Stupid stuff Holden did.

[hademall]

You don't see ferels in Kia's out tearing up the streets and robbing post offices

You do if they’ve stolen them.

 

[hademall]

Calling it a Cruze would be a bad idea, since this nameplate is associated with recalls... What they should've called it was the Holden Insignia (They tried to bring them here as Opels, then as Holdens and then as Holdens again)

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Even the front end of the ZB was a massive step backwards in comparison to the VF.
That bonnet is horrible compared to the chiseled and sculptured bonnet of the VF.

 

[Skylarking]

Another stupid engineering/manufacture/marketing annoyance is Holden’s choice to call their VF auto transmissions sealed for life and not include the lack of an auto trans fluid dipstick

Its these sorts of ”servicing” changes that really piss me off as it implies owners and enthusiasts who don’t have a hoist at home shouldn’t work on their cars… Fukers

Oh and let’s not forget wiper blades back in the mid 80’s used to be simple and very cheap, next to nothing in cost for a student. Just buy the rubber and slide it into the wiper frame and you’re done… Now it’s an expensive bit of kit (in comparison to just a blade ) where aftermarket stuff doesn’t seem to work well as they chatter… who’d have thought wiper blades have to be OEM to work well

 

[Immortality]

Another stupid engineering/manufacture/marketing annoyance is Holden’s choice to call their VF auto transmissions sealed for life and not include the lack of an auto trans fluid dipstick

Its these sorts of ”servicing” changes that really piss me off as it implies owners and enthusiasts who don’t have a hoist at home shouldn’t work on their cars… Fukers

But was that a Holden thing or a GM global parts issue?

I don't think this was a thing Holden came up with but rather a trend it followed from other manufacturers. My boys BMW doesn't have a dip stick either and was a PITA to change the fluid on and it was built long before the VF was even thought about.

I also see some complaints in this thread about the Alloytec motor design, again this would have been a GM global motor issue that Holden wouldn't have been able to do much about, there are engines in the GM parts bins you can use and those are your options, same with the auto trans no doubt.

There is an interesting video about SAAB (done be the boys at Top Gear) that talks about their design process of a new model when they were owned by GM. GM said you can use these parts, SAAB engineers looked at said parts, said they were not good enough and designed their own parts instead causing huge budget blowouts but building a better car than they could have using GM parts.

 

[Skylarking]

But was that a Holden thing or a GM global parts issue?

I don't think this was a thing Holden came up with but rather a trend it followed from other manufacturers. My boys BMW doesn't have a dip stick either and was a PITA to change the fluid on and it was built long before the VF was even thought about.

I also see some complaints in this thread about the Alloytec motor design, again this would have been a GM global motor issue that Holden wouldn't have been able to do much about, there are engines in the GM parts bins you can use and those are your options, same with the auto trans no doubt.

There is an interesting video about SAAB (done be the boys at Top Gear) that talks about their design process of a new model when they were owned by GM. GM said you can use these parts, SAAB engineers looked at said parts, said they were not good enough and designed their own parts instead causing huge budget blowouts but building a better car than they could have using GM parts.

Does it matter who fooked up the design?
Holden chose to use it (whatever it was) and we the owners suffer as a result

And let’s not forget, nothing stopped Holden from adding a dipstick to the auto during manufacture. It would have been really easy and cheap to do but they chose to follow GM’s lead which in essence limits owners from “fiddling” with service items as they’d see it…

 

[VS 5.0]

SAAB engineers looked at said parts, said they were not good enough and designed their own parts instead causing huge budget blowouts but building a better car than they could have using GM parts.

And look where that got them.

 

[Immortality]

Exactly and I'm sure it was a road Holden didn't want to go down.

But it goes to the fact that Holden was limited to parts from GM and no major budget to simply redesign parts to suit our local use.

 

[losh1971]

Those dipstickless transmissions were used by Ford in 96.

 

[J_D 2.0]

My boys BMW doesn't have a dip stick either and was a PITA to change the fluid on and it was built long before the VF was even thought about.

If it’s a BMW X5 that’s because it uses the same transmission. Was surprised when I found out the X5 used the 5L40E transmission. I would have thought BMW wouldn’t be up for using GM crap.

 

[Immortality]

Nothing that fancy, just an E46 3 series.