Sounds like a few contributers we have here in this very thread...
Ahhhh...a guy can dream, can't he?!
I think I can say you guys can't remember what a momentous occasion it was when the new cars were introduced in the fall. They were kept a big secret, hidden away, and 'unveiled' on Introduction Day, where practically the whole town would show up just to see the cars, scoop up the new brochures, key chains and yardsticks, and eat free donuts and drink cider. It was magical!
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
A new study by the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association has found 70 percent of Japanese vehicles sold in the U.S. were built on a North American assembly line.
According to TheDetroitBureau.com, the study found that more than 400,000 jobs have been created by Japanese automakers since Honda opened its first facility in the U.S. in 1982. Honda, Toyota and Nissan had a total of 29 plants operating in the U.S. in 2010 with a combined investment of $34 billion. Those numbers are likely to increase in the coming years.
The Japanese Three have made no secret that the companies are looking to guard their operations against an ever-stronger yen. Odds are we'll see even more Japanese facilities open their doors in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. Toyota is slated to open a new line in Tupelo, Mississippi, and Honda is expected to begin assembling the Fit in Mexico soon.
But Toyota, Honda and Nissan aren't just building vehicles in the U.S. for American consumers. Japanese-owned plants here are also producing vehicles for consumption abroad. Last year, a total of 145,000 vehicles were built in the U.S. for foreign markets by Japanese automakers, up from 95,000 units in 2010.
Add Hunkia and soon the D3 will be the "Tiny 3". The Asians already sell more cars than the 3 combined. Admittedly, there are more Asian companies but the new reality is hard to swallow for some.
I think I can say you guys can't remember what a momentous occasion it was when the new cars were introduced in the fall. They were kept a big secret, hidden away, and 'unveiled' on Introduction Day, where practically the whole town would show up just to see the cars, scoop up the new brochures, key chains and yardsticks, and eat free donuts and drink cider. It was magical!
Well, I certainly can. Living in a small southern town, it was an annual event that drew in almost everyone interested in automobiles.
Advertising coverage by car dealers was nothing like what we see now. These "open houses" were advertised over the local radio station and newspaper and by hand written cards sent through the mail. TV? Not hardly!
But, things change... Many of those local papers bit the dust years ago, and many of those small dealers are gone as well. At least in my home town, the idea of mass car sales was something only big city dealers could do, or would even attempt to do.
Ditto, same for my Buicks and my Chevrolet. There was a deficiency of design of the Toyota models to have the bottom of the accelerator that close to the potention bind location.
> I'm sure you love taking a cheap shot at Toyota whenever you get the chance, eh?
As long as we put in the reference to GM in some way in the post to avoid not being on topic per the ad hoc rules, it fits the forum and is on topic. I read that somewhere on the forum!
Our trade policies are a disaster for this country. Transferring wealth and information to a competitor (China), especially one that is waging cyber warfare against your country amongst other things, is very dangerous. We should be limiting our business with China until they behave better.
We should also heavily tariff or ban products from countries that subsidize their industries. GM might lose a lot of business in China, but if some foreign companies are subsidized then GM would have a chance at gaining some market from banned companies.
Take out fleet sales overall and Toyota may have more market share than GM.
Not likely.
According to GM's news release yesterday, "In December, retail deliveries were up 2 percent compared with a very strong December 2010, and accounted for 81 percent of GM sales."
According to AutoNews' 12/12/11 article, "brought fleet to 8 percent of Toyota's sales mix for November, close to its traditional 9 to 10 percent level."
If we assume GM's retail is 81% of the total and Toyota 91%, then the retail sales last year would be:
GM: 190k (that's more than Toyota's total sales 178k, retail and fleet) Toyota: 162k
Yes, but how much of that 42% Chevy fleet was to rentals, and how much was to other fleet like gov't or a large corp?? Cop cars shouldn't count as a true fleet sale in that they will probably never return to the retail market.
My current company vehicle is a 2007 GMC Savana 3500. It is now 5 model yrs old, and will still be in the fleet for at least another 5 yrs, then auctioned off.
The point is that any sale that results in an original ownership of at least 5 yrs. (which would exclude daily rentals) is more than likely a good sale.
At this point, best case in point would be the new Caprice. AS they begin to trickle in, there were 99 sales last month. Guaranteed they were all fleet (cop cars). 99 "fleet" sales, but 99 "good"sales.
