GM Daewoo Suzuki Products are JUNK!

Maintenance/Repairs
81

Something must be wrong! The poor people near me seem to live the good life. They have nice newer model big cars like SUVs and trucks, nice clothing/jewelry, and the latest iPhone or Galaxy phone. The working people drive the beaters. I once did some work for a rent to own place and boy did they have stories! People would have a big screen TV delivered to their house that had no electricity and run extension cords to the neighbors to watch TV.

Sure, there are some poor people who drive cars that likely won’t pass inspection the next time around and are likely on their last legs. I mean like duct tape and plastic over the windows, a clattering engine missing on many cylinders, and foul exhaust.

I am in business for myself and the people who claim to be “poor” or more commonly “on a fixed income” seem to be the ones who drive the nice cars. I am sure local standards apply but I am not the only one who has experienced this. It is frustrating when they are unwilling to pay yet have all these things you don’t have. You can deduct mileage on the job from your income tax returns. The number is a flat rate. It varies with gas prices but is usually around 50 cents a mile. So you can come out ahead by driving a gas saver vs. something that drinks fuel. I routinely have jobs 30-40 miles distant from where I live and add travel time to the bill of course. Driving a gas saver makes sense for me.

Also, some people don’t mind a small car as they are more nimble and easier to park in congested areas. There is the exception of the viral Youtube video where someone was unable to park a Smart car.

I actually see quite a few Mitsubishi products around here and am noticing more and more because of this. Some are newer models while some are quite old.

I remember that Mitsubishi Montero SUV or whatever. This thing seemed to be a pile of junk. Everyone I know who had one had serious issues with them such as the engine or transmission. The best story I ever heard was a guy driving ahead of the route of a motorcade for then Vice President Al Gore. The security and all was setting up along the route and the highway had been closed behind him so all the civilian cars would be cleared out before Al Gore came through. The engine threw a rod and the hot oil dumped onto the hot exhaust and caught fire. The SUV was engulfed in flames. He got out and realized he had snipers with rifles trained upon him from all directions. They thought this was a diversion at first but then realized it was just random car trouble.

To add insult to injury, he was watching the evening news and a few seconds of the story showed chopper footage of his burning SUV along the motorcade route. I can’t recall the last time I saw a running Montero so these obviously didn’t withstand the test of time.

82

“Why do the consumers give it very good reviews while the experts pan it as a piece of junk?”

Are you alleging that there is a massive conspiracy among automotive journalists to downgrade a perfectly good car?
Hmmm…

I think that the disparity in opinions between the owners of these cars and the car magazines can be explained by one or more of these scenarios:

The people who bought these cars may not have driven all of the competing cars. It is very likely that the automotive journalists have driven all of the other competing cars, and are thus in a better position to critique the vehicle within its own class of vehicles.
These cars may be all that the owners can afford, and as a result, they are rationalizing that these cars are…okay.
After purchasing something that costs many thousands of dollars, many people are not willing to admit to themselves that they did not choose wisely, and will tell others that it was a wise purchase, in an attempt to convince themselves that they didn’t make a mistake in choosing that model.

Let me give you the example of a close friend of mine, who bought a Scion IQ last year. He had been intent on buying a Smart car or a Fiat 500 until I talked him out of those two really bad choices. While I knew that the Scion IQ has a lot of shortcomings, his extreme problems with parallel parking in the most crowded urban environment in The US (Hint: It’s not NYC!) made it imperative that he get a really, really small car. And, he does not deal well with any device that malfunctions or breaks down. Put those factors together, and that is why I came up with the Scion IQ for him. I had also recommended the 2-door Toyota Yaris, but after trying to park it, he complained that it was “too big”.

He is deliriously happy with his IQ, but you have to realize that all of his previous cars were beaters that lasted only a few months before expiring in a cloud of smoke. And (this is NOT a joke) his last car was a really beat-up '59 Dodge that was towed to the junkyard, circa 1969. Last year, he was not familiar with any modern automotive technology, and never before had a car where everything functioned perfectly, so–of course–that little IQ was like a breath of fresh air for him!

By comparison, his IQ has at least as much power as his old Dodge beater with almost no compression, it starts every time that he turns the key, it doesn’t rattle or emit noxious fumes, and even though it is not luxurious by any means, his little IQ actually has more creature comforts than any of his old beaters ever did.

