U.S. Auto Market News and Reviews

stever

And we thank you for attacking the automakers, not each other.

anythngbutgm

uplanderguy said:

The cars were not available to purchasers in 2001. I'm just a big believer in writing accurately.

I'm reminded of a year or two ago, someone had a list of service bulletins for a Chevy model that included bulletins ten or more years earlier than the car's introduction date. And we were supposed to take that post at face value.

Accuracy also means researching the facts like the recall including 2003 Saturn Ions...

Those developed in 2001

For accuracy...
http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2014/Feb/0225-ion.html

uplanderguy

OK. Still, there were no cars in the field in 2001--back to your original comment.

uplanderguy

Tone, and actual words, are everything on these forums. I have a clear conscience.

tlong

I didn't see it posted here - a man and his dog died in his dream Corvette after he couldn't get the door opened in the heat. Apparently if the power dies, you can't open the doors and the mechanical release is not in an intuitive place.

Texas man and dog die in Corvette

uplanderguy

That is a tragedy. Supposedly, the manual latch is on the floor next to the driver's seat, probably as logical as any place as many fuel door and trunk door releases are there. I can remember the first time I looked at a C6 in the showroom, I knew I didn't like the electric door feature, and that same evening an old friend of mine volunteered that same opinion. As a buff, I'd have known where that manual override was before I drove the car home. But then, I wouldn't have had an issue knowing what tire pressure to keep in a first-gen Corvair, either, and not to pile floormats in a car with an unusually long gas pedal.

My pet peeve about no automatic headlights and/or no daytime driving lights IMHO is the worst because it not only affects that car and its occupants, but others cars and their occupants.

uplanderguy

This proactive dealer posted this video in 2011 of how to get in and out of a C6 with a dead battery.

The levers on the floor near both the driver's and passenger's seats actually have a red door painted on the lever.

This is a tragic story, but I'm frequently amazed how little people know about the basics of the car they own and drive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLDqmGQU6L0

uplanderguy

I just saw online about certain BMW's where the doors close electrically, I assume sort-of like Cadillac trunk lids have for decades. People here are saying they got fingers crushed in them. I like basic, without all that stuff.

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/how-bmw-s-soft-close-doors-work-48425.html

tlong

uplanderguy said:

That is a tragedy. Supposedly, the manual latch is on the floor next to the driver's seat, probably as logical as any place as many fuel door and trunk door releases are there. I can remember the first time I looked at a C6 in the showroom, I knew I didn't like the electric door feature, and that same evening an old friend of mine volunteered that same opinion. As a buff, I'd have known where that manual override was before I drove the car home. But then, I wouldn't have had an issue knowing what tire pressure to keep in a first-gen Corvair, either, and not to pile floormats in a car with an unusually long gas pedal.

My pet peeve about no automatic headlights and/or no daytime driving lights IMHO is the worst because it not only affects that car and its occupants, but others cars and their occupants.

I guess there is no manual handle in the door? Many cars with locks will unlock with an internal handle pull, or you can pull up the button manually to unlock. I agree, too much automation can be a detriment.

berri

All these gimmicks - wait until the electronic dash goes or the turbo trashes the engine compartment! Meanwhile, I wonder if the next Chinese act of war will be taking over vehicles through their computer systems? Seems like they've already pretty much stolen all the corporate and government data they want, so now it's probably time to jerk our citizens around.

uplanderguy

My neighbor's son, probably early thirties, saw me in the driveway and came over to chat for awhile as we hadn't seen each other in a good while. He used to work at a custom shop where they'd 'electrify' doors of other cars that weren't built that way. We talked about the guy who died in his C6. He said they would typically build-in a thinly-upholstered flap on the door panel which could be pulled off/away and a chain could be pulled to open the door. He referred to the fellow who passed away as 'an example of Darwin'--I wouldn't go that far, but again, I'm surprised a car buff wouldn't be aware of the two emergency handles marked as such inside the car. I believe he probably bought the car used. Photos I've seen show the car had no emblem on the front and an aftermarket grille insert, which makes me think he bought it that way, too. It's a tragedy for the family, certainly.

uplanderguy

One might also think that there'd be an internal hatch-release in the car, but I don't know this for a fact.

I wonder how long the gentleman owned the car. One might think that after one vacuuming of the interior, he'd have seen this switch.

circlew

Heads Up!

