Posted on 11/14/2022 7:27:34 AM PST by DFG
The owner of a Hummer electric truck was shocked to learn replacing his tail lights is a rather expensive venture.
“Had a shocker today,” the owner wrote in a Hummer EV Facebook group. “A new passenger side rear light for the Hummer EV; $4,040 just to buy it.”
Car review website the Drive confirmed General Motor’s list price for one tail light is $3,045. Without factoring in labor, the list price for a set of tail lights runs for nearly $6,100, a cost equaling more than 5% of the Hummer EV’s MSRP.
“The taillights in the Hummer EV have small microcontrollers installed within them. These chips control unique lighting functions in their respective lights,” the Drive suggested as a reason for the high price. “Additionally, the Hummer EV is a fairly limited-run vehicle thus far, meaning parts are generally more expensive until economies of scale kick in.”
Maintenance expenses, in addition to software mishaps that have left EV drivers stranded , have drawn criticism in relation to the United States’s push toward electric vehicles.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Todays vehicles are basically run by computers, but for EVs this doubly so. I fail to understand why something as simple as a door handle on a Tesla has to be some trick electric gadget instead of a cheap and reliable mechanical mechanism. There is at least one incident where a Tesla driver was trapped and died in a vehicle fire as the electric door was disabled by the fire.
What year is that Suburban? Mine’s a ‘96 (1500).
Got Sherman off the roadside for $3K and mounted a $4K snowplow to him. When stuff started leaking and getting brittle, I thought about selling him; but the snowplow is married to him, so I took Sherman to a good GM garage and they babied him, replacing all belts, hoses and gaskets in a couple of stages, taking the engine apart in the process. That, plus new, aggressive snow tires, cost me $7K. That was 4 years ago and Sherman is still going strong (only 190K miles on him). I would drive him anywhere — very roadworthy.
Do you think car warranties are wirth it?
I know I do. In my case, I bought a one year old Ford Focus and shelled out for the extended warranty. The day AFTER I bought it, I happened to read that some Ford Focuses and Fiestas had transmission problems. Some model years had bad trannies, and mine was one of them. I read horror stories online about how some peoples’ vehicles became undrivable because of it. Mine “ shimmied” a little while changing gears, but it drove well otherwise. Caveat Emptor, right?
A couple years later I received a letter from, I think it was Ford, saying that they were being recalled, and that the dealership I bought it from would test it and see if it was a bad one. I took it in, and lo and behold, it WAS one. They replaced the transmission and it didn’t cost me anything, because of the extended warranty. It was expensive, but it easily payed for itself.
Lesson learned: do the research BEFORE buying the car…
It’s been a great little car since then.
They all fail AT THE SAME TIME. It's an Industry secret.............
“Since it was only one tire I guess he wanted it to be the same as the other 3 tesla oem.”
Good point. Tough decision. I stick to plane jane high volume cars. I could afford a new car but the downstream costs scare me.
I recall that upgrading the maps in a car’s GPS costs a lot of money. My Garmin has free map updates and it’s important to upgrade them occasionally.
I bought my internal combustion engine car for $15K only 9 years ago. I will be keeping it for a long while.
“If you have to ask the price . . . .”
From what I've read, EV's have low resistance tires designed to maximize range. If you drive them in winter conditions another set of tires might be required. If you don't care about range, you can go to a tire dealer and get something cheaper that is still rated for the car.
Sometime in the 70’s, my dad paid $400 for a desk electronic calculator that would add, subtract, multiply and divide.
He owned a commercial glass company and did a lot of takeoffs and job estimations. I assume it was worth every penny.
If you look at the HP-35 today, it seems laughably simplistic. The calculator app in your smartphone is much more powerful. However, back in 1972, and at a price of only $395 ($2,350 in 2017 dollars), the HP-35 changed the world.
I still have one from 1988.
Sounds like they got the idea from John Deer. If its painted green you can charge big bucks.
My wife has a 2015 BMW that just required its 1st new battery.
$360 for parts and labor but considering the average life span of a battery where I am is usually around. 2 years because of the heat, I’d say that’s not bad.
The Germans were smart enough to put the battery in the trunk away from heat in the engine bay.....that contributed to the longevity I think.
If I recall, it was a 1992. I replaced the motor. The interior lights worked when they wanted to. The computerized brakes could still lock up the tires but the computer only worked a warning light stating they weren’t working. I took it to two places to get trailer brakes and they both said no. It rattled like a fifty-two piece drum set. It was a 1500 two wheel drive. Previous owner was FSU. So, it came with a bong, concert ticket stubs and a used condom.
Unscientific and non-insider guess is that you're on the right track. The part itself isn't nearly that expensive, but there's probably a component inside that is the problem. If there is a chip inside (and everything seems to have chips in them anymore) the cost probably reflects the extra cost for producing the chips for OEM parts (versus production line parts which probably are negotiated separately with the oarts supplier.) Since a lot of repairs are covered under insurance, just like medical bills, the extra costs get hidden by the coverage, which might even be negotiated down with big in-network providers
This is an extreme example, but these parts are alway ungodly expensive, particularly if purchased from the manufacturer, and even moreso through a dealership.
Understand the car manufacture model requires that the dealers must buy their parts directly from the manufacturer, a dealer is over a barrel. When I did work for GM way back in the 90s I learned a lot.. I worked on their ordering system, and they had 2 completely different prices for the exact same part... 1 for dealerships and one for everyone else, and you had to make sure that the dealerships never EVER saw the price that GM sold the parts to everyone else for.
Even if a dealership knew they could go down the street to a auto supply store and buy the exact same AC/Delco part for 1/2 the cost that GM was charging them for it, they weren’t allowed to do it.. if they did it, they would risk losing their dealership license (it was part of their contract).
Light covers have always been insane.. I can recall having a broken one way back in high school from a fender bender on my 1983 LTD II... and best price I could find for a new tailight cover was from a junkyard and it was something like $125 and that was if I pulled it myself.. I know $125 doesn’t sound like much, but the equivalent amount today would be over $300 ($315 to be exact)... for a used tail light cover from a junk yard.. New was something like $250 or $300 at the time or equivalent of well over $700 to 900 today. As a High School student working part time for a little over minimum wage of $3something an hour at the time, that’s was a LOT of money.
I remember shelling out a good bit for I believe a TI 34 solar back in High School in the 80s... it wasn’t in the hundreds, but it wasn’t cheap either.
What kind of a jerk doesn’t even get just a Hummer, but an EV Hummer?!?
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