Anyone else holding out for new 2013 Chevy/GMC truck?

[CurlyDave]

You didn't supply any specifics but with a 3 year 36,000 mile bumper to bumper, a 100,000 mile 5 year power train warranty, it is hard to understand how the truck nickle dimed you...

I can give some examples with Ford vehicles.

I had a Taurus about 10-12 years ago that I bought new. Speed control quit working -- about 5 trips to the shop later I asked the service manager where in his body it hurt to replace the fool thing instead of trying to fix it and failing again. Didn't cost me any repair money, but at close to $40 a day to rent a replacement vehicle from them that was $200. Same with the automatic door lock, same with the outside rear view mirrors (where I discovered they weren't covered under the "bumper-to-bumper" warranty). I spent nearly $1k renting cars while they did "free" warranty work, plus $700 on the mirrors.

A few years later my son leased a Mustang. Turns out it had a rear seal problem, oil dripped on the exhaust and smelled like the car was on fire...

Well, the dealer(s) he took it to did everything in their power not to do the right repair and fix the rear main seal. Stop leak one time, dye to be sure it really was engine oil the next, more stop leak, this excuse, that excuse, etc. If it was me, they would have been in small claims court. But, because he was young, they got away with postponing a real repair until the lease expired, and he just turned the car in. Again, lots of car rental expense.

I will still buy Ford trucks, but my entire family now buys Toyotas and Hondas for passenger cars. Better quality builds in the first place, and when something does break, the dealer fixes it instead of giving us the old run-around.

And, the factory does have a lot to say about dealer service. My wife drives into the local Toyota dealer and they are nice to her and never jack up the bill. Maybe because they know the next time we need a new one, they are going to sell it to us. When I take my F-150 to the Ford dealer, it is always "take out your wallet and open wide".

 

[BethesdaEC]

I can give some examples with Ford vehicles.

I had a Taurus about 10-12 years ago that I bought new. Speed control quit working -- about 5 trips to the shop later I asked the service manager where in his body it hurt to replace the fool thing instead of trying to fix it and failing again. Didn't cost me any repair money, but at close to $40 a day to rent a replacement vehicle from them that was $200. Same with the automatic door lock, same with the outside rear view mirrors (where I discovered they weren't covered under the "bumper-to-bumper" warranty). I spent nearly $1k renting cars while they did "free" warranty work, plus $700 on the mirrors.

A few years later my son leased a Mustang. Turns out it had a rear seal problem, oil dripped on the exhaust and smelled like the car was on fire...

Well, the dealer(s) he took it to did everything in their power not to do the right repair and fix the rear main seal. Stop leak one time, dye to be sure it really was engine oil the next, more stop leak, this excuse, that excuse, etc. If it was me, they would have been in small claims court. But, because he was young, they got away with postponing a real repair until the lease expired, and he just turned the car in. Again, lots of car rental expense.

I will still buy Ford trucks, but my entire family now buys Toyotas and Hondas for passenger cars. Better quality builds in the first place, and when something does break, the dealer fixes it instead of giving us the old run-around.

And, the factory does have a lot to say about dealer service. My wife drives into the local Toyota dealer and they are nice to her and never jack up the bill. Maybe because they know the next time we need a new one, they are going to sell it to us. When I take my F-150 to the Ford dealer, it is always "take out your wallet and open wide".

I had a 2000 Mercury Sable wagon and it was one of the best cars I ever owned. The only issue I ever had was a fuel pump that went out at 100K miles and 8 years. It also has a timing chain instead of belt so there is no $1000 timing belt replacement at 100K like the Japanese engines. The only extra item on the 100K maintenance was new spark plugs. My dealer also offers a free shuttle to my office.

Lets see, my father in-law had an Odyssey and he had the transmission replaced under warranty and the notorious air bag fault light a half dozen times. The 100K maintenance was $1500 and included a $1000 timing belt. Another friend also had a Odyssey and they flew an engineer in from Japan because the power sliding doors would open randomly on the highway. My grandfather had a Toyota Avalon with a sludge-o-matic engine.

