Warning for GM owners

I'll third Slappy's suggestion. Call the regional manager. He (or she) has the authority to OK a warranty repair. If you don't get immediate help, write a him (or her) letter (snail mail). Keep a copy. Then continue up the chain.

I will say that if my warranty was running out Sunday, I'd bring the car there on Thursday and make them check it in, that way it's in there in time.

 

Yep. Hundreds of thousands of folks have had the problem that FB mentioned. GM swears that it isn't caused by their antifreeze, but mechanics across the country, along with consumers and lawyers, disagree.

The corrosion affects the radiator cap, the radiator, hoses, water pumps, intake manifolds and more. I'm not so naive that I don't think a 10-year-old car should have mechanical problems, but what I've heard is that the same problem returns in about two years because the antifreeze is still in there. They say you can't really flush the stuff out because it sticks to the inside of all parts, where it works its corrosive magic. I just think it's an interesting development.

 

I grew up in a Ford-Chevy-GM family. Foreign cars were never an option. When my first car in high school (a 1985 Aries K) spontaneously combusted while I was driving home from my senior prom, I bought a 1981 Ford Grenada. After the driver and passenger-side doors both proved to be too heavy for their hinges, the alternator fried out and the engine later died, I bought another Ford -- this one a 1986 Escort. I had better luck with that one; it went almost four years before it finally gave up the ghost. Then it was onto a Ford Tempo (horrible) and a Chevy Cavalier (even worse). Finally, after putting several mechanics' kids through college, I met Mrs. Runaway, who turned me on to Honda products.

Since then we've had three Civics, a CRV and just recently bought a Pilot. The first Civic was great, until some douchebag broadsided my wife and totalled it. The second Civic was a used one we bought to hold us over, and not only did it give us no mechanical problems at all, we wound up getting a fair amount back when we traded it in for the new Civic we bought four years ago. In the meantime, our CRV ran great until we traded it in (getting a huge amount for it) for the Pilot, which has been a dream so far (knock on wood).

The moral to the story: Until I see one of the Big Three make a car that comes anywhere close to the Hondas I've owned in the past decade, I'm never going back. Most Hondas are assembled in the U.S. anyway, so it's not like I'm turning my back on my country or anything. I just think they make superior cars -- much better than their American counterparts.

 

If this story doesn't tell this board how badly the Big Three are screwing up, nothing will.

FWIW, owning a GM should come with a vehicle-sized warning label. One day, my mother's finally going to get that memo.

 

I have to say, my father worked 37 years manufacturing Chrysler cars, trucks and vans. He retired two Saturdays ago.

I nor my family have never owned anything other than a Chrysler product, for obvious reasons; the company put food on our table and put me through school.

My fiancee bought the GM car.

So far, everything I've - or we've - owned has sucked.

Now that pops is out of there, I will most definitely be buying foreign from here on out.

 

My step father's brother was an auditor for Chrysler so that's all his family drove as well. In 1995 he bought a brand new Stratus and I bought a 1990 Lincoln Continental with 60,000 miles on it. Despite the Continental rep for being one of the worst domestic vehicles ever produced, his car was in the shop eight times to my twice in the first year.

I honestly have no idea how Chrysler stays in business. I know of no one who drives one and no one who wants one. They cant be selling that many Dodge Rams.

 

That's why all the hand-wringing about the Big Three amuses me. They seem to think there's some big mystery as to why their companies are circling the drain. They love to blame the unions and all these other factors, but what it really boils down to is they make inferior products.

As an addendum to my original tale, my mother -- after years of driving nothing but American cars -- finally broke down and bought a Toyota this year. Her previous car -- a Le baron -- was bought brand new. Within a year, the paintjob started flaking, but she somehow got dicked out of getting it fixed under warranty. That was the start of a decade of engine problems, mystery noises and frustration.

If a long-time customer like her can finally get fed up, I'm not sure if The Big Three can come back.

 

Kleeda:

I'll go you one better.

Some years ago, I bought a used Toyota with about 25,000 miles on it. It was not purchased from a Toyota dealer.

Two years later, it's a three-year-old car with 58,000 miles on it, when one morning I hear a funny noise, so I take it to a Toyota dealer.

They call me an hour later and say they've found metal shavings in the transmission fluid. I ask what it's going to cost, thinking it's going to be a super expensive proposition.

I'm told that they contacted the regional service office and even though the car is three years old and has a lot of miles, there's no way a transmission should fail that soon, so they are replacing it free of charge.

Regrettably, I've moved since and the local Toyota dealer isn't that sharp, but the Honda people here are great and have bent over backwards to take care of our cars.

 

My family owns one each of the Big Three: My Cobalt, my mom's Chrysler van and my step-dad's Ford F-250.

 

I had a 1996 Corsica and a 2002 Cavalier. Went with GM because my uncle worked for them and I wanted to buy American. Both went ka-plooey around 100K miles. Both from coolant-related problems.

I now drive a Toyota.

 

Like the "unintended acceleration" issue with the Audi 5000, the Dex-Cool sludge issue is one that can be traced back to the owner. Ain't nothing wrong with Dex-Cool --- not one thing --- as long as you know how to take care of it.

However, if you mix Dex-Cool and regular green antifreeze, that's when the corrosive sludge forms. Lesson: Don't mix yellow coolant and green coolant. Ever.

(And like Audi 5000 owners, people who screw up their Dex-Cool won't face up to the fact that it's their fault.)

 

That's strange. I had a 1993 Lumina when I was in high school and never had a single problem out of it even though it had 193,000 miles when my parents bought it for me.