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The problem is that GM did not fool you. The dealer did.
You bought an extended warranty through a dealer, rather than from GM. GM would have honored its warranty. You are now asking GM to honor someone elses warranty.
Moreover, your anger at GM seems to be distracting you from the real solution here. The fact that the dealer is out of business should not be a problem getting the warranty honored. If you look at the documents, you will most likely see the dealer did not offer the warranty, but rather the dealer sold you a warranty from a third party, such as Household Finance (several other large companies also honor them).
If you track down whomever actually sold you the warranty, I expect that company will still be in business. It should not be hard tracking them down. More than likely there is an 800 number on your paperwork. Once you track the company down, there will either be a process for you to present your claims, or you will be able to make a very viable complaint with your local state Attorney General office to get the matter enforced.
In the very unlikely scenario the dealer actually offered the warranty, the fact the dealer is closed is not an issue. Do some homework. Find the owner of the dealership. Sue him/her for fraud. Every state has strict laws managing consumer warranties. A dealer that offers dummy warranties and closes can easily be tracked down and docked.
Blaming GM while letting the real culprits walk seems mighty counterproductive to me.
I've rented Corolla's dozens of times. I have no problem with the mechanics of the car.
But the ergonomics are the worse. I am just under 6' tall. Thin. Legs somewhat longer than torso. Normal length arms. I buy clothes off the rack that fit perfect.
Nevertheless, no matter what I do in the Corolla, I can never line up the seat where both my feet reach the pedals comfortably and my hands reach the wheel comfortably. Nevermind reaching the radio and console.
I've rented many other small cars and never experience the same ergonomic shortcomings with the Corolla. I am quite certain this is owing to the fact the Corolla shares its underpinnings with a number of other cars, so it is not designed with Corolla specific ergonomics.
The Cobalt is much nicer to sit in and drive. In the front anyhow. The rear seat of the Cobalt is smaller than the Corolla.
I bet there are thousands of people who know, without knowing any of the numbers, that they don't need a V6. No matter that some are weaker than some 4 cylinder engines. They equate V6 with power, and they don't need power. They just need something that gets out of its own way and gets good mileage and that means a 4 cylinder engine.
So they look in the ads and see that the Aura only comes in V6 form. They don't need that... so they skip by it and go check out Accords and Camries.
Logic, when you drive a Corolla, how far back do you have to put the seat? All the way? I'm 6'3", with about a 35 inseam and fairly long arms. With the seat all the way back, the steering wheel is a longish, but comfortable reach. However in my case the pedals are way too close. And worse, the steering wheel is incapable of tilting up high enough to clear my legs. It feels kinda like driving a bumper car to me.
I agree, the Cobalt is a much more comfortable car to sit in. In the driver's seat, at least.
Did GM do it - or greedy unions who got too big and powerful? There is a union where my wife works. They are constantly sending stuff and leaving messages telling her who to vote for etc. Yet when there is a deadbeat employee who blatantly refuses to do his job, has been caught taking things of others, and was let go, the union had him back in his job in no time. What is wrong with this picture? I agree that unions have had their time and place when abuses were occurring, but human greed took over and they pushed too far. Now look what we have. It seems unconstitutional when an organization can overbearingly descend upon a workplace - even after employees have overwhelmingly rejected them, and still insist the place of business become union, as just happened here, or tell someone how to vote, or tell an employee they cannot discharge someone incompetent. There, I said it, and I'm glad. That should open up a hornets nest.
Please enjoy one of our many other conversations, along with a complimentary beverage.
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2015 Kia Soul, 2021 Subaru Forester (kirstie_h), 2024 GMC Sierra 1500 (mr. kirstie_h)
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I am 33" inseam. If I adjust the Corolla seat back far enough so the pedals aren't jamming my feet, reaching the wheel and console is not comfortable. If I move the seat closer, then, per your experience, the pedals are jamming my feet.
Maybe the rental companies could hire a mechanic to morph a Cobalt front with a Corolla back.
The poster though believes he has the paperwork for the 5/60 warranty and he seemed to imply that it's the GMPP warranty. But yet GMPP says they ain't got no such animal on record for anyone.
