POLL: Are you done with domestic brands or will you give them a second chance?

Yup, sure do. It goes away in a couple seconds. It just recently started doing it, too. Is there a TSB/recall on this issue?

 

I am unsure if there is a TSB for that, however simply head over to your Chevy dealership and order up part #12608580 , that is the revised tensioner. If you want to PM me, I can walk you through it, it's very easy to do.

 

PM inbound shortly!

 

Dumb question but do other Chevys have that issue, such as the 2006 Colorado?

 

does it have the 2.2 ecotec?

 

My Dad also has a 2wd 94 Dakota with the 3.9l. Bought it a year ago, guy wanted $1800 for it, but I went with Dad and talked the guy down to $1200 after pointing out some issues. (Leaking tailshaft, bad paint, yadda yadda...) It's been a relatively good truck up until recently. The truck itself has 240k on it, the engine in it has 80k. (With paperwork on the engine swap.) Had to do the water pump a month or two ago, and the transmission is starting to go, very rapidly. Misshifting, dropping gear, lurching, etc. But it's a Dodge, and the Dodge trucks (at least the older ones) are known for having crappy transmissions.

 

No it had the 2.9 4 banger..

 

It depends on the "domestic" company. I would look at Ford. But I will not ever buy a vehicle from any company that received a bailout; especially a GM product.

 

I own two Fords and a Toyota. They are all trucks. They have all served their purpose well. They will be sticking around until they don't. I doubt any of them will give me trouble for a long time.

 

My 1st car was an 88 Tempo with 89k miles. It ran good but it broke 3 alternators, the A/C and 2 transmissions before it hit 100k miles. I left it at the mechanic after I was fed up with it, eventually my dad too it for him. I then got an 87 Celica with 150k and drove it till 200k no problem whatsoever! Then got a 2000 Nissan Xterra 5 speed brand new but the A/C was weak so was the stereo. And it was a gas guzzler! Worse than my brothers 98 Expedition EB 5.4 liters! My brother still have his Expedition it has been a good SUV. I had a 95 Accord with 160k no problem till 210k the transmission failed. I ended up with a 07 Tacoma 5 lug and haven't looked at any other brand. Had a 14 Taco 4 cylinder and now a 16 SR5 v6 and couldn't be happier. I know Ford have a lot better quality now, but I would wait to see how they hold up before buying one.

 

Okay ... so, just to be clear to anyone who is confused by stuff surrounding these events I'll give a summary of how THEY ALL ACCEPTED BAILOUT MONEY. Here's a quick summary of events: 2007'ish, economy is going in crapper, all car manufacturers are not doing to well, but the bad times haven't quiet hit just yet. Ford, having some foresight, went to the banks and asked for a private loan. I forget the exact amount, but we're talking at least 100's of millions if not in the tres'comma club. Now, next year the bad times arrive, economy crashes, the rest of the Big Three realize how big of a shit they are in, and they go to the banks. The banks are like, "uh, sorry bro, we already gave your bro Ford all the monies, and we're also in the shit because well ... we kind of caused this mess with all those loans we've been giving out, lulz, sorries! Now, we've gotta go give ourselves bonuses and ruin the economy some more haha ha ha ha" ... more or less they said this in maybe not so many words ...

So, at this point, Ford has taken a kind of bailout, they took a loan from private banks and were required to restructure their entire operation. Places closed down, people are laid off, companies are sold off (or just go away ... bye bye Mercury) ... buuut, the other car manufacturers are still fucked. Now this is a big deal, because they are 2/3rds of the auto economy, and aaallllll of the manufacturers use the a lot of the same part suppliers/contractors/distributors/etc. ... so if 2/3rd of the business goes under, well, the other 1/3rd is going to go with it ... well, this is where the government comes in, and all the controversy starts, right? So, first off, in my opinion a loan from the government is the same as a loan from the banks in a lot of ways, buuut ... Ford went right along with the other two, and they ALSO took "bailout" money. Ford was actually doing *okay*, but they felt that if they didn't get that influx of cash like the other two that it would leave them at a disadvantage, which is not exactly an incorrect thing to think ...

