I agree with Fintail. Much cheaper to settle than drag it out, but I can't help but wonder what would happen to all these class-action lawsuits if the rules were changed just a bit...
Say, once the case has a court date set, no out-of-court settlement could be accepted, thereby forcing some of these cases to complete the legal system loop?
You have to wonder if forcing these cases to complete the entire process would change anything. sometimes, it's the threat, not the action that gets results.
You made it pretty clear... The lawyers got rich and the owners got a pittance. So, who is the real winner and who are the real losers?
Like you, when I think "hybrid", I think "Prius".... Not "Insight".
Every GM vehicle I've owned has been extremely reliable, durable, and dependable. I have no reason to look elsewhere. GM has been good to me. Why mess with a good thing?
Well, even if every hamburger you've ever eaten was great, it doesn't mean there isn't filet mignon you've not tasted. :shades:
First Toyota had their problems and reputation hurt. Now Honda is also not held up on a pedestal as it used to be. Toyota is turning around though and leaving Honda in its dust, just look at the latest sales and company financials. I expect the lightbulb to go back on one of these days at Honda though. Wonder if Nisssan will be next?
I expect the lightbulb to go back on one of these days at Honda though. Wonder if Nisssan will be next?
The thing is that Honda's light was on for 2-3 decades. Nissan's has been flickering on and off for a long time. Has it ever been on in any sustained way?
I think Nissan has done well with the Altima. Other vehicles from them seem to be hit or miss...
I always thought of Nissans from the late 80's and early 90's as junk, but that's partly based on personal experience. I knew someone who had a Stanza, and someone who had a Maxima from that vintage, and both had timing chain failures that pretty much destroyed the valvetrains. My Mom and stepdad had a '91 Stanza, and while it never had any engine problems, the transmission started to go around 90,000 miles. It also needed exhaust work around that time, and had a few other issues.
My Mom and stepdad bought a '99 Altima, and its transmission went out around 35,000 miles, so I thought that would continue the junky trend. But, they still have the car, and it has around 330,000 or so miles on it, so it's more than redeemed itself. They also have an '08 Altima, with around 40,000 miles, and AFAIK, no issues yet. One of my friends has an '06 Xterra, and it's been pretty good. It did have to go in twice for HVAC problems. First, no a/c in the summer and later, no heat in the winter. Both were covered under an extended warranty he had purchased. It also had two tire pressure monitors fail, also replaced under the extended warranty.
I think that Xterra has about 88,000 miles on it now. I also remember Nissan sending him some addendum to the warranty saying that there were apparently issues with the radiator, so on good faith they extended the warranty on it from 3/36K to 80K, but I forget the amount of years.
But, regardless, it's totally out of warranty now, so hopefully it holds up!
I've heard other people though, say that those Nissans from the late 80's, 90's, and even early '00's were more rugged than today's models. Evidently, there was something that Nissan did with the 2002+ Altima's 4-cyl, where some part in the valvetrain is just pressed on, can fall off, and wreck the whole engine? The 5-speed automatic used in the Xterra supposedly isn't as rugged as the old 4-speed they used in the previous model. BUT, the current model has a LOT more power and torque, and is heavier, so maybe that's part of the issue? I've also heard that the CVT the Altima uses can be spotty.
I haven't checked a CR in awhile, but for the most part, don't Nissans still rate pretty high?
My parents sold off their 91 240SX with 33x thousand on it to my uncle who still has it. I don't see him often so I don't know what kind of mileage it has now but I'll ask him next time. It's got to be up around 400k by now...
My Sister had A 2008? Altima hybrid that she put about 90k on before buying a new Camry SE. Sure, not a lot of miles to really judge but those were a trouble free 90k worth :shades:
I have never owned a Nissan or Infiniti before but I haven't heard anything terrible about them other than the oil pressure problems with the VQ if you try to tune them for more hp.
My Sister had A 2008? Altima hybrid that she put about 90k on before buying a new Camry SE. Sure, not a lot of miles to really judge but those were a trouble free 90k worth
I came close to buying a used '08 Altima hybrid last year. At the time, I was extremely fed up with my '85 Silverado, and about to give up on it. Now, I know most people wouldn't consider a hybrid Altima a direct replacement for a truck, buy my rationale was that I don't really need a truck so much anymore, and could always borrow my uncle's, if I needed one.
The only thing that stopped me from buying that Altima was, when I called the dealer, the damn thing had been sold! :mad: I forget the specifics now, but I think it had about 45,000 miles on it, and they wanted around $15K. It was pretty well loaded too, with leather, sunroof, etc.
