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Comments
when I'd be in for service and repair work I don't remember seeing too many park ave's, Bonnevilles, or caprice classics in for work - I did see some but not in the quantity that I saw Skylarks, Centurys, Luminas, Grand Ams, etc!
suffice it to say, with them being buried and the combo of having two spine surgeries I don't change the oil myself anymore, I let a mechanic kill themselves to do it :shades:
Like I said, a bad alternator after 2 yrs (ESPECIALLY every 2 yrs) is NOT wear and tear. Nor is it a POS alternator. They treated the symptom of the problem, and not the cause.
That sounds more like it. I just called a Buick dealer and asked anonymously how much for an alt on a 2004 Century 3800 nonsupercharged. 2 different alt's available for $375-440.
Now you get free roadside assistance for either 4 or 5 yrs w/ the Buick, which includes free towing to the nearest dealer.
Your written english seems great - maybe corresponding with the service reps via email/writing will be useful for you in the future."
I must say, while I thought the service reps were wonderful and very helpful, GOD was it difficult to understand them. Their accents were so thick, they couldn't be here. They must be in another country.
Regards,
OW
“All I know is, right now, we are given our responsibility. And given the rigors of the job and demands and the accountability, I would say we are being paid way, way, way below market [values],” said Lutz.
What a blowhard. :sick:
That $250 alternator could probably been had for $150.
--elias-- the car that I am speaking of is an 08 Pontiac G6 4cyl sedan. Issue at hand is its transmission. Always been an issue since new! Last summer I did have them look at it and they replaced the catylic converter! Also, had to have the software that regulates the engine and adapting ability updated!! Had to have a new fuse for my windows replaced, as I could not roll down my windows on 2 separate occasions. Also, had new sets of brakes put on the front as they were squealing too much, they did this all without any fuss, so I am very thankful for good service at the dealer. But, mention transmission to them and they all go hiding!! lol Opens a whole can of worms!
None of the fixed issues above resolved the jolting, slipping transmission! Either, its the winter cold or it is getting slightly worse. Shifts hard between 2-3rd gear. The engine is not refined, linear in its shifting. I know there is something wrong!! I hate it!! So at this point in time, it would be a devastating for me to mention this issue to anyone, as I want out!! I am giving up on trying to get the issue fixed.
I am not the only one with a GM car with this issue!! Realize that the new Malibu has the very same engine! Buyer beware! Though they have a new 6spd transmission.
I am just going to investigate getting out. I am nearly 2yrs into a 3yr lease.
So, tell me why I wouldn't go back to a GM, and tell me how crazy I am for leaving Honda!! I am a big dummy!! Lesson learned!
those Chevy mechanics must have a full time job working for NASA or GM buried the alternators inside the engine block,
$300-400 labor means some sky-high labor rates or loooooooooooon hours putting that alternator in.
When in the shop, I always requested a loaner, and they gave me own without an issue... I ran up a bill, I was mad, on their dime! Not my problem. Of course I wanted my car back, because they gave me a crappy loaner! One time though I got to drive a new GMC truck!!
See, GM just has this list of silly repairs that are needing done. I know every company has issues, but seriously? My dealer is very hesitant to ask me about my car... I respond that everything is okay now. I am not saying anything more.
Others GM vehicles? I don't know. the CTS is unique, the Malibu is OK. then the rest is just so uninteresting.
But on the other hand, there aren't many good looking cars out there: Miata (that has been a beauty all those years), Focus hatchback, Impreza hatchback, 3-series coupe, the S-series, the LS (very stately), Civic Si, anything else?
I bet a Honda would be great for you - they are fantastic cars. I've owned 4 Civics, traded my last 2 after ethanol/MTBE in gasoline reduced my highway commute mpg from >40 to 28. Civic EX Sedan was my favorite.
Overall sounds lke your experience with GM service was excellent, until the "jolting/slipping" transmission woes which dealer apparently "could not reproduce customer complaint at this time" - probably you saw that on your service-writeup afterwards! Or you saws "transmission operating as designed".
Slipping and jolting are actually DESIGN GOALS for an automatic transmission's: deciding when to slip, when to shift, and how jolting to make the shift. In old days the decision was all with hydraulics/mechanical-things. Nowadays it's with software (be afraid).
So to a significant extent, you can trade off the amount of slipping vs jolting by reprogramming the computer(s) with an aftermarket program. Drag racers do this to reduce slip and increase jolt to get faster acceleration - which usually reduces transmission life and voids warranty.
