At some point high tech performance options result in a ‘tail wagging the dog’ situation. On several occasions I have diagnosed suspension problems on cars and watched the owners go ballistic at the repair estimate when the problem was with systems such as ride control. Like Cadillac’s 4-6-8 system the Magnetic Ride is an engineered in early obsolescence. More and more we are being sold automobiles that will become junk long before the drive train wears out or the body is totaled. A 6 year old car with minor body damage and the air bags deployed is scrap iron.
I’ve got a friend that worked on Magnetic Ride Control, as did I, that now works for a company that makes standard replacements for the electronic-struts-with-air-springs. These are for very high end Mercedes, Bentleys, Rolls Royces, Audis, and BMWs.
Amazing how many well-heeled car buyers choke at $4000 a corner for factory replacement parts for their $125,000 cars and how much profit there is in $1500 replacements.
Back in the days when I drove a Fleetwood limo as a summer job, we used to refer to the Caddy with the V-8-6-4 system as “the V-8-6-4-2-ZERO”.
Because I was the low man on the proverbial totem pole, I was often “sentenced” to drive GM’s eco-BOMB.
I was told that, in order for the car to perform properly, I had to be sure to warm it up for at least 20 minutes, even in 90 degree conditions.
Guess what?
Even after 20 minutes of “warming-up” I never knew how it would react to my pressure on the accelerator pedal, and as a result, that car was a hazard on the highway.
Hopefully we have seen an end to GM’s traditional practice of using consumers to do their last 2 years of reliability/durability testing…
I am always amused at Cadillac’s efforts to turn lemons into lemonade @VDCdriver. The 8-6-4 V-8 was outdone by the “Cannot overheat” system on Northstar engines. That engine developed a terrible reputation for melting down quickly so the factory programmed the ECM to shut down 1-4-6-7 to cool them then switch them on and kill 8-3-5-2 and then alternating to keep the engine from catastrophically failing. That was much cheaper than correcting the deficiencies of the engine and sounded like a grand technical breakthrough in Cadillac commercials.
The Magneride suspension is a $1700 option on a Ford Mustang, i.e. $400/strut + computer, so I think that you were ripped off, sorry to hear about this.
When properly set-up, this suspension is a MIRACLE. It can be compliant when you’re going straight ahead and some versions might even anticipate a pothole hitting the rear wheel and soften-up (based on the time differential from when it hit the front wheel, and the car speed). Most importantly it might stiffen up on ONLY ONE SIDE as soon as the body starts to roll in a turn, and so YES, you should be happy to get it working again, although your car probably wouldn’t benefit as much as a sports car would, from a track-focused magneride suspension.