Ultimately, I had to sink about $1000 into the truck at the time. It needed a new water pump, hoses, belts, and then a week later, it got a flat (not the truck's fault, but between a flat spare that was rusted to the underside of the truck, and lugnuts that were too rounded-off for the lugwrench to work with, I was about to throw in the towel. )
But, on the plus side, that was about 8 months ago, and I haven't put a dime into it since then. Although, since then, the power window quit working (I think the lift just came loose from the window itself) and about a week ago the emergency brake broke. So, it's going to need some more work, soon.
I think the latest (2007 +) Altima has been very successful. My daughter owns a 2008 fully loaded with a little over 50K and no issues.
The learning curve on the CVT took a little time for her to get comfortable with, but it's fine now... In fact, she prefers it to a normal shifting pattern you find in traditional automatics. The NAV system is a bit archaic, but the asme goes for many OEM units across the board.
IIRC, the early 2000 Nissan's, at least in some iterations had issues with plugged catastrophic converters clogging up and ruining the engines, and somewhere around that era they also had issues with the butterfly flap screws working their way out, and into the engine cylinders. Not cool at all.
Don't know if Nissan still does is, but they extended her CVT warranty to 10 years/120K miles, due to some bad PR on CVTs.
My other daughter has a 2009 Versa CVT, and it had its CVT replaced at 49K miles. I always thought there was an issue with a bearing from the 1st few times I rode in it, but decided to wait until it either broke outright or got louder. As I expected, the minor noise got louder, and when she took it in last December, the dealer replaced it... No hassle at all, he just called and said she was getting a new transmission. A week later, she was back in her car. No issues since. She also has the extended CVT warranty.
I would be hesitant to judge all the Nissan's based upon my limited experience, but overall I would put them on par with the competition.
Had a 97 Nissan Maxima SE. It was a superb car in every regard. Performance, engine, suspension, handling, fit/finish, paint, interior, transmission. Ran it till 191K miles and sold it very easily to private party in 2007.
Only repairs out of ordinary were radio replaced under warranty. Somewhere in the 180K miles range, it needed oxygen sensors. At sale in 2007, gave buyer an allowance to fix intake manifold gasket and exhaust tail pipe and muffler. The exterior paint was flawless at 191K miles and there was absolutely no rust on any surfaces. Quite an accomplishment in northern Illinois.
Engine, transmission ran great at 191K. Air conditioning cooled properly, never touched in 10 years.
As I recall by ID in/on car, it was built in Japan.
You have to love the last paragraph, where Fisker is pointing the finger at external sources.
Note to Fisker P/R Group: if your vehicle can pick up a combustible object from the roadside and retain it in the wheel cavity, then somehow ignite it, burning the car and it's garage to smoldering hunks.... It's a really BAD design! You might want to come up with a better, and possibly more plausible cover story...
I agree . To compete in the auto industry today, it takes access to $Billions, with a capital B.
There will always be small "niche" markets for specialty item cars, but I don't think that was Fisker's business model.
Still, I would have stated it differently... Something like "We are closely examining the event from every angle, and we are focused like a laser on determining the cause. If it is found that a design fault was involved, we will move immediately to remedy the situation on all existing units as we ll as all future production..."
Something along those lines. Same results, just sounds better than immediately placing blame elsewhere.
Agreed. Nissan sold 268,981 Altimas in 2011. (My SIL has one and she loves it. My BIL has the Sentra with 190,000 miles and not a hiccup.) Interestingly, they owned the last gen Malibu and it was wrecked so they rented an '09 Malibu during the transition and liked it very much.
To Compare: Chevy sold 204,808 Malibus in 2011. Honda 235,625 Accords. Toyota sold 308,510 Camrys. Ford sold 248,067 Fusions. Hyundai sold 225,961 Sonatas.
I think they just set up Fisker to sell stock in the first place.
Maybe they'll vacate the Freemont factory and Mazda can take it over. Maybe Mazda and GM can get some synergy going, like GM and Toyota did for a while (not to mention Mazda and Ford).
Ol' Shel' was a wild man who pushed the envelope. I was fortunate enough to meet him at the NY auto show in 2006, he autographed a press kit for the Mustang GT350 for me, which is probably now priceless.
"NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ally Financial Inc's Residential Capital unit is nearing a bankruptcy filing, sources familiar with the situation said on Sunday, in a move that could help the taxpayer-owned auto lender to shed its troubled mortgage business but also spur drawn-out legal fights."
