OT: My GM rant

Indeed, GM does seem hell bent on using retro-technology for it's mainstream vehicles while the competition is generally going much more high tech.

A V-6 Honda Accord comes with an overhead cam variable valve timing masterpiece mated to a 5 speed automatic. GM's competitors in that segment are old pushrod designs (3.4/3.5/3.8 l) mated to at best 4 speed automatics.

The Honda is available with one of the best in-car navigation systems arounds, but at GM you can not get such a system is any Chevrolet, Saturn, Pontiac or Buick (at least you couldn't in '03 when I shopped them all before reluctantly buying Japanese).

I do not understand why the largest car company in the world (at least at the moment) insists on staying behind the times technology wise. Sure you can get the latest stuff on $50,000 Cadillacs, but why not on under $30,000 vehicles when smaller companies like Honda can do it?

John

I think they tried to get cheap by using galvanized steel instead of stainless steel, but discovered too late that it was an inferior material to use. Hence had to replace them all anyways and cost them even MORE money than if they had done it right the first time.

I wonder how often cost-cutting turns out to be counter-productive in the long run.

John

Sounds like you guys need to get away from alt.autos.gm and migrate over to

alt.autos.hondas.toyotas.suck

You would be happier. Good luck with your asian crap.

I don't understand it either, but maybe one day they're going to wake up and see what they're doing. It's not their world anymore, they don't set the rules.

I see enough Toyotas and Hondas breaking down and spewing blue smoke here :P. Just the other week my neighbors Camry just up and died on them and my other neighbor has a Camry that she's been trying to get a problem fixed but the dealer is acting like they don't have to do anything.

I'd never buy an asian car unless it's tons better then the domestic stuff.

My point exactly. Some of these people don't seem to get it, do they. If it goes round and round, it's gonna break down. I followed a BMW down the road the other day burning oil like crazy. It layed down a smoke screen at every red light. Funny, if TOYotas and Hondas and Acuras etc never broke, why do they have service departments at those dealerships? Must be for oil changes and wiper blades ;-p

The bean counters run the corporation. They probably saved $1.00 per vehicle on that tailgate cable, until they failed, then spent $20.00 replacing them.

Here's an internal example.... I recently retired after 40 years, 35 as an electrician in one of their plants. We used 100's of small proximity switches on the machines and material handling systems in the plant. The purchasing department discovered that they could buy untested switches at a "savings" of $20.00 per switch, so they did. How much did they save when 20% of the switches were bad right out of the box and had to be replaced at a cost of 20 minutes additional downtime? How much money was "saved" when we were told not to do a repair properly, just get the system to run until the end of the shift? If it failed again on the next shift, that's their problem, not ours. All that cash could have been used to design and build better vehicles, but it was thrown down the drain.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Retired Shop Rat: 14,647 days in a GM plant. Now I can do what I enjoy: Large Format Photography

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Yet, that GM 3.8 gets better mileage and HP for its weight than anything but the very newest Lexus engines. 240hp with a supercharger and still 26-27mpg, all the while gulping down gas to get a nearly two ton boat down the road... It may be old, but it works well.

(the Camry V6 is very simmilar as well, btw - excellent low-tech design)

GM puts their engineering energies on gimmicky things, like their speed activated radio volume system (radio gets louder the faster the car goes, softer as the vehicle slows down). That feature IS more important than anything, don't you know?! ;-)

When the Lexus LS was first introduced I bough one, it had that feature. ;)

mike hunt

"James C. Reeves" wrote:

And the purchasing genius who came up with that plan probably got a raise as well!

John

I donno my '87 300Z Turbo seems to be working pretty well (knock on wood)

Any car if you don't take care of it will fall apart.

I think thats the funniest thing ever, thats basically saying "hey we don't insulate our cars for shit, thus we have lots of road noise and design an overly complicated radio system to compensate"

think of how much power/gas mileage the 3800 would get if it was mated to a

That's pretty much it too. After awhile too you don't really notice it getting louder then when you slow down the radio is like completely quiet so it's kind of a weird feeling.

That is one way to look at it, I suppose.

"overly complicated"?? Only if you're mentally challenged. I set mine the day I bought my truck in 1999, and haven't had to touch it since. Works very well. And, unlike the lights, if you don't like it, you don't have to use it. H