Posted on 11/26/2008 7:02:07 AM PST by yankeedame
GM's current precarious situation didn't come about overnight. There are arguments to be made that various government regulations led to the disaster and that management can't escape much of the blame, and there are plenty who contend it was a series of disastrous union labor contracts that have put the company at risk. But there's one thing everyone agrees on: Over the past few decades GM put some truly terrible products out on the market. Unreliable, uninteresting and flat ugly, these were cars that simply destroyed GM's reputation....
1. 1971-1977 Chevrolet Vega
Legend has it that when Chevrolet Division Manager John DeLorean went to the GM Proving Grounds to get his first look at a prototype of the new 1971 Chevrolet Vega, the front of the car literally fell off onto the ground. But that bad omen didn't keep DeLorean from putting the Vega on the market.
Responding to increased import sales, the Vega showed up at the same time as Ford's similarly ill-fated Pinto. Both were relatively conventional cars by Detroit standards, with their four-cylinder engines in front sending power back to a solid rear axle. In fact, the only innovative thing on the Vega was the all-aluminum block around which its 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine was constructed.
Unfortunately, the art of building aluminum engine blocks was in its infancy back in 1971 and the unlined cylinder walls of Vega engines were scoring almost instantly. That led to lots of oil burned and early death for this engine. Throw in haphazard build quality and sheetmetal that you could practically hear rusting away, and the Vega truly rates as one of GM's great debacles.
But the Vega was actually a sales success. Chevy sold nearly 268,000 during the 1971 model year, over 390,000 during 1972, almost 396,000 during 1973, and over 450,000 during 1974 (sales finally collapsed during the 1975 model year). After all, its mini-Camaro looks were handsome and in an era of fuel shortages it was pretty stingy on gas. Plus, back then there were millions of buyers who insisted on buying only American products. But ultimately that meant there were just that many more people disappointed by the Vega. By the mid-1980s, Vegas were being junked so aggressively that some salvage yards in Southern California had signs up saying they wouldn't accept any more. When even the junkyard won't take a car, that's trouble
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2. 1980-1985 X-Cars
It's hard to imagine the hoopla that surrounded the introduction of the all-new 1980 Buick Skylark, Chevrolet Citation, Oldsmobile Omega and Pontiac Phoenix in April of 1979. These four awkwardly proportioned "X-Body" front-drivers directly replaced GM's rear-drive compacts (of which the Chevy Nova was the most prominent) and promised a revolution in how the corporation designed and built cars. Chevy alone sold an incredible 811,540 Citations during that prolonged 1980 model year based on that promise. Unfortunately, the reality was that these four- and six-cylinder cars probably suffered more recalls and endemic problems than any other GM vehicle program.
The problem wasn't so much the basic engineering of the X-Body cars as it was that no one apparently spent any time doing the detailed engineering that determines a car's success. So customers complained of disintegrating transmissions, suspension systems that seemed to wobble on their own mounts, and brakes that would make the whole car shudder every time they were applied. There were so many niggling faults and a seemingly endless series of recalls that sales of the car almost tanked by its third year. Still, through 1985, a few million escaped to the public, souring hundreds of thousands on GM.
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3. 1976-1987 Chevrolet Chevette
The Chevrolet Chevette was already outdated when it appeared in 1976. Based on GM's "T" platform, it was a primitive, front-engine, rear-drive subcompact in a small-car world that was busy being revolutionized by front-drive cars such as the Honda Civic and Accord, Volkswagen Rabbit and Ford Fiesta. It was underpowered too, originally being offered with a 1.4-liter Four making 53 hp or a 1.6-liter version of the same engine rated at 70 hp.
Chevrolet saved itself a lot of development time and money by picking up the Chevette design from GM Brazil. The Georgia-built small car was a solid sales success too, selling almost 450,000 units in 1980 alone. But it was always a car that sold strictly on price, with no real virtues of its own. And it was a huge help to Chevrolet in sneaking in under the federally mandated CAFE standards. But it also meant that for 11 years GM didn't bother developing an advanced small car specifically for the American market.
In fact, when it finally came time to replace the Chevette in 1987, what Chevrolet did was create the "Geo" sub-brand and put redecorated Isuzus and Suzukis onto the Chevette's bottom rung on the model ladder. In truth, Chevrolet has never had a homegrown vehicle in this subcompact segment since the Chevette died, and that could be one of the company's greatest missteps of all.
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4. 1982-1988 Cadillac Cimarron
There's nothing wrong with the idea of a smaller, more athletic Cadillac. But it was a terrible idea to rebadge the Chevrolet Cavalier and attempt to pawn it off as a true Cadillac.