Well recently my wife has asked me if we can loan out our 2003 Grand am to her cousin. Thats odd doesn't the cousin she speak of have 2009 Tucson with 20,000-50,000km's, so i had to ask why she needed to borrow a old pontiac with 140k on it. Apparantly the shocks are gone already and she tried to make a 70km trip but had to turn around after 13 miles because she felt like the tuscon "felt like it kept wanting to die".
Thought a real life story, would be a nice change of pace from the usual channel stuffing or cadillac not a world brand storys u rehash over and over again.
Buick coming back? It was never away as far as I'm concerned!
You might have missed this....
There also are signs that GM’s comeback from a 2009 government-funded bankruptcy could be slowing. In the U.S., GM’s most profitable market, sales for the quarter grew just 2.7 percent, even though industry-wide sales rose more than 13 percent. GM’s U.S. market share fell from 19.4 percent last year to 17.5 percent, according to Autodata Corp.
Slow sales can be blamed on Cadillac and Buick. Cadillac sales fell almost 24 percent while Buick was down nearly 17 percent. Chevrolet sales in the U.S. rose 8 percent and GMC sales grew just over 1 percent.
Yes. Buick is "The New Standard of China." How's that sound?!
There are 3.7 million Buick owners in China and 60% of sales are high-end, said Jean Liu-Barnocki, brand director for Buick China, which has 114 dealerships offering full coverage in larger tier 1 and 2 cities and 50% coverage in smaller tier 3 cities.
GM will expand its retail network from 2,900 in 2011 to 3,500 this year, including the Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and the new Chinese Baojun brand, said Kevin Wale, president of GM China.
To meet demand, CEO Dan Akerson said GM is on track to boost production capacity in China to 5 million vehicles a year by 2016.
Buick dropped the Regal to make way for the LaCrosse in 2004. GM reintroduced the model in December in China, where the average age of Regal buyers is 36, according to the Detroit- based automaker.
Back around the time Buick dropped the Regal, it was one of the most "youthful"cars in the lineup. At least, I remember around 2002 or so, the typical Regal buyer was around 57, while the LeSabre buyers were more like 67, and Park Ave and Century buyers were around 70! When the Rendezvous came out, I think its average buyer age was around 48.
Back in those days, MSN Autos would list the buyer demographics, and for some reason those Buick numbers stuck in my head. I remember when my Dad bought his used '03 Regal, he was 57, and I teased him, saying that he's finally old enough to buy a Buick! :P
He got me back though, years later, soon after I bought my Park Ave. "You bought an old man's car!" he teased :surprise:
I wonder what the average buyer age is of the current Regals sold in the US? I don't see them around often enough to really make an educated guess.
Comments
If there wasn't a uniform decrease in mpg after the update, something else is awry.
Say, once the case has a court date set, no out-of-court settlement could be accepted, thereby forcing some of these cases to complete the legal system loop?
You have to wonder if forcing these cases to complete the entire process would change anything. sometimes, it's the threat, not the action that gets results.
You made it pretty clear... The lawyers got rich and the owners got a pittance. So, who is the real winner and who are the real losers?
Like you, when I think "hybrid", I think "Prius".... Not "Insight".
Well, even if every hamburger you've ever eaten was great, it doesn't mean there isn't filet mignon you've not tasted. :shades:
Yup, facts are great until they disagree with your opinions. :P
The thing is that Honda's light was on for 2-3 decades. Nissan's has been flickering on and off for a long time. Has it ever been on in any sustained way?
I always thought of Nissans from the late 80's and early 90's as junk, but that's partly based on personal experience. I knew someone who had a Stanza, and someone who had a Maxima from that vintage, and both had timing chain failures that pretty much destroyed the valvetrains. My Mom and stepdad had a '91 Stanza, and while it never had any engine problems, the transmission started to go around 90,000 miles. It also needed exhaust work around that time, and had a few other issues.
My Mom and stepdad bought a '99 Altima, and its transmission went out around 35,000 miles, so I thought that would continue the junky trend. But, they still have the car, and it has around 330,000 or so miles on it, so it's more than redeemed itself. They also have an '08 Altima, with around 40,000 miles, and AFAIK, no issues yet. One of my friends has an '06 Xterra, and it's been pretty good. It did have to go in twice for HVAC problems. First, no a/c in the summer and later, no heat in the winter. Both were covered under an extended warranty he had purchased. It also had two tire pressure monitors fail, also replaced under the extended warranty.