I drove the IQ a few months ago, and I was surprised that it was as…decent…as it is. By comparison with my car, it lacks power, doesn’t handle well, and–obviously–is very short on both room and comfort. However, it meets my friend’s limited needs, and that is all that matters. And, because it is a Toyota, it will probably continue to be extremely reliable.

83

I guess everyone has their priorities in life. I personally view a car as a depreciating asset. I drive on a lot of bad roads so rock chips and broken windshield glass are common for me. Why tear up a Mercedes to drive down what is a little better than a Jeep road?

My main line of work deals with computers. I hate dealing with slow ones so I guess this is somewhat of a double standard as there is no asset that depreciates faster than computers. The cheap ones from Wal-Mart that people pick up cheap thinking they got a great deal are probably what you would compare a car like this to. I turn them on and then I hurry up and WAIT! 15 minutes later the sluggish dog finally is able to load a web page. This is with a clean OS load and no viruses. 2GB of RAM with a modern OS and anemic CPU just don’t work together well. I feel these units were made to be as cheap as they come. What I don’t mind is when a customer is perfectly happy to pay me $65/hr to sit there and wait for their computer to complete a task.

I pay more for my computers than my cars. They boot up and are ready to go in 3 seconds but I guess that is what you get when you combine an Intel Core i7 with 8GB or more of RAM and a fast solid state drive (SSD).

I personally don’t care about bells and whistles in cars. Obviously there are lots like me. I go on many service calls and these can be all over creation. I live in a rural area with many small towns. I get a call 35 miles away from where I live. I go there and then get another call for the town 35 miles in the opposite direction. So I get in the car and then drive 70 miles to get to my next destination. Then it is another 35 miles to get home. That is 140 miles in a day. This means that a car that gets 50 miles to the gallon burns a tad less than 3 gallons of gas. Not bad.

Some days are even crazier. Take the days the lightning storms occur. I might be running from the time I wake up until almost bedtime. Then there was an ice storm that brought down the trees and power lines. That made a mess of electronics. Lots of miles on that one. These miles and the fuel add up. Again, why tear up a nice car with all these miles when many are driven on crappy gravel roads?

The one thing I still don’t understand is why this car is doing as well as it is when there are others in the same class for about the same price getting better reviews?

Yes, I have driven luxury cars. I personally find the touch systems annoying. I like the simple push button controls on this car as they are intuitive and don’t require the driver take attention away from the road to operate. Systems like this were common until around 10 years ago when everyone had to go to the touch screens. This is one thing I like about my old click wheel iPod. The simple elegance of it is great. It can be operated without taking your eyes off the road. This is what made the original iPods so great. The new ones are not that way.

The Kia Rio was basically the same price as this and a nice car. It was bigger and she didn’t like that. It was more solid and smoother/quieter. I thought it was a great option for a $13,000 car. The touch screens and other technology scared her off, plus she wanted a small hatchback… I personally see this is something else to go wrong. With my line of work, keep it simple stupid often works best. One issue I have is that these systems are essentially part of the car. It isn’t like buying the cheapest factory radio in the past and then installing a better aftermarket because it is cheaper and better than the upgraded factory option. You just simple can’t remove these systems because they are integral to the car.

She thought the Chevy Spark was cute driving down the road but I told her it was a “Daewoo” which at that point had become a four letter word to her. That was the last of the interest in that one.

84

You have to remember opinions are like Lungs ,everyone has one or two .The worst cars today are better then some of the older highly regarded models .
btw ,can you recommend a fairly fast ,reliable computer for someone like myself ,who does little ,else but ,photos web ,surfing and pays bills online ?(simple OS would be nice too,with the ability to plug an OBD into it somehow (gotta keep it car related ) Thanks

85

Yep, that is pretty much the deal Just bring up motor oil and people will have a huge variance of opinions. No one would ever guess I am driving around with an oil rated for Mercedes, BMW, etc. in a Geo Metro!

As for the computer, do you require a serial or parallel port? I know lots of diagnostic and test equipment requires these. Sometimes I am able to get away with an old computer but sometimes I have to buy a special industrial unit for a higher cost. If you can use USB, then you have a million options.

If you plan to take this with you to record realtime data from the car, I suggest a metal bodied laptop. They hold up so much better than the consumer grade junk made from cheap shiny plastic. I also suggest getting an SSD for durability, speed, and lower power usage. Once you go to an SSD, you won’t go back!

