Why I would not buy a GM product again

[Immortality]

Your post demonstrates the difference between the designers and engineers who love cars and design them to be enjoyed and appreciated, and production line employees who may or may not care about the standard of their work, bean counters who screw the cost of components to the lowest common denominator, capped off by service personnel who just don't give a damn. The result? Good cars screwed up by incompetents.

A poorly designed car, no matter how well it is assembled will fail. Toyota's and Honda's seem to fall into the well designed and assembled category. Not sure where the last of the Commodores fall but with something like the LS3 which has been around for something like a decade there should be no reason for a single one to fail as all the issues should have been fixed but if anything the opposite is true.

 

[greenacc]

The problem with the latter GM stuff is the budget it's designed down to and the standard it's built to. If you take your GM V8 into a decent engine shop and Ask them to rebuild it how it should be it'll be an absolute screamer. ( Piston slap etc, what a joke in a modern engine ) But going through the dealership stall tactics bullshit is a bloody joke and gives the product a terrible name.
Yet another reason a buy second hand Holden's. That way I can do whatever I want with them and only deal with dealers if their parts are cheaper and better than after market.

 

[Calaber]

I think the problems GM is having at home have to be reflected in product quality. Factory shutdowns, model rationalisation, 21 day employee strikes... Hardly the stuff of a buoyant, healthy company. This has to rub off on the production line.

Which makes me wonder about the quality of the last VF's. How did the employees feel about their futures as they could count down their remaining employment time one car at a time? Did they apply themselves to their job, determined to build the cars as good as they could be? Or did they feel resentful that no-names in the States had killed off their livelihood and let this affect their attitude towards quality?

 

[Anthony121]

I think the problems GM is having at home have to be reflected in product quality. Factory shutdowns, model rationalisation, 21 day employee strikes... Hardly the stuff of a buoyant, healthy company. This has to rub off on the production line.

Which makes me wonder about the quality of the last VF's. How did the employees feel about their futures as they could count down their remaining employment time one car at a time? Did they apply themselves to their job, determined to build the cars as good as they could be? Or did they feel resentful that no-names in the States had killed off their livelihood and let this affect their attitude towards quality?

The Holden assembly plant had the highest quality cars out of any other GM plant in 2017.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

The Holden assembly plant had the highest quality cars out of any other GM plant in 2017.

Measured how ?

 

[Trevor loves holden.]

Going through the list of issues with my car I thought it would be interesting to list all that went wrong with it in less than 3 yrs since new. These issue really turned me off from Holden...

JUNE 2016 VF II SS

• Rattling noise on cold startup since new - dealer 1 & 2 said this was normal
• Coolant leak - crossover pipe
• Oil leak - rocker cover - new gasket
• Oil leak - rocker cover - again
• Engine replaced by Dealer 2 due excessive piston to bore clearance - 2.5yrs after problem was reported multiple times
• Exhaust leak - driver side - gasket replaced
• Muffler leak - pass side - muffler replaced
• Harmonic ballancer noise/wobble - balancer and belts replaced
- Service steering column warning light - poped up once and disapeared
- Service ESC poped op once as well and disappeared

• Dealer damaged the front bar - tried to conceal it by touching up, did not tell me. Promissed to respray the bar but did not.

- Dealer 2 always calls after I drop off the car with standard list of things I should have done - throttle body cleaning, wipers, cabin oil filter, brake pads....Mind you nothing wrong with anything above


All work was covered under warranty with some negotiations needed for engine replacement.

On a positive note, the car is perfect at the moment.

Let's see what's next

That's the Ron we know!!

Got to love alloytec, I stick with my trusty VS, might get a vx or vt and keep away from all the more advance technology. New cars look good but to much electronic stuff that can fail.

 

[Calaber]

The Holden assembly plant had the highest quality cars out of any other GM plant in 2017.

In light of the company's poor quality reputation, does that really mean much?

 

[Mayuri Krab]

Regarding the piston slap issue, is there any medium to long term (say to 160k kms) major problems that will develop from it?

Beside just sounding like shite...

This reminds me of my infamous N54 on my BMW, had wastge rattle from the turbos from 80k km (shitty oem desgin, bought at 55k km), and I just lived with it till about 125k which the seals began leaking (and was drinking oil 1l every 2k km), got some 2nd hand ones fitted (labour wad over $2k...), those ones rattled like a mofu as well, but stopped the oil consumption issue.

Just kept it as it is, until the DME (ECU) decided to go belly up and scrap that Break My Wallet afterwards.

As for I won't buy another GM product, because they don't have any cars I want right now... boring sedans or SUVs... yuck.

 

[Smitty]

.......................

My other VF didn't get home from the dealer after the engine rocker arm **** itself.

As for other makes of vehicles, I'm sure there are issues too.

oooh yeah... as the national fleet manager at work
NO vehicle has zero defects, they all will require TLC

lets start with the CEOs Porsche.. well actually lets not.
and
then there is Fiat Chrysler. So with starting Chapter 1-
colleague (against my advice) buys new SRT Jeep
.. picks it up from dealer, gets home CANNOT turn it off
car idles in driveway until their free road assist arrives... 5 hours later
spends an hour and thankfully engine stops
2 weeks starts car, heads off to work but nope.. never makes it.
2 main engine bay harnesses melt (thankfully no fire).. car stops
SRT spends 9 weeks in dealership being fixed. Then 2 days after
getting it back, gearbox loses all drive (embarassing in middle of Eastlink)
and stops DEAD. Eastlink guys find they cannot tow it either. it needs
wheel dollies to go on flattop, car spends 11 weeks at dealership (no parts)
then they find paint bubbles erupting around some of the glass openings...
VCAT gave my friend their $ back .. plus some for her troubles

BMW... I like, so does my missus in she drives a 1 Series M Coupe
but they have rear IRS issues (seizing), brakes wear quickly (rear pads
replaced at 18,000 and front about to be done... at 25,000) but they
want both your kidneys for pads. We are STILL arguing with BMW Aust
about an alternator, which when you turn the vehicle off, sings and whistles
to itself for up to 2 hours (and its not dixie). They state nothing wrong.. but
battery state requires nightly charging. Maybe they don't want to replace an
$800 computer controlled alternator. lets NOT go near the sports exhaust
issues.

Utes? we used to have all Mazda (since Holden stopped selling Rodeos)
but .. all gone (do not buy a Mazda commercial vehicle, all had problems)
We now have 5 small toyota HiLex flat tray utes... zero problems in 3 years
Well.. it is a Toyota

AUDI.. no major car problems to date but geezus ..are their services expensive?

Fords..? EVERY one of them had a transmission die (XR6, Territory, one tonne.. all)
so the sale fleet is now 100% Holden (mainly VF and some ZB)
I could keep going...

 

[kos]

And ....

What issues are you having with the vf,s

And secondly the zb, s both issues and also fuel economy v6 or 4,s?