CarMax, the nation's largest used car dealer network, has come under renewed scrutiny in California after a study quantified the number of vehicles with open recalls at two of its stores. The California Public Interest Research Group and the Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety Foundation conducted the research and found 10 percent of the models at a showroom in Oxnard, CA, and nine percent at the Sacramento South location had pending safety campaigns, according to Automotive News.

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/06/14/carmax-open-recalls-report/

uplanderguy

I saw on Edmunds that Honda just recalled 1.39 million Accords and Civics for Takata airbag issues on the passenger side. My M-I-L has a 2004 Civic and she says her airbag light has been on for a couple years. She either took it in back then and it's come back on, or her son told her not to worry about it; one or the other. LOL

suydam

If it's one of the ones under recall she should get it back pronto. It's potentially very dangerous if she should be in an accident and it goes off.

uplanderguy

She went out to dinner with us a week ago, and I told her that the light on should get her pushed up the recall list I would think.

circlew

The airbag light lit up at about 50K miles on my POS Yukon Denali. A $500 sensor was replaced...not included on the extended warranty I had purchased. One of the many nails in the coffin for that rig!

suydam

I thought airbags had a lifetime warranty. I remember an airbag sensor being replaced on a Nissan Maxima and it was no cost. 

stever

Just seatbelts (sometimes) have the lifetime warranty apparently. The length of the airbag warranty can vary by manufacturer. Usually it's the same as the regular car warranty though.

Do Car Airbags Expire?

imidazol97

suydam said:

If it's one of the ones under recall she should get it back pronto. It's potentially very dangerous if she should be in an accident and it goes off.

That's the ultimate reliability item--the airbag when you need it during an accident. Imagine
how disappointed you are when you learn yours didn't go off or it hit you with shrapnel
and deflated itself too quickly during the accident--if you survive.

Speaking of belts and airbags, a mother driving a Toyota van with 3 children and her mother in it
didn't have the 5-year old belted in. Died when the NC mother ran off I75 at 3 am Sunday
when mother fell asleep.

My son saw the van on his way to airport for early flight to DC for business trip. Said you couldn't
tell what the vehicle used to be because it was so mangled.

andres3

Hmmm.... I question the airbag being the ultimate reliability item. I'd argue the most unreliable car of all-time had too many issues to list, but the airbags going bad wasn't one of them. Granted, they were never tested, and I'm sure they'd of failed if tested, but at least the sensor/airbag light wasn't tripped. Maybe Chrysler is good at one thing; airbags!

Truth be told, if your driving around in a Neon the airbags is far down the list of worries regarding your safety. I'd be more worried the car would explode into 100 pieces going in every different direction with the driver's seat being one of them.

imidazol97

I see lots of Neons driving around in this area. Albeit that some are in bad shape, almost as bad as many of the aged Civics, but they seem to putter around and many are fart can "tuned" and are driven loudly just like lots of the Civics.

Every time I see one, I think of your comments about your experience with your Neon.

circlew

That's why I dumped the Yukon. With the MAP sensor failure that allowed the engine to stall while driving, the blown power steering pump that ruptured on a turn and that air bag sensor, that junk box was like playing Russian Roulette... not only with my families lives but others on the road as well.

imidazol97

andres3 said:

Hmmm.... I question the airbag being the ultimate reliability item. I'd argue the most unreliable car of all-time had too many issues to list, but the airbags going bad wasn't one of them. Granted, they were never tested, and I'm sure they'd of failed if tested, but at least the sensor/airbag light wasn't tripped. Maybe Chrysler is good at one thing; airbags!

Is the PT Cruiser related to the Neon?

andres3

imidazol97 said:

andres3 said:

Hmmm.... I question the airbag being the ultimate reliability item. I'd argue the most unreliable car of all-time had too many issues to list, but the airbags going bad wasn't one of them. Granted, they were never tested, and I'm sure they'd of failed if tested, but at least the sensor/airbag light wasn't tripped. Maybe Chrysler is good at one thing; airbags!

Is the PT Cruiser related to the Neon?

I believe so, though the sheet metal is different. At some point in time Chrysler finally stopped using the good for about 60,000 mile ancient 3-speed automatics and went to the supposedly more durable 4-speeds.

Every time I see a Neon in CA I'm amazed it is running, but it is a rolling advertisement NOT TO BUY Chrysler, so it makes me chuckle. Always in very rough shape, with the usual suspects of bad paint, wide panel gaps, and they seem to be driven slow around here.

circlew

The twin South Korean brands, Kia and Hyundai, have moved to the top of the pack in the 2015 J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study released Wednesday, the most closely watched gauge of quality in auto manufacturing.