So what is my point? Well, fundamentally I also agree with the, "if it's too big to fail THEN IT'S TOO BIG," mentality, and maybe they SHOULD have let them fail. However, I now work at Ford, and honestly I'm glad that we still have American car manufacturers that employ a LOT of people. I mean, if you look at the parts suppliers, the dealerships, the engineers, the plant workers, the delivery/truck driving people, we are talking about a HUGE portion of the population is employed by the auto industry. So, if you're sitting there as the government, dealing with an economy that is taking a straight nose dive into the crapper, do you also let this entire industry fail and further exacerbate things, or do you make the hard call that possibly is going to ruffle a lot of feathers and give a "bailout" loan to try and keep things afloat? I don't know which I would decide, because honestly, it really is a big difficult question, right? What I do know is that I'm glad I didn't have to make that call, but I'm glad that regardless of how some of us feel about these things that there is still a Ford, GM, and Chrysler helping fuel the American economy.

 

Over the past 40 years it's been 2 Fords, 2 AMC Jeeps, 1 Toyota, 2 Chevrolets, 1 Dodge, 1 VW, 1 Dodge, 1 Ford, 1 Chrysler, 1 Dodge, 2 Chrysler Jeeps, 1 Dodge, and 3 Toyotas. Having only replaced 2 parts (1 alternator and 1 convertible top) in over 300K miles on the last 3 Toyotas it's hard to even consider a domestic vehicle.

I'd like to buy a new Jeep but all the service issues I had with Dodge/Chrysler products and their refusal to stand behind their products really soured my taste to give them any more money. Government Motors shouldn't even be in business. I'd consider Ford but they don't make anything I want at present (besides their new Ford GT.) I actually wish AMC was still in business producing Jeeps, until then it's Toyota.

 

Where is the option on the poll:

Buy neither domestic nor import, build your own, use superior parts which are overkill and overmanufactured for the intended purpose and never look back?

 

While I agree with this, especially the part about job losses being devastating, I feel too that at least in GM's case they were failing because of building a defective product and not standing by it or their own warranty. Read my post a few pages back for why I say that.

 

I would consider a Tesla because of the lifetime warranty and Elon Musk is a superior innovator.

I wouldn't consider buying a Fiat Renegade.

 

Meh, I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't trust 80s to early 2000s Chrysler products at all, including Dodge, Jeep, and Plymouth. I'd trust most Chevy products up until 07-08 and would likely buy one if I needed a towing rig. I have medium faith in Ford, I would buy from just about any year if the particular vehicle was in decent shape with good history. But overall most domestic brands are on another trend upward and I won't rule them out because of some percieved superiority from Asian vehicles. I still don't trust a single Euro vehicle and have no interest in them as modes of transportation or modding platforms.

 

Something that irritated me with GM:

My mother has a 2013 Chevy Sonic RS with the 1.6L turbocharged engine. I put a K&N cool air intake on it. At 14,000mi, her water pump took a shit, which was covered by factory warranty. But the Chevy dealership wanted $40 out of pocket to R&R the CAI to be able to complete the warranty work... Which I can see, however...

As a Toyota tech, we have provisions via warranty/recall op codes for such circumstances. I had a 2015 Camry that had a power steering ECU recall, which requires removal of the steering column. Owner had an aftermarket remote start installed, with wires criss crossed all under the column. I had to cut them to remove the column, then resolder them after install of the column. Customer didn't pay a dime, Toyota has an operation code for circumstances like that, so the tech still gets paid and the customer still doesn't pay a dime.

With that being said, the fit and finish on her econobox Sonic is decent, and it's built in America. I'd probably have charged the same thing as a tech, but I'm just surprised GM couldn't cover the half hour of labor...

 

I can relate sir! I owned mostly foreign cars for the last 20 years but fell for the Mike Rowe F-150 commercials a few years back and wanted to give a domestic brand one more try. I purchased a brand new F150 in 2010. Fast forward five years and 19,000 miles (yes, 19,000) to discover two major engine problems that resulted in the engine having to be replaced.

I live one mile from work and BABY my vehicles. I purchased a 2016 Tacoma and I'm not looking back. American trucks don't measure up to Toyotas.

 

My dad had a Dodge Neon with Mitubishi engine in it, would it be foreign or domestic?

 

Garbage, is the word you're looking for.