@the same mountainbike–
Putting companies out of business by purchasing their products runs in my family. My Dad purchased a 1947 Desoto–it was a great car, but Desoto disappeared. He bought a new Studebaker in 1963 and that company went under a couple of years later.
I’ve also run appliance companies out of business. I was even a loyal Ipana toothpaste customer. No more Ipana and I haven’t brushed my teeth for years.
Careful… the guy that makes your dentures might go out of business…
"Careful… the guy that makes your dentures might go out of business… "
@the same mountainbike–
Actually, something similar is happening to me. I didn’t realize what shoddy work the dentist I had been seeing was doing until my wife recommended I get a second opinion from her dentist. I did that and found I needed all kinds of work. He sent me to a perodontist who was great and between the two of them, they saved my teeth. However, both of them retired. I found a great dentist in a small community 15 miles away. Unfortunately, he is only a few years younger than I am. However, he has no interest in retirement and keeps up with the latest equipment. I had a crown made for a tooth. I was there about 2 hours from start until the new crown was in place. The crown was made by computer imaging and the crown was milled right there in the office. I even got to see the machine make the crown. I had a great physician, but he retired 22 years ago at age 70 (and is still alive). The doctor that took over the practice is just a young sprout at age 50 or so. He is o.k.–he wrote a prescription for me that was supposed to keep me younger–he prescribed a Mazda Miata for my mental health. Unfortunately, he checked the box on the prescription that it could be filled generically. Mrs. Triedaq said she would go have the prescription filled and the generic medicine turned out to be a minivan.
Let me know if you can get the insurance company to cover that Miata prescription. I’d even happily pay the $10 copay! I’d even accept the “generic” option!
“GM today is NOT the GM of the 60’s. Some people are completely blind to that. And they’ll stick behind them no matter what”.
In the 1960s, at least the early 1960s, there was competition between the GM divisions. The V-8 engines in the Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac had nothing in common with the other divisions. The Buick automatic transmission and the Chevrolet automatic were different and neither of these transmissions had anything in common with the automatic transmissions on the Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Cadillac. The 6 cylinder engine of the Chevrolet pickup truck of the early 1960s was an inline 6 while the GMC pickup truck had a V-6. By the 1970s, some of the GM products differed only by name plate. A big scandal arose when it was discovered in 1977 that some Oldsmobiles did not have the Oldsmobile Rocket V-8 engine, but had instead the Chevrolet V-8 engine and this wasn’t made known to purchasers. The bean counters were behind all of this, and IMHO this ultimately led to lack of competition among the divisions and the lack of competition caused the quality to slip.
Well, for me, I haven't hit a bad BRAND yet. I get sick and tired of people discounting an entire brand because they got one bad apple. I've had Dodge, AMC, Chrysler, Chevy, and Ford and even a Mexican Nissan. Not one bad one in the bunch.
That’s probably true for many if not most people. Because MOST people don’t keep their vehicles more then 100k miles. I keep mine a minimum of 250k miles. Most well past 300k miles.
My departed Uncle couldn’t believe I would buy Nissan or Honda’s. He never had single problem with his GM products. I’d put more miles in one year then he put on ANY of his GM cars he kept for 12 years. He was lucky to put 5,000 miles a year. When we had this argument I was averaging 40k miles a year. There was no comparison in reliability.
my 08 Expedition just turned 100k, the chevy in my driveway is a 1979, and the 92 Explorer I sold to get the expdn was at 135k and the buyer cheerfully paid my asking price. the 80 Bronco blew a hole through the top of one piston at 130k, was repaired with a $10 used piston head and when I sold it , it went to the mechanic who repaired it.
The others morphed as the family grew and changed.
So, with every intent to keep them forever, our needs have changed yet I’ve not gotten any bad ones yet.
In our shop the vehicles that people complain about are 99 percent due to their lack of maintainence or misuse for which they always blame the brand or the shop.
I’ve found that most of my vehicle changes were due to “family changes” and needs changes too. I have no data to back me, but I suspect that most vehicle changes for most middle class people are due to either changes in needs or a problem with the vehicle. For the less fortunate among us they’re probably due to the car finally wearing out, and for the rich they’re probably due to pure whimsy.
Just guesses, you understand. I have no data for any of this.
" . . . blew a hole through the top of the piston . . ."
If that’s not a “bad one” . . . what is it?
Can’t tell me a piston with a hole in the top is “good”
Perhaps you don’t consider it to have been a big deal, but that sort of thing doesn’t happen every day
Does GM have a fix for this problem yet, other than just buying a new car that is?
They are installing new ignition cylinders with higher strength springs. Of course, they don’t have enough parts for all cars yet. I’m not worried about my two Cobalts. Both are from model years after the parts we fixed and neither had the ignition cylinder replaced.
GM is like an abusive husband that beats his wife every night, but a few times a year, usually on a holiday or her birthday he is nice to her for a day and gets her a present but by the end of the day he ends up stumbling drunk and falls onto the living room table crushing her present and breaking the table in half. All that’s left is wood shards and 300lbs of dead weight passed out on the living room floor.
And I used to like GM.
Ooookaaay…now tell us how you really feel.