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Comments
If that's what the survey said, that's what the survey said. Now if they could only chop $10k off the price.
You keep using words about foreign cars like "perfect" and I keep looking for anybody who has actually said that. I guess wild exaggeration is a technique used to belittle the opposition. :P
I just about split my gut laughing over that picture!
Brembo To Build Calipers For 2013 Cadillac ATS In U.S.
Regards,
OW
I know I'm nit picking, but for some reason the portholes really bother me.
The mission for Buick currently is quietness (to appease the older clientelle)so I would imagine there is a ton of sound deadening material for this as well. Having only 140hp under the hood, is lacking IMO. :sick:
I was thinking the same thing too. I read that the A3 was listed as a competitor, but the Encore won't be anywhere near the A3's 7 second 0-60. I'm sure the Encore will be priced lower though.
Brembo To Build Calipers For 2013 Cadillac ATS In U.S.
Don't get too excited. Brembo makes brake components and systems for just about every auto maker in the world. Plebian Hondas, Chevies and Peugots use Brembo brakes.
Was the Prius rebate ever as huge as 7,500?
. It went to the battery developers some of whom are Chinese owned. Not a word about the 250 million in tax incentives given to Honda to build a plant to make Civics in Indiana.
Is Indiana China?
While CEO Dan Akerson and his team have talked a very good game in recent months, and recent GM products like the Chevy Cruze have been solid entries, GM has a loooooong history of almost-but-not-quite-good-enough products to overcome. And the Cadillac ATS, which is entering the absolute toughest automotive segment in the world, the one dominated by the distilled-essence-of-German-luxury-car-awesomeness BMW 3 Series, is one car where it would be easy for GM to settle for almost-but-not-quite. In fact, it's the one segment in which GM has never been able to compete. An important effort in a very challenging segment. The 3 Series is the gold standard, the hands-down leader of this very tough segment where even Toyota's Lexus and Honda's Acura are also-rans.
We'll see very soon. This car will be the biggest spotlight on GM, afaic. So far, so good....now let's see how it rolls!
Regards,
OW
P.S. Encore is less than the competition! :mad:
Interesting point but I assume the binders on the more performance oriented cars are a step up. What say you?
Regards,
OW
I looked at an HHR twice, up close and personal (friend rented one once and I rode in it too).
I can think of 10 reasons very quickly (not just one) that kept me away from buying an HHR:
1) It's a GM and that's a bad reputation to be buying.
2) It has ultra cheap hard Fisher-Price low quality plastics used throughout the interior.
3) It was slow.
4) It was crude.
5) It was overpriced.
6) It had mediocre fuel economy at best.
7) It's a Chevy, and that's a bad reputation to be buying.
8) Mexico does make bad cars in my experience.
9) Don't like the rear end.
10) Not enough leg room in the back seat.
Regards,
OW
Yes Bremo does make high performance brake parts. But that article (it's reads more like a rehased press release) doesn't mention anything about the brake calipers they will supply for the ATS or XTS being high performance. The only special thing noted is that the caliper will have the Cadillac and Brembo logos on them.
If they come out with a ATS-V, then I'm sure the brakes will be more performance oriented.
It would be like advertising the car comes with Recaro seats. Well guess what - lots of cars come with Recaro seats as they are an OEM supplier of seats on many models.
Since people here seem to like to defend poor quality cars with conspiracy theories against CR, I'd like to point out a few of my own.
1) Isn't it true that some big shot at Edmunds may have purchased way too much GM stock in their personal financial portfolio?
2) Isn't it true that it's possible for that same big shot to delete or "not accept" all the posted negative reviews on the Cruze, and simply publish only the positive reviews online for the Cruze?
3) I just view "online" user reviews with little credibility. It is too easy for a website to selectively accept posts. For instance, I had a scathing review of a body/auto repair shop last year on Yelp, and they chose to put it in the "jump through 5 hoops to read it" category, sort of the semi-unpublished page for that business. Needless to say, they defended a company that went bankrupt last year before the year was out. I tried to warn people. Their decision to hide my review probably cost several people heartache, stress, and lost money (placing orders with a company that'll take your money and run).
Back in early 2006, when one of my friends was in the market for a new vehicle to replace his aging 1998 Tracker, I suggested he look at an HHR. At that point, he had it narrowed down to an Xterra or an Equinox. Once we looked at the HHR up close, I really didn't care for it, so I'm glad he didn't go for it.
