Auto industry complaints. Vent yours

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Not from heat. My 01 f150 is peeling on the hood, above the doors, on the roof on the cab behind the rear fenders. Our fleet of Chevy full size vans at work are all peeling. Looks embarrassing.
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
I haven't seen peeling paint since the 90's

This. Guess it depends on where you live. All my cars, except the Equinox are old. They look brand new. I have yet to see an 02 Silverado, 00 Trans Am/Camaro or 04 Grand Prix with peeling paint where I live.
I would guess you might see them in Arizona/New Mexico. I was just there and saw a couple of Early 2000 Accords with the clear coat peeling but they were 15 year old cars, but that is to be expected in that area.
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
I haven't seen peeling paint since the 90's


I've never seen peeling factory paint except on very old cars, like from the 60s or 70s. Peeling paint is something I've always associated with DIY paint jobs.
 
New car dealers. Get rid of them. If I can't buy a new car direct from the manufacturer over the internet, I won't buy one. The last new car I bought was in 2000 (still have it), from an internet start-up called carorder.com. They set the price and I paid them directly, but to pick up the car I still had to go to a dealer, and carorder.com had to pay the [censored] dealer the difference between the dealer's jacked-up regular price and the price I payed (to carorder) before the dealer would issue the title. Not surprisingly, carorder.com went out of business soon after. The manufacturers and dealers shut them down (see www.consumeraffairs.com/news/carorder_folds.html).
 
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I'm annoyed that most manufacturers seem to consider up to a quart of oil used per 1000 miles to be acceptable.
 
My biggest current beef is battery blankets and boxes. I don't think they do anything but make it just that much more of a pita to change a battery. The box on GM's Trailblazer family, especially, doesn't seem to do anything but ensure the battery gets coated with dirt.
 
my major grievances at the moment are the huge amounts of weight introduced to cars with unnecessary features like electric windows, power steering, air conditioning, satnav etc etc etc....they only serve to reduce economy and slow the vehicle down..
Along with the tendency of almost all manufacturers to produce and sell vehicles who's natural tendency is toward under steer. I object to having to change suspension, ARBs and geometry to make a car handle neutral enough that I dont grow to hate it within the first few miles of driving.
 
Originally Posted By: Olas
my major grievances at the moment are the huge amounts of weight introduced to cars with unnecessary features like electric windows, power steering, air conditioning, satnav etc etc etc....they only serve to reduce economy and slow the vehicle down..


Actually, they do more than just reduce economy and slow the vehicle down...

Electric windows let you roll down all the windows in the car from the driver's seat.

Power steering means my wife can drive a larger, heavier vehicle.

Air conditioning means that being in my car on a 105 degree Texas day isn't absolutely miserable.

I'm sorry you don't like those features, but I think they're wonderful for various reasons.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
You should have bought an Aerostar instead.
We had no trouble at all with our '97 for the thirteen years and 175K miles that we owned it.
The dreaded camshaft position senor failure never happened, the AC blew cold without ever having any adds and the only thing I ever had to do to it not involving normal maintenance and wear items was to replace the starter, which was a piece of cake job.
Our fleet Tauruses at work have typically exceeded 200K with no major failures as well.
Maybe your's was built after a long lunch on a payday Friday?


I realize my case was exceptional. At the same time my bro owned 4 or 5 Tauri and Sables, his Ex kept wrecking them. He had much better luck than me, but he did go through a rack & pinion and a $1200-$1500 A/C repair for each of them.

When I had the camshaft position sensor done, the service manager said he was doing 2-3 per week, all out of warranty.
 
I don't like the fact that cars are sold via dealerships where prices are negotiated.

CAFE and other environmental regulations do create a lot of challenges for engineers. I also feel cars often take a performance hit in some area as a result. Or just added complexity.

Reality is though, today's cars are superior in every way. CAFE etc.made cars more advanced and efficient.
 
Originally Posted By: Mykl
I'm annoyed that most manufacturers seem to consider up to a quart of oil used per 1000 miles to be acceptable.


This.

I find it funny how the new emissions standards are so much stricter yet newer cars burning a ton of oil is considered normal.
crazy.gif


It also shows the sloppy machine work done by the manufacturer. If they screwed up piston rings what else did they manage to screw up? A co-worker bought a new Toyota Camry a few years ago so he wouldn't have to "worry about his car" anymore. The thing burns so much oil he has to add some every week. Now he does more hood opening than he did on his previous old clunker, haha.
 
Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
This.

I find it funny how the new emissions standards are so much stricter yet newer cars burning a ton of oil is considered normal.
crazy.gif


It also shows the sloppy machine work done by the manufacturer. If they screwed up piston rings what else did they manage to screw up? A co-worker bought a new Toyota Camry a few years ago so he wouldn't have to "worry about his car" anymore. The thing burns so much oil he has to add some every week. Now he does more hood opening than he did on his previous old clunker, haha.


Man, if I had just bought a brand new car that needed a quart of oil added every 1000 miles or so I'd just run it for the normal OCI and not add a drop. When the engine explodes have it towed to the dealership with copies of my receipts documenting oil changes and get a new engine that hopefully does not burn oil.
 
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
They would laugh in your face...and they would be right to do it!


They would be right to laugh at me because they sold me a defective product? You do agree that a modern engine that uses a quart of oil every 1000 miles is defective, right?

My statement was meant to be over-the-top. I'd take the car to the dealership when the dashboard told me there was something wrong.

The idea that it's okay for a new engine to use that much oil is ridiculous and I'd be happy to hassle a dealership until they did something about it.
 
Originally Posted By: Mykl
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
They would laugh in your face...and they would be right to do it!


They would be right to laugh at me because they sold me a defective product? You do agree that a modern engine that uses a quart of oil every 1000 miles is defective, right?

My statement was meant to be over-the-top. I'd take the car to the dealership when the dashboard told me there was something wrong.

The idea that it's okay for a new engine to use that much oil is ridiculous and I'd be happy to hassle a dealership until they did something about it.


I'd agree that it's defective. But if it blew up at 105kmiles would the manufacturer give a rip?

Actually, is there any data here, antedotal or not, that says cards that burn oil at a clip of 1qt/1,000miles cannot make it to 200k+? I think we all agree that it would burn a ridiculous amount of oil in doing so. But do we know for sure that the motor will not go the distance? Do we know for a fact that the catalytic convertor would give up and be costly to replace?
 
Originally Posted By: supton
I'd agree that it's defective. But if it blew up at 105kmiles would the manufacturer give a rip?

Actually, is there any data here, antedotal or not, that says cards that burn oil at a clip of 1qt/1,000miles cannot make it to 200k+? I think we all agree that it would burn a ridiculous amount of oil in doing so. But do we know for sure that the motor will not go the distance? Do we know for a fact that the catalytic convertor would give up and be costly to replace?


Well sure, but I don't know if any manufacturers offer a factory warranty that goes beyond 100k miles. I know that Honda has replaced a few Civic engines beyond that point on good faith over a known defect though.

I'm talking about "I just bought this brand new car and it's burning a stupid amount of oil..." If the car is nice and tight for 100k and it starts using oil, I'm annoyed, but not necessarily at the dealership/manufacturer who sold it to me; a lot can happen over that period of time that can cause that problem to develop.
 
Originally Posted By: Olas
my major grievances at the moment are the huge amounts of weight introduced to cars with unnecessary features like electric windows, power steering, air conditioning, satnav etc etc etc....they only serve to reduce economy and slow the vehicle down..
Along with the tendency of almost all manufacturers to produce and sell vehicles who's natural tendency is toward under steer. I object to having to change suspension, ARBs and geometry to make a car handle neutral enough that I dont grow to hate it within the first few miles of driving.


I agree.

Nobody disagrees with companies offering these things for those who REALLY want them, but they should also produce product for those who don't. I know for a fact that manufacturers like to
deny the significant market for more basic products, but the customers are out there. I can't tell you how many times I have seen potential customers simply walk away from buying a NEW vehicle because they can't get what they ACTUALLY want, and instead the $tealer will try and push them to buy some over priced over optioned thing sitting on the lot because that is what the manufacturer decided the customers want instead.
whistle.gif
 
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I wish they could let you literally build your own car or truck. Any drivetrain, transmission, interior, rims, extras etc. The combinations are endless and they would be custom.. Just as the customer ordered.

More manuals and diesels in the passenger vehicle market would be nice too.
 
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