GM recalling another 1.3-million cars over power steering woes

[LTC8K6]

Yes, for misleading the doj. Nothing was ever found wrong with the cars. The gas pedal assemblies were replaced for being very slightly out of spec. They were never found to stick, iirc. They returned to idle slightly slower than spec, iirc.

 

[Dartman8]

I have a Friend who told me a few weeks ago his 04 Malibu was giving him steering problems and now the Recall. I know now why I never liked this company. Any company who knows of defects ( the ignition ) problem and builds this product should be condemned. It is the same if a supermarket sells you tainted meat and you die they must be held accountable. Sad.

 

[BUTCH1]

I'm still waiting for anything in the mail from GM, think I'll call the dealer and ask if they are already starting to replace these..

 

[phucheneh]

I have a Friend who told me a few weeks ago his 04 Malibu was giving him steering problems and now the Recall. I know now why I never liked this company. Any company who knows of defects ( the ignition ) problem and builds this product should be condemned. It is the same if a supermarket sells you tainted meat and you die they must be held accountable. Sad.

No, not really at all the same. Consumable goods and appliances are not the same thing. That's the most basic reason why that's wrong, but what's more interesting is that if you treat the car as an appliance, outrage is still not found, not here and especially not in the ignition switch recall.

An old arcing breaker box could burn your house to the ground. Just because it's old. And hell, it's out of sight and out of mind: doesn't scream 'fix me' every single day you continue use it (like the car where you have to put the key into the worn-out lock cylinder to make use of it). And hey, ovens and other appliances commonly fail in ways that could cause some sweet fires, too.

Oh, and your garden shed- man, is that thing full of death. I know I enjoy getting a good face-whipping from a metal chain with teeth on it, because the manufacturer of that defective chainsaw didn't come take the thing out of my hands and swap out the rusty, damaged chain for a brand new one. WTF, they should have to do that to save me from myself.

If your ten year old car is broken, fix it. The manufacturer's obligation is to provide you a functioning product with no egregious design oversights. One that will last a reasonable amount of time depending how it is used. Warranties are established on every item to state how long it has to last. They'll guarantee your rotors won't warp for 12 months/12000 miles. Bumper-to-bumper on non-maintenance items is at least 3/36. Federal emissions items are in higher categories that IIRC range from 5/50 to 8/80. Ect ect.

I'm rambling here, but I feel like I should add a great example of what people DON'T raise a fuss about and should. Guess what happens if, on ~5 year old car, certain parts just start dropping like flies? Like, say, airbag failures? Nothing. The cars are out of warranty and a part failed. Not their problem. As long as the dash light comes on to inform you of an airbag problem, they have fulfilled their obligation. Now, if airbags were DEPLOYING or something else of a directly injurious nature, they would issue a recall and start instituting preemptive fixes (e.g. like Toyota and GM have both done on 10+ year old cars with SRS control unit failures).

I guess it basically boils down to not having a dummy light to tell you that your ignition switch is shot. Or your steering is not working right. Or something else that is noticeable to any even vaguely semi-reasonable person.

Ooh, here's another great one related to steering: what if your steering wheel falls off? I've seen cars where the factory simply forgot to tighten the bolt properly. Car drives in with it barely engaging the splines ont the steering shaft anymore. Should the manufacturer recall every vehicle they've ever built? That's what it would be, because the, say, 1 in 10,000 loose steering wheels cannot be narrowed to any production date or part design. They were just loose because Carl worked at the plant for ten years, and whoops, it turns out Carl was kind of a dick and wasn't 100% on his bolt tightening. Damn Carl.

 

[BUTCH1]

No, not really at all the same. Consumable goods and appliances are not the same thing. That's the most basic reason why that's wrong, but what's more interesting is that if you treat the car as an appliance, outrage is still not found, not here and especially not in the ignition switch recall.

An old arcing breaker box could burn your house to the ground. Just because it's old. And hell, it's out of sight and out of mind: doesn't scream 'fix me' every single day you continue use it (like the car where you have to put the key into the worn-out lock cylinder to make use of it). And hey, ovens and other appliances commonly fail in ways that could cause some sweet fires, too.

Oh, and your garden shed- man, is that thing full of death. I know I enjoy getting a good face-whipping from a metal chain with teeth on it, because the manufacturer of that defective chainsaw didn't come take the thing out of my hands and swap out the rusty, damaged chain for a brand new one. WTF, they should have to do that to save me from myself.

If your ten year old car is broken, fix it. The manufacturer's obligation is to provide you a functioning product with no egregious design oversights. One that will last a reasonable amount of time depending how it is used. Warranties are established on every item to state how long it has to last. They'll guarantee your rotors won't warp for 12 months/12000 miles. Bumper-to-bumper on non-maintenance items is at least 3/36. Federal emissions items are in higher categories that IIRC range from 5/50 to 8/80. Ect ect.

I'm rambling here, but I feel like I should add a great example of what people DON'T raise a fuss about and should. Guess what happens if, on ~5 year old car, certain parts just start dropping like flies? Like, say, airbag failures? Nothing. The cars are out of warranty and a part failed. Not their problem. As long as the dash light comes on to inform you of an airbag problem, they have fulfilled their obligation. Now, if airbags were DEPLOYING or something else of a directly injurious nature, they would issue a recall and start instituting preemptive fixes (e.g. like Toyota and GM have both done on 10+ year old cars with SRS control unit failures).

I guess it basically boils down to not having a dummy light to tell you that your ignition switch is shot. Or your steering is not working right. Or something else that is noticeable to any even vaguely semi-reasonable person.

Ooh, here's another great one related to steering: what if your steering wheel falls off? I've seen cars where the factory simply forgot to tighten the bolt properly. Car drives in with it barely engaging the splines ont the steering shaft anymore. Should the manufacturer recall every vehicle they've ever built? That's what it would be, because the, say, 1 in 10,000 loose steering wheels cannot be narrowed to any production date or part design. They were just loose because Carl worked at the plant for ten years, and whoops, it turns out Carl was kind of a dick and wasn't 100% on his bolt tightening. Damn Carl.

Sometimes manufacturers will work with you depending on the issue, on my '05 Chevy the seat frame broke at the weld point, after poking around the web I saw that others had the same issue so I call GM"s "goodwill" # and explained the situation to them, yea, on a 7-8 year old car parts might indeed break but a seat frame (unless exposed to corrosive environments),should last the life of the car and since the seat belt is bolted to the seat frame I now possessed a vehicle with a built-in ejection seat that might launch me through the windshield in a frontal impact. She had me bring the car to the dealer where I bought it and GM donated a new frame and the dealer donated the labor to install it, a $1000 repair, free..

 

[LTC8K6]

I'm still waiting for anything in the mail from GM, think I'll call the dealer and ask if they are already starting to replace these..

Recently visited friends in VA, their daughter owns a Cobalt, and another relative does as well. They were told there were no parts available, and wouldn't be for a while.

Also, new GM is still saying it is Old GM's responsibility, iirc.