New England B.S. Thread

Yeah we'd have to take stock in suntan lotion if we moved out that area. Southeast wouldn't be too bad compared to up here already.

 

i rent cars once or twice a week for work, i'd have to put FCA and Nissan products at the bottom. even the kia optima was better than the altima. and any FCA product i've had for a rental has had electrical issues. oh and don't even get me started on the new gmc acadia with the window switches for gear selection

 

Oof, I saw that gear selector on the new .... Yeah I think it was the Acadia/Yukon. No me gusta. I think I'd prefer the stupid RAM knob for gear select.

I work with a guy who has a salvaged GMC acadia. Not sure how much is GMC vs salvaged, but a year later that thing runs rough, rusted everywhere. Not sure what he was thinking when he bought it.

 

If you keep your vehicles for a long time- probably shouldn't buy a GM product at all. My '17 is already showing significant rust on the frame. 100k mark is right around the corner so I am starting to shop for the next contestant.

 

'17 w/ 100k is impressive. Drive a lot for work?

Fluid film? I just bought my '20 tacoma, haven't fluid filmed it yet but I will be in the spring.

 

I woolwax/fluid film about 200 trucks a year and GM has the worst frame coating/metal of any of the big brands. You can literally scrap the frame paint off with your fingernail.. so any gmc that has been put on a 2 post lift has rust spiderwebbing from the lift points.. not to mention I’ve seen crusty flakey crossmembers on GM trucks as new as 2016

 

For work and play. Lotta driving! Thus I could care less about the garbage frames all these trucks seem to use these days. I just need to go 100k and it becomes someone elses problem. Gotta love a car allowance, gonna hate the day I actually have to pay for one of these pieces of shit because they all seem to be these days.

 

I was at my companies International Sales Meeting in Scottsdale two weeks ago (just Northeast of Phoenix). Phoenix is huge, I’d want to be on the fringes. Scottsdale seemed nice but a little snobby maybe? I climbed Camelback Mt. the last morning, it’s pretty neat that’s in the middle of town, great pre-dawn views. I was really more interested in proximities to the Rockies, the Grand Canyon, etc. than the town. I also can’t shake how much of a role water use plays now and in the future and how the desert Southwest towns will be affected by water usage. Just my .02

 

That's because it's not paint. It's wax.

 

Right, it's a version of their own wool-wax. Went to Line-X of Bow NH to get Line-X and fluid film the first week I bought my GMC. They do a ton of fluid film and they said wait at least a year before you do it or the fluid film will actually remove the factory coating.

 

By which point the welds have already started rusting

The GF's dad has a '15 GMC 2500 and the hitch & rear cross member are already getting crusties.

 

Yeesh. Yeah, if I'm getting a vehicle allowance I wouldn't worry much. Any thoughts on the Ford 3.5? Heard a lot of good about those, not sure about the frames rusting though. I was between the tacoma and the 2.7 for personal daily driver when I was looking.

Hitches always rust. I had a receiver on my mazda 3 - for a bike rack , that thing was rusted within a year.

 

Yeah, surface rust on the inside of the receiver tube, maybe. This is flaky rust, on the hitch frame.

 

I'm already aiming for clover seeding my lawn this year, screw grass. But I'm in RI

Scottsdale has a few aero companies, Honeywell Sky Harbor is in Phoenix. Aero companies stick together, in New England there's a ton of aero companies that support Pratt, out in the midwest there's a ton of companies that support GE, etc. And where there are major MRO hubs (American in Charlotte for example), you have some support, but because those are so spread out, it's not as concentrated for support.

Then of course the manufacturers in the middle of nowhere where labor is cheap, land is cheap, utilities are cheap, and the weather is "safe" to prevent disruption.

 

I’m convinced gm uses low quality metal the way it flakes

 

Probably. It's been an ongoing problem for years; I remember seeing rusty crossmembers on early 2000's trucks when I was writing service, and at that point they were only 5-6 years old. Cheap steel + that shitty wax coat = a $50k truck that will biodegrade within 10 years unless you undercoat it religiously.

I guess the guy that engineered the Vega & the LUV never actually retired

 

Yeah, I was also looking at old Silverados like 2004 timeframe, they're either $2k rust buckets or $15k delusional sellers, also some well taken care of $10k rigs. But few and far between for those.

 

2010+ fords are a damn good product

 

Yeah, if I went full size I would definitely have been in the 5.0 or 2.7 F150.

The tacoma might fit in a garage, where an F150 almost for sure wouldn't. Tires are smaller, less oil, etc etc. so I'm good with the tacoma. Didn't want the ranger, late in it's model life, and for how expensive and big it is...just get the F150

 

I didn't think the Aztek looked that bad I think it was the first vehicle to be considered a crossover. The Buick version looked a little more normal.