The main things I didn't like about it were the interior quality and the claustrophobic feeling inside, and in general it just felt like too small of a vehicle. I thought the fuel estimate was okay though. IIRC, it was rated something like 23/30 if you went with the base 4-cyl and automatic. The PT Cruiser at the time was only 21/26 with the 4-cyl automatic.
I actually liked the Equinox. It had great legroom inside, and while the interior quality wasn't the greatest, I didn't think it was *too* bad. And even the 3.4 V-6, with its bad reputation for being crude and underpowered, didn't seem too bad. In the end though, he went with the Xterra, which admittedly does have more of a cool, hip, youthful image. It's been fairly reliable, too. He's up to around 84,000 miles, and as far as I can remember, only acted up in the past year. It needed some work on the a/c controls last spring, and more recently had to go in because the heater was acting up, and one of the power outlets had shorted out.
Different engines often mean different manufacturing plants, buildings, locations, or at least different production runs. No sampling error here. Installation and assembly quality (or lack thereof) can lead to less reliable audio systems.
I seem to remember a terrible R(epublican) President starting the bailout bonanza of wasting trillions of tax payer monies. If it wasn't for the Republicans, Obama would have been forced to spend trillions less on the bailouts, because it would have been too late to bail them out.
Too LATE to BAIL OUT. Not too big to fail.
That is not my experience at all...in forty years of looking closely at cars. It's sample error. It's OK to admit that. It's unavoidable. What is avoidable is for them to treat their data like the Bible.
I'd agree. I mean, if you sample v6 vs 4 cylinder Malibus, you're going have a lot more data on the 4cyl. So I'd guess a radio issue on the v6 would skew the results more than on a 4cyl.
Plus different vehicles are treated differently. I'd be willing to bet the components shared between something like a Camaro and say a CTS will have different reliability results.
Ex. I've never noticed a CTS racing anyone from a stoplight, but I've witnessed a few v6 Camaros doing so.
Different buyer demographics affect how a vehicle is driven/maintained. My sister had a boyfriend a few years back that was a service manager at a Cadillac dealership then switched to a Lexus dealer (under same ownershiop). I asked him what the biggest difference was.
He claimed in general the Lexus customers were far more likely to follow the scheduled maintenance (at the dealer anyway). He said it was like pulling teeth to get a Cadillac customer to say change a fuel filter or other type of maintenance items outside of oil changes or warranty work.
Now this was 6 or 7 years ago, so I don't know if that's still the case or not. On a side note, my sister used to work for an Enterprise office that was located within a Cadillac dealer in Chicago. She always claimed Catera owners were the worst. Rude, condescending, and a rather unpleasant bunch. Her opinion based on her rental experience was the Catera had horrible reliability issues due to how many customers she was putting into rentals at the dealer due to their Catera being in shop for extended service stays.
I never liked those cars one bit. And they were a European-built car IIRC.
What problems do Civic's have?
My significant other and I had a 2005 Civic for 2 years and 25K miles that was absolutely flawless until someone decided to rear-end it at high speed and total it out. Kept the wife safe with just some seatbelt bruising to show for it.
2007 Civic replaced it, and it has had exactly 1 warranty visit for a window regulator issue, over 5 years it's nearing 50K miles and that's it. Where are all these problems?
Am I avoiding them by avoiding the USA built versions?
No Honda of mine has needed engine replacement at 5K miles like Cruze's have been reported to have needed here. No Honda's of mine needed engine replacement at between 36K and 40K miles like my cousin reported on a Ford truck (and offerred no goodwill from Ford).
There's been one, singular, posted here, not plural. Just the facts, ma'am, or something like that.
I suppose for your next conspiracy theory you're going to accuse all San Diego cops of setting up speed traps just for you. :P
Honda took care of him by replacing the van instead of replacing the engine.
The keyword there is LOOKS promising.
The Dart is attractive looking, especially from the back. The front looks very Mitsubishi like, and overall it kinda has a Neon vibe about it. It is attractive.
The problem is, carrying the Dodge Moniker ensures that'll it'll also have Neon-like reliability. That equals FAIL out of the gate.
I think you should reserve the tinfoil hats for yourself and others who believe CR reviews and data are run and rigged by ANTI-GM haters, Ralph Nader's family, and whatever other extremely unlikely scenario to explain away GM's plain awfulness over the years (reminder: they went bankrupt in 2008).