As for "engine is not refined/linear in its shifting", I can understand why that amorphous complaint would go nowhere with the service dept. That one seems to be buyers-remorse! On the rare occasion when I did buy a car with automatic transmission, I've usually regretted it too - often shifting the automatic as if it's a manual.
It appears to me that you might want to consider a manual transmission. You may be like me (be afraid!).
I will NEVER be happy with ANY automatic transmission. I have never trusted software to select/change my gears. The only kind of automatic transmission I can tolerate is the good old american slushboxes.
( CVTs are even worse. )
Around these parts, labor rates are probably around $90-100 per hour. So $300-400 would mean roughly 3-4 hours of labor. That sounds kinda long for an alternator to me, unless it's really buried down deep.
Now that Honda is recalling 378,000 vehicles, and Toyotas are killing people with stuck accelerators in Nebraska, and Tacoma's have cracked drive axles, and Tundra's are not meant for the salted roads of the north, I't good to see everyone still has a complaint about their GM.
My 12 year old Astro just completed a 950 mile trek to the ski slopes of Pa. There was 28 inches of fresh snow. With 3 hours on ice covered roads just to get out of Indiana and into Ohio last Saturday morning, we only averaged 19 mpg for the trip. I am suprised that an '09 Equinox with a 4 cyl, not a 4 point 3, gets one more mpg on cleaner roads carrying 1/4 as much people and luggage in a much smaller box with 115,000 fewer miles on it. So much for 11 years of technologocal advancement. I'd return that Equinox.
Bottom line: Its only a lease, its just a car. I can laugh from the experience.
FAIL! lol
But, The G8 could have been a great car, great concept, but bad timing! They needed to consider fuel efficiency, and consider using a different name...not Pontiac. I do know it got decent fuel economy, but in this day in age, performance and economy go hand in hand. Top priority. You can still have performance, while getting sweet economy. People still had or still have the economy mind set on the brain. It would have been a huge success. Perfect size, great look and a more general appeal to more people. Could have easily replaced the G6 years ago, when the G6 needed to be either phased out or redesigned. But, they forgot the G6. Then, I truly think the G8 would be still here.
Seems to me GM needs to slow down on spending money for new concept cars, releasing them....and spend more on getting their engines right!! That is the soul of the car. They only put good engines in their higher end cars, but heck even they think...its just a Pontiac, why double check that part for quality? Heck why even check it at all!! Why do you think people often get the V6 in a GM? Because their 4cyl's frankly just don't do it. Even their new 6spd, was so jerky and no raw power to pull from it.
GM is just not getting the concept of spending money of things that matter!!
Until they do...they will fail. It is time the world gets simple again.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. GM needs to live by this! then they'll be okay.
I'd like to add that many people have wrong ideas about manuals these days. Gone are the days when you needed to operate it like a semi truck. The clutch in a new Accord literally takes the effort of a video game to operate. And the gearing is wide/tall enough in most cars to get that higher MPG as well that you can leave it in gear while commuting and rarely shift out of 2nd gear during heavy traffic.
Now, not all are made like that. But about half of them are, because manuals also have been refined and made better over the decades. At least in cars that are made properly. Of course the most basic econoboxes will have rubbish parts and will shift like a piece of junk.
I am sure you may be persuaded by those Ferrari uses in their cars.
In case you are short on cash, try those used by BMW in their cars. I truly think I don't miss manual after I have tried their 6-speed auto (actually made by GM). and even the good old 5-speed auto is excellent. They have a way of matting engines to auto transmissions that I haven't seen in other makes.
http://www.just-auto.com/article.aspx?id=90340
"...ZF claims that, based on BMW vehicle data, the new transmissions achieve a fuel economy benefit of 3% for gasoline engines and 6% for diesel engines, compared to the 1st generation 6HP.
If we look at the published fuel consumption figures for the new BMW 3-Series Coupé, where most of the engine variants are offered with the ZF 6-speed automatic, and a 6-speed manual, we find that the automatics use 14%, 7%, 2.2% and 0% more fuel than the manual versions. ..."
