Time for another new car already....

[vacerator]

Greg,

No offense taken! Back then, I only drove GM's. I never even looked at Fords.
I was dumb then as well because Ford had fuel injection a year or so before GM.
I never would have bought a V6 car or truck then either.
When my cousin who worked for Ford saw that my '86 Grand prix V8 had a 4 barrel carb, he said GM was
living in the past.
Speaking of Whirlpoo, I know, the accent there is that way. I was in Little Rock one spring, and all I heard was "there's a tornada comin, an I gots to git home and pick my taters, and don't trip on the crack in the Ceement.

 

[askolover]

funny

I have friends I've known since birth, we were in the same classes in school with the same college education...and some of them sound like they "jes crawled out frum uner a rock or the back wuds!" 

I'm told I don't have that kind of accent, probably because I talk so fast.

 

[ovrphil]

Rode in a 2015 Cadillac CTS a few months ago - neighbor friend works for GM and was eligible to lease the car or a week(program now discontinued here locally).
I miss the bigger interiors, but fit, finish, ride and looks were top-notch.
Good luck and hope you enjoy the new ride! (my family was all Ford and Mercury. I admired many of my dad's friends and brother's GM products - especially in the 50's and 60's...Olds, Cadillac and Chevy luxuries. This thread sure went a lot of different directions but interesting and funny - thanks all.

 

[vacerator]

Phil,

is that a Caterham in your avatar?
Yes, fit and finish are excellent today for most makes. The seats in the CTS are not for portly people though.

 

[ovrphil]

Vacerator - it's a Lotus Seven

SII Or S-2 ...the successor was a Caterham 7(not familiar with it). I'm no expert on cars or this one in particular, but I was a "The Prisoner" fan (not all the shows were interesting to me) and he (Patrick McGoohan) picked this one over the Elan which Lotus offered in choices for the show. This car was a CKD(a kit or a "completely knocked down") to allow purchase and exemption from tax. Juat did some research on that one, so that's interesting.

 

[bvf]

any car

BUY THE EXTENDED WARRANTY

 

[vacerator]

phil,

of course, I used to watch the prisoner every Thursday on PBS.

 

[xraytech]

I have to disagree on the extended warranty, in past experiences of family members the extended warranty is a total waste, they never want to cover any claims and it's a total fight to try to get things covered.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Xraytech

You are correct.  We used to discourage our members at the credit union from purchasing extended warranties.

 

Usually E/Ws have conditions like you had to of had failure of the second main bearing while you were driving 40 mph on a rainy highway at midnight wearing one red shoe before they would pay.

 

I most cases, unless you have a total lemon, your total repairs will not be as much as the cost of the warranty.  My Jeep had a 7/70 warranty factory warranty.  Never needed it at all.

 

 

[washer111]

Even if extra warranties can be a bit of a waste, the manufacturers themselves can be tight bastards when it comes to getting something fixed.

We had a segment on the evening news here the other night explaining the "most unreliable" cars.
Turns out that GM-Holden, Ford, VW/Audi and Jeep are cars with the highest amount of warranty claims at about >60%. Honestly, none of those makers surprises me, although I am surprised Land Rover didn't make the list(!)
One frustrated owner was so fed up with Jeep he simply resorted to destroying the vehicle. Wasn't worth the frustration trying to deal with Jeep. Hence the calls now in Australia for "lemon laws" surrounding not just home appliances, but cars too.

 

[joeypete]

I've only purchased 1 extended warranty over my car history and I didn't need it. I actually got a refund when I sold the car. It was prorated, but still. With better manufacture warranties these days, especially on powertrains, which is where you could spend a fortune on repair...the need for extended ones are less important.

I've had several warranty repairs on my past GM vehicles but all of them were some kind of either quality issue (like warped molding, etc) and I had a power window motor replaced. Nothing serious by any means and aside from the window motor, if I had to pay out of pocket, I probably wouldn't have cared about the other repairs.

GM never gave me a problem with any of those warranty items. In fact with my 2008 Saturn Aura, they even replaced my brakes for free because they were squealing. They were not covered under warranty. Was just good customer service.

Guess I've been lucky. My 2012 Chrysler 200 has 86K miles on it and I've never taken it in for any repair period, let alone a warranty item. I still have 14K miles on my powertrain warranty even.

 

[vacerator]

Chrysler 200's

are built practically in my back yard.
It's a good car from what I hear.
The plant is on temporary shut down because of slow sales since last December.
Gas prices fell, and I guess folks opted for more 300's, trucks, and Jeeps, etc.

 

[joeypete]

I've been exceedingly happy with mine. I have the first generation which is basically a much overhauled Sebring. It's been great even in the snow. I think mostly because I have the Pentastar 3.6L V6...kind of a big engine for the size of the car. It's a beast! haha. But adds some weight to the front end.

