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Could This Be One of the Reasons GM is in the Toilet?
By JLP | July 24, 2006
Oh what an adventure it was when 200 miles from our home our “Service Engine Soon” light came on. You know that sinking feeling you get when you feel like there’s a good chance that your car is going to konk out on you in the middle of nowhere. My wife grabbed the manual for our car and started reading about what we should do. Fortunately, the light meant that there was an emissions problem and that it needed to be fixed but was not necessarily going to damage the car if we kept driving. So, we kept driving. We made it all the way to Wichita. This was Saturday so there was no place to take the car to have it looked at until Monday.
On Monday I took the car to a local mechanic that my family has used in the past. He hooked the car up to their computer, which told us that there was an engine misfire. He told me that new spark plugs and wires would solve the problem. Later that day I got a call from the mechanic telling me that the head gasket on our car was leaking coolant out into the engine compartment. He said that although it was a small leak, if it started leaking into the engine, it would cause big problems. He told me that repair would cost $350 alone.
Here’s my beef with GM: the head gasket that they put in many of the GM models is made of PLASTIC! Over time the plastic can lose its form, which will cause leakage. The replacement gasket is made of metal and won’t lose its shape. GM KNOWS about this but they won’t issue a recall, therefore I had to foot the bill. According to this forum, I’m not the only one having this problem.
Well, $458 later, I picked up the car and we drove to Kansas City. The car drove fine the entire time. However, on our way back home from Kansas, the “Service Engine Soon” light came on AGAIN! The car jerked a lot when I slowed down for stoplights and it didn’t have as much power when I accelerated. I’m thinking it might be a fuel filter problem, but what the heck do I know. Now I have to take it to our dealership tomorrow and see what’s wrong. I’m not going to volunteer that I had the plugs and wires changed, just to see how honest they are!
Topics: Cars | 14 Comments »
July 24th, 2006 at 10:12 am
I’m curious how many miles you have on your car?
It sounds like the work your mechanic did was unnecessary, and perhaps even contributed to it running poorly now. It would seem like quite a coincidence otherwise.
And that’s my frustration; mechanics never seem to diagnose problems correctly, and won’t take responsibility when they’re wrong.
I took my truck into the Ford dealer to diagnose a problem with it randomly dieing. Based on information from online forums, I told them I suspected the cam position sensor. They assured me the issue was a clogged injector and, $400 later, it’s still dieing.
I’ve got 117,000 miles on my truck so I’m not going to blame Ford, but I sure blame the dealer and the mechanic. I won’t buy another vehicle from this dealer, and it’s probably time to try to find a good mechanic in my area.
July 24th, 2006 at 10:41 am
I can relate with your GM car issue. I owned a Sunfire Turbo (stood for “trouble), constant engine problems, I finally traded it in and purchased a Honda 15 years ago and never looked back. I will never own another North American car again.
July 24th, 2006 at 11:31 am
When are car makers and dealers going to learn that the first car is sold in the showroom and the second car is sold in the shop. How many of us have been talked down to by service managers? How many of us have had to take the vehicle back multiple times until they fix it rght? (I had one vehicle that was taken back 19 times before it was fixed right.)
July 24th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Dang, that sucks! If the vehicle isn’t under warranty, I wouldn’t bother taking it back to the dealer. Finding a good/trustworthy mechanic is hard, but there are many who are just as qualified without charging an arm and a leg. I hope they figure out what’s wrong without digging too deep in your pockets.
re: Bobg’s comment – “When are car makers and dealers going to learn that the first car is sold in the showroom and the second car is sold in the shop.”
I love this statement! My first car was a Ford Escort. I liked it because it was nice and shiny (and cheap) but I was young and naive (and broke). The service center took advantage of my ignorance and I’ll never buy another one of those money pits again! My second car was a Honda – one of the best decisions I’ve ever made…all around.
July 24th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
It is, of course, a little unfair to associate all American cars with a few that have had problems. Reliability is an issue that all manufacturers have deal with; witness the recent rash of Toyota recalls, or the long-term history of problems with German cars.
At this point, it’s quite likely that the perception of lower quality, reinforced by anecdotal quality problems, drives people away from American cars. Meanwhile people discount anecdotal problems with Japanese cars because of the perception of higher quality.
And also notably, JD Power ranks the service departments of vehicle manufacturers:
http://www.cars.com/go/advice/Story.jsp?section=top&subject=csr&story=csrCsi&referer=advice&aff=projo
The top 3 are all American: Lincoln, Cadillac, and Saturn (of course it would be better if you didn’t need to use the service department…). 7 of the top 10 are American (if you could Jaguar and Volvo as American — they’re owned by Ford).
July 24th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Check out this list of “most dependable used cars”; it’s almost uncanny how much it is dominated by American models:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/29/Autos/jdpower_depend_tops/index.htm
July 24th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
I know way too much about GM and their products to trust anything spouted by J.D. Power regarding GM and/or American-car reliability … or pretty much anything else they “rate.”
The simple fact is that there isn’t a perfect car on the road. They all break. Some just break more often, and more reliably, than others.
