No more GM's for me.
May. 2nd, 2004 03:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lilfluffAs I'd been predicting for a while, my car decided to turn against me. From what the mechanics found it looks like I got to be another victim of GM's wonderful discovery "DEX-Cool". Apparently Dex-Cool was designed to be a wonder coolant that wouldn't corrode car's radiators. Only one teensy problem, it seems the radiator is just about the only part of the engine that the stuff doesn't hate.
Turns out a number of gaskets and seals had failed allowing the coolant and oil to mix, causing both to not work as well as they should. Throw in the contamination leading to misfires as well and the engine not only overheated from so much as a stern look, it also felt like it was trying to escape from the car (not that I blame it).
It spent two days in the shop (I was rather pleased when they called after the first day and said, "We'd like to keep it another day. If you absolutely have to have it today we can rush and get it back together, but we'd prefer to take out time and then run the engine for a while to make sure it really is working now." They charge book rate so the extra day didn't mean more money.) and in the end cost enough that it was painful, but not quite enough to be abandoning it and getting another car. (Even with this and the dead alternator a few months back I'm still ahead of where I would have been if I was making car payments)
The really annoying thing isn't that the car had to go into the shop, it's that GM is trying to act as if there aren't any problems with Dex-Cool. Right, that's why there are multiple class action lawsuits over the stuff eating engines. And it is surely a coincidence that if you bring up the car manual saying the stuff is good for 5 years/100,000 miles, that they'll quickly say "Oh! But that's not a guarantee, you should still change it much more often than that!"
So GM, thanks for helping me make up my mind. Even though I don't plan on getting a newer car for a year or so (I really enjoy not having car payments, so I'm not in much of a hurry) I have still been looking over possible choices. I'd heard that the couple of complaints I'd had about the Malibu had been taken care of by the time of the 2000 model year. I'd been wondering whether I really ought to jump models and brands and try something else. Well GM, you've just made it that much easier since I'll now know not to even bother looking at anything you make. If you won't stick by your product, then why should I spend money on your product. You think covering repair costs for what your choice of chemicals did to the engines in your cars would be too expensive? Look on the bright side if don't buy your cars, how can any of us expect you to have to cover repair costs on them? I'm sure the shareholders will be delighted to hear that you've avoided the risk of future recalls by alienating your customers. To be blunt, screw you. Until you acknowledge the problem I'm not spending my own or even someone else's money on your cars.
Turns out a number of gaskets and seals had failed allowing the coolant and oil to mix, causing both to not work as well as they should. Throw in the contamination leading to misfires as well and the engine not only overheated from so much as a stern look, it also felt like it was trying to escape from the car (not that I blame it).
It spent two days in the shop (I was rather pleased when they called after the first day and said, "We'd like to keep it another day. If you absolutely have to have it today we can rush and get it back together, but we'd prefer to take out time and then run the engine for a while to make sure it really is working now." They charge book rate so the extra day didn't mean more money.) and in the end cost enough that it was painful, but not quite enough to be abandoning it and getting another car. (Even with this and the dead alternator a few months back I'm still ahead of where I would have been if I was making car payments)
The really annoying thing isn't that the car had to go into the shop, it's that GM is trying to act as if there aren't any problems with Dex-Cool. Right, that's why there are multiple class action lawsuits over the stuff eating engines. And it is surely a coincidence that if you bring up the car manual saying the stuff is good for 5 years/100,000 miles, that they'll quickly say "Oh! But that's not a guarantee, you should still change it much more often than that!"
So GM, thanks for helping me make up my mind. Even though I don't plan on getting a newer car for a year or so (I really enjoy not having car payments, so I'm not in much of a hurry) I have still been looking over possible choices. I'd heard that the couple of complaints I'd had about the Malibu had been taken care of by the time of the 2000 model year. I'd been wondering whether I really ought to jump models and brands and try something else. Well GM, you've just made it that much easier since I'll now know not to even bother looking at anything you make. If you won't stick by your product, then why should I spend money on your product. You think covering repair costs for what your choice of chemicals did to the engines in your cars would be too expensive? Look on the bright side if don't buy your cars, how can any of us expect you to have to cover repair costs on them? I'm sure the shareholders will be delighted to hear that you've avoided the risk of future recalls by alienating your customers. To be blunt, screw you. Until you acknowledge the problem I'm not spending my own or even someone else's money on your cars.