The Japanese were better at covering up problems, at least they were until the got busted with the sudden unintended acceleration thing, which I believe was the straw that broke the camels back.

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

It is very easy, if you buy a Chevy which is a GM product, the profit dollars stop in downtown Detroit.

It appears you have missed my main point. Let's say GM builds a $50K vehicle and there is $5K pure profit.

Which is better for the US economy - $5K profit sitting in Detroit or $45K Jobs / wages / materials / taxes etc sitting in Mexico?

If profit is the diriving factor why is everyone whining about all the jobs that have been outsourced to China / India / Asia etc. According to your theory, as long as WalMart is making a profit - who cares where they get the manufactured goods?

Would you rather have a JOB in your home town or PROFIT in Detroit for executive bonuses?

 

[Haoleguy]

I've had many different makes over the years through our family purchases and I've never had a lemon but only a few I would classify as not to purchase again. I think all manufacturers make good vehicles but since I do not purchase new but every 10-15 years its pretty hard to judge the robustness of the newer technologies. Within the year I will purchase another truck to replace my F150. It might be new or it might be used but I'm leaning towards used for the first time in many moons. At this point I think all manufacturers should step up to the plate and offer a minimum of 5yrs/100K miles on all their vehicles. If they believe they are generating a quality product with longevity this should not be a problem for them. As far as dealers are concerned many need to change their business practices. In my area I take my Ford and Acura to a GMC/Buick dealer for service as they are competent and do not over charge. It's sort of swaying me to purchase a GMC truck. So back to the topic at hand I think the current GMC trucks look better and offer a solid diesel powertrain combo compared to the other manufacturers. The prototypes they have trotted out don't look bad and in fact the offroad truck looks pretty interesting. At the moment I look forward to competitive 1 ton offerings from the big three. and I do believe that taxpayer financial support was critical to saving jobs here and would have created a bigger meltdown of the economy. The outside pressure applied to these companies was substantial and warranted which I think puts them in a better place for the future.

Wish you all safe and happy holidays !...gary

 

[JasG]

:thumbsup:

It appears you have missed my main point. Let's say GM builds a $50K vehicle and there is $5K pure profit.

Which is better for the US economy - $5K profit sitting in Detroit or $45K Jobs / wages / materials / taxes etc sitting in Mexico?

If profit is the diriving factor why is everyone whining about all the jobs that have been outsourced to China / India / Asia etc. According to your theory, as long as WalMart is making a profit - who cares where they get the manufactured goods?

Would you rather have a JOB in your home town or PROFIT in Detroit for executive bonuses?

I don't care where the company is based. If it is made in the USA I find that better than buying a product thats parent is based in the USA but made in Mexico, China, or others.

 

[JasG]

The Japanese were better at covering up problems, at least they were until the got busted with the sudden unintended acceleration thing, which I believe was the straw that broke the camels back.

Unintented acceleration has happened to all of the major brands even BMW, VW, Ford, GM, dodge trucks.

Toyota was singled out at a time that just happened to be at the same time they were pulling out of a union plant in CA. They were also selling more cars than GM.

The 1st case of this go back to the late 1980's and is probably caused by the electronic controls.

Here is just one story, Popular Mechanics mag did a story on this. Toyota didn't even have the highest rate of this issue.
Unintended Acceleration Not Limited To Toyotas : NPR

 

[jeffsw6]

Unintented acceleration has happened to all of the major brands even BMW, VW, Ford, GM, dodge trucks.

My understanding is the supposed unintended acceleration problem really was not a problem with the cars, but with the drivers.

Let's remember that the big incident which brought focus onto Toyota was a policeman who supposedly could not keep his vehicle from accelerating out of control on the highway, and crashed, killing his family.

