I've never owned a GM vehicle that has had so many problems as the one I own now

[JeffreyLebowski]

Who would buy a car from a company with a history of making subpar and unreliable products? They love to cheap out on workmanship, material, and quality in search for pure profits.

Oops, did I summarized all of the American car companies? Most of which are now bankrupted?

They're pretty good at making patriotic and "American" "nationalist" commercials though. Which is their core buyer's market, people who don't know any better and can't put 2 & 2 together..

Don't get me started with Toyota.

 

[Zargon]

Who would buy a car from a company with a history of making subpar and unreliable products? They love to cheap out on workmanship, material, and quality in search for pure profits.

Oops, did I summarized all of the American car companies? Most of which are now bankrupted?

They're pretty good at making patriotic and "American" "nationalist" commercials though. Which is their core buyer's market, people who don't know any better and can't put 2 & 2 together..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_10_best_selling_cars_in_Europe

remember that GM owns vauxhall/opel

so I guess american car companies arent all that bad if europe is eating them up too

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_10_best_selling_cars_in_Europe

remember that GM owns vauxhall/opel

so I guess american car companies arent all that bad if europe is eating them up too

How many GM vehicles have you owned? I've owned two brand new ones and both were very poor quality. I'm basing my opinion on GM based on that. I should of never bought the second one. I didn't make that mistake again with the last two vehicles which are a Honda and ford.

 

[hanoverphist]

a good friend of mine has a trailblazer. we have replaced the inst cluster twice, the water pump 5 times (one time was 2 weeks after changing it, got the warranty replacement on it), the alternator and a bunch of sensors. now the transmission is out. we found a used with about 20k miles on it for 600 bux tho, gonna trade it out this weekend. that thing is cursed for the most part, and is the least reliable vehicle of our friend group. and mine are usually the worst ones, since im jinxed.

 

[Zargon]

How many GM vehicles have you owned? I've owned two brand new ones and both were very poor quality. I'm basing my opinion on GM based on that. I should of never bought the second one. I didn't make that mistake again with the last two vehicles which are a Honda and ford.

handfulls

3 saturns, a cavalier, a pontiac transport, a chevy malibu, a quad4 grand am.

let alone what my parents have owned that I have worked on.

only 2 that had serious issues before 100K, my wifes astra, and the ion my dad had.

the old cavalier and van required zero $$ beyond regular maintenace till over 150k miles.

some of those I bought used at 100K + plus miles. the quad4 grand am I got from a buddy who put 200K on it then hit a deer. the water pump failed around 210k

my mom has a 08 grand prix gt thats been flawless, the 2 grandams my dad had before his ion went 100K with no issues. GM has been good to my family for the most part.

 

[dtgoodwin]

The TrailBlazer has exactly one transmission unless it's an SS - the 4L60E. The SS has a 4L65E which has some strengthened components. The 4L60E is notorious for a sun shell spline failure which causes 2,4, and reverse to fail. the 4L60E is behind virtually every 1/2 ton truck/SUV GM has made in the past 20 years. The previous 700R4 was virtually the same with less electronic controls. There may be differences in the torque converter from the V8 to the I6, and different outputs depending upon whether or not it is a 2WD or 4WD.

Sorry for all your problems. I've had a 2002 TrailBlazer that I bought 6 months used and 26K. It has been the best vehicle I've ever owned (I've had 2 Saturns, a Honda Civic, Nissan Maxima, Toyota Camry, and VW Jetta TDI. I have had a few problems including bad lower ball joints, bad sway bar links, and a bad fan clutch. Considering that I have a LTZ with all the features, the fact that everything still functions perfectly at 168K miles makes me smile.

As others have mentioned, very few cars go without at least some problems, and compared with the cost of replacing the vehicle, the money spent is very small. My Civic beater was the most expensive car for repairs. I had more go wrong with it in the 2 years I had it, and spent far more money than I've spent on the TB. The Jetta required more than 5K in work while it was under warranty. Even the Maxima and the Camry required their fair share of out of warranty work. Most of the things I get fixed are small problems. I am particular about problems and as soon as I find one, I get it fixed to avoid bigger problems.

I do know that TrailBlazers weren't the most reliable vehicles GM has ever made, but they are far from the worst vehicle out there.

 

[Zivic]

yup 🙂

whoever made the gears probably fucked it up in the hardening process making it really weak

You don't see what I was getting at......

How can you say it has been great, except the transmission went out? that's a pretty big problem. Not like a window regulator, or problem with the radio....

 

[exar333]

No it's not. None of our cars have had that many problems. In OP's case, crap fails over and over again in some instances.

I'd sell it and get a more reliable car, but that's just me.

*scratches head*

Most people would be all over $60-75/year in car costs over a 5 year period. That's really good. Add in a couple oil changes and some air filter changes along the way, and you are spending very little on your car.

 

[Zargon]

You don't see what I was getting at......

How can you say it has been great, except the transmission went out? that's a pretty big problem. Not like a window regulator, or problem with the radio....

no I get it.

its likely a very rare problem, as there is no recall on it.

he had one before that got wrecked, and it didnt have the issue, an no one on saturn fans was posting about thiers exploding instantly when they got it home.

why hold that car/gm accountable for something that they had zero control over?

sure, they could get source 'better' transmissions, but guys with the ion redlines are all over pushing 300+ HP on the stock transmission with no issues, so its very likely this was one bad gear

 

[DirthNader]

I miss my '05 Envoy w/ the I6. The only problem I ever had was a known issue with water pooling on one of the coils and eventually causing a misfire. This was corrected after '05.

