My parents went through this with GM in the early 1980’s. The car was JUNK with a bum automatic transmission from day one and they were told this was “normal” for the car until the warranty was up and then were told the transmission needed major work or replacement immediately afterwards. They probably could have fought this in court but they were done with the car as it was downright dangerous. The transmission would alternate between freewheeling like it was in neutral and dropping into gear like someone popping the clutch in a manual car. I remember my mom pulling out once to make a left turn and the engine just started revving up with all kinds of traffic coming at us but the car wouldn’t go. Anyway, she kept the gas to the floor and the thing must have been near redline when the transmission suddenly engaged, doing quite the burnout in the process. The car was traded in after a couple of these episodes for basically scrap value and replaced with a Honda that time. You never knew when the transmission would act normal or not so it wasn’t predictable at all.
My parents have only purchased one GM car after that point. I think their cars are decent now but that sure soured my parents for life. They were treated like crap by the dealer and GM alike. They also had a downright dangerous situation with this transmission and it gradually got worse with time.
My former boss owned a Chevy Caprice from that era, and he was given the same BS by the dealership until the warranty had expired. Because he frequently seemed to stumble into bad decisions, he took it to AAMCO for an overhaul. As you can probably imagine, that AAMCO tranny lasted less than one year before it also went “bust”. AAMCO did the job again–gratis–but when the trans failed again w/in a few months, he decided to that it was time to sell the car to a shade-tree mechanic who knew of its problems.
But, I’m not finished with the saga of my crazy ex-boss. Even though that Caprice was a rolling disaster (as was his previous Pontiac), his next car was an Olds 98.
Some folks learn from experience, and some just continue to stumble into bad decisions.
We had an AAMCO in my town and it went out of business which is probably a GOOD THING based on the stories I heard. Someone had their transmission lock up hard going 70mph on the highway within an hour of picking the car up. People say AAMCO stands for “all automatics must come out”.
We also had a couple Caprices that were inherited from my grandparents. They weren’t the most flashy cars and certainly were low-tech but seemed to be about as reliable as they came. I learned to drive on one of these and it was just a basic 4 speed automatic slushbox but it had enough power from the big V8 to overcome that. I wouldn’t say they were bad cars for the era but definitely low tech and probably used dated technology even for that time. They were basically free cars for my parents. The local PDs all used similar models (or Crown Vics) and I never got messed with as a 16 year old driver in this thing. Guys with rice burner sports cars couldn’t go anywhere without getting pulled over but someone in a grandpa car seemed immune.
Now these have become somewhat of a collectible car that people fix up.
I can’t verify that this was accurate, but my boss’s mechanic claimed that the Caprices of his era had a transmission designed for the Chevette, which was completely incapable of standing up to the torque of a V-8.
In the late '60s, I had a friend who had taken some automotive courses in his high school, they had changed brakes, pulled and rebuilt a few engines, and some other work, never touched a transmission other than to unbolt it, no formal instruction or internal work…
But that did not deter AAMCO from hiring him as one of their transmission specialist. He received no special training from them because his boss only wanted to remove and replace transmissions, no repair work if it could at all be avoided…
There was more money in replacing the trannys with one of their rebuilt Blue Babies that AAMCO Corporate provided to the businesses. The replaced transmissions were then sent back to Corporate to be rebuilt by them.
My friend did not stay long and joined the Navy after he got his Draft Notice…
I think one car was a 1984 and the other a 1989 if I remember correctly. Both were the boxy style ones and know that the more rounded ones came out not long after 1989. I never drove the 1984 but my dad always said it was way more powerful than the 1989 as the 1989 had more emissions control and the smaller 305 V8 vs. the 350 V8 in the 1984. I know the 305 was not considered a good engine but we had a fuel injected model and I guess it did better with that than a carb.
I think the junk GM my parents bought was a 1982 Olds Ciera if my memory is correct. THAT transmission must have been the one designed for a Chevette! I am not sure about the Caprice but we had no issues with those.
The guy who bought it still has it as far as I know. He did end up putting a police engine, transmission, and suspension in it after he overheated the engine and ruined it. Basically it started overheating on a mile or so long causeway over water and there was no where to pull over. He barely made it off the structure and the engine was fried at that point. It was something simple like a radiator hose but with traffic going 90pmh, it is better to sacrifice the engine than yourself.