What is extremely unlikely is that anyone out there even comes close to the reliability and truthfulness of CR's data. They are the only one out there not influenced by ad dollars. They are the only one out there not influenced by souped up carefully selected "test" models (maybe Edmunds long term fleet does OK in this regard, not sure if they use any dealers outside the SoCAL area though). CR buys randomly nationwide so that they don't get the "special test" model.
Why is it that other sources are so positive about everybodies cars when several carmakers routinely go out of business due to poor quality? I would state with certainty that a publication could never be TOO negative. The problem is they are way too positive.
As others have agreed, there is sample error. Their samples are not infallible, nor could anyone's be. But you are unable to concede that point.
I like CR on anything. If they say the Volt is magnificent when it comes to reliablity, then maybe for the first time in its corporate history some of the MSRP actually goes into the vehicle and quality control at GM.
As for other cars that rate poorly, it is clearly because most of the MSRP goes to Bush/Obama retirement funds rather than into the vehicle.
Yeah. Yeah. We all know the rhetoric: "It was Bush's fault. " :P
Unless we want to start a political debate in this forum, I suggest moving your political comments to correct forum for them.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
However, since it's my wife's car it is POSSIBLE that they go ahead and pre-emptively fix things while they do an oil change, for example. Or when she went in to get that window regulator fixed, it's possible they reflashed something as a convenience and (they would) tell her about it, but then it is possible she didn't tell me about it.
The airbag indicator has never illuminated however.
Even though it felt kinda diminutive, it was still a lot more substantial than that '98 Tracker my buddy had been driving! At the time, I was hoping he'd check out the Dodge Caliber as well, but once I finally saw them in person, I wasn't so impressed, either.
Well, it's not just that. We have to remember that GM wouldn't exist today if not for the Bush BAILOUT BONANZA! It's not only fault, but poor reaction and decision making AFTER the crisis.
It is relevant to this forum, because absent Bush's wrongdoings near the end of his 2nd term, this forum would be called "GM History, Antiques, and Bankruptcy fallout."
The sampling is a convenience sample. It's not really demonstrative of all cars in the group because of the way it's taken.
At least JD Powers uses random sampling. I note they rate the Cruze Average. Of course, average these days is pretty damned good because all cars have improved.
I like to chat up people who have a car I'm curious about. Ask them how they like their new Cruze when they're next to you at the gas pump or the convenience store. I recall the XG350 Hyundai owners I asked were very pleased with their cars after a few years even. It changed my opinion of Hyundai.
Try asking various Cruze owners what they think. I note there aren't many in the service bays at the local dealership--and they've sold lots of them since they came out. Sounds like the perfect car for me.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
CR rated the '71 Vega "better than average" in its first year.
If that is true, that is an example of the use of extremely poor low quality parts and components.
A part should not have to be babied in order to work reliably.
The last time I talked to him he'd only had it a few weeks and his only complaint at that time was FE. He wasn't getting the mileage he'd hopped for. But at only 2 weeks old, who knows.
Even my famously bad Neon was actually average in its first year too. It really wasn't all THAT horrible until after the warranty expired at 3 years, and then the repair bills really started to pile up!
Even cheap parts can go a year. Cheap electronics typically have a 1 year warranty, although if you go REALLY cheap at Wal-Mart or Costco, I'm sure you can find electronics with shorter 90 day warranties.
I don't buy anything of value without AT LEAST a 1 year warranty. If it has a 90 day "labor" warranty and 1 year parts warranty, that is equal to 90 days to me.
I have nothing against Edmunds, in fact, I like Edmunds. The membership agreement seems pretty clear, well thought out, and written.
However, what guarantees us that you and your bosses at Edmunds follow them? It might not be GM that wants a review removed, but someone who bought too much GM stock that works there at Edmunds who has powerful computer/software/web know-how. :P
The BBB has been accused of the same trade practices and ethics violations as YELP. Seems rampant with online "review" sites.
As I've stated earlier, I expect a large majority of the Cruze complaints and negative reviews to start coming in the day after the warranties expire, since the BIG 3 engineer with planned obsolescence as the ultimate goal.
Also, why BAN and REMOVE reviews with profanity or a short clause or portion that "breaks the rules." Wouldn't it be better to use some artistic editorial license and simply remove the offending words of profanity (or a word, or a sentence or two,) rather than the whole posting?