I have an idea that may create a fair amount of cash inflow for GM. I have a '95 Eldorado that I bought in 96. I have over 260,000 miles on it. My wife keeps getting the new cars for some reason the last few cycles. This car has been the most reliable vehicle I have ever had. But recently the ABS module went out. It is unrepairable, and only available from the dealer at a cost of $3000. That is more than the car is worth! I would find it hard to believe that GM is moving any high priced parts in their inventory for older cars. I bet if they lowered the price considerably for stuff like this, they could move some of this inventory and take in some needed cash.
There are places that will repair the existing module, I can’t vouch for any of them though.
http://www.google.com/search?q=abs+module+repair
Ed B.
I checked with those places, prior to 97 year is excluded as unrepairable.
I don’t know if it’s true in this case but a lot of manufacturers do not keep inventory like that lying around, especially for 10 years. If you tried to buy one, you might find that there is a lead time for the order. Their contracted parts vendor will get the order and fulfill it. Onesy, twosey quantities become very expensive, especially if they have to build one to complete the order.
You need to explore the local auto parts “recyclers”. Some of us old people call them junk yards. They have internet based connections with each other and can often locate a part for you.
Your idea to help GM is reasonable, but presumes that people with the imagination of small business operators are in charge. Judging by the past decade, I’d say the managers and planners at GM have been clueless about the needs and desires of the buying public. If not for fleet buyers and mass leasing to rental car companies they would have run out of customers years ago for some of their products.
Just do what we did in the “old days” drive without ABS,you remember how to do that don’t you?
I See How This Works.
A 14-15 year-old (“This car has been the most reliable vehicle I have ever had.”) car develops a costly problem at 260,000 miles plus.
Had a rod gone throught the block " . . . well, it didn’t owe me anything, that could happen to any car of that age and miles."
An extremely expensive ABS module goes south and people beat up GM management. The whole problem is that the car ran too long. I would contact the politician in charge of customer relations at GM (Government Motors).
Some people just can’t be satisfied.
CSA
It’s not my intention to beat up GM management. I don’t regret buying the car, I love it and wish I could keep it. Just thought it would be a good idea if they need to get rid of excess inventory. At that price I don’t think there is a vehicle that old that would justify that investment (except for the collectible/desirable vehicles of course). Next year will be my turn for a new car and I may likely get the Volt. Who knows…
I have tried 3 used modules from junkyards and all were bad, giving same error code. I even took it to the dealership to make sure it wasn’t something else. They confirmed it was a bad module. And they offered to replace it with a used one, for a cost of $1000.
I am driving without ABS, and will likely do just that until next year when it’s my turn for a new car. I do remember, thank you! I still own two vehicles without ABS, one even has manual brakes 
They are just not daily drivers, and never see the Michigan snow.
Turbo84gn, I Know. I Wasn’t Referring To You. Four Of Our Cars Are GM. They Have All Been Of Excellent Quality.
I have worked in automobile parts (not GM) and it sort of breaks your heart to watch “dead inventory” be destroyed because it costs too much to give it a place to live.
I too would be tempted to try a used one, maybe one with considerably fewer miles than your’s. You don’t want new parts on that experienced car. It could reject them.
CSA
I guess I beat up on GM management. It was not because this OP had a problem with the ABS module at 260,000 miles. You are right that the car has generally exceeded its expected life, and whatever happens now is just to be expected; kind of like wondering the cause of death of a 100 year old person.
The OP was suggesting a marketing idea for GM to discount old inventory. My feeling was they won’t do it. Maybe they will auction the whole supply off to someone who will retail it out. You could hope for that, from a trustee in bankruptcy.
We live in a capitalist economy, and when a huge business like GM becomes insolvent it reflects on the managers. The government steps in to keep it together, because it has great value to our economy to keep being able to make vehicles, and to keep skilled labor together and to keep plants and machinery under unified, US ownership as much as possible. In real capitalism, without government protection, this company would liquidate, lots of resources would go overseas, lots of skilled labor would be unemployed and would start moving all over the country for work, and it would be a real disaster.
I can’t agree that the liquidation of GM would be a disaster. It would be a catharsis, but in the end we’d have a more efficient and effective producer base in the automotive marketplace. I have serious reservations about the use of tax dollars to artificially government-control a free market. The perception that GM is a U.S. producer any more than Toyota or Honda is, I believe, obsolete. The automotive manufacturing industry is truely a global industry, probably more than any other.
But we’ve had extremely lengthy threads on this subject already and there are cearly differing philosophies at work here. I’ll save everyone another lenthy dissertation.
Allante owners (of which I am One) had ABS nightmares because THEIR systems would fail and result in total brake failure…These are also labeled as “Not repairable”…But the Allante owners club soon figured out how to repair them for a FRACTION of the price dealers wanted to replace the Bosch unit. The two failure-prone parts, the pump and the accumulator were indeed rebuildable, a fact that keeps many of these cars on the road…Allante’s and Eldo’s are basically the same car…Today, lawyers decide what repair shops are willing to do…
“…and when a huge business like GM becomes insolvent it reflects on the managers.”
Absolutely. And when there is a strong union, it reflects on them, too. The UAW has lawyers and economists on their staff. They have reviewed GM’s (and Ford’s, Chrysler’s) books. The UAW is fully capable of understanding the ramifications of their demands for top tier health care, retirement, pay, and other benefits. They got most of what they wanted - up front. This does not absolve management of their responsibilities, but the team messed up, not just the offense.