July 24th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
Recent Toyota recalls aside, we love our Toyotas and have timely performed oil changes as well as the occasional 15k/30K etc. tune-ups. The only mechanical trouble I ever recall was a lack of OOMPH in my Celica after 90K miles. Our models have included: 1987 Celica ST; 1992 Camry (probably the best Camry model,) 1998 Camry, 1998 Sienna (used), 2002 Camry, 2005 Avalon, 2006 Sienna, and for train station cars: a 1981? Tercel (used) and a 1983? Corolla (used.) We beat that last sucker into the ground. I still almost pee w/laughter when I recall the year we had a bumper crop of tomatoes. Can’t remember why we did this, but my husband filled his trunk w/them and then parked at the train station for his commute. Needless to say, after a day of baking in the sun, his car stunk (like stewed tomatoes!!) Guess you had to have seen the rusty blue car filled w/mushy toms to truly appreciate the moment!!
My parents are a loyal Toyota family now too, after decades of Buicks and Oldsmobiles. My dad’s 1997 Camry is going strong at 200K!
July 24th, 2006 at 3:08 pm
[...] JLP wrote on All Financial Matters about his recent car woes, asking (I think somewhat tongue-in-cheek) if this might be why GM is having issues. [...]
July 24th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Over the years, I’ve owned a Honda, two Toyotas, a Saturn, and a Mitsubishi. The Mutt was the worst by far. The Saturn did OK; it ran for 150K miles with a tranny rebuild at 65K, but no other unscheduled service. The first Toyota was my “kid car” bought for $850 – it ran for a year before dying. My current cars are a Honda (Element) and a Camry. The Camry (80K miles) has had no issues at all whatsoever other than scheduled maintenance.
The Saturn got stolen at 150K miles (what kind of carthief jacks a car with that many miles?) and we bought the Element before the police recovered it a couple weeks later.
July 24th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
GM sucks plan and simple.
I’ve had a Jeep, various Oldsmobiles, Pontiac, etc. and we had to sink money into all of them. I don’t know if it’s necessarily the mechanics working on those cars, but rather the engineering of those cars that suck big time. The reason I say that is because as soon as one thing needed replacing on the car/truck, it was like a never-ending money pit — things just kept breaking. (and this was even with ALL service being done at proper schedule). It was almost like those cars were designed to break after the warranty expired…
Anyways, imho – just buy a toyota or honda and you’ll be hedging your bet. They’re not perfect (pretty darn close)…and at least it’s not a GM.
. My civic lasted me all throughout college with just oil changes, and my acura so far has been awesome…
FWIW, my dad has also had good luck with Fords too.
July 25th, 2006 at 2:12 pm
Like in so many other areas, GM is suffering with “legacy issues”. Most measured stats for quality show that most American and Japanese makers are actually extremely close nowadays, and are actually both better than European cars. But too many of us got burned by crap cars in the 80s or earlier and dropped American cars off the radar in favor of (usually) Toyota and/or Honda.
“Give us a second chance” is a really awful marketing slogan, and since cars are the second most expensive thing most people ever buy, it makes sense that people stick to something that is known to deliver long-term value over taking a risk with little upside (ie, the American car may be cheaper, etc) but lots of potential downside.
August 6th, 2006 at 9:39 am
This begs the question: is it really worth it to actually own a car, considering the high cost of maintenance and repairs as a vehicle ages?
I lease both my cars, and albeit always have a payment…yet, I never have to worry about a significant problem that isnt covered by warranty….oil, filters and that’s it….also, I get the benefit of driving a car that employs the latest safety and technology standards….
To me, it’s not about status, but practicality….I cant deal with car problems, no matter how small…having my car out of service (i’m in outside sales) I lose $…
June 7th, 2007 at 5:48 am
If you don’t know by now the automobile is the worst investment anyone can make, plain and simple. Chrysler,Dodge and Plymouth built a slant six 225 engine back in the days and they put it in everything from the Dodge Dart to the Diplomat!! The engine was unblowable!! It never needed to be fixed. You could literally drive it till the wheels fell off the car!! Well the inevitable happenned. They went BANKRUPT!! Car manufacturers could build a car that will outlast you. What or why would they want to do that? They wouldn’t make money. They PREY on suckers like you and I, and they love it. They sleep well at night because of it. All the new cars are meant to break down. All those little parts under the hood are meant to break, most of them aren’t even needed. Oh by the way I am a Master Mechanic retired for 15 years now. There is no such thing as a bad car manufacturer, it is the luck of the draw. Example: both my aunts bought the same exact car, it does not matter the name. One car was a piece and the other was great and never had a problem. I now own the good one!! The best way to buy a car is to know the person or you can do what I did. Don’t buy a mint car that never had a problem before off of some little old lady from Pasadina and then drive it normally and expect it to hold together after the car never saw 40 miles an hour. Simple fact to all,if you purchase a new car you are taking a chance. I am not saying don’t buy new but do your homework and ask a lot of questions. I do. Even when I get gas if I make eye contact with someone at the pump I will say how do you like your new Camry, have you had any problems with it so far and how many miles are on it? You will be surprised at some of the answers you get from people. Well good luck and I hope this helps.