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First I'll start off with positives. Interior and trunk space is good. Ride is comfortable. Engine has good performance for daily driving while still having good fuel economy (I'm averaging 22 in the city with the AC running). The dashboard layout is well thought out. It's comfortable in the front and rear seats.
Now for the negatives. I've discovered that the AC control panel has had problems since the car was first produced in 1997. Hitting bumps in the road can sometimes flicker and turn off the AC button light which also turns off the compressor. It's nearly impossible to keep the ventilation on Recirc. Sometimes bumps in the road will switch it back to vent. Recirc on AC makes it much cooler in the summer. I've had the AC control panel replaced several times. I discovered that GM never corrected this problem and would only install a new control panel of the exact same design with no fix for the problem. When I found this out I gave up trying to get them to fix this problem. For my car, I put the fan speed at the highest speed setting and the AC button stays on. As the interior cools off I can lower fan speed and the AC button will still stay on. I know it's not the compressor because the compressor stays on constantly when in defrost mode.
Next problem was the intake gasket. Unfortunately this problem came about "AFTER" it was too late to get in on the class action lawsuit against GM for their mistake. This cost me about $800 to fix. The dealership claimed that GM came out with a fix, a replacement kit including new gasket, new bolts, and new torque specs.
Now I have a new problem. GM's PassLock theft deterrant system is occasionally not recognizing my keys and locks out the fuel injectors. To reset the system I have to put the key in the on position for ten minutes, turn off for 5 to 10 seconds, and the car will start again. I was told it could eventually not even start and would have to be replaced. Dealer told me it would be about $500 to fix the problem. Did internet research and discovered that this has been an ongoing issue for over ten years and they "STILL" haven't corrected the problem.
I can forgive GM such problems IF they, after realizing there's a problem with their product, would research the cause of the problem, research a way to correct the problem, and if a vehicle is brought in with such problems, would correct the problem at no cost to the owner since it was a problem caused by their design or product. What I can't forgive is the fact that they not only won't fix these problems at no cost to the owner, in many cases they won't even acknowledge their engineering mistakes nor spend any resources to fix their mistakes. I have two more car payments and this thing is paid for. When the title is in my hands I'll start looking for a replacement vehicle and it will not be a GM, Ford, or Chrysler product. I don't like Chrysler products and a local family found out how well ford deals with it's recall customers. A family lost their home in a fire caused by a Ford cruise control switch that was replaced in a recall from Ford for fire. So, their vehicle was in the recall notice saying the cruise control switch can cause fire. They brought their vehicle in and the switch was "alegedly" replaced and yet the switch still caught fire and burned down their home and damaged their neighbor's home. I'm going to draft a letter to send to GM and USA Today regarding GM's lack of quality control and lack of support of their product. I'm sorry, but I don't think a car that's roughly 6 years old and 70,000 miles (just reached that amount yesterday) should have such problems. I don't think they should fix normal wear and tear at no cost to the owner. But bad AC control, intake gasket leak due to their choice of engine coolant, and a malfunctioning theft deterrant system causing the car to not even start are things they should have found the problem, found a solution, and fix the damn problem at no cost to the owner when the problem develops. When I look for my next car I'll be checking out Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Hyundai, and Kia.
Sorry you had to find out the hard way why a lot of people buy Toyotas. These are the sort of problems caused by the Bean Counters overriding the engineers. GM's designers know how to fix this sort of problem when the car is built but if the fix costs a few cents more than the bad parts the bad parts are installed. This is just a part of the GM corporate culture.
Why do you think the corvette uses the same cheap turn signal switch as their cheapest sub compact? In GM cheap is more important then good.
GM never fixed the intake manifold gasket issues (it was not just Deathcool that was at fault, bad gasket design, too) from the factory that were prevalent in pretty much every v6 they cranked out.
Any 93-96 Camaro with that flimsy cracking dash...correct, GM never addressed that. I owned a 95, I know.
Have a truck with an early Vortec? Good, GM slid a campaign behind your back that would have replaced that CPI spider on their dime.
As much as I'd like to pluck off a vehicle to keep the miles off my F150 (a v6, just to avoid the spark plug blowout issue the Triton v8s have had), it won't be a GM. Way too flimsy for my taste.
So, when folks play naive in wondering why people run away from GM and others after getting burned repeatedly, I laugh loud. It is mainly kids that do this, though, in the various forums I frequent. "BUY AMERICAN" and whatnot, without taking a moment to think about how many people (my dad, for one) left a GM product on the side of the road after a transmission crapped out AGAIN. So, my dad learned from this. Enough to buy a 97 Chevy with a Vortec 350, that from his description of the symptoms, has been a yard ornamment for four years due to a (drum roll, please) a bad CPI spider.
Any 93-96 Camaro with that flimsy cracking dash...correct, GM never addressed that. I owned a 95, I know.
I owned a 1987 IROC Z and I actually liked the car quite a bit. The flimsy cracking dash was a problem in the 1982-1992 cars as well though. My 1987 had a cracked plastic dash and while trying to find a replacement at junkyards and swap meets I found that it was nearly impossible to get a hold of one that was not cracked at all. I actually never found one and sold the car with the cracked dash still in it. It is nice to know that they carried over the same problem to the next generation of Camaro.
Sorry you had to find out the hard way why a lot of people buy Toyotas. These are the sort of problems caused by the Bean Counters overriding the engineers. GM's designers know how to fix this sort of problem when the car is built but if the fix costs a few cents more than the bad parts the bad parts are installed. This is just a part of the GM corporate culture.
Why do you think the corvette uses the same cheap turn signal switch as their cheapest sub compact? In GM cheap is more important then good.
Had a 2001 Malibu LS, v6. Same intake problems, fixed at 53,000 miles under extended warranty. They tried to soak me for $100 to replace the serpentine belt at that time, till I read the warranty section to them about parts damaged by items under warranty(it was soaked with antifreeze). Got it for free.
At 55,000 the servomotor for the vent system went out. Under warranty, but got the car back with no radio, no dome light, no dash lights, all working fine when it went in. Jumped on the service manager, everything was working as before a few hours later.
Sold it at 56,000 miles. If I'd had to pay for all the problems, it'd have cost me over 2grand in repairs in less than 5,000 miles.
Nice car, comfortable, economical, absolutely no resale value, thank you rental car companies dumping excess on the market. Oh, I got $4000 for it in '04. 3 years old, sticker over 20 grand.
If I'd bought a Camry or Corolla instead and sold it at 3 years old with those miles, I'd have gotten within 3 grand or so of the sticker easily.
My 05 Tundra......paid 18 for it in 07. It KBB's at 15 still 2 years later.
My brand new 09 Caliber....paid 12 for it last month, it's worth maybe high 9's right now.
Can't argue with figures.
Sorry you had to find out the hard way why a lot of people buy Toyotas. These are the sort of problems caused by the Bean Counters overriding the engineers. GM's designers know how to fix this sort of problem when the car is built but if the fix costs a few cents more than the bad parts the bad parts are installed. This is just a part of the GM corporate culture.
Why do you think the corvette uses the same cheap turn signal switch as their cheapest sub compact? In GM cheap is more important then good.
Dude, you are 100% right. McNamara, the over-educated numbskull who mired the country in Vietnam, did similar with his "control accounting" approach at Ford back in the day.
The Autobahn keeps the German manufacturers more or less honest.
The Japanese are heavily into "continuous process improvement" taught to them by Dr. Edward Deming - he tried to tell Detroit first but they wouldn't listen...
Comparing a Camry to a Malibu is analogous to comparing Gold to fool's gold.
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