The "real" reason GM went bankrupt (my theory)

Discussion in 'Car & Truck Talk' started by Bsquare, Jul 15, 2012.

  1. ModelT1

    ModelT1 Still Lost in the 50's

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    After ten years I traded my still "looked like new", new in 2004 Dodge quadcab with hemi because at 70,000 miles it started dollaring me to death. After $2000 in engine work I traded "America's longest lasting truck." I heard some hemi's blew up before 50,000 miles. I bought houses for less than this truck cost.
    I shoulda known better. My last new vehicle was a 1977 Ford supercab 460 that got a new rebuilt engine just out of the 12,000 mile waurantee then that one started having floating valve issues.

    In July 2015 I bought a used 2014 Chevy Impala with just under 20,000 miles on it for under half what a new onc cost. It was made in Canada.
    I've had two oil changes and keep the fuel tank full. It still only has 30,000+ miles on it. Rides and looks like new. We bought it for two reasons. Four old people can get in and out of it fairly easy, it has a large trunk with fold down rear seat to haul 2 X 4's and groceries, and gets between 28 and 32 MPG depending how often I get out of town. And those road trips were at 70+MPH. I didn't buy it to baby it or abuse it.
    Tires, paint, running gear, etc show no wear. Best of all the V-6 sounds and feels like a '58 Impala V-8. It came from a Buick GMC dealership.

    I remember when our Chevy dealer ran down Buicks and GMC trucks. I remember when Ford said even a Mercury or Lincoln is a waste of money. Now they sell anything they get their grubby little hands on and tell you it's the best damned Yugo in the world!
     
  2. Poison_Ivy

    Poison_Ivy Dogzilla Fan

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    Feeding effigy ice cream to Dogzilla
    I can't imagine that Ford was having valve springs manufactured somewhere in the 3rd world. I would have tried getting old stock 390 - 460 valve springs which were sitting on some shelf. You could replace them yourself, if you could get your hands on a compressor.
     
  3. Silvertwinkiehobo

    Silvertwinkiehobo "Everything that breaks starts with 'F.'"

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    You don't need a compressor, just a four or five foot hank of line. Bring the cylinder to be worked on to halfway between bottom and top on the compression stroke, feed all but 1 foot of rope into the spark plug hole, gently roll the engine up near TDC until it just about stops, do the spring work, then gently roll the engine backward until you can pull the line out. Taa Daa!
     
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  4. Poison_Ivy

    Poison_Ivy Dogzilla Fan

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    And to think, I've been doing it the hard way, all along. Do you think we could trust ModelT1 with rope, now that he finds out that he threw $12.000 out the window for nothing?
     
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  5. Silvertwinkiehobo

    Silvertwinkiehobo "Everything that breaks starts with 'F.'"

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    You're right. The clue was that he was using it to push cats out from under the porch.
     
  6. Silvertwinkiehobo

    Silvertwinkiehobo "Everything that breaks starts with 'F.'"

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    And as for which is right, and which is wrong, it doesn't matter. Only saving time and effort is what counts. Especially when the customer wants it 'yesterday.'
     
  7. Poison_Ivy

    Poison_Ivy Dogzilla Fan

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    Skinned cats with their tails chopped off resemble ready to roast rabbits. So, there you go. That lost $12.000 would have enabled him to eat normal food, instead of having to hunt down housepets.
     
  8. Silvertwinkiehobo

    Silvertwinkiehobo "Everything that breaks starts with 'F.'"

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    It's what Denis Leary said--we won't eat cute animals. But some have no aversion to it.
     
  9. ModelT1

    ModelT1 Still Lost in the 50's

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    o_O$2,000.................................. $2,000............................... #2,000 , On the Dodge Hemi. plus more. Not $12,000.:nailbiting:
    On the 1977 Ford 460 they did give me a small discount since it was barely out of the 12,000 mile waurantee. They replaced the newer engine with an old rebuilt. Like I complained, I could have just bought a junk yard 460 and put it in my '75 Ford.:sarcasticclap:
    To make it worse whatever was causing the valve float on the original 460 soon did the same on the replacement engine. They probably reused the new heads.:huh:
    After that I lost faith in all new Vehicles until that bright red 2004 Dodge quad cab kept grinning :Dat me from the front row of the Chrysler dealership for months.
    I made it from 1977 to 2004 without a new vehicle. Then:evilsmile::slap:

    GM went belly up because they also started making junk using ideas from college kids who didn't know cars from crap.
     