I won't disagree with any of that. As it exists in reality, free trade is the opposite of fair trade, and we don't have anything close to a trade war, more like a "trade surrender" - one can only debate if we have surrendered today or tomorrow :sick:
The lack of a level playing field shows who owns the political spectrum, too.
If you lived 120K of your life in a Cavalier, I admire your tenacity.
I lived 241K miles in two Cavaliers. Both were reliable, cheap to buy and run, and looked good when I traded them in. Both were built near me, helping people where I live. And my coupe looked a lot better than other bargain-basement coupes IMHO.
My much-younger B-I-L drove my one Cavalier at 105K miles. He had a preconceived notion (shocker). When he came back, he said, "Geez, I expected that to be a complete POS. Not bad at all".
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
Cop cars shouldn't count as a true fleet sale in that they will probably never return to the retail market.
Police cars are usually bought in bulk, and really aren't much of a high-profit item, so that presents its own problem. I'm not sure how long police cars stay in service these days. The CHP used to retire their cars after three years, but then they'd get often get auctioned off to county and local departments, so they'd actually stay in service as police cars for a much longer time.
I had bought my '89 Gran Fury copcar in late 1998, so it was 10 model years old. It had been a sheriff's car for the city of Richmond, VA, and got retired when the #8 cam lobe wore down. For some reason, I've heard the #8 spot on a V-8 engine can be troublesome in general. I vaguely remember the 1979 Chevy 305-4bbl tended to foul up the #8 plug a lot. Maybe #8 tends to run hotter, or dirtier, or something that causes issues?
Anyway, the place I bought it from specialized in old police cars, and they installed the 318 out of a recently-wrecked '88 Diplomat police car. They also had several similar-vintage Crown Vics and Caprices, and one '91 or so "bathtub" Caprice on their lot, so I'd guess, at that time at least, it was usually around the 8-12 year mark a police car finally leaves duty?
A lot of police cars also get bought and turned into taxis.
The point is that any sale that results in an original ownership of at least 5 yrs. (which would exclude daily rentals) is more than likely a good sale.
I'm not disputing the value of fleet sales. But in the terms we discuss on these boards regarding desirably of various vehicles and how they sell, IMO, retail sales are more important.
IMO, fleet sales are good sales as long as the manufacturer isn't falling back on them just to dump product to keep the factory running.
Trucks are a hole different ball game as it seems most get fully used up before being wholesaled off. That's probably why pickup trucks have maintained decent resale value despite having fairly high fleet sales.
From my perspective, fleet sales are more healthy position today than they were 4-5 years ago. Companies are generally keeping fleets longer. That in turn reduces the number of 1-2 year old cars out of the auctions and helps residuals.
My wife used to get a new car every 18 to 24 mos, now it's basically 4 years.
There was a deficiency of design of the Toyota models to have the bottom of the accelerator that close to the potention bind location.
There's a difference between a deficiency and fault tolerance.
The actual "fault" is the guy who did not follow instructions on the mat's packaging and stacked them anyway.
That's besides the fact that the mats were for the wrong car (!). So two "deficiencies", really.
Getting back on topic, and putting a scale on the problem, 4 people died in Saylor's car, while 1,800+ have died in fires due to GM's side saddle gas tanks. Was that a design flaw? Lack of fault tolerance?
So now we're going back as far as 1973 model vehicles--when trucks and cars didn't have the same safety requirements. I'm assuming you're young enough to not remember that however.
"Threw Dateline under the bus". You gotta be kiddin' me. Heads rolled at NBC for that...model rockets placed at strategic points on the truck to start fires in case they couldn't otherwise. Next will be the Pinto discussed here, I'm sure.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
Don't know how often Automobile updates their website, but I do know what they published in December 2011's issue. Onto GM truck recalls where the newest models are now 25 years old.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
One last thing about floor mats...we live in the snow belt and I routinely buy cheap aftermarket mats for my cars. Earlier this week I bought mats for my wife's '11 Malibu. I don't think twice about them tangling up in the gas pedal.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
You are so disingenuous. You say I twice mentioned their complaining about unscheduled stops. You have got to know, that probably four or five times that many posts in general had to do with me fabricating the number of recalls, or even that the article existed. Sheesh.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
So now we're going back as far as 1973 model vehicles--when trucks and cars didn't have the same safety requirements. I'm assuming you're young enough to not remember that however.
