Why do I continue to buy GM products?

[07Denali]

To give you all an insight in to my rage I will give you a history of the last 4 cars we have owned.
-2008 Buick Enclave (new)-traded in at 10,000 miles because it was in the shop 14 times in 8 months (and not for oil changes and tire rotations)

-2009 Buick Enclave(new)-Bought to replace the previously mentioned POS-Traded in at 5,000 miles after 4 service trips for electrical problems, stranding my wife twice with no start problem and a catastrophic transmission failure (i am talking fluid all over the street like some nascar shit).

-2007 Yukon Denali- (used) relitavely trouble free other than the CEL that I had to turn off constantly because the transmission in this one was a POS too. Traded today....see below.

So now on to today's events. My wife drives 160 miles south to a friend of the family's chevrolet dealership to pick up her "new used" car. To make a long story short we bought the Denali real right and sold it and made $. The new-used car is a 2004 Suburban Z71, black/gray, loaded, 70k miles. She gets 5 miles from the dealership (who mind you "100 point inspected" the car) and she said it felt like she hit a pot hole, but there was no pot hole. The popping noise that she heard was the transmission going out of this one!! She said that it did not feel right from the first time she pulled off of the lot. I know that this is not a new vehicle, I know that the trans is the weak link in these, but 70k, really????? I wish that the federal government had never bailed out GM so that they would have crashed and burned like they deserved to. When you build an inferior product that you have to rebate to the point of bankrupting you to get people to buy it....not a good way to do business. Would have been cheaper for us, the tax payers, to just pay all the warranty claims outstanding than keep throwing good money after bad product.

GM

Needless to say, I am a little pissed right now.

Rant over.......

Now as to what is wrong with it. It has 1st and 2nd gear, no 3rd or drive. There was a big popping noise right before it went out??? Will they rebuild it or just put a new one in there?

I am not sure what I am going to do, they put my wife right back in to her denali and limped this thing to their service department. I am thinking about telling them to keep their check (we got money back from the Denali, obviously) and shread the paperwork. And going to buy an Expedition EL or a Sequoia?? Probably better off to not do anything until Monday when I calm down a bit.

 

[highrollin113]

i know this wont make you feel anybetter but i have owned 7 different gm products over 16 year never had a problem besides the rearend in my 01 blazer went once it had 240000km, every manufacturer has bad products maybe you just have bad luck, either way that sucks and hope it works out for you, good luck

 

[Mac]

Damn!!...talk about bad luck.

Why not try Toyota?
Oh wait!!...gas pedal get stuck...Hmm..maybe european?

 

[blrmkrl83]

I have had good luck with GM also. Had an 01 Suburban that I traded with 242,000 miles on it. Couldn't have been hapier with it. I now have an 05 Denali XL that I bought with 81,000 on it and now have 107,000. The water pump went out around 95,000 and I am having the brakes done next week. Pretty good so far I think. My wifes 05 Montana had a few little things wrong with it, but those were under warranty. I think it has about 65,000 on it now.

 

[chistoso]

Other than a 92 Ford Thunderbird SC, I've owned nothing other than GM. One Buick and a dozen Chevy/GMC. Guess it depends but other than regular maintenance , wear and tear and modding never had mechanical issues with any of them. Drove a 97 Silverado to work and back, 70 miles each way to work for 11 years, racked up close to 300k before I sold it to a coworker and still runs strong to this day..

 

[amaz]

Sounds like that the forward clutch sprag blew... not the first one to go under 100k

 

[Eagle]

with your luck, you'd get the expedition home and it would immediately catchon fire and burn the truck and hte house to the ground.

Buy the toyota and the e-throttle would stick. the VSC woud screw up. the tranny would crap out. the rear hatch would quit working. the rear windows would stop working. the $4000 air injection system would quit...

 

[RumorsOFsurF]

Another GM lifer here. My Dad just traded in his '96 Tahoe with 260,000 mi. He rebuilt the trans, but otherwise completely original. I had an S-10 Blazer with 180,000 mi that still ran great when I sold it.

Of course, the Yukon I just bought had a fried transfer case, but the warranty took care of that.

