Dear Bedroom Community Chevrolet Dealer Who Keeps Mailing Me Offers To Buy My Car:
Please take this to heart: The only circumstance under which I would purchase a new car would be if someone was holding a gun to my head. That is, unless they insisted that I buy a Chevy. If they did, I would ask them to please hurry up and pull the trigger.
Sincerely,
Fool Who Purchased A Brand-New Cavalier (in the first year the model was offered and regretted it for ten years. While I was having the engine rebuilt after the heads warped, I bought a rusty 1974 MGB for $300, and found it to be more fun and more dependable than the Chevy. I parked the Cavalier and drove the MG.)
You could not give me a Chevy. I'm sure they make plenty of fine cars, but that wretched little hatchback soured me on 'em for good.
9 comments:
The CEOs of Ford and GM recently met with Trump to urge him to endorse legislation that would only allow their dealerships to repair/maintain their cars. Ford and GM are now dead to me!
Well, that's one way to put yourself into bankruptcy. The Big Three are pretty good at that.
Another sign of desperation after the Japanese showed them what cars should be.
Having wrenched on everything from a Model T to a 2025 Porsche GT4 RS, no manufacturer gets 5 stars except Acura. My 1993 NSX and my 2017 RDX have been nearly flawless. Parts aren’t cheap, but they don’t break.
Always liked the MG’s. Had a 57 and it was a fun top down driver.
I grew up GM and bought a Vega wagon as my first family car. It was OK, but thereafter I've had a string of VW hot hatches with a ratty 2nd hand van for utility stuff. In my second marriage, my wife wanted suggestions so I pointed her at a Cavalier wagon, hopefully as dependable white bread. WRONG. Nine months old, it had a bad oil leak and I washed the engine with GUNK and the hose to find out where it was.
WRONG#1. In doing so, I lunched the throttle position sensor and the only way to start the %^#$er was to remove the air cleaner and squirt starting ether IF THE CAR HAD BEEN OFF FOR 5 MINUTES or more..
WRONG#2: Although the car was 9 months old, NO TPS modules were available; I was put off for 6 months until getting one.
No more GM.
New cars are too damn expensive, especially on a broadcast employee's salary. So are new houses, but that's a whole 'nuther story. My wife's Ford Edge was bought used, and has been decent so far. My Jeep Cherokee is 10 years old, with 209,000 miles on it, hoping to reach 300,000.
As to Anonymous' comments, the Right-to-Repair battle is already being fought in the ag industry. The spectre of subscription-based features (such as a streaming-only info-tainment system) in your car is also in the air. Imagine having to pay a monthly fee to keep your heated seats running.
Had a '83 Cavalier - stripped model, stick shift, a radio. Ran fine until one day the camshaft which was keyed to the sprocket with a roll pin sheared. Had to bend sheet metal to get to the cam with the engine in the car. The driver's door rotted out. Traded it in for a '91 Mazda MX3, which lasted until 2006.
Currently have a '69 VW Karmann Ghia convertible for good weather driving.
My personal faves for wrenching were a BMC Mini (a pukka RHD import) and a Pontiac Vibe. Yeah, it's a GM badge, but a Toyota underneath.
Both seemed to understand that mechanics would need to do stuff to them, and made things nice and easy.
The Mini was really fun- just unbolt the bonnet & grill, then pull up a chair.
I was an ASE master tech for 20 years. I also taught auto technology at a community college. Every vehicle has the potential to be a piece of garbage if it's properly abused and neglected. But here are my personal rules for cars and trucks:
1, Never. And I do mean NEVER buy the first year of a new model or a redesigned model. Do not do it! The third or fourth year is much better from a debugging perspective.
2, ALWAYS buy something bigger and tougher than what you think you'll need. Trust me, you'll find ways to use it and abuse it.
3, When it starts to nickel and dime you, GET RID OF IT LIKE IT WAS A PSYCHOTIC BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND!!! It never gets better at that point, seriously dump it.
4, Never plan on it being an 'in between' or 'get you by till tax refund' vehicle. I've seen too many people say "can you just patch it for now, I'm trading it in when I get my tax refund" but it's always the tax refund three years later...
5, over maintain it. Filters and fluids are the cheapest extended warranty you can put on a mechanical device. Speaking about fluids, feed the leak. It's going to eat so you may as well feed it fluid, it's cheaper than a new pump, transmission, axle or cylinder head.
6, Your better off nursing it along until you can pay for another one up front. Financing hurts financially. The borrower is slave to the lender. Compound interest is a cast iron bitch.
YMMV, but I'm driving a 2000 Chevy Silverado 2500 with almost 400,000 miles on it. It's old dented and ugly. It leaks fluids but it's paid for and it's old enough that parts are cheap and new enough that parts are still available. And it's tough enough to pull a trailer load of scrap or firewood. Tough enough to be ridden hard and put away hungry, wet and tired.
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