Wayne said:
The arguments you made easily indicate you had a crappy Honda and their
handling of the issue was just as crappy, but it did not prove that GM
vehicles in general, and model for model, were more reliable or better by
any yardstick than Honda. I have had friends recount similar experiences
with their GM cars as you had with your Honda.
My GM experience has been more with trucks than cars. A Chevy truck is
hard to beat, I don't care what anyone says. I had to laugh as the
Toyota salesman was salivating when he saw that my current vehicle was a
94. He made some comment about my current truck being about done in,
and I said that it was just getting broke in! And I wasn't joking. It
runs like a top and has almost no rust and the interior looks like new
other than a few stains on the carpet. The drive train has only
required replacement of one U-joint on the front drive shaft and brake
pads and shoes in 95,000 miles of plowing snow and hauling firewood.
The clutch is original, the shocks are original, the engine is basically
untouched (yes, original water pump, starter, alternator, etc.) other
than maintenance items like hoses, belts, spark plugs and filters. This
truck sees more time in 4-wheel drive in one winter than most Toyota or
Nissan trucks see in a lifetime of running to the mall!
I'm less impressed with GM's cars as I get Pontiacs as rentals all the
time, but I had a Buick Park Avenue rental a few years ago for a fairly
long trip and it wasn't a half bad car. Other than steering that was
too vague and a ride that was too mushy, it was a decent car. And it
got 30 MPG running at 80 MPH on a 7 hour trip! And this for a large car
that had pretty good performance. It got as good a mileage as my
standard shift, 4 cylinder Sonata gets!!
I personally believe that the engineering of the American brands is
still as good as anyone, even the Japanese, but the assembly just isn't
up to par. I still pretty much believe the old saying though that "A GM
will run bad longer than most cars will run."
Matt