 

[tast101]

Owned 2 Monte Carlos and my Yukon, the only thing I've owned are GM products, and I haven't had any problems. All of them were used too.

 

[yukonjacks]

It seems strange that one person can have so much bad luck with so many vehicles, especially vehicles in with a good reputaion in a short time both new and used. I bought my Yukon because of the reputaion of the vehicles, a lot of my friends have Tahoes and Yukons and they swear by them. In the past 30+ I have had GM's, Fords, Toyo's, Jeeps and Mopars and a Beemer all in all about 16 vehicles. The only one I had an issue with was a 73 Dodge Dart ******* with a 340 engine.

If all else fails buy a Honda, no one complains about them, and if you have problems with a Honda, get a bus pass.

 

[chip]

It's no secret that ALL American manufacturers took the greed over quality route circa 1980. (That's why Honda was able to take over the world), but ultimately we all have to deal with flaws in build quality, no matter who's brand we choose to go with. Any given vehicle is only going to treat you as good as you treat it. Yes you will encounter more problems with vehicles that were cheated in the build quality department, but there's a solution to that......When something breaks, upgrade it! Tranny goes out? Take it to a REAL tranny shop and have them build the shit out of it! Alternator goes out? Have a REAL alternator shop build you a ** alternator. Etc, Etc, (That's what I do). The more you invest in your vehicle, the longer it will last. The better you treat it, the better it will treat you. Make no mistake though, I COMPLETELY understand your frustration, and I'm not blaming you AT ALL! I'm just saying that this shit happens, PERIOD! It's easier said than done, for sure, but you gotta pick somethin' you love and just roll with that shit Brother! The longer you keep one, the more you know about it's dependability! Every time you swap, you take on a whole new list of shit that WILL break!

Just my opinion. Hope it helps!

 

[Eagle]

If all else fails buy a Honda, no one complains about them, and if you have problems with a Honda, get a bus pass.

their engines sludge up and fail prematurely... happened to my mom.

 

[BlizzardX23]

very odd....seems like you just have horrible luck...donno what to tell ya.... =/ sorry bro...


My 03 Yukon has 110,*** miles...never had any issues with transmission...and Im suuuuuper ******* my truck...

 

[chip]

their engines sludge up and fail prematurely... happened to my mom.

I have to respectfully disagree here!

Honda is the ONLY car company that I feel EARNED their good reputation! Their engineering and build quality is second to none! They have lead the leaugue in pretty much every catagory. Shit, they're even cool enough to build every Honda sold in America...........IN AMERICA!

People can rave about Toyota and other *** manufacturers, but the truth is, they all just copied Honda.

Just think, Honda was started by one man, less than 1 lifetime ago, and grew to be what it is now. How can you explain that in any way other than quality products and engineering?

Let me be clear too, I have no association with Honda, and I have due respect for ALL manufacturers, but I just know a good thing when I see it.


Seriously, this is how cool they are! They ADVERTISE THEIR FAILURES:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiaPNlR5A4I




.

 

[BlizzardX23]

Honda is by far, no more original then any other....Honda is a huge copycat....

Just like their POS motorcycles...they copy Harley and model their bikes to look exactly like Harley....thats ****** LAME! lol...

look up the history of Honda and their influence for the cars they've built...you'll be surprised...

 

[chip]

I've done all that homework, more than once!

Their genius lies in their engineering.

Looks are determined by customer demnd.

I don't know where you got your information from, but I have to disagree!

As far as bikes go. Noboy builds sportbikes like Honda, and I think it's safe to say that there will only be one Harley Davidson! That will never be disputed here! Harley could never be duplicated!

 

[Modded]

We have seemed to always have good luck with our GM cars, but the Toyota cars we have, have more miles than the GM counterparts ad just tend to not make a whole buch of BS squeaks, rattles and noises that the GM ones make. That's it.
So you could try a Sequoia, or just try a different Denali, eitherway good luck.
And do exactly what you said and shred their check and take your Denali back.

 

[07Denali]

Well the dealer put her back in her Denali until they can get it fixed. Just horribly frustrating. I have had nothing but good luck with cars my whole life, but I take care of them. I may ride them hard, but they do not get put up wet and neglected. I have always had a mustang gt that gets the absolute piss beat out of it, but it gets synthetic oil every 3k and I have always had no problems at all with them.