Regards:
OldCEM
My 12 year old Astro just completed a 950 mile trek to the ski slopes of Pa. There was 28 inches of fresh snow. With 3 hours on ice covered roads just to get out of Indiana and into Ohio last Saturday morning, we only averaged 19 mpg for the trip. I am suprised that an '09 Equinox with a 4 cyl, not a 4 point 3, gets one more mpg on cleaner roads carrying 1/4 as much people and luggage in a much smaller box with 115,000 fewer miles on it. So much for 11 years of technologocal advancement. I'd return that Equinox.
Not to be an Equniox apologist, but the Astro I drove years ago was the most crude and unappealing vehicle made by a major auto maker that I have EVER driven. Sit up high, feet angled into a narrow footwell, non-linear accelerator, noisy engine, marginal brakes, wandering steering, jolting ride. It even made a Chrysler minivan feel like a refined sports car. So perhaps some refinement is more important to some drivers than others.
While not the most graceful "minivan" ever produced, there are plenty still on the road loved by their owners, who are plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc. They made great utility vans, and are quite economical in that capacity.
Regards:
OldCEM
In my experience, all my Hondas had greatly improved MPG's as the miles accrued. Usually around 10 to 15 thousand was when the the mileage levelled off. Both my 98 and 02 Accords (4cyl 5spd) and my ex's CRV could hit or beat the EPA estimates easily. My currentl wifes Acura was the only Honda that never quite hit it's EPA average and my S2000 could if I drove it lightly which is completely pointless in a car like this
Point is, give it time to break in and your mileage should be more in line with what you expect.
link title
Pricing won’t be announced until April, so you can cancel if a Leaf costs you a fortune. It is expected run somewhere in the low $20,000s after a $7,500 federal tax credit. :shades:
The Starfire's standard engine was the Rocket 394 CID V8 which produced 330 horsepower from 1961 until 1964. From 1965 until 1966 the Starfire was powered by a larger 425 CID Super Rocket V8 which was rated at 375 hp. A total of 7,800 units were produced during the Starfire's lifespan.
By the time I purchased my 1976 PGP, the cars had been mechanically sterilized of power! :sick:
Regards,
OW
Regards,
OW
Harry
Regards:
OldCEM
Regards:
OldCEM
Ummm, a failure? They only sold about a billion of those things to contractors of all types and stripes, enough so that it is pretty much the default you expect to see when they drive up.
For all the years they sold those things (which were put to rest not a moment too soon, as we have entered a different age now which I am hoping the Transit Connect will typify), NOBODY else had a competing truck-based van that even came close to it in sales, as far as I know.
They were durable but crude. I don't think the people who used them bought them for the limousine-like ride, they bought them to be tough and get the work done.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
I can't imagine the Astro outsold the Ford Econoline. Around my neck of the woods they are everywhere.
Edit... when looking up sales #s the Astro is considered a minivan, so I guess the Aerostar was more of a competitor in which case you are right.
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic / 2022 Icon I6L Golf Cart
Then GM decided every brand had to have every car/truck with its own badging, well almost.
For its time the Astro was decent, still see em around.
http://www.detnews.com/article/20100217/AUTO01/2170322/1148/rss25
-Rocky
I've heard the 305 get ragged on by plenty of people...mainly Mopar fans, Ford fans, and even GM fans who got mad when Buick, Pontiac, and finally Olds dropped their own divisional V-8's.
I've had two of them now...one of them in a 1986 Monte Carlo that had 192,000 miles on it when it got t-boned in 1998, and one in a 1985 Silverado that has about 132,000 miles on it. The Monte Carlo was starting to burn a little oil, and the truck is starting to spring a leak here and there, and when it's warming up I can hear a valve clattering, but considering the age of both vehicles, I really can't complain.
As for weak spots though the Chevy smallblock in general tended to have a weak crankshaft, especially in the 1970's. And while the engine has a low reciprocating mass, which makes it a better revver than many competing engines of the era, the block itself is heavy for its size. When the engine was originally designed for 1955, the block was too weak to last very long, but instead of redesigning it, Chevy just sort of patched it up, after the fact, adding reinforcement here and there to beef it up, but also adding more weight than if it had just been redesigned in the first place.
A 305 isn't really anything special, but a good enough workhorse. But it's the kind of engine that, once its life is over, I think instead of rebuilding it, you just toss it and throw in a 350!
The dealer group I bought my 2000 Intrepid from did just that with their Chevy showroom a few years back...only to get it shuttered! :sick: Once they lost Chevy, they picked up Chrysler/Jeep, but then a few months ago, they just decided to shut the whole thing down. I doubt they got their money's worth out of that remodel.