While I've heard way too much news this year about the economy (apparently most didn't foresee the cyclical recession coming -- every 10 years), Economic Stimulus (Help me big government we didn't plan for this), oh and any other main stream media story that really doesn't affect our lives that much. I still wanted to put a thought out there based on a recent visit to a Chevy dealer for service.
I have driven a 2008 Chevy Impala for a little longer than a year. In that time the brakes have been resurfaced by Chevy dealers three times. The first time at less than 2 months old. The car would shudder when breaking. The second time closer to 6 months old, again shudder when braking. Again now, the brakes have been shuddering but not that much for a few months until I drove down some hilly areas. Now they shudder all the time.
I made a 2:30 appointment to get an oil change and have the brakes looked at. I had a friend coming to get me at 2:45 so I waited out front since it was nice out. When I left the car had not been brought inside yet.
I heard one sales guy trying to pressure a woman into buying a used KIA and she finally got away from him. Not without him leaning on her door as she was getting in the car. No personal space.
Saw another sales guy walk out to an impala on the lot and tell someone over the phone "I have one just like it in black and I drove it to boston the other day, got 30 miles to the gallon". Then he proceeded to say "you'd look good behind the wheel of anything but this would be even better."
Who would shop at a place like this. I was glad that no one stopped to ask me if I they could help with anything while I was standing out front.
Back to the car, called at 4:55 to ask if they were keeping it over night. The guy said that he didn't know anything about my car and would ask. Came back on and said that the wheels were just being put back on and they would wash it up and it would be all set.
Went up to the dealer to get it, they tell me that the brake rotors were resurfaced -- mind you -- resurfaced for the 3rd time? The regular mechanic I'd go to if it weren't for warranty stuff never resurfaces rotors, says it takes too long for the cost savings. Another family mechanic will resurface them once (but when they do they have them turned on a lathe). I have no clue what this dealer did. But they work better, hopefully for a lot longer than a few thousand miles. GM now had to pay again for the warranty work -- 3 resurfacings when they could have just replaced the shoddy brakes put on at the factory. Admit wrong doing or just try to fix it till the warranty runs out -- clearly GM's policy.
They also said that there were blue spots on the rotors from where they had gotten hot. Then they told me that I must ride my brakes or ride them while going down a hill. I reassured them that I knew how to drive and didn't ride my brakes.
I suggested that it was a design flaw and that GM hadn't designed the brakes to properly coo. Which now I have to hope that the brakes don't catch fire and burn up the car because some engineer didn't design the cooling of the brakes properly.
Past vehicles I've had never had brake problems, Ford Taurus needed brakes every 40 or 50 thousand miles (this has held true across 3 different model years for over 600,000 miles). Audi A4 still had good brakes at 50k when it was traded in. So really I'm not sure what on earth GM messed up so bad that I've had to have 3 dealers attempt to fix them under warranty.
Between brake issues, alignment issues, less than stellar sales guys, finance guys discouraging you from buying a car, a dealer that waited 40 days to send a payoff check to the bank, so on and so forth, its really no surprise that GM needs a bailout. But I'm stumped as to why the government is on the hook for this company. After the experience I've had in the last 16 months with Chevy I'm stumped as to why anyone would buy one. A LOT would have to change before I'd test drive one, much less purchase.
I'm not saying that I want to see companies fail, but I'm saying that a bailout from the government might not fix any of the problems that actually exist at GM. Its not fuel efficiency -- which is the only thing most media seems to talk about. GM auto division has been losing money for years. GMAC was profitable and keeping the other part afloat. For a while the truck making division was very profitable and offset the losses from others. But when truck sales plummeted and the price of trucks fell through the floor, and the GMAC arm started to not be so strong, suddenly the whole shops in trouble.
My only fear is that these quality issues isn't just with GM but rather with auto manufacturers and manufacturing in general.
I have driven a 2008 Chevy Impala for a little longer than a year. In that time the brakes have been resurfaced by Chevy dealers three times. The first time at less than 2 months old. The car would shudder when breaking. The second time closer to 6 months old, again shudder when braking. Again now, the brakes have been shuddering but not that much for a few months until I drove down some hilly areas. Now they shudder all the time.
I made a 2:30 appointment to get an oil change and have the brakes looked at. I had a friend coming to get me at 2:45 so I waited out front since it was nice out. When I left the car had not been brought inside yet.
I heard one sales guy trying to pressure a woman into buying a used KIA and she finally got away from him. Not without him leaning on her door as she was getting in the car. No personal space.
Saw another sales guy walk out to an impala on the lot and tell someone over the phone "I have one just like it in black and I drove it to boston the other day, got 30 miles to the gallon". Then he proceeded to say "you'd look good behind the wheel of anything but this would be even better."
Who would shop at a place like this. I was glad that no one stopped to ask me if I they could help with anything while I was standing out front.
Back to the car, called at 4:55 to ask if they were keeping it over night. The guy said that he didn't know anything about my car and would ask. Came back on and said that the wheels were just being put back on and they would wash it up and it would be all set.
Went up to the dealer to get it, they tell me that the brake rotors were resurfaced -- mind you -- resurfaced for the 3rd time? The regular mechanic I'd go to if it weren't for warranty stuff never resurfaces rotors, says it takes too long for the cost savings. Another family mechanic will resurface them once (but when they do they have them turned on a lathe). I have no clue what this dealer did. But they work better, hopefully for a lot longer than a few thousand miles. GM now had to pay again for the warranty work -- 3 resurfacings when they could have just replaced the shoddy brakes put on at the factory. Admit wrong doing or just try to fix it till the warranty runs out -- clearly GM's policy.
They also said that there were blue spots on the rotors from where they had gotten hot. Then they told me that I must ride my brakes or ride them while going down a hill. I reassured them that I knew how to drive and didn't ride my brakes.
I suggested that it was a design flaw and that GM hadn't designed the brakes to properly coo. Which now I have to hope that the brakes don't catch fire and burn up the car because some engineer didn't design the cooling of the brakes properly.
Past vehicles I've had never had brake problems, Ford Taurus needed brakes every 40 or 50 thousand miles (this has held true across 3 different model years for over 600,000 miles). Audi A4 still had good brakes at 50k when it was traded in. So really I'm not sure what on earth GM messed up so bad that I've had to have 3 dealers attempt to fix them under warranty.
Between brake issues, alignment issues, less than stellar sales guys, finance guys discouraging you from buying a car, a dealer that waited 40 days to send a payoff check to the bank, so on and so forth, its really no surprise that GM needs a bailout. But I'm stumped as to why the government is on the hook for this company. After the experience I've had in the last 16 months with Chevy I'm stumped as to why anyone would buy one. A LOT would have to change before I'd test drive one, much less purchase.
I'm not saying that I want to see companies fail, but I'm saying that a bailout from the government might not fix any of the problems that actually exist at GM. Its not fuel efficiency -- which is the only thing most media seems to talk about. GM auto division has been losing money for years. GMAC was profitable and keeping the other part afloat. For a while the truck making division was very profitable and offset the losses from others. But when truck sales plummeted and the price of trucks fell through the floor, and the GMAC arm started to not be so strong, suddenly the whole shops in trouble.
My only fear is that these quality issues isn't just with GM but rather with auto manufacturers and manufacturing in general.
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