago). They have improved, but have a way to go.

Reply to
GRL

After years of buying Japanese cars, in 2000 I buy a $40,000 GMC Yukon XL, thinking GM quality had improved. Today at 25,000 miles (4-1/3 years old) the fuel pump failed.

The cost to repair: $730.

This is the first time I've ever had a fuel pump fail. My Japanese cars all had at least 100,000 miles on them before being sold.

I see no excuse for such an early failure of this expensive part.

I guess the next vehicle will not be another GM no matter how sweet the rebate. George Litwinski

"It's good to want things."

S. Barr (philosopher, poet, humorist, chemist, Visual Basic.Net programmer)

Reply to
GRL

After years of buying Japanese cars, in 2000 I buy a $40,000 GMC Yukon XL, thinking GM quality had improved. Today at 25,000 miles (4-1/3 years old) the fuel pump failed.

The cost to repair: $730.

This is the first time I've ever had a fuel pump fail. My Japanese cars all had at least 100,000 miles on them before being sold.

I see no excuse for such an early failure of this expensive part.

I guess the next vehicle will not be another GM no matter how sweet the rebate. George Litwinski

"It's good to want things."

S. Barr (philosopher, poet, humorist, chemist, Visual Basic.Net programmer)

Reply to
GRL

This vehicle was built and sold in 2000. In 2000 the Yukon/Suburban were new and in short supply. GM was NOT offering incentives. They didn't have to. They should have specified good quality parts. They didn't.

That's the problem. In a market like today, I shudder to think how low they will allow their suppliers to go in terms of parts quality to save a few cents.

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Reply to
GRL

Actually, it's better than Mercedes. You want REAL anger and frustration, buy a Merc. GM is a bit player in terms of mediocre product quality in comparison with Merc.

My dream is that Toyota takes over or at least gets a major interest in GM and makes GM clean up its act. It would not take a lot of effort. Some house-cleaning at the top and mass firings of the damn bean-counters who run things at GM. They screw a customer by allowing a junk part to be used to shave a few cents on their cost. And they lose the customer. Not clever enough to think a few years own the line. Probably hoping for a nice retirement package by then.

Reply to
GRL

The whole Yukon XL was made in Mexico.

No excuse. Your supplier will build whatever you tell him to make...to whatever specs you demand. No matter where the supplier exists.

Reply to
GRL

I stand by my original statement....you got one of the good ones.

Ian

Reply to
shiden_kai

So what's their shop labour rate? I'm thinking it must about

64 dollars an hour? If so, they bent you over on the R & R time for the fuel pump. It's only worth 2 hrs and even we wouldn't charge 227 dollars, even though we charge 96 dollars an hour.

Ian

Reply to
shiden_kai

I thought they were built at the Baltimore plant.

| > GM Ignition parts for mothers Caddy - Made In Singapore. | >

| > Blah! | >

| > ========= | > Harryface | > ========= | >

| > 1991 Pontiac Bonneville LE | > 3800 V6 ( C ), Black/Slate Grey | > _~_~_~295,726 miles_~_~_ | >

| > ~_~_~_~_U.S.A._~_~_~_~_~_ | >

| > ~~~The Former Fleet ~~~ | > 89 Cavalier Z 24 convertible | > 78 Holiday 88 coupe | > 68 LeSabre convertible | > 73 Impala sedan | >

| >

| >

| >

| >

| >

| >

| |

Reply to
James C. Reeves

The charge $65 an hour for labor.

You're saying that the book time to drop a Yukon fuel tank and replace the fuel pump is two hours? Tank was >1/2 full with gas, by the way.

Just for grins, I'll call the GMC shop on Monday and see what they charge.

Reply to
GRL

In 2000, they were built in Mexico or Wisconsin. Don't know about now.

Reply to
GRL

The 32 dollars for replacing the fuel filter was the tip off. This operation is usually about .5 hrs.

It might be 2.2 hrs, but it certainly is not worth 3.5 hrs which is what you got charged. This is often the stuff that makes me grin when people out in "internet" land think that the dealership labour rate is so expensive. Yes, we charge 96 dollars an hour, but we go by the book. Often the independents just seem to make it up as they go along. So you end up paying more at the "local" shop that might be 2/3 the labour rate of the dealership. I know that we routinely charge about 2.0 hrs for truck fuel tanks. They are all about the same amount of difficulty to pull, you might get a little bit more if it has a tank shield, but even they only take a few minutes to get off. As far as draining the tank,

1/2 tank is perfect, I don't drain a tank when it's at that level, there is no need, unless you don't have the proper jack to support it (which we do).

I used to get the same story when I was moonlighting in my garage years ago. People would ask me what my labour rate was....."35 dollars an hour"......what?...I know a guy that works for 15 dollars an hour, and he's only going to charge me 200 dollars for the job. Right......and I'm only going to charge you 140 dollars because the job is only worth 4 hrs of labour. It happens all the time....labour rate is not always the best indicator of who is ripping who off.

It'll be interesting, though there is no guarantee that they won't try to do the same thing. It happens in the dealerships too, it even happens from tech to tech in the same shop. You will get one guy that charges some outrageous amount for work being done, but it doesn't last long. The funny thing is that they believe they are some sort of "productivity" god, when all they are doing is charging double the labour for the same work. They aren't doing anything any faster.

Ian

Reply to
shiden_kai

Spoken like a true Bush-voter.

non-US = bad

Reply to
Chris

My car came from the factory with a bad fuel pump. It needed warranty work before I signed on the dotted line.

You did good with yours lasting as long as it did.

Reply to
Brad Clarke

I have changed many fule pumps/level senders. 3.5 for a yukon is abou

right from the Flatrate book. It is no quicky job. Unfortunatly s many of the parts are made in JAPAN, Korea, Canada and Mexico it is no easy to control quality since consumer demand low prices. If you hav ever seen a modern fuel pump you would be surprised because of th emission sensors, evap lines etc that are part of the unit (all at Fe emission requirments) Due to Federal requiements the old days of simpl parts is long gone. As far as Mercades, heres a good example, yo have to have THEM service your car at the required times (including oi changes) or they wont honor the warranty, and they get big dollars fo a 12,000 service, Ive been told, over $1000. Finaly your dealer can Goodwill anything under 60,000 or 5 years, BUT unless you are regular customer (oil changes, tire rotaions etc) they might not d anything. It comes down to if your a good repeat customer the will take care of you. If all you do is want free stuff, warranty o goodwill, they arent going to want to be too helpfull just like an bussiness they need to make money too and a dealer makes more mone selling service than they do cars

-- Bun Bu

born in 59 grew up in Arcadia Ca. served in the army from Dec 79 to Ja

84 worked for a number of security companies filling posiotions fro guard to manager. Became a electronics technician for GM in 95. Married to an outstanding person and gotTrackpads.com! Community Forums, Gallery, more! 150,000 Photos, 3,000 Videos and growing!
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Reply to
Bun Bun

Yes well, that's the price you pay when you're driving what would otherwise be a gross polluter. :)

Reply to
Isaiah Beard

You should really get your facts straight before you post drivel like this, especially if it's off topic. For starters, Kerry got the union vote. Union shops make the nearly all of GM and American auto labor. And they are the same people who will urge you to "buy American," because after all, buying American means they get a paycheck at the end of the week.

Reply to
Isaiah Beard

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