I think that Xterra has about 88,000 miles on it now. I also remember Nissan sending him some addendum to the warranty saying that there were apparently issues with the radiator, so on good faith they extended the warranty on it from 3/36K to 80K, but I forget the amount of years.
But, regardless, it's totally out of warranty now, so hopefully it holds up!
I've heard other people though, say that those Nissans from the late 80's, 90's, and even early '00's were more rugged than today's models. Evidently, there was something that Nissan did with the 2002+ Altima's 4-cyl, where some part in the valvetrain is just pressed on, can fall off, and wreck the whole engine? The 5-speed automatic used in the Xterra supposedly isn't as rugged as the old 4-speed they used in the previous model. BUT, the current model has a LOT more power and torque, and is heavier, so maybe that's part of the issue? I've also heard that the CVT the Altima uses can be spotty.
I haven't checked a CR in awhile, but for the most part, don't Nissans still rate pretty high?
My Sister had A 2008? Altima hybrid that she put about 90k on before buying a new Camry SE. Sure, not a lot of miles to really judge but those were a trouble free 90k worth :shades:
I have never owned a Nissan or Infiniti before but I haven't heard anything terrible about them other than the oil pressure problems with the VQ if you try to tune them for more hp.
That is sooo messed up.
Sums up the whole problem I was talking about, which is why the system needs reform.
They should give each attorney $100 and let the owners split the $8 million.
I came close to buying a used '08 Altima hybrid last year. At the time, I was extremely fed up with my '85 Silverado, and about to give up on it. Now, I know most people wouldn't consider a hybrid Altima a direct replacement for a truck, buy my rationale was that I don't really need a truck so much anymore, and could always borrow my uncle's, if I needed one.
The only thing that stopped me from buying that Altima was, when I called the dealer, the damn thing had been sold! :mad: I forget the specifics now, but I think it had about 45,000 miles on it, and they wanted around $15K. It was pretty well loaded too, with leather, sunroof, etc.
Ultimately, I had to sink about $1000 into the truck at the time. It needed a new water pump, hoses, belts, and then a week later, it got a flat (not the truck's fault, but between a flat spare that was rusted to the underside of the truck, and lugnuts that were too rounded-off for the lugwrench to work with, I was about to throw in the towel.
But, on the plus side, that was about 8 months ago, and I haven't put a dime into it since then. Although, since then, the power window quit working (I think the lift just came loose from the window itself) and about a week ago the emergency brake broke. So, it's going to need some more work, soon.
The learning curve on the CVT took a little time for her to get comfortable with, but it's fine now... In fact, she prefers it to a normal shifting pattern you find in traditional automatics. The NAV system is a bit archaic, but the asme goes for many OEM units across the board.
IIRC, the early 2000 Nissan's, at least in some iterations had issues with plugged catastrophic converters clogging up and ruining the engines, and somewhere around that era they also had issues with the butterfly flap screws working their way out, and into the engine cylinders. Not cool at all.
Don't know if Nissan still does is, but they extended her CVT warranty to 10 years/120K miles, due to some bad PR on CVTs.
My other daughter has a 2009 Versa CVT, and it had its CVT replaced at 49K miles. I always thought there was an issue with a bearing from the 1st few times I rode in it, but decided to wait until it either broke outright or got louder. As I expected, the minor noise got louder, and when she took it in last December, the dealer replaced it... No hassle at all, he just called and said she was getting a new transmission. A week later, she was back in her car. No issues since. She also has the extended CVT warranty.
I would be hesitant to judge all the Nissan's based upon my limited experience, but overall I would put them on par with the competition.
Only repairs out of ordinary were radio replaced under warranty. Somewhere in the 180K miles range, it needed oxygen sensors. At sale in 2007, gave buyer an allowance to fix intake manifold gasket and exhaust tail pipe and muffler. The exterior paint was flawless at 191K miles and there was absolutely no rust on any surfaces. Quite an accomplishment in northern Illinois.
Engine, transmission ran great at 191K. Air conditioning cooled properly, never touched in 10 years.
As I recall by ID in/on car, it was built in Japan.
http://www.ocala.com/article/20120511/APF/1205110537?p=1&tc=pg
Another fire, after the update was done, too. They're in real trouble.
The engine is sourced from GM and they think it's just too crammed in the engine bay.
Note to Fisker P/R Group: if your vehicle can pick up a combustible object from the roadside and retain it in the wheel cavity, then somehow ignite it, burning the car and it's garage to smoldering hunks.... It's a really BAD design! You might want to come up with a better, and possibly more plausible cover story...