"For so long, Japanese brands have been viewed by many as the gold standard in vehicle quality," says Renee Stephens, a Power vice president, in a statement. "While the Japanese automakers continue to make improvements, we're seeing other brands, most notably Korean makes, really accelerating the rate of improvement."

Detroit's Big 3 makers fared generally well. Chevrolet placed highest among traditional U.S. brands at seventh, followed by Ford's Lincoln in eighth. Both were ahead of Lexus and Toyota, which placed ninth and 10th. Ford has now climbed back above average after falling near the bottom two years ago.

Porsche 80
Kia 86
Jaguar 93
Hyundai 95
Infiniti 97
BMW 99
Chevrolet 101
Lincoln 103
Lexus 104
Toyota 104
Buick 105
Ford 107
Ram 110
Honda 111
Mercedes-Benz 111
Industry Average 112
Audi 115
GMC 115
Dodge 116
Volvo 120
Nissan 121
Cadillac 122
MINI 122
Mazda 123
Volkswagen 123
Scion 124
Acura 126
Mitsubishi 126
Land Rover 134
Jeep 141
Subaru 142
Chrysler 143
smart 154
Fiat 161

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2015/06/17/jd-power-releases-study-results/28865109/

uplanderguy

Funny, Automotive News' article about the above mentioned in the headline that Japanese brands were now below-average.

http://www.autonews.com/article/20150617/RETAIL/150619864/kia-rises-in-j-d-power-quality-japanese-fall-below-average

uplanderguy

I've often wondered why Scion perpetually performs so much worse than Toyota in such surveys.

imidazol97

GM has 4 mentions in this pull out. Honda, 0.





GM has 5 mentions in this pull out. Honda, 0.

uplanderguy

In response to an earlier question, I've always heard the PT Cruiser is based on the Neon. We have one with 86K miles. I do like the seating position and it is rattle-free; can carry a lot in the back; however, MPG is so-so and the engine idles roughly compared to a Cobalt. That said, it's been reliable. The dealer put a free brake booster on it a few months back because of a couple seconds of no assist when backing up first thing in the morning in zero or sub-zero weather. Being that I bought the car five years ago on eBay, I thought that was a fair thing for them to do.

As I've posted many times here before, I see second-gen Neons daily around here, where rust has taken many a car out.

berri

Well, it's initial quality instead of longer term, so it may be affected by things like unfamiliarity with electronics and communications like Synch. But I think the Koreans are making great strides and for awhile now Detroit has been catching up with Japan. Personally, my 7 year old Camry is having the same rattles and nickel and dime crap that my prior Taurus did at around this age.

One thing I wonder about all of this is that I don't think the Koreans make as many of their vehicles here like Japan. I do think Japan and Detroit use a lot of the same vendors, so it that coming into play here as well maybe?

dieselone

Anymore, I think it's a wash. Buy what you like. With my wife getting new company cars every 3-4 years, plus my personal vehicles. We've not had issues with any of them lately. Even my Ram with about every gizmo available, at 40k miles it's essentially been trouble free. My wife has 50k on her '13 Taurus and it's been perfect.

On the IQS list, I'm mildly surprised Chrysler has a few models present.

tlong

dieselone said:

Anymore, I think it's a wash. Buy what you like. With my wife getting new company cars every 3-4 years, plus my personal vehicles. We've not had issues with any of them lately. Even my Ram with about every gizmo available, at 40k miles it's essentially been trouble free. My wife has 50k on her '13 Taurus and it's been perfect.

On the IQS list, I'm mildly surprised Chrysler has a few models present.

I think it's much more of a wash in the first few years. If you keep your vehicles a long time then the differences really start to stand out as you approach and pass 100K miles.

stever

Takata is starting to sound downright criminal per this WSJ story breaking today. (registration link but more news links are showing up)

imidazol97

stever said:

more news links are showing up)

When facing a blocked story requiring registration, just google the first sentence of the story
for links and click on the WSJ link cited by Google. It will allow full access from the Google
search engine.

circlew

Balance

What do J.D. Power's quality ratings really measure?

Sincere kudos to Korean corporate cousins Hyundai and Kia for improving dramatically in recent years. But how meaningful are such comparisons when low-volume Porsche sits at the very top of this year's survey (how many proud new Porsche owners are willing to report any problems with their expensive rolling status symbols?) while high-volume German VW places 24th and Italian Fiat dead last? When small-volume Japanese luxury marque Infiniti sits fourth and hot-selling Japanese Subaru places an embarrassing 30th out of 33 ranked brands?