He was thinking about replacing the car at that time but it was the gas crunch back during the Bush or Obama admin and small cars were going for a huge premium as they are right now. It was way cheaper to buy the totaled police car and rob parts off it in his free time so he kept the car and did some upgrades. It actually got better mileage afterwards and was way more powerful of course.
My co-worker friend had a battery operated grinder, so he’d make me a cup of fresh ground coffee, from beans sometimes. It tasted pretty good, but not that much better than Folgers Instant. Part of the reason, the instant version presents itself really hot, while dripping the water through the beans presents a cup of coffee that is more warm than hot.
The company coffee machine coffee was pretty bad tho. Hot, but flavor-wise, nearly undrinkable.
I like the flavor of 3 of the instant coffees best, Folgers, Yuban, and Maxwell House. Each has a slightly different flavor. Folger’s has the most raw-coffee, unprocessed taste. IMO Yuban is actually the better flavor of the 3, but only slightly, and Yuban is much more expensive in this post-Covid era. Suggest a blind taste-test comparing your favorite to one of the 3 instants.
hmmm … Almost 250 posts in thread about a 1970’s Chevy Vega … lol …
In case the engine lost oil pressure they wanted to stop vehicle. The fuel pump ran off the oil pressure sending unit. If it fails or too low oil pressure then it shuts off power to fuel pump.
It is amazing isn’t it. We covered alot of ground, I learned some things, very knowledgeable people on here!
I will say I guess we can say that GM was shooting for the moon on the vega, but ended up chucking it into the ocean. The whole concept just seemed to perfect to be flawed. Its too bad it had its problems like that.
One of GM’s earliest disasters was the Chevrolet Copper-Cooled model. There were rumors that the recalled vehicles (essentially all of the 700-something that were produced) were dumped into Lake Michigan–which may or may not have been accurate. But, I think it is fair to say that GM’s history of marketing insufficiently-tested cars goes back to the 1920s. That’s quite a heritage.
At Chevrolet, just 759 cars had been completed, far short of the scheduled 10,000 units. Of those, 239 were scrapped right at the factory. Five-hundred cars had left the factory, with 150 in use by factory reps and 300 shipped to dealers; of those, 100 had been sold to customers. In June 1923, Chevrolet recalled every Copper-Cooled Chevrolet from the field. All but two were destroyed. One survivor can be seen at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, while the second, acquired by Ford for evaluation and never returned, is on display at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
With fuel injection, if the pump shuts off, the engine stops almost immediately. With a carb, like the Vega had, the engine will run a few more seconds until the float bowl is empty. But that would still save the engine from lost oil pressure.
The cost of casting a fuel pump mount on the OHC engine may have cost more than installing an electric pump.
Electric fuel pumps are disabled if the engine stops, this is a safety measure. In the event of a crash the fuel pump must be disabled. The oil pressure disable of the fuel pump to salvage the engine is false.
I will say that this “feature” was mentioned somewhere in Vega advertising. I don’t feel if i had purchased a Vega in 1971 or so that I would have run mine low on oil. I would have checked stuff on my Vega, my Vega would have been in tiptop shape and ifit used oil i would have added it as needed.
If it started usi g so much oil it became a problem I would have had the engine reworked amd had a nice little car. A mini Camaro if you will.
The MSRP was $6066 and the current listing is only $27,500 at f40.com. That’s only $5280 in 1976 dollars. Since it’s all original with 865 miles, it’s a bargain! Tick-tock!
Thank You @VDCdriver for the link. I’d never heard this story.
It is a classic tale of scheduling the product of R&D far too early in the design process based on the overly optimistic promises of brilliant engineers. Management has a desire and the responsibility to plan for these great ideas and keep to a schedule even before the design has been proven. But invention does not run on a schedule and failures in testing lengthen the timelines.
These situations drive the saying… You can’t speed up the birth of a child to 3 months by putting 3 women on the job. Some things just take 9 months.
I’ve spent most of my engineering career fighting this exact problem working on innovation as well as managing staff inventing the next great thing. It was always getting realistic time estimates from my staff, keeping the funding coming, and keeping upper management at bay while we worked out the kinks.
for an overhaul. As you can probably imagine, that AAMCO tranny lasted less than one year before it also went “bust”. AAMCO did the job again–gratis–but when the trans failed again w/in a few months, he decided to that it was time to sell the car to a shade-tree mechanic who knew of its problems.