The compact J-Car program was already well under development at GM by the time Cadillac decided it wanted a version of its own. With little time on its hands and no desire to spend much money, what they came up with was a Cavalier with a different grille, a slightly modified interior and some hydraulic dampers between the body and front subframe. Otherwise, the 1982 Cimarron was powered by the same 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine as the Cavalier, backed by either a four-speed manual or three-speed automatic transmission.
Cadillac tried to sell the Cimarron as a domestic alternative to cars like the BMW 3 Series—that was just pathetic. Not surprisingly, practically no one fell for it and the Cimarron never sold well. But to many people, this proved that GM at the time had little regard for the storied and significant Cadillac brand.
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5. 1991-1995 Saturns
Saturn was GM's attempt at a do-over. Starting with a fresh plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., and a fresh labor agreement in that location with the UAW, the idea was that GM would create a fresh dealer network that would sell fresh new products in a refreshingly straightforward manner. It didn't quite work out that way.
Actually GM did a rather good job of setting up the plant, dealers and "no haggle" sales schemes - Saturn buyers really did seem to enjoy shopping at and buying from Saturn dealers.
But Saturn's cars were thoroughly mediocre. Built around a steel space-frame with plastic body panels bolted on, there were gaps between the panels big enough to stick a hand through. Yes, the plastic panels were resistant to collision damage, but they discolored and faded quickly, and as they aged, they cracked. Beyond that, the first Saturns had four-cylinder engines that sounded like threshing machines but didn't make a lot of power. These cars were nothing special in either handling or looks, and they were neither particularly space- nor fuel-efficient. At least they weren't unreliable. But Saturn's cars were simply no match for competition from Honda, Toyota, Mazda and a half-dozen others.
So GM, which got so much right when launching Saturn in 1990, blew the opportunity to build a new, loyal customer base by not getting the product right.
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6. 2001-2005 Pontiac Aztek
When Pontiac introduced the Aztek crossover vehicle for 2001, it was actually getting a jump on a new market. Unfortunately, however, the Aztek was just about the ugliest thing anyone could remember being unleashed on America's roads since the 1958 Edsel. No, that's not fair — the Edsel was way better looking than the Aztek.
Pontiac had shown the Aztek in concept form back in 1999 and, generally speaking, the reviews were excellent. But while engineering the concept vehicle as a production machine, GM took an incredible wrong turn: the corporation decided to base the new Aztek on the existing platform of its front-drive minivans. And because the minivans had certain dimensions that would be expensive to change, the Aztek wound up with some of the most awkward dimensions imaginable. For instance, the minivans' tall firewall and resulting high cowl worked fine on those plain boxes, but left the Aztek appearing tall, narrow and oddly fragile.
Compounding the mistake of was the Aztek's horrid shape, and the whole thing was covered in awful, gray plastic cladding. Hideous.
In its defense, the Aztek was roomy and versatile and had solid, easygoing road manners. But that was nowhere near enough to compete with the Japanese crossovers.
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7. 1978-1985 Oldsmobile Diesel V-8s
From the late 1970s and into the early '80s, Oldsmobile sold the most popular car in America: the Cutlass. Olds was on a sales roll; it seemed nothing would be able to stop the division. Then came the Oldsmobile diesels, and stopping is exactly what they did best.
Instead of designing a new series of diesel engines from scratch, GM decided to base its new diesel V8 architecture on the existing gasoline Oldsmobile 5.7-liter V8's. Of course the modifications were extensive in order to handle the 22.5:1 compression ratio of diesel operation—much stouter iron block, new cylinder heads, reinforced bottom end—but it was still a series of modifications rather than a clean-sheet design. Soon after the 5.7-liter diesel V8 debuted in Oldsmobile full-size 88 and 98 models (during 1978), the engines started tearing themselves apart.
That extreme fragility was despite the fact that the 5.7-liter diesel option cost between $800 and $1000 extra per car and only made a puny 120 hp and a stingy 220 lb-ft of peak torque at 1600 rpm. In short, these engines were awful. But the 4.3-liter version of the diesel V8 was even worse—rated at only 90 hp, it was somehow even more fragile.
The diesel V8s (and a short-lived diesel V6) were eventually offered throughout most of the Oldsmobile line and spread to the other vehicle divisions as well. And when the engines inevitably blew up, the cars they were in would either head to an early death in a junkyard or have a more reasonable powerplant swapped in.
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8. 1981-1984 Cadillac V-8-6-4
There was nothing wrong with the theory behind GM's attempt to turn Cadillac's throttle-body injected 6.0-liter V-8 into an economy engine during the 1981 model year. The technology was called "Modulated Displacement" back then, and the idea was that as engine load decreased, fewer cylinders in the engine would actually be fired to produce power. In other words, at full throttle, the "V-8-6-4" was a V8, as it reached speed it became a V6 and when cruising it was a V4. That was the theory; in reality, most of the time these engines were just broken. Conceptually it's almost identical to what GM is selling today as Active Fuel Management on some V8s.