JDP's Vehicle Dependability Surveys (VDS), which track customer-reported problems after three years of ownership, are much more meaningful, in this view. The 2015 VDS results to be released later this year will rank owner-reported problems over a three-year span. Our advice: check the surveys, then comparison-drive your top choices before deciding.

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/06/23/-j-d-power-quality-ratings-analysis/

anythngbutgm

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/06/25/ford-escape-transit-connect-instrument-panel-recall/

Wow, recall #16 for the Escape...

Ouch.

berri

...and the guy running North America while all these launch and initial release problems is now CEO.

andres3

Only in America can you fail your way to the top!

circlew

Your Fired!

Hyundai becomes new car sponsor of the NFL, General Motors out

http://www.phillyvoice.com/hyunda-new-car-sponsor-nfl-gm-out/

circlew

Once again, the most American car on the market is from an American brand. The Ford F-150 retained its number one spot in Cars.com's annual survey of the most American vehicles, trumping the Toyota Camry, which remains at number two.

circlew

U.S. will punish Fiat Chrysler over recall failures


http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2015/07/02/fiat-chrysler-nhtsa-recall-hearing/29619709/

uplanderguy

I came across this review totally by accident this evening, and no, I didn't write it!

Conventional wisdom blown away. I usually enjoy that in most any subject.

http://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/new-cars/rental-car-review-2015-chevrolet-malibu-this-is-the-worst-gm-can-do-now/

stever

I'm getting more seat time in the "visiting" Cruze this week. Last night I hopped in it in the dark and didn't have to fool with the lights (automatic). Started raining and it didn't take long to figure out the stalk for the wipers, although they are on the "wrong" side from what I'm used to. The cruise control setup was especially well done.

My favorite feature on this '13 is the "fabric" insets on the door and dash. Tactile feel and obviously a woven pattern and, well, I'm a textile guy anyway.

The least intuitive feature is the radio scan. Didn't figure it out last night at all and today the owner clued me in how to use the buttons on the console. I'm used to have the scan buttons on the steering wheel and it's a bit of a reach to the console. Haven't played with OnStar.

The console isn't too intrusive on my right knee for a subcompact and it feels pretty comfy to me. The owner's back complains a bit though. Hope to get a 5 or 6 hour drive behind the wheel in it soon. That was the killer distance in my old Outback.

Nice ride all in all but I bet the Malibu is 100% better, both on power and room.

suydam

I have a loaner Cruze for the week. Seems so far like a very competent but unremarkable compact car. I do have watch getting out as the top of the doorsill is rather low. I had to ask where the AC button is as it isn't labeled. It seems quieter than some of its competitors.

stever

The AC button fooled me today too. Kept pressing the defrost button.

Not much issue with getting out of the front but the owner was struggling a bit getting out of the back seat. We are used to higher seating positions.

Would really enjoy testing a Malibu. My wife really wants to test a Caddy.

circlew

No, I didn't write this either.

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/sedans/1405_2014_2015_midsize_sedans_the_big_test/viewall.html

Conclusion
To say this comparison was a close race would be an understatement. Time and again, we were astonished at just how competitive this segment is. There just simply wasn't a car in the group that could be classified as "bad." Still, there has to be a last place. This time it was the Chevrolet Malibu. Its emergency refresh didn't improve the two weakest points of the car: a noisy, poor-sounding engine and a flat, cramped rear seat. The Chevy was weak in value and questionable in fuel economy given its lowest averaged combined mpg figure.

Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/sedans/1405_2014_2015_midsize_sedans_the_big_test/viewall.html#ixzz3fCojYDDH

circlew

More to do...

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mary-barras-got-plan-fixing-gms-culture-only-insider-can-daniel-roth

anythngbutgm

.

jpp75

uplanderguy said:

I came across this review totally by accident this evening, and no, I didn't write it!

Conventional wisdom blown away. I usually enjoy that in most any subject.

http://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/new-cars/rental-car-review-2015-chevrolet-malibu-this-is-the-worst-gm-can-do-now/

That's a very fair article and review. GM still suffers from an image problem, no matter how great the cars are. They seem to be building better (good?) vehicles today, but just catching up to the competition isn't going to win them any business. Their competitors, whether it's Ford, Toyota, Honda, HyunKia, etc., haven't given their customers a real reason to detract and GM hasn't given them a real reason to switch. GM is holding its own. They aren't building bad cars like they used to, but they aren't stealing the show either.