As for a CPU, I suggest getting at least an Intel Core i3 or better. Core i3 is a very good low end processors. Yes, there are lower end ones but they are so dreadful much like an economy car with a slush box automatic transmission that I cannot suggest them. Waiting 15 minutes for a computer to boot is NOT OK if you ask me. I also have a strong preference to Intel over AMD units. Better performance and power use come at only a small price premium over AMDs. In addition, the super low-end such as from Wal-Mart seem more tolerable with Intel CPUs.

Try to get at least 6 GB of RAM. 8GB is best and 4GB is an absolute minimum. 4GB would likely do all you need but RAM is cheap these days.

I would suggest looking into a refurb business grade laptop. You can often get these cheap and swapping parts is easy. It seems the consumer grade units these days are not made to be serviced. You have to take the whole thing apart to get to the most basic of parts like the hard drive and RAM. This way you can replace or upgrade parts, especially if you need to repair or upgrade the unit. You could buy one without an SSD and only 4GB of RAM and upgrade it in the future.

86

There is one difference between most cheap computers and the cheap cars I am familiar with (Geo Metro and Mitsubishi Mirage). Believe it or not these cars are made to be serviced. Replacement parts and doing something simple like swapping a battery and changing the oil is no big deal. I have worked on plenty of cars where the oil runs down a control arm and makes a mess or you must remove a wheel to get to the battery. What is up with that?

Many of the cheap computers these days are made to be disposable. They are not made to be serviced and I think this is on purpose so you will end up buying a new one. If they were a car and you wanted to do something simple like change the spark plugs, the hood wouldn’t open. You would have to open the trunk and remove the entire interior of the car from the trunk. Then you would pull the engine through the passenger compartment and remove it through the trunk. Then you would change the spark plugs and reverse the process and put the car back together. The more costly business grade units are not this way. They have convenient access panels you remove with a few screws and then everything is just right there.

This has been the opposite of my experience with cars. The more expensive ones are harder to work on while some the cheaper ones seem to be made for easy serviceability. I wonder why this is.

One theory since many suggest that some cars such as the Mirage were made for the third world is that finding a good mechanic might be hard in the primary markets so making it easy to work on is important or it is expected that the owners will do all the work. I haven’t had to change the oil on this yet but others say it is super easy and that there is even a spout/lip so that the oil won’t run down the side of the engine when you remove the filter. It just runs right into your drain pan with the rest of the oil. I like ideas like this.

Someone commented on weapons earlier and this is similar. Weapons such as the AK-47 were designed for use in the third world. Maybe this isn’t 100% true but they were adopted by much of the third world. They may not be the most accurate or the best out there but they are super easy to work on, super easy to take apart and clean, and super reliable. ANYONE can use one. Even this CHIMPANZEE can use one! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhxqIITtTtU Then you have something like the AR-15/M-16 which I personally would prefer. I find the AR-15 style rifle much more accurate and it is plenty reliable if kept clean. There are a few extra parts and steps but I don’t see the added complexity or lack of a traditional gas piston as an issue for most people who are familiar with the rifle. You probably couldn’t throw it in a sand pit and expect it to fire like an AK-47 but it is far more accurate when clean and firing.

Maybe this is why some of the cheaper cars seem to be made easier to service. They are intended to be sold and operated where skilled labor to repair them might be scarce.

87

The Darwin Award. Never Given. Always Earned.

88

Thanks @cwatkin and I have to agree about the weapons also .One of my acquaintances was an ordinance developer for the Army (even did some work in Area 51 ,imagine that ) He related that a lot of the newer weapons were developed with an eye towards ammunition weight etc .Standard 7.62 Nato rounds weigh a considerable amount and I would guess the 5 56 are lighter with even smaller lighter ammo in the works ,with better performance comes more complexity unfortunately .

89

I just saw a preview of what was to come in the 2017 Mirage. They are improving some of the most complained about issues.

  1. 4 more HP and addition of roller lifters/cam setup (suspect two are related)
  2. Stiffer suspension all around for better handling
  3. Better brakes (larger rotors and better pads)
  4. Improved interior and exterior finishes and appearance
  5. Improved entertainment system including Android and Apple (I think this is an option which I am glad).
90

“I just saw a preview of what was to come in the 2017 Mirage. They are improving some of the most complained about issues.”

So, it’s becoming more like a car? :wink:
CSA

91

I guess if that is how you look at it. I thought the Geo Metro was basic until I saw this version of a “Geo”. 1 horsepower (or donkey power) and no gas required! http://briff.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Horse-Power-Car-11-Donkey-Car.jpg