Monday, August 16, 2004

American Cars

OK, so I call my dealership where I bought my Olds to find out if my heater/air conditioner fan is covered by my so called 'bumper to bumper warranty'. When I bought this car, the special deal was that a 5 year/60,000 mile warranty came with it. It was some promotional thing Oldsmobile was doing for one month back in 2001. Sounded good to me at the time. But of course, the fan isn't covered. In actuality, almost nothing is covered. I've had the car in several times for service and nothing has ever been covered. (And this car has needed some service, believe me!) The only thing this warranty has ever been good for is a $4.00 flasher for the turn signals that went bad. I guess I was suckered by the sales pitch. I should have known that any car made in the US won't have great backing. They are just too expensive to produce. (Unions are the big cause, but that's a rant for another day.)

My second car is an import. German. The warrenty is 'bumper to bumper'. I've had 2 and both have been so well serviced, it almost doesn't seem real. The first one had a volume button on the steering wheel that became slightly discolored, so they replaced it. Once, the brake light on the dash came on and when the service guys checked it out, they said the brakes were below their standards, so they replaced them. Brake pads, rotors and sensors. No charge. The car had 42,000 miles on it and they replaced all that, no charge.

We, the USA, are supposedly the producer of some of the finest goods in the world. If that is so, why can't our manufacturers first - build reliable products and second - back them up with decent service? It kinda sucks to think that I probably won't be buying any more new American built cars again. I've been a GM driver for a long time. But what's the point of putting my faith in something that even the builder doesn't have enough faith in to want to back it up? No thanks.

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