28th Sep 2010, 14:46

Original reviewer here. Then you've never met my son. He really could care less about his car. That being said, I did warn him off this car, it seemed to good to be true to me as well. Whether it's been in an accident or not I'm unaware of, but it wouldn't surprise me. Unfortunately for GM, they've never made a good product for me or anyone else in my family (not a single one of our GM products has made it past 40,000 miles without major issues, and none of them made it 100,000. This Malibu hasn't needed anything major, but it is falling apart at 50,000 miles) and this car isn't changing that record or my opinion on them.

29th Sep 2010, 19:32

Trust me, you don't have to sell me on the fact that GM is junk. Any ONE of my GM cars has had more money in repairs than every single import I have owned over the past 26 years combined! I will never own anything by GM again unless it is at least 30 years old and considered a classic. At least you expect to work on your car when it is a classic, and it is part of the fun of owning one. I'm not a big fan of dealer waiting rooms while my new cars are getting fixed! No more GM... ever!

30th Sep 2010, 16:35

My current GM vehicle is coming up on 100,000 miles. It has had exactly three things since we drove it off the lot new: One battery, one set of tires and one light bulb. The brake pads are original, the A/C has never been serviced, and the car looks brand new inside and out. If you rode in it, you couldn't tell it from a brand new one.

We've owned a number of GM vehicles, and none ever required a single repair before 100,000 miles. Our Buick surpassed a quarter of a million miles with ZERO repairs.

On the other hand, none of our imports made 100,000 miles without massive and expensive repairs. They required brake pads three times as often as our GM cars, and were so poorly built, the frame actually sagged from the weight of the car on one of them. I hear this is very typical of imports.

No more poorly built imports for us. Toyota hasn't fallen to 21st place out of 33 car makers because it was superior. Quite the contrary.

30th Sep 2010, 21:32

And my experience is exactly the opposite of yours. I wouldn't take a GM for 50% off right now, as it would eat up the 50% I saved in the first three years in repairs!

So here we are. You have your experiences and I have mine. What does this tell you? It is pretty much luck of the draw. In my experience, imports are much better and still are, regardless of the ratings of them. Ratings are such bogus sources really, and most of them are forecast long term reliability, resale values etc. etc. Hardly reality! Like I have said before, until your precious ratings companies offer to pay up for their inaccurate forecast of reliable domestics, I will stick with what works for me... imports all the way!

3rd Oct 2010, 20:26

"the frame actually sagged from the weight of the car on one of them."

Original Reviewer again. I've never heard of this problem with imports. Apparently neither has Google. It was presumably an isolated incident.

I have however seen cars sag under their own weight. I've owned two that did. Both were AMERICAN vehicles.

The first was '93 Ford Escort that literally BENT IN HALF. The problem was caused by parts of the uni-body that were never welded together (real great car Ford).

The second was a '95 Dodge Neon that was sent to the junkyard with only 90,000 miles due to the front-subframe simply bending and buckling in the middle under the weight of the car (that, and the engine blew).