From what I remember, the crash that caused all that controversy with the GM trucks involved a pickup getting t-boned in an intersection, at about 73 mph, right where the gas tank is. That's a pretty serious hit. On a similar note, the exploding Crown Vics, which were also pretty famous for awhile, tended to be police cars stopped along the side of the highway, and they often got hit at around 70-75 mph. So it's a far cry from the Pinto fiasco where you could simply bump them at 11 mph and it would rupture the gas tank AND jam the doors shut AND spill fuel into the passenger compartment!
I also remember reading that overall death rates for those '73-87 (or later, I guess, since 3/4+ ton, Blazers, and Suburbans held on a few years longer) GM pickups were slightly lower than Ford or Dodge trucks. I guess that's small consolation if you or a loved one gets burned up in one, but overall, you were still more likely to die, by some means (fire or otherwise) in a Ford or Dodge truck.
Even to this day, I still see those '73-87 era GM trucks driving about. In contrast, I can't remember the last time I've seen a Dodge prior to the retro/big-rig look style that came out for 1994, outside of a classic car or Mopar show. Ford trucks were actually split up in two models during that timespan. One ran from something like 1972-79, while the other was 1980-96, with a refresh for '87 and another for '92. Once you go back earlier than the 1992-96 style, I don't see too many of the older Ford trucks anymore.
So maybe one reason people keep burning up in the GM trucks is simply simply because they're lasting longer, and there are more of them around compared to Fords and Dodges that got retired ages ago?
Also, those saddle tanks are prone to leaking fuel after a long enough time. The tank is underneath both the cab AND the bed, so it's exposed for a couple inches where the two meet. Great spot for water to get caught in, and cause rusting. By 2004, both tanks in my '85 Silverado were rusting. One was managing to spill fuel out, while the other was taking on water. They were expensive to replace, so I only had one replaced, and the other drained and disconnected.
So at this point in time, I'm sure a lot of these old trucks are probably driving around with tanks that, if they're not already leaking, might be rusted enough that it wouldn't cause that big of an impact to breach them.
Don't know how often Automobile updates their website
NHTSA updates their site regularly, in fact the Sonic brake pad recall already shows up in their database. That was quick!
They still only show 3 recalls for the 2011 Sonata, 2 for the same issue really, so only 2 unique recalls, and that's current well past the print date on that magazine.
Interesting points as always, Andre. I think you live in Maryland...I live in NE OH and grew up only 70 miles east, in NW PA. I remember the redesigned '73 and later Chevy trucks being quite rust-prone, actually. A buddy drove a nice-looking '73 Cheyenne with bucket seats that our local dealer did body repair as there was rust around the door handles in three years. I think that was a goodwill thing GM did on those trucks.
When they came out, I liked the boxy styling and more luxurious interiors better than the '72 and older, but I think that was because I was tired of the previous style. In hindsight, I think the '67-72 held up better, at least body-wise. I remember looking at a $5,100 '73 Suburban with my Dad on our dealer's lot. He was unimpressed with the way the trim was attached/lined up, etc. I remember him saying "I thought the trucks would be built better, but it doesn't look like it".
That said, I still find even the '70's era vehicles just so much more interesting than what's out there now. It's mostly about the choices then, I think. But it's no doubt also because hanging around the Chevy dealer was such a huge part of my youth. It's funny that I don't own a Chevy for a hobby car...too commonplace I think! There are many I like though...I just shy away from the mainstream stuff like Camaros, '69 Chevelles, '69 'Vettes, etc.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
William Frawley was a close friend of Desi Arnaz. However, Frawley was a chronic alcoholic and Arnaz told Frawley if he ever showed up drunk on the set, he would immediately be fired. As a result, Frawley managed to stay sober during filming of the "I Love Lucy" show.
The impact of being T-boned at 73 mph on the cab of the 1973 pickup where the gas tank would be located itself would probably be enough to seriously injure or kill the occupants. A ruptured gas tank would only be cremating an already dead driver.
I did think it seemed strange that I only ever heard complaints about that era pickup blowing up, but pretty sure I don't remember hearing anything about Blazers and Suburbans...same basic vehicles.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
Their new HQ building will be LEED-certified, well, in order to earn that you have to offer EV parking spots. For instance we had to add 2 EV charging spots in our garage to earn it here.
So...kind of ironic, but they don't have a plug-in EV, so presumably they'll be occupied by a Nissan or Chevrolet.