The old Modulated Displacement system worked by altering the rocker-arm fulcrum so that intake and exhaust valves on particular cylinders were held shut by their springs. Unfortunately the solenoids and primitive electronics that were supposed to make this work rarely worked themselves. And even when the V-8-6-4 was running on all eight cylinders it was only making a laughable 140 hp.
Even though GM abandoned the V-8-6-4 in everything except limousines after just one year, the damage was done. Here was one more half-developed, cynically marketed technology that GM just couldn't make work.
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9. 2003-Present Hummer H2
Going strictly on functionality, the Hummer H2 is a capable machine. It's very good off-road, it rides reasonably well on-road, it's plenty powerful enough, can tow a lot, and will hold a few people and a lot of their stuff. And since it's based on the same platform as GM's full-size SUVs, the corporation makes a lot of profit on every one it sells. Function, however, isn't the H2's problem.
The problem with the H2 is that it's proudly politically incorrect in an era when the forces of political correctness are winning. The H2 gets crummy fuel mileage, its looks come straight out of the military at a time while the military is fighting an unpopular war, and it's freaking huge. Some people may actually like peeving off their neighbors by being rebellious in their vehicle choice, but an antisocial image is tougher for a large corporation to pull off.
GM was introducing the H2 (and establishing Hummer dealerships) at just about the same time that Toyota was taking the green-tech high ground with vehicles like the Prius and other hybrids. The H2 came to embody GM's presumed environmental callousness and the environmentalist fringe was vandalizing both Hummer dealerships and random civilian-owned vehicles. But worst of all for GM, when gas crested past $3 a gallon, the H2's sales cratered and they haven't recovered.
The Hummer H2 is a self-inflicted headache GM doesn't need.
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10. 1997-1999 EV1
Even today, the two-seat GM EV1 remains one of the best-engineered, best-working pure electric vehicles ever released to the public. With clever engineering throughout its aluminum structure, an incredibly aerodynamic body and a whole bunch of lead-acid batteries, the first-generation EV1 was able to go maybe 75 miles if driven with extreme care. The second-generation EV1 with nickel-metal-hydride batteries upped that range to about 150 miles.
The problem with the EV1 was that it was almost impossible to drive in traffic with anything approaching the ideal technique the car needed to stretch its range. So its real world range was often down around 40 miles and driving it was often a white-knuckle thrill ride as the driver tried to stretch out every last electron to make it to a charging station.
GM built the EV1 to satisfy a mandate from the state of California that 2 percent of a manufacturer's fleet sold there be zero-emissions vehicles (that number would rise to 10 percent by 2003). However, the EV1 and electric vehicles built by other manufacturers finally convinced the California Air Resources Board that the zero-emissions mandates weren't achievable by then-current technology. This led to the cancellation of the mandate.
So GM canceled the EV1, and when the leases on the 1117 it had produced ran out,GM took them back and crushed them. To the committed environmentalists who had leased one, that was completely unacceptable. And suddenly the world was full of conspiracy theories about why GM "killed" the electric car (see the movie clip below). If the Hummer H2 makes GM seem callous toward the environment, the way GM handled the EV1 makes the company seem downright hostile. It's been a public relations nightmare.
However, the experience GM gained by producing the EV1 may pay off in the long run as many lessons learned with that car are being ported over to the new 2011 Chevrolet Volt.
Sometimes even the darkest clouds can have shiny silver linings.
That is one UGLY car.
You had a isolated problem.
3800, in my opinion, is one of the best engines ever built.
I have owned the top two on this list:
A ‘74 Vega. The GT model with the 2-bbl carb, not the plebian base model. The aluminum block smoked like an an oil fire...which it was. Both rear quarterpanels rusted away and it bled exhaust inboard. Somehow it aways passed emissions and aside from $80 of exhaust work and a quart of oil every couple of days, I never put a dollar into it.
The other was an ‘82 Citation. Nothing said “Detroit” like this ride. Ugly from the A pillar back. Mine had the “Iron Duke” 151 motor. Lots of aftermarket goodies for that motor and as reliable as sunrise. The only investment I ever put into that car was a new set of brake pads. It finally met its end at the hands of a lady who couldn’t get her Suburban whoaed up at a red light.
HEAR! HEAR!
hahaha nice!
I actually like the looks of the new Malibu; it somewhat resembles the Acura (TL?).
My weapon of choice is my ‘97 Z28...I’ve hit the 130s in it...she actually shakes slightly at 95, starts calming down at 100, and is frighteningly smooth from 110 on...I love it!
I had a Mazda that didn’t even have a thermostat and we drove from Sarasota Florida to North Georgia without it. We just had to run the heat on high the whole way, but we weren’t walking.