 

[iheartmaytag]

What is putting Chrysler and Jeep on the "Most Unreliable List" according to the articles I have read are actually their electronics, namely the infotainment systems.  

 

Since 1980 we have owned six Chryslers and two Jeeps with Never a problem out of any of them.  Well unless you want to count the Ford F-150 that went through/ the front of my 98 Grand Cherokee.  

 

The main thing that P'd me with Jeep/Chrysler was their bankruptcy.  My resale value went to heck, and repair cost through the stratosphere.  We had a major hail storm the weekend that Chrysler declared  Bankruptcy.  The insurance company totaled every Chrysler product that came through the claims department regardless of age or mileage, because the repair parts had trippeled overnight.  I just let them pay my Jeep off and I drive it looking like a golf ball.  Hey, dented and paid for drives just as well as smooth and a payment.   

 

GM cars on the other hand.  Had a basket full of probs out of them in the 80s and 90s.  Swore to never own another.   Fords and Mercurys never gave us problems.  

 

Having rented a Toyota Camary for the last trip we took, I would say if I were buying a car today, it would be a Toyota.  

 

[joeypete]

I guess there's problems with all makes and models. My sister only buys either Honda and Toyota and her 4Runner had the radiator explode so she has stayed with Honda the last couple cars lol. My friend has a Honda Pilot and she's had chronic leaking from her radiator. So it happens to all of them.

One thing I can say about GM is they make really good powertrains. The 80's and 90's saw various problems, but most were electrical like in the higher end models with the fancy digital clusters, etc. But man they would start up no matter what. I've seen tons of videos of older cars from the 80's that sat idle for literally years and they still started. Maybe a little smokey, but still came alive.

I have complete faith in GM as far as powertrains go. They still get praised for their smooth shifting transmissions too.

 

[vacerator]

re; infotainment systems

They all have some glitches or complaints. Ford had problems with it's My Synk and
adapting to some phones, and Lincolns buttons were too close to other controls and easily bumped off the desired settings.
I buy a vehicle for whats under the hood first. It's not a computer.
Point A to B.
Of course, if it quits running the GPS can call for help. I'd rather they make them run well.

 

[xraytech]

I've not used my GM warranty, nor did I have to use the warranty on my Lincoln.
My brother however had a brand new Dodge Ram 2500 diesel that the manual transmission went out at 7k miles and it took a lot of fighting and 3 different dealers, calls to corporate and plenty of threats to get them to cover it under the so-called lifetime power train warranty. Needless to say I'd never want to own a chrysler product, not to mention they all come off as cheaply made to me

 

[joeypete]

They've really improved the last few years. Quality in my 2012 is great. They did a lot of work to improve their interiors. Daimler just raped Chrysler of money and did nothing to improve their products. Very sad. I love all American car makers, though most of my car history has been with GM. I've owned a few Fords too.

 

[wayupnorth]

Another opinion

My ex-wife had a POS Corolla and had to have this Celica. By 20K it had spent more time in the dealer getting heads replaced with no loaner and we bought an Olds Cutlass, very nice and always dependable car but ate gas. Came from a family of driving Fords or walked. After my great uncles dealership was sold, not covering anything, which was their demise. I had problems with Subaru and Dodge too. I bought an 85 S-10 and my ex-father in law had to drive it. (He was service manager of the local Chevy dealership). He said you cant kill this trucks engine and if you stay GM you will be happy. For my opinion, I have never had a Chevy every strand me or cost me a ton in repairs after he made that comment. Thats my opinion, we welcome yours.

 

[iheartmaytag]

My last GM car a Chevy Monte Carlo spent more time behind a tow truck than it did on the road.  

 

It had the 267 cu. in. V-8.  It stalled, it hesitated.  Left turns were suicidal.  It would bend the #1 rocker arm about every 10K.  It would throw a fuel pump about every 8K.  The POS electronic fuel system left me sitting more times than I could count.  The only thing I think I didn't have trouble with was the trunk key.

 

When I finally traded it off, for a Dodge, I came home and said "I saw my old car today."

"How did you know it was yours?" my mom asked

"It was stalled in the middle of the road."

 

Besides all those problems, the car was like Christine in reverse.  It would sit in the driveway and inflict injuries on itself.  It was six weeks old when a neighbor shot it through the hood with his deer tip arrow.  

 

It was wrecked seven times, I was only in it once.  The body shop actually got in a wreck with it while they had it in to repair it from the wreck I had.

 

After that it had got hit while it was parked twice, by the same bus, driven by the same driver a year apart.  The last time the paperboy knocked on the door and asked "Do you know who owns this blue car in the yard?"

"I have a blue car."  I said "but it's not in the yard."

"It is now."

 

That was it,  I traded it off.