I believe the 1967-72 Chevrolet trucks were better styled than the 1973-87 generation and the same era GMC trucks were absolutely beautiful. As for the most attractive Chevrolet truck of all time, that goes to the 1958-59 models.
Comments
Ahhhh...a guy can dream, can't he?!
I think I can say you guys can't remember what a momentous occasion it was when the new cars were introduced in the fall. They were kept a big secret, hidden away, and 'unveiled' on Introduction Day, where practically the whole town would show up just to see the cars, scoop up the new brochures, key chains and yardsticks, and eat free donuts and drink cider. It was magical!
A new study by the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association has found 70 percent of Japanese vehicles sold in the U.S. were built on a North American assembly line.
According to TheDetroitBureau.com, the study found that more than 400,000 jobs have been created by Japanese automakers since Honda opened its first facility in the U.S. in 1982. Honda, Toyota and Nissan had a total of 29 plants operating in the U.S. in 2010 with a combined investment of $34 billion. Those numbers are likely to increase in the coming years.
The Japanese Three have made no secret that the companies are looking to guard their operations against an ever-stronger yen. Odds are we'll see even more Japanese facilities open their doors in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. Toyota is slated to open a new line in Tupelo, Mississippi, and Honda is expected to begin assembling the Fit in Mexico soon.
But Toyota, Honda and Nissan aren't just building vehicles in the U.S. for American consumers. Japanese-owned plants here are also producing vehicles for consumption abroad. Last year, a total of 145,000 vehicles were built in the U.S. for foreign markets by Japanese automakers, up from 95,000 units in 2010.
Add Hunkia and soon the D3 will be the "Tiny 3". The Asians already sell more cars than the 3 combined. Admittedly, there are more Asian companies but the new reality is hard to swallow for some.
That's what greed can do a company.
Regards,
OW
Well, I certainly can. Living in a small southern town, it was an annual event that drew in almost everyone interested in automobiles.
Advertising coverage by car dealers was nothing like what we see now. These "open houses" were advertised over the local radio station and newspaper and by hand written cards sent through the mail. TV? Not hardly!
But, things change... Many of those local papers bit the dust years ago, and many of those small dealers are gone as well. At least in my home town, the idea of mass car sales was something only big city dealers could do, or would even attempt to do.
Truly, it was a different time...
moreless intelligent thoughts continue on this forum.I know what you meant to say. :P
Were this a toyota, NHTSA would have been flim flammed for 5 years before they got around to checking into it!
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Ditto, same for my Buicks and my Chevrolet. There was a deficiency of design of the Toyota models to have the bottom of the accelerator that close to the potention bind location.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
As long as we put in the reference to GM in some way in the post to avoid not being on topic per the ad hoc rules, it fits the forum and is on topic. I read that somewhere on the forum!
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Otherwise, sales were UP!!!!!!
We should also heavily tariff or ban products from countries that subsidize their industries. GM might lose a lot of business in China, but if some foreign companies are subsidized then GM would have a chance at gaining some market from banned companies.
Not likely.
According to GM's news release yesterday, "In December, retail deliveries were up 2 percent compared with a very strong December 2010, and accounted for 81 percent of GM sales."
According to AutoNews' 12/12/11 article, "brought fleet to 8 percent of Toyota's sales mix for November, close to its traditional 9 to 10 percent level."
If we assume GM's retail is 81% of the total and Toyota 91%, then the retail sales last year would be:
GM: 190k (that's more than Toyota's total sales 178k, retail and fleet)
Toyota: 162k
My current company vehicle is a 2007 GMC Savana 3500. It is now 5 model yrs old, and will still be in the fleet for at least another 5 yrs, then auctioned off.
The point is that any sale that results in an original ownership of at least 5 yrs. (which would exclude daily rentals) is more than likely a good sale.
At this point, best case in point would be the new Caprice. AS they begin to trickle in, there were 99 sales last month. Guaranteed they were all fleet (cop cars). 99 "fleet" sales, but 99 "good"sales.
So you are saying that GM makes their floors too low?.... :P
Regards,
OW
The lack of a level playing field shows who owns the political spectrum, too.
Cadillac sales for 2011: 152,329
Sales are UP for all 8 models.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I guess circlew and andres are part of the unintelligent majority, unlike the bright ones who stuck with GM through all those nasty years.