Where does he go from here? I think finding a dealer who used to have an Olds franchise and who is still around selling other GM brands is the place to start asking.
Along with BBB, and of course the state attorney general's office.
Check this description of warranty by Oldsmobile;
http://www.is-it-a-lemon.com/make/oldsmobile/index.htm
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
First, Ghosn & Wagoner will vie for control, recipe for a disastrous marriage. Second, give up the pipe dream, no one can challenge Toyota.
But if Carlos plays attention to detail, in the long run, Nissan can be and should be more successful than Honda. It just needs to display consistent results, it already shows it can build better cars than Honda (G over TL, M over RL, etc). Nissan's recent sales slump is short term, because it's replacing its most popular models (Sentra, Altima & G) in the same year.
I think GM's problems are long term and seemingly insolvable. Health care, cost disadvantage, inability to produce any product hits. It must have produced dozens of new models over the past few years, and has exactly zero certifiable hits, on the order of Mustang or 300. Its paper profits are from cost cutting and accounting, and not from selling hit products. That is unsustainable and unrepeatable.
Andre put in in succinct terms a couple hundred posts back: RWD cars like the Chrysler 300 (new) and Ford Crown Vic (old) seriously compromise interior space with the large transmission and driveshaft hump running down the middle of the car. The 300 also has a smallish trunk considering its overall size, and no one is going to make cars like the Crown Vic anymore with the gas tank behind the rear axle (which allows the "deep well" trunk despite being RWD).
Larger FWD cars OTOH have room for 5 adults, and the middle passenger in back will be reasonably comfortable.
For sporty, performance, or luxury cars, then the case for RWD is much stronger. But I still don't think inline sixes will come back for the various reasons cited. BMW is basically the last manufacturer left that still uses them (other than Volvo in its FWD cars and the now-departed Suzuki Verona).
No, they just expect you to be a left-foot braker. Given that probably 99% of their sales are automatics with foot pedal parking brakes, that may not be an unreasonable expectation. Heel-toe shifting just isn't anywhere in the design envelope.
Which explains those folks driving around with their brake lights either constantly flickering or ON.
And begs the question: with manual transmission cars, most braking is done with the RIGHT foot (using the left for the clutch).
Isn't the 'proper' way to drive with an automatic is with your LEFT foot essentially inert on the floor to the left of the brake and your RIGHT foot moving from gas to brake and back again?
I think that what you are experiencing is an attempt to avoid cases of 'unintended acceleration' (whereas the driver THINKS they have their foot on the brake when in fact it is on the gas).
By placing the pedals on different planes, perhaps GM hopes to avoid these occurances?
Thousands of people are not very many when you are selling 100,000's of thousands of cars.
Serioiusly though, GM buyers tend to go for the V6's. Year after year of sales at GM shows that when a 4 cylinder is offered the customers choose the V6. I am not sure why but the numbers bear that out. I do not know the exact split on the G6 but it is probably about 30% 4 cylinders and on the Malibu maybe 40%. One reason may be that GM offers an economical V6 at the same price as the 4 cylinders offered by others.
Perhaps to prove this you can look at a Camry LE with a 4 cylinder engine at 158 hp for $20K to the Aura XE V6/ 224hp at just over $20k. The Aura is better equipped.
Yes the Camry 4 is a sophisticated, hi tech overhead cam engine and the XE V6 is a sophisticated, hi tech engine w/o overhead cams. 40+% more HP on the V6.
Yes the Camry 4 gets 4 mpg more on the city/Highway and there are buyers who do care about that.
Those buyers are the ones you are taliking about and the 4 cylinder would attact some of them. Perhaps GM's thinking is that the Saturn is a more premium vehicle than the malibu/G6 and those who want economy will pick one of them. Perhaps a 4cylinder is coming?
Maybe GM puts the pedals further apart on the bigger cars though? I've noticed that with many small cars, the pedals are close together, and while they are on a different plane, I could still hit both the brake and the gas at the same time. I have kind of a large foot though, and usually wear a 12-13 shoe or boot. And even if I was able to hit them both at the same time, I'd have much more pressure on the brake pedal than the accelerator pedal, so there's no way the car would be able to overpower the brakes.