How is a policeman not an experienced, calm driver who knows that you can simply shift he car out of gear while maintaining power for the steering and brakes? Answer: the policeman was either a suicidal maniac, or looking for a TV interview and a settlement check. Whichever the case, he and his family paid for it with their lives, and Toyota paid for it with millions of dollars sunk into analyses and investigations which revealed that there was no problem with the cars. If you think there was a big cover-up and there really was something wrong with the cars, then you can introduce the third possibility, that the policeman was just an idiot and didn't know how to operate his car. However, the evidence indicates the drivers were at fault for all of these incidents.

 

[Monster5601]

It appears you have missed my main point. Let's say GM builds a $50K vehicle and there is $5K pure profit.

Which is better for the US economy - $5K profit sitting in Detroit or $45K Jobs / wages / materials / taxes etc sitting in Mexico?

If profit is the diriving factor why is everyone whining about all the jobs that have been outsourced to China / India / Asia etc. According to your theory, as long as WalMart is making a profit - who cares where they get the manufactured goods?

Would you rather have a JOB in your home town or PROFIT in Detroit for executive bonuses?

Is the 5K profit better off sitting in a foreign account than a US account?

You are making the assumption that if the profits goes over seas then it creates American jobs. Well, if the profits stay here, that also creates American jobs and we are keeping America's wealth here, so your point is moot.

I don't like seeing jobs go over seas any more than you do. So, tell me why our government rewards companies with tax breaks when they out source over seas?

Most of us have retirement accounts that are invested in the stocks and as investors, we demand our money grows. I want the profits to say here so I can retire.

I never stated a theory, just an observation.

 

[Monster5601]

I can give some examples with Ford vehicles.

I had a Taurus about 10-12 years ago that I bought new. Speed control quit working -- about 5 trips to the shop later I asked the service manager where in his body it hurt to replace the fool thing instead of trying to fix it and failing again. Didn't cost me any repair money, but at close to $40 a day to rent a replacement vehicle from them that was $200. Same with the automatic door lock, same with the outside rear view mirrors (where I discovered they weren't covered under the "bumper-to-bumper" warranty). I spent nearly $1k renting cars while they did "free" warranty work, plus $700 on the mirrors.

A few years later my son leased a Mustang. Turns out it had a rear seal problem, oil dripped on the exhaust and smelled like the car was on fire...

Well, the dealer(s) he took it to did everything in their power not to do the right repair and fix the rear main seal. Stop leak one time, dye to be sure it really was engine oil the next, more stop leak, this excuse, that excuse, etc. If it was me, they would have been in small claims court. But, because he was young, they got away with postponing a real repair until the lease expired, and he just turned the car in. Again, lots of car rental expense.

I will still buy Ford trucks, but my entire family now buys Toyotas and Hondas for passenger cars. Better quality builds in the first place, and when something does break, the dealer fixes it instead of giving us the old run-around.

And, the factory does have a lot to say about dealer service. My wife drives into the local Toyota dealer and they are nice to her and never jack up the bill. Maybe because they know the next time we need a new one, they are going to sell it to us. When I take my F-150 to the Ford dealer, it is always "take out your wallet and open wide".

The thought of going to a GM or Ford dealer scares the snot out of me. Detroit built junk for many years, no one will disagree with that. The good news is that is behind them.

It sounds to me like your real problem was with the quality of the dealer's service. Yes, your vehicle had issues but the issues should have been corrected on the service first visit.

 

[Martian]

:thumbsup:

I don't care where the company is based. If it is made in the USA I find that better than buying a product thats parent is based in the USA but made in Mexico, China, or others.

I hope you do realize how many MILLIONS is brought into the economy. There are more people involved in the design, engineering, manufacturing process than actually "assemble" the cars - and all of these people make more money to put back into the economy. Now the entire building of parts here and shipping there is far more people involved - but if all your talking is the assembly in America it is more beneficial for it to be designed here an built elsewhere.