My wife on the other hand has had horrible luck with cars and I usually blame it on her driving (since I do all the maintence now).

I have had Honda's and Toyota's and have a 2010 Toyota Camry as a work car right now. Anybody who doubts the build quality and reliability of either is just a fool. For every one story about a GM with 200k on it there are 20 Toyota/Honda ones.

The notion of prople hating imports because they are "foreign cars" needs to look at this article... http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2007-03-21-car-content-chart_N.htm. In the case of my Camry 75% of the parts are from the US/Canada and it is built by Americans in Kentucky. Americans that I do business with to put food on my family's dinner table.

We could talk all day about "hiccups" that auto companies have had and none are perfect. I also have no idea how this Suburban was taken care of so I cannot say that GM is at fault, but they claim that the transmission is a "one time fill" and no maintence is needed until 100k so it should last til 100k in my opinion. Bottom line is that the I was offered a 3/36 bumper to bumper warranty for $1600 and took it, it is just a hastle.

I was looking at a 3 ton half track on ebay. Gas mileage sucks, but I bet she could not destroy that. And it will run on anything from used motor or cooking oil, gas, diesel, kerosine, you name it, if it is flammable it will run on it.

 

[chip]

Well the dealer put her back in her Denali until they can get it fixed. Just horribly frustrating. I have had nothing but good luck with cars my whole life, but I take care of them. I may ride them hard, but they do not get put up wet and neglected. I have always had a mustang gt that gets the absolute piss beat out of it, but it gets synthetic oil every 3k and I have always had no problems at all with them.

My wife on the other hand has had horrible luck with cars and I usually blame it on her driving (since I do all the maintence now).

I have had Honda's and Toyota's and have a 2010 Toyota Camry as a work car right now. Anybody who doubts the build quality and reliability of either is just a fool. For every one story about a GM with 200k on it there are 20 Toyota/Honda ones.

The notion of prople hating imports because they are "foreign cars" needs to look at this article... http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2007-03-21-car-content-chart_N.htm. In the case of my Camry 75% of the parts are from the US/Canada and it is built by Americans in Kentucky. Americans that I do business with to put food on my family's dinner table.

We could talk all day about "hiccups" that auto companies have had and none are perfect. I also have no idea how this Suburban was taken care of so I cannot say that GM is at fault, but they claim that the transmission is a "one time fill" and no maintence is needed until 100k so it should last til 100k in my opinion. Bottom line is that the I was offered a 3/36 bumper to bumper warranty for $1600 and took it, it is just a hastle.

I was looking at a 3 ton half track on ebay. Gas mileage sucks, but I bet she could not destroy that. And it will run on anything from used motor or cooking oil, gas, diesel, kerosine, you name it, if it is flammable it will run on it.

I really like this ^^ post! I feel the same way, for the most part. All the women in my family seem to have "bad luck" with their cars! (wink, wink). But the truth is probably more like, "Change the ******* oil and the engine won't seize!"

The truth is (IMO) that you could put a turd on 4 wheels, and if you take care of it, it will take care of you. I don't believe there is an "end all, be all" manufacturer in any market and that is why I find it so important to know your brands weaknesses first! Brag about them later (after you fix the factory **** ups)

I honestly believe that owning a vehicle is THE PERFECT relationship! You both have your faults "from the factory", but "she" (the vehicle) will give you EXACTLY what you give her! No more, No less. She won't get mad if you look at other cars, but if you shit on her, she'll shit right back on you........at the worst possible time! Neither of you will be in great shape without maintenance, and eventually, you will both die! There's no way around that!

That's my 2 cents!

(Oh, and for the record, Toyota IS a great company - My Aunt is one of the builders you spoke of, I just preffer Honda. I think they try harder.)

 

[clean454]

wow bro sorry to hear about all ur headaches and troubles, i hope it all works out and that you can stick with Gm
but sometimes enough is enough. atleast you got the extended warranty
i would tell the stealership that you want ur money back and to just shred your contract just IMO tho
and look for something a little newer with lower miles
again imo
good luck bro!!