I haven’t been able to abuse other cars like I did that poor Mazda.
My experiences with GM vehicles:
‘68 Olds Vista Cruiser - parents’ car; actually pretty solid but it was a late 60’s American car and pretty well used up by the time Dad sold it.
‘78 Buick Estate Wagon - also my parents’ car. I took my driver test in it. Also reasonably solid, but typical ‘70s American ugly complete with fake wood paneling on the side.
‘81 Buick Electra - one of the aforementioned GM diesels. ‘Nuff said.
‘80 Oldsmobile Cutlass - the first GM product in the family with my name on the title. Suffered numerous electrical faults, mostly due to the engine computer. Had a V8 engine, but still couldn’t get out of its own way, and even for as big as it was it had less rear legroom than the ‘81 Honda it replaced. The check engine light came on any time I got it over 60mph.
‘89 Chevrolet Caprice - good car. My folks kept it for fifteen years and almost a quarter-million miles on the original engine (though it was on its second rear axle by then).
‘85 Chevrolet Sprint - okay, techincally it’s a Suzuki; this was my last GM vehicle. I went through TWO engines in the 40,000 or so miles I put on it (both spun the #3 rod bearing).
‘96 Cadillac DeVille Concours - Mom and Dad’s last GM vehicle. Comfy, powerful, quiet, expensive any time something broke. Finally done in by an accident a couple months ago.
My current car, btw, is a ‘91 Mazda Miata with 235K on the clock. Besides being a lot of fun to drive, it’s easily the most dependable car I’ve owned.
after the experience of driving a ‘77 Ford Granada for a little while, I don’t think that I would be complaining about any GM car, ever! The tranny blew at 26K miles, and the Operation board game had more reliable wiring.
Say what you will about the Chevette, I still see quite a few of them out there running, 25 yrs. later.
Ah, yes.
The 1st Chevy of the '80's - The Chevy Citaaaation.
Introduced in the Spring of 1979. I used to refer to it as The First Recall of the '80's.
I’ll call major BS on the Saturn part.
My 12 yr old Satty with 135,000 miles looks like new and runs great. The panels don’t discolor or crack.
My older brother would (quite vocally) insist that the Pontiac Fiero make the top ten list.
He had nothing but problems with his.
My sister had one of those old Vegas. She carried several quarts of oil in the trunk as insurance, and it rusted everywhere but the luggage rack. Still, it started every single day and ran from the day she bought it until the day she traded it in - for an AMC Hornet :-).
“””I had a Mazda that didn’t even have a thermostat..... just had to run the heat on high the whole way””””
Uhmmm. NO thermostat would make the engine run cooler.
It’s long overdue for General Motors to reorganize under bankruptcy protection laws. General Motors should spin off each of its divisions. Some will go belly up. Others will go South where they will not be burdened by the UAW siphoning off something to the tune of $2.5 billion a month to pay workers not to work among other things.
“If I’m not mistaken, Ford uses Mazda engines.”
Depends on the engine. The four-cylinder Duratec is identical to the Mazda MZR; Ford designs and builds everything from six cylinders on up.
I had a vega too. I still remember my last drive.
Having just graduated school I bought a new recliner. The recliner was in back and the steam billowed as the engine overheated (AGAIN). The steam subsided I kept going. You could hear the knocking a mile away as I pulled in the driveway. It was never to start again.
The Toyota dealer hauled it away after I bought my new Celica the next weekend.
The primary benefits from buying GM are linked to lifetime maintenance costs. GM has a very reasonable parts pricing schedule as opposed to the rice burners and German rigs. The replacement parts, and thus the insurance costs are lower and over the lifetime of the car or truck which BTW has as good as the Japs, the costs are substantially lower.
The jap cars have throwaway engines. A stinkin fuel pump or tail light costs a fortune! Plus they ride like a rock.
You buy whatever you like. I would not even consider anything else and I have owned them all.
Are you sure? I don’t think so. The thermostat runs to keep the engine from overheating, so running the heat brings the air away from the engine and under the hood.
According to freeengineinfo.com, Thermostat replacement is generally done if a car is overheating. The other possibility is that the car is no longer heating up correctly due to the thermostat sticking.
Meaning if the thermostat isn’t working (or isn’t there) the engine will overheat, not run cooler.
Yep, I bought an Aztek. 2001 AWD and after 120,000 miles (a couple hundred of which spent hauling hanggliders up Colorado mountains) getting 19 MPG city and 24-25 MPG highway I finally had to trade it in. I really miss it. I didn’t have any mechanical problems at all. Drove great, Only time I got stuck was on a beach in a sand dune. It had an interior like a Grand Prix on Steroids. GM has nothing to compare anymore.
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