My one and only GM that I ever owned was due to my wife, while shopping she found a 89 Lesabre she liked (this was around 94), all the ratings on them were fairly good, and buying american meant that mechanics knew how to work on them right???
WRONG.
The coil packs went bad, and no mechanic could seem to figure it out, they’d replace the O2 sensor, it would work a week or two and then refuse to start, only to start without a problem 1/2 an hour later.. this went on for countless tows and “fixes”. Apparently every mechanic just hooked up the code reader the reader told them o2, so they replaced the O2.. turns out NO it wasn’t the O2, it was the COIL PACKS.. and they weren’t monitored by the computer. (I finally figured this out myself by doing some online investigating and ordered a mechanic to replace them) Finally this problem solved... less than a few months later the transmission dropped at 3am while we were on a trip and over 500 miles from home with another 500 miles to go.
The car had a whopping 60,000 miles on it, and was babied more than any other car I have ever owned even to this day.
That was my one and only experience with GM, and sadly for GM and her employees it will remain my one and only experience with them. I never held them in high regard and they basically proved me correct not to. Oh and just for the record, my coworkers buick just dropped its tranny 2 months ago with 60,000 miles... his was a 96.
I’ve owned many Fords in my day and never had a one of em die on me, I’ve owned Toyotas, Mazdas, VW’s, Chryslers as well... My fords cars had their idiosyncracies but they were reliable, ford full size vehicles I have owned are beyond compare, nothing else out there comes close. If ford could get the reliability and build quality of their full size divisions into their passenger cars they’d have no issues, as long as they let their Euro division style them... Man have they missed the boat on styling for a long long time.
I am willing to own just about any brand I have owned in the past again, with the exception of the GM family. I’d love not to feel that way, but honestly I will not put my money on the line with one of their products ever again, I can’t tell you how much money I wasted on that coil pack problem, and limping a car off the interstate at 4am with your 10 day old son in the back while you are trying to get to florida because your father in law has just had a stroke is something you damned well remember the rest of your life.
60,000 miles in the shop constantly and completely babied????
I basically spent the next day buying a new car so I could get to where I needed to be, too a huge hit on the trade in, and paid an incredible amount of stupid tax for going against my better judgement and letting the Mrs. buy a GM in the first place. Lesson learned.
“I’ve owned many Fords in my day and never had a one of em die on me, I’ve owned Toyotas, Mazdas, VW’s, Chryslers as well... My fords cars had their idiosyncracies but they were reliable, ford full size vehicles I have owned are beyond compare, nothing else out there comes close. If ford could get the reliability and build quality of their full size divisions into their passenger cars they’d have no issues, as long as they let their Euro division style them... Man have they missed the boat on styling for a long long time”
If I’m not mistaken, Ford uses Mazda engines. If only they could get the Transmission issues worked out.
You had a isolated problem.
3800, in my opinion, is one of the best engines ever built.
I’ve owned only one GM product — an 80s Opel Kadett. Now that was a great little car, too bad they never sold it here. The closest they got was a late 80s Pontiac LeMans, a cheap, Daewoo-built copy of the Kadett.