It's probably just one of those things where if you're used to driving smaller cars, the placement of the pedals in the larger cars is going to take some getting used to, and vice versa. With little cars it's easy to just pivot your foot on your heel to go from the gas to the brake, but on big cars it's often easier to just lift your whole foot and then put it back down.
Solstice, Sky, Corvette, Yukon, Tahoe, Suburban, Aura all certifiable hits when it comes to media and sales. Not sure what you mean by certified? sold out? Sky and Soltice sold out for another year. media remarks? SUV's , Aura, Corvette articles very good. I think in the next month you will see a bunch of media articles on how good the GM new cars are doing.
Patently wrong. They do not expect/recommend left foot braking.
Hold on, first I have to stop laughing.
Isn't the 'proper' way to drive with an automatic is with your LEFT foot essentially inert on the floor to the left of the brake and your RIGHT foot moving from gas to brake and back again?
It is traditional to use the right foot for acceleration and braking. These days it is acceptable to use the left foot for braking....from my driver education teaching days. In fact there are times when it is better to use the left foot on the brake...but you do have to have a bit more skill to do this without getting into trouble.
The problem with the Corolla seems to occur with people over 6 feet tall and with a 35 or less inseam. Maybe, the car can't be all things to all people, and they had to make it suit 98% of the population, not saying you guys are weird or anything, but......
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
Rocky
Yes, was the V8 with two cylinders removed - same as Vortec 4.3.
I thought it was sold to another company couldn't remember which one.
Yeah, but I'd presume that MOST cars are made to suit 98% of the population, or so they'd like you to think. The reality, from what I've read, is that most cars are built to fit an "average" American male of about 5'10"-5'11", of "average" proportions. So for people who are out of that average, your mileage may vary. Sure, you'll fit better in some cars than you will in others, but if you don't fall into that "average", you'll find that no car is optimized for you.
Honestly, the main reason they made the Corolla the way they did is probably because nobody but little old ladies bought them from like 1984-2002. And little old ladies tend to sit like three inches from the steering wheel and usually can't see over the dash. Toyota probably got tired of these little old ladies getting taken out when the airbags deployed, so they made the 2003 model disproportionate, making it almost impossible for them to sit with their faces or boobs too close to the steering wheel! :P
The motor's not the same as the 225, 231, 3.8, as which it started life.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Rocky
You mean their customer base was being reduced. Most Corollas today I see are driven by older folk. The change probably was for some other reason than keeping customers sitting farther away.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Yes, was the V8 with two cylinders removed - same as Vortec 4.3.
GM did make a minor change to the V-6 when they bought it back from Jeep. When they sold the tooling to Jeep around 1967 or so, it was a 225 CID unit, with the same bore and stroke of their 300 CID V-8. However, by the time Buick bought the tooling back, they were only making 350 V-8's and 455 big-block V-8's. The 225 was bored out a bit, making it a 231, so it could use the same pistons as the Buick 350 V-8.
And somewhere along the line, the 231 picked up a reputation for premature failure. The '75-84 engines were like this, but they got a redesigned, stronger block for 1985 that improved their durability tremendously. I always wondered if the older 225 V-6 also had this problem, or if it just happened once Buick reworked it for 1975?
The Buick 300/340/350 V-8's were sturdy, durable engines, so I always thought it a bit odd that the 231, which can be traced back to them, was anything but for those years.
The Buick V-6/V-8 was also a deep skirt design, meaning the entire block extends below the crankshaft, not just the parts where the bearings are, which should add to their strength.
IIRC those had a wear problem in the oil pump housing leadin to reduced output. Typical prophylaxis was putting in a replacement pump high capacity or one adapted for the wear. Maybe the wear was in the cap area above the rotors...? I believe a relative had a Bonneville with a 231 V6 (The Bonneville that was a Cutlass size?).