If you lived 120K of your life in a Cavalier, I admire your tenacity. :P
Where did you get that idea? The full year 2011 Caddy sales was up 4%.
Rank Brand 2011 full year 2010 full year % change
5 Cadillac 152,389 146,925 4%
I stand corrected. Thanks to you and imidazol97.
Regards,
OW
I lived 241K miles in two Cavaliers. Both were reliable, cheap to buy and run, and looked good when I traded them in. Both were built near me, helping people where I live. And my coupe looked a lot better than other bargain-basement coupes IMHO.
My much-younger B-I-L drove my one Cavalier at 105K miles. He had a preconceived notion (shocker). When he came back, he said, "Geez, I expected that to be a complete POS. Not bad at all".
Police cars are usually bought in bulk, and really aren't much of a high-profit item, so that presents its own problem. I'm not sure how long police cars stay in service these days. The CHP used to retire their cars after three years, but then they'd get often get auctioned off to county and local departments, so they'd actually stay in service as police cars for a much longer time.
I had bought my '89 Gran Fury copcar in late 1998, so it was 10 model years old. It had been a sheriff's car for the city of Richmond, VA, and got retired when the #8 cam lobe wore down. For some reason, I've heard the #8 spot on a V-8 engine can be troublesome in general. I vaguely remember the 1979 Chevy 305-4bbl tended to foul up the #8 plug a lot. Maybe #8 tends to run hotter, or dirtier, or something that causes issues?
Anyway, the place I bought it from specialized in old police cars, and they installed the 318 out of a recently-wrecked '88 Diplomat police car. They also had several similar-vintage Crown Vics and Caprices, and one '91 or so "bathtub" Caprice on their lot, so I'd guess, at that time at least, it was usually around the 8-12 year mark a police car finally leaves duty?
A lot of police cars also get bought and turned into taxis.
I'm not disputing the value of fleet sales. But in the terms we discuss on these boards regarding desirably of various vehicles and how they sell, IMO, retail sales are more important.
IMO, fleet sales are good sales as long as the manufacturer isn't falling back on them just to dump product to keep the factory running.
Trucks are a hole different ball game as it seems most get fully used up before being wholesaled off. That's probably why pickup trucks have maintained decent resale value despite having fairly high fleet sales.
From my perspective, fleet sales are more healthy position today than they were 4-5 years ago. Companies are generally keeping fleets longer. That in turn reduces the number of 1-2 year old cars out of the auctions and helps residuals.
My wife used to get a new car every 18 to 24 mos, now it's basically 4 years.
That is NOT what I said.
I said an ASTERISK is required to paint the full picture.
You omit the asterisk, and without that your data is useless.
I can out box Mike Tyson - if you hand cuff both his hands behind his back.
I can out run Karl Lewis - if he's in a hard cast.
I can strike out Barry Bonds - if you take away his baseball bat.
None of it means anything when your competitors has his hands tied behind his back.
That's the asterisk.
You'd be wrong, but it wouldn't be the first time. :P
I don't think fleet sales are too bad so long as you don't overdo it. Too many fleet sales erode residuals.
A few can be good to amortize costs, though.
Right back at ya, buddy. I'd mention what magazine I thumbed through at the drug store, but you'd claim I entirely made it up. Wow.
The magazine said four recalls--you said it didn't. It did. That was the real point of the discussion. Look back--I did.
There's a difference between a deficiency and fault tolerance.
The actual "fault" is the guy who did not follow instructions on the mat's packaging and stacked them anyway.
That's besides the fact that the mats were for the wrong car (!). So two "deficiencies", really.
Getting back on topic, and putting a scale on the problem, 4 people died in Saylor's car, while 1,800+ have died in fires due to GM's side saddle gas tanks. Was that a design flaw? Lack of fault tolerance?
http://www.autosafety.org/uploads/FARS.pdf
The report is 15 pages long! Source is FARS, which is part of NHTSA. I know people will scream CAS is biased so I had to pre-empt that counter. LOL
Old GM never addressed it. They just threw Dateline under the bus and looked the other way.
New GM engineered an improvement to the Volt to prevent fires. Now that's more like it. :shades:
"Threw Dateline under the bus". You gotta be kiddin' me. Heads rolled at NBC for that...model rockets placed at strategic points on the truck to start fires in case they couldn't otherwise. Next will be the Pinto discussed here, I'm sure.