  10. Poison_Ivy

    Poison_Ivy Dogzilla Fan

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    College kids work for less money. I wouldn't hire an engineer, unless he, she or unspecified had hands-on experience, first. That's really sassy as to how they dealt with your 460. If they keep that up, sooner or later, some disgruntled customer might show up with a trench broom, to blow their lazy souls out of their carcasses. What's worse is when you trust those derelicts with high technology. It used to be that individual devices were driven by at least a belt each. I never heard of power steering suddenly failing, because of a belt snap, unless the belt was in so bad a shape. Nowadays, they use that flat grooved belt to drive several devices. If the mechanics replacing those belts are too lazy to replace the entire kit and to tighten the belt properly, that belt can and sometimes does get unpredictable.
     
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  11. Doghead

    Doghead Well-Known Member

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    The Peugeot/Citroen/Opel group just bought in: https://www.autoblog.com/2019/10/31/fiat-chrysler-peugeot-fca-psa-merger/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKnRH1se6HMQUj6RlX_-vww-k9h4039j5ofaNFp0xcHU1OS7E2WWeRIGZCNOn_c2y8iZdVYaRRXo_LTEsPBWNUsazqoidT84DkoXd5hRypOIA35xLyOKvnx98rYv0E3mBVQSIY_crnXWfLBuhx_RMsaoZsYV2cMQN75eTuuaHPjQ
    I wonder as to which one will lose its identity first
    Lucky for this guy, Reagan was still a governor[​IMG]
     
  12. zzzizxz

    zzzizxz Well-Known Member

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    I used to like Ford after the bailout, since they were the only ones who refused taxpayer's money. Now, I wouldn't touch a Ford with a 10-foot pole.
    Sure, they didn't take the bailout, but we have the DPS6 transmission problems, and Ford completely lying to everyone about it. This has affected my SIL, and other people I know, so Screw Ford.
    What good is it to "make it on their own" if they're going to commit fraud against their customers?
    Then, we have their recent issue with the recall over the electric tailgate switch failure, and I just heard they have already recalled some 2020 Explorers and Aviators for making the fuel lines too short.
    You may not like the idea of foreign-built cars, but the Asian cars have better quality and price than US cars. .
     
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  13. OrthmannJ

    OrthmannJ Always looking for old ford crew cabs

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    Zzzizxz,
    I am afraid that it is part of the corporate world. No one is immune to it.

    The "forign" cars have just as many cases of recalls, malfunctions and scandal as the "domestic" cars.
    Toyota with the sticking gas peddle causing fatal crashes, Honda with the exploding airbags and Volkswagen with the emissions cheating software are a few examples. I just recently heard on the news that Subaru is being investigated by the NHTSA for some reason (can't remember the specifics).

    So if you want an automotive company that has no funny business going on behind the scenes and produces 100% of it's automobiles without any threat of failure of any of it's components (many of which are provided by outside vendors) then your choices are...
    Well, actually I don't think you have any choices.
     
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2019
  14. jaunty75

    jaunty75 Middling Member

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    Depending on which make and model you're talking about, many of those "foreign-built" cars are assembled right here in the U.S. As just one example, all of the following Nissan models are assembled at the Nissan Assembly Plant in Canton, Mississippi: Altima, Frontier, Murano, NV Cargo, NV Passenger, Titan, and Titan XD.

    Auto production is truly world-wide, and the brand on the car is not always an indication as to where it was made. Some Ford Fusions, Dodge Rams, and Chevy Silverados/GMC Sierras (the four-door crew cab versions) are made in Mexico. Every Dodge Journey ever made was made in Mexico. Every Ford Fiesta ever made was made in Mexico.
     
  15. zzzizxz

    zzzizxz Well-Known Member

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    Oh, I totally agree with you. I was disagreeing with the people who seem to think Ford is the company that will provide the vehicle for the second coming of Christ because they didn't take bailout money.

    Not taking the money and "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps" is utter garbage if you do what they did pushing those transmissions out against the advice of their engineers.
     

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