It’s long overdue for General Motors to reorganize under bankruptcy protection laws. General Motors should spin off each of its divisions. Some will go belly up. Others will go South where they will not be burdened by the UAW siphoning off something to the tune of $2.5 billion a month to pay workers not to work among other things.
GM built the EV1 to satisfy a mandate from the state of California that 2 percent of a manufacturer's fleet sold there be zero-emissions vehicles (that number would rise to 10 percent by 2003). However, the EV1 and electric vehicles built by other manufacturers finally convinced the California Air Resources Board that the zero-emissions mandates weren't achievable by then-current technology. This led to the cancellation of the mandate.
It seems that the EV1 was designed by bureaucrats and lawyers. No sane engineer would foist this kind of crap on the public.
Any car fanatic will tell you that front wheel drive sucks. All luxury cars and sports cars are rear wheel drive for a reason, balance.
My sister had a Vega- it really was junk. It was still fairly new when she was rummaging in the trunk and the carpet liner rolled up to reveal her trunk was rusting out.
We had a late 60s GMC stepside pickup that was terrific, lasted forever, stayed together. Hubby and I bought a 1992 GMC pickup and it ran good, but the body literally fell apart- door panels falling apart, dash coming off- oh big time rattles. I really thought it would just come apart one day driving down the road.
I LOVED my Vega. Five bucks in gas, fill’er up with oil and I could go for a week!
Everybody makes mistakes, it's how you deal with them that separates the folks you continue to trust from those you'll never do business with again.
BTT
Yeh, I had one of these, 81 Cutlass diesel. I was in the charter boat business at the time...diesel was pretty easy to get, and before all the dyed diesel, etc. People would ask, how can you stand all that noise....just turn up the $1000 stereo. What about all that black smoke?. Works great for that impatient a$$ who is on his horn the instant the light turns green. Just black smoke him. Got almost 200k miles out of it, but down side, probably 40 fan belts. Thing could not keep a fan belt on.
editorializing at its worst from PM.
I think the X-Car killed GM. It debuted during the Carter Recession, when people needed inexpensive, reliable transportation more than they had in the previous few decades, and when GM served up that kind of disrespect to its customers at that particular moment, many of them jumped ship for the Asian brands and never went back.
I loved the Olds Vista Cruiser Wagon my family had in the late 70s, so much that I bought it from my father when I graduated, and drove it until 1990, when I replaced it with a Plymouth Voyager van.
Now I drive two Toyota Priuses.
My wife had a chevy chevette hatchback that worked pretty well.
At some point it developed a problem where, if you were going up a hill, the engine power would suddenly drop. I’d have to downshift and slow down to make it up.
Eventually, they figured out it was a problem with some fuel pump. But before they did, I went through a couple of repair people who insisted that this was just the way Chevettes were, and that I was crazy thinking I could ever go up a hill in 4th gear.
BS. The Buick Skylark and Old's Starfire of the early sixties had all aluminum 215 c.i. V8s. Some came with turbochargers.
Those motors had cooling problems because owners couldn't get it through their thick heads that you shouldn't fill the radiator from the garden hose. (water jackets would corrode and the motor'd overheat)
When GM discontinued the motor, it sold the tooling to Rover and is the basis of the V8's Rover still uses.
The IVAW was set up by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Since the VVAW is so dispised by other veterans, they have to hide like coockroaches under a rock called Veterans For Peace (VFP).
You'll find that the VFP/VVAW pukes most responsible for helping the kids trash this generation of military are in fact bastards that trashed their genetration of military via the Jane Fonda funded original Winter Soldier back in 1970.
Many of the bad things that happened to the Vietnam Vets are due to the Winter Soldier smear by the VVAW.
And when those bastards set up a puppet group to smear this generation and the unions play the role of Jane Fonda, SCREW THEM!
Each year, Consumer Reports weighs in on the most reliable cars. By calculating an overall reliability score for each of the three newest model years - 2005, 2006, and 2007 - the organization comes up with the best bets for the current year. Here are some highpoints for 2008:
1. Family cars: Toyota Prius, Honda Accord (4-cylinder), Ford Fusion (V6)
2. Large cars: Buick Lucerne (V8), Toyota Avalon, Dodge Charger (V6)
3. Small cars: Toyota Yaris Hatchback, Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris Sedan
4. Minivans: Toyota Sienna, Honda Odyssey, Chrysler Town & Country
5. Small SUVS: Honda Element, Mitsubishi Outlander, Subaru Forester (turbo)
6. Midsized SUVs: Toyota Highlander, Honda Pilot, Toyota 4Runner
Drove my nephew's '93 Buick Century V-6 from PA to NY. A big mother, loaded with electric windows, all the bells and whistles. Got an astounding (to me) 30 mpg cruising at 65 mph in total comfort.
Topic Drift. The oil burning stories made me smile "nostalgically" for my first car - a '47 Willys 4-cylinder station wagon. Bought it just before I got out of the navy in '54. My shipmates went with me to a Miama, FL to make sure I wouldn't get screwed. After a close going-over, they OKd the vehicle. By time we got to Hollywood, FL (30 miles down the road) I noticed the oil pressure dropped by half. From then on she burned a quart of oil every 30 miles. "You always get screwed on your first car" those same shipmates counseled. I drove it home from Key West to NYC. I got 20 mpg on gas - and used 18 GALLONS of oil. It got so bad I was buying 50 weight tractor oil in 5-gallon mini-drums - all to no avail. Finally got a ring job but she always burned oil and I later got a '49 Chrysler that ran like a top and got 16 mpg.
Oh goody,the daily bash America thread.
It’s amazing how horrendous some of those cars are, that list is the tip of the iceberg. Make a list of all the American car companies and it gets even worse.
Can we make a list of equally horrid cars from Toyota, Honda and Nissan?, not even close.
I’ve owned cars from America, Japan, and Germany. I would like to buy American, but I don’t see it happening, at least we can buy foreign cars built in American plants. American cars I would consider are the Corvette and the Cadillac (super comfortable).
Anyway, I have a '97 Saturn with 160k+ miles, and it's still going strong. Hoping to make 200k.
My dad had a diesel Chevette. Really. The thing shook like hell, but got 45 mpg combined. I liked it. Didn't like plugging in the heater during the winter, though.