I think they have no other choice. Their image can't take yet another hit.
I don't think they'll make it regardless.
There will always be small "niche" markets for specialty item cars, but I don't think that was Fisker's business model.
Still, I would have stated it differently... Something like "We are closely examining the event from every angle, and we are focused like a laser on determining the cause. If it is found that a design fault was involved, we will move immediately to remedy the situation on all existing units as we ll as all future production..."
Something along those lines. Same results, just sounds better than immediately placing blame elsewhere.
Yes the Cimmiron was real, not a dream.
To Compare: Chevy sold 204,808 Malibus in 2011. Honda 235,625 Accords. Toyota sold 308,510 Camrys. Ford sold 248,067 Fusions. Hyundai sold 225,961 Sonatas.
Chevy Malibu is in 6th place!
Regards,
OW
Maybe they'll vacate the Freemont factory and Mazda can take it over. Maybe Mazda and GM can get some synergy going, like GM and Toyota did for a while (not to mention Mazda and Ford).
Regards,
OW
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2012/02/fisker-halt-layoffs- - - -delaware-gm-government-loan-missed-deadline-/1#.T61uiWt5mSM
More on the Fisker "Toastmaster"...
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/340173/20120511/fisker-electric-car-fire-karma-n- - htsa-investigation.htm
And, it gets better... Excellent P/R at Fisker...
http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/fisker-karma-owner-blames-house-fire-car-- offended-204708241.html
Ol' Shel' was a wild man who pushed the envelope. I was fortunate enough to meet him at the NY auto show in 2006, he autographed a press kit for the Mustang GT350 for me, which is probably now priceless.
Not for sale at any price.
RIP.
Regards,
OW
It's GM in front, Toyota second....Now, Toyota pulls ahead... And, coming up from the outside... It's VW...
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2012/05/toyota-retakes-worl- - ds-largest-automaker-status-from-gm/1#.T659KGt5mK0
Is a Buick coming back? GM trademarks Riviera name
Regards,
OW
Regards,
OW
Thought a real life story, would be a nice change of pace from the usual channel stuffing or cadillac not a world brand storys u rehash over and over again.
GM Quality - 2005 Pontiac Grand Am and 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Regards,
OW
Regards,
OW
That's what I was thinking they would have been doing. The names have value.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
link title
"Sustainability is the lifeblood of our company..."
I that what Government funding is called now?
Regards,
OW
You might have missed this....
There also are signs that GM’s comeback from a 2009 government-funded bankruptcy could be slowing. In the U.S., GM’s most profitable market, sales for the quarter grew just 2.7 percent, even though industry-wide sales rose more than 13 percent. GM’s U.S. market share fell from 19.4 percent last year to 17.5 percent, according to Autodata Corp.
Slow sales can be blamed on Cadillac and Buick. Cadillac sales fell almost 24 percent while Buick was down nearly 17 percent. Chevrolet sales in the U.S. rose 8 percent and GMC sales grew just over 1 percent.
...or not!
Regards,
OW
Yes.
There are 3.7 million Buick owners in China and 60% of sales are high-end, said Jean Liu-Barnocki, brand director for Buick China, which has 114 dealerships offering full coverage in larger tier 1 and 2 cities and 50% coverage in smaller tier 3 cities.
GM will expand its retail network from 2,900 in 2011 to 3,500 this year, including the Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and the new Chinese Baojun brand, said Kevin Wale, president of GM China.
To meet demand, CEO Dan Akerson said GM is on track to boost production capacity in China to 5 million vehicles a year by 2016.
Regards,
OW
SIA was the first zero landfill plant in the US:
http://www.subaru.com/company/environment-sustainability.html
Go Hoosiers!
Buick dropped the Regal to make way for the LaCrosse in 2004. GM reintroduced the model in December in China, where the average age of Regal buyers is 36, according to the Detroit- based automaker.
Regards,
OW
Back in those days, MSN Autos would list the buyer demographics, and for some reason those Buick numbers stuck in my head. I remember when my Dad bought his used '03 Regal, he was 57, and I teased him, saying that he's finally old enough to buy a Buick! :P
He got me back though, years later, soon after I bought my Park Ave. "You bought an old man's car!" he teased :surprise:
I wonder what the average buyer age is of the current Regals sold in the US? I don't see them around often enough to really make an educated guess.
The avg Camaro buyer by me is over 65.