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
No, it was designed for the population where it was designed. Japan. Japanese are smaller than Americans overall. Today (and last 10 years or so) they design cars with Americans in mind.
Average male height in the US is slightly under 5'11". Average inseam probably around 32" based on what I see at the department stores.
Unless you are saying the Corolla is a chick's car.
Which really does not help. I've driven the Civic, Mazda3, Cobalt and Sentra. None of which had the ergonomics problem the Corolla has. Difference is that the Corolla shares a platform with significantly different cars. (Some of the others do as well - but these are more badge differences, not as significant as some of the Corolla platform mates)
Average male height is about 5'8". Perhaps it is actually about 5'9" now but the tables the industry uses are a bit old. Per most US standards cars must be designed to safely accomodate the 95th percentile male. I cannot remember the other way but seems like it was 10% female?
http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/growthcharts2/f/avg_ht_male.htm
So when the IP is designed the testing to assure government compliance is done by a 95th % male sitting in the seat. He adjust the seat, mirrors and wheel where he is comfortable and all pertinent gages and controls must me easily accessible. i.e. the cluster must be fully visible.
Now what is 95th %? Impossible to quantify. I have 90th percentile leg length but something like 70% height (5'10, 32" inseam) So GM uses a number of people to validate their designs.
I think this is true. Older people aren't looking for power or gadgetry. They want reliability and low cost to own. This was one reason the newer Corolla is so tall, so as we get older, we can still get into it without doing gymnastics.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
Wow, I didn't know bringing up the V6 and old Stovebolt was going to bring on so many responses and inputs.
But back on target, I'm not sure what it will take to "save" GM. Honestly, I don't like their new ad campaign to push the truck. I mean, petrol prices are down, more so in some places than others, but I don't know if this is the "right" time to be pushing trucks. I know the Silvy and its twin is being intro'd but still... :confuse: Plus so many underlying things that critics can come up with from the campaign it can turn negative really fast.
Rocky
The Aura is the only car on that list that is a mass market vehicle and it's far too early to call it a certifiable sales hit even though the early reviews have been decent. It's only been out a couple of months and I am yet to see one on the street in NY.
If your list was G6, Lacrosse, Cobalt, Malibu, Equinox than they'd be on the right track.
Here's something interesting:
More Take Buyout
Carlos Ghosn Can Save GM $$$
Any thoughts?
As for the 3.8, I had one in my '82 Cutlass Supreme. One morning it lost its oil pressure and was sounding really rough. As soon as I saw that the oil light, which normally only comes on for a few seconds, was not going off, I shut it off.
One of my friends thought he knew what it was and helped me change out the gears in the oil pump, which are really easy to do on that engine, as they're right up in front. My old gears were horribly worn, but worse, there were all sorts of metal shavings in the oil. At the time, I thought that it was basically the engine just chewing itself up internally, and those little shavings were what chewed up the pump gears. But in retrospect, it might have been that nylon/mesh timing gear starting to disintegrate?
Anyway, changing the gears in the pump did the trick, and the oil pressure light went off after a few seconds after start up, like it was supposed to. I unloaded that thing a few months later though, for $400. I only paid $800 for it, so it's not like I was out a ton of money or anything. I did have to put a rebuilt tranny in it too, which was about $675. Still, I got about a year out of that car, and everything I put into it probably amortized to about $150 a month, plus gas/insurance, so I guess that's not TOO bad.
I've heard that another problem with the 1975-84 block was that the oil passages were too small, and there were too many right-angles, so it was easy for blockages to form. I think the 1985 redesign did away with most of the right-angles. I dunno if the older 225 V-6 had them or not, and I'm guessing that the V-8 didn't?
Yes, the 4.3 is still the base engine in the 2007 Silverado and Sierra.
Rocky
A 4.5 DOHC inline-6er would be nice. I'd like to see that in the Holden Grand Prix, with a couple of turbo's
Rocky
Rocky
Oh, and to save you the math: 332hp @ 5250 rpm and 356 ft-lb @ 2000 rpm.
It needs a megawatt DVD 7.1 surround sound and some leather Recaro's though.
Rocky