Here's what I actually said:
"Maybe it was wishful thinking and you got a little carried away?"
Not once but TWICE you mentioned 4 unscheduled visits to the dealer, and they only made 1.
So I will repeat myself and be very clear this time - I still think you got a little carried away. It was one stop, not four.
The mag can take the heat for the mistake about 4 recalls, because the same source only lists 2 unique recalls for that model.
Once again here is proof they contradict themselves:
http://www.automobilemag.com/am/99/2011/hyundai/sonata/gls_sedan/749/recalls.htm- l
Some were TSBs, not recalls.
I was not defending NBC's coverage, but Old GM used that stupid simulation to bury the problem to this day.
Yeah - the wrote that they made one unscheduled stop.
Admit it - you did get a little carried away.
From what I remember, the crash that caused all that controversy with the GM trucks involved a pickup getting t-boned in an intersection, at about 73 mph, right where the gas tank is. That's a pretty serious hit. On a similar note, the exploding Crown Vics, which were also pretty famous for awhile, tended to be police cars stopped along the side of the highway, and they often got hit at around 70-75 mph. So it's a far cry from the Pinto fiasco where you could simply bump them at 11 mph and it would rupture the gas tank AND jam the doors shut AND spill fuel into the passenger compartment!
I also remember reading that overall death rates for those '73-87 (or later, I guess, since 3/4+ ton, Blazers, and Suburbans held on a few years longer) GM pickups were slightly lower than Ford or Dodge trucks. I guess that's small consolation if you or a loved one gets burned up in one, but overall, you were still more likely to die, by some means (fire or otherwise) in a Ford or Dodge truck.
Even to this day, I still see those '73-87 era GM trucks driving about. In contrast, I can't remember the last time I've seen a Dodge prior to the retro/big-rig look style that came out for 1994, outside of a classic car or Mopar show. Ford trucks were actually split up in two models during that timespan. One ran from something like 1972-79, while the other was 1980-96, with a refresh for '87 and another for '92. Once you go back earlier than the 1992-96 style, I don't see too many of the older Ford trucks anymore.
So maybe one reason people keep burning up in the GM trucks is simply simply because they're lasting longer, and there are more of them around compared to Fords and Dodges that got retired ages ago?
Also, those saddle tanks are prone to leaking fuel after a long enough time. The tank is underneath both the cab AND the bed, so it's exposed for a couple inches where the two meet. Great spot for water to get caught in, and cause rusting. By 2004, both tanks in my '85 Silverado were rusting. One was managing to spill fuel out, while the other was taking on water. They were expensive to replace, so I only had one replaced, and the other drained and disconnected.
So at this point in time, I'm sure a lot of these old trucks are probably driving around with tanks that, if they're not already leaking, might be rusted enough that it wouldn't cause that big of an impact to breach them.
NHTSA updates their site regularly, in fact the Sonic brake pad recall already shows up in their database. That was quick!
They still only show 3 recalls for the 2011 Sonata, 2 for the same issue really, so only 2 unique recalls, and that's current well past the print date on that magazine.
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/complaints/
We can conclude with certainty that the magazine made a mistake.
When they came out, I liked the boxy styling and more luxurious interiors better than the '72 and older, but I think that was because I was tired of the previous style. In hindsight, I think the '67-72 held up better, at least body-wise. I remember looking at a $5,100 '73 Suburban with my Dad on our dealer's lot. He was unimpressed with the way the trim was attached/lined up, etc. I remember him saying "I thought the trucks would be built better, but it doesn't look like it".
That said, I still find even the '70's era vehicles just so much more interesting than what's out there now. It's mostly about the choices then, I think. But it's no doubt also because hanging around the Chevy dealer was such a huge part of my youth. It's funny that I don't own a Chevy for a hobby car...too commonplace I think! There are many I like though...I just shy away from the mainstream stuff like Camaros, '69 Chevelles, '69 'Vettes, etc.
Next: World Peace.
"Thank you, sir! May I have another?"
Let me explain...
http://www.autoblog.com/2012/01/05/hyundai-reveals-details-about-new-u-s-headqua- rters/
Their new HQ building will be LEED-certified, well, in order to earn that you have to offer EV parking spots. For instance we had to add 2 EV charging spots in our garage to earn it here.
So...kind of ironic, but they don't have a plug-in EV, so presumably they'll be occupied by a Nissan or Chevrolet.