 

[alphatarget1]

*scratches head*

Most people would be all over $60-75/year in car costs over a 5 year period. That's really good. Add in a couple oil changes and some air filter changes along the way, and you are spending very little on your car.

That's BS. OP's car's new components have failed again and again. It could be a manufacturing or engineering issue. How many water pump failures do you start to think maybe the part was just poorly engineered?

Unless OP is comfortable working on his car, he will have to shell out a lot of $$$ for parts and labor. What if the water pump fails every 20k miles? AC every 40k miles?

My family owned a 96 accord, 97 altima, 00 I30, 02 sentra, and a 06 MPV. none of them have had major problems. Had to replace the radiator for the 96 accord at 170k miles, and some other minor crap and regular maintenance like timing belt. If a car can't make a car that's (relatively) trouble free for at least 100k miles, they deserve neither my business or yours.

 

[exar333]

That's BS. OP's car's new components have failed again and again. It could be a manufacturing or engineering issue. How many water pump failures do you start to think maybe the part was just poorly engineered?

Unless OP is comfortable working on his car, he will have to shell out a lot of $$$ for parts and labor. What if the water pump fails every 20k miles? AC every 40k miles?

My family owned a 96 accord, 97 altima, 00 I30, 02 sentra, and a 06 MPV. none of them have had major problems. Had to replace the radiator for the 96 accord at 170k miles, and some other minor crap and regular maintenance like timing belt. If a car can't make a car that's (relatively) trouble free for at least 100k miles, they deserve neither my business or yours.

The OP has had the car for 5 years...thats not a lot of problems except the transmission. My fiance's VW had that many issues in ONE year. Sometimes you get rotten luck, other times it is a poorly engineered part. The OP is not heavily invested and the 2k for the tranny gives him a great vehicle to use for a few more years.

Show me proof his car will fail. That's right, you can't...

 

[alphatarget1]

The OP has had the car for 5 years...thats not a lot of problems except the transmission. My fiance's VW had that many issues in ONE year. Sometimes you get rotten luck, other times it is a poorly engineered part. The OP is not heavily invested and the 2k for the tranny gives him a great vehicle to use for a few more years.

Show me proof his car will fail. That's right, you can't...

One should never expect to buy a reliable VW. Why don't you compare to more reliable makes instead of VW?

I will say this: Nobody should have to deal with a failed AC system 6 months after buying the car. I assume it works fine after it was fixed. I also assume the radiator fan clutch works fine after it was fixed. Can you say the same thing about the water pump that was already replaced twice? What if the new alternator has a same lifespan compared to the old one? Can you extrapolate when it will fail again? Small repairs can add up to big $$$.

I'm not trying to prove that his car will fail. I'm saying that for the amount of problems he has had, maybe the car just wasn't engineered very well to begin with and maybe it's time to move on and have someone else deal with the problems. OP, have you checked car forums and see if the problems you have had are common?

 

[96Firebird]

The TrailBlazer has exactly one transmission unless it's an SS - the 4L60E. The SS has a 4L65E which has some strengthened components. The 4L60E is notorious for a sun shell spline failure which causes 2,4, and reverse to fail. the 4L60E is behind virtually every 1/2 ton truck/SUV GM has made in the past 20 years. The previous 700R4 was virtually the same with less electronic controls. There may be differences in the torque converter from the V8 to the I6, and different outputs depending upon whether or not it is a 2WD or 4WD.

Same transmission the LS1 was paired with, I'd say its a pretty stout tranmission. But all parts will fail with time...

And LOL and GM vehicles not being reliable. It all depends on how you take care of them. I'm not saying the OP used and abused his TB, but all I've ever driven was GM and I have yet to have any major failures. All have had over 150k miles, and 2 over 200k (I'm a poor just-out-of-college student and can't afford low-mileage cars). The only thing wrong with my current car is that it eats brakes, but I'm willing to but new breaks on every other year because maintenance otherwise is really cheap...

 

[DietDrThunder]

Nope, no abuse. I've never even towed anything behind it. I've owned it for 8 years and it has roughly 78,000 miles (9750 yearly average). For the past 3 years it has primarilly been the family vacation vehicle or driven when the whole family goes somewhere, so I'd say we put less than 8,000 miles a year over this timespan. I've also kept up all the routine maintence. I'm just glad it didn't fail on us three weeks ago when we took the 16 hour round trip mini vaction to Carlsbad / Roswell NM. THAT would have been a PITA.

 

[DirthNader]

And LOL and GM vehicles not being reliable. It all depends on how you take care of them. I'm not saying the OP used and abused his TB, but all I've ever driven was GM and I have yet to have any major failures.

That's what defined the "old" GM, IMO. They were good vehicles if you took care of them, but they punished you for neglect. My personal vehicles while I worked for GM ('01 Alero, '02 Z28, '05 Envoy) were all relatively trouble-free.

Some of the off-lease vehicles we got in for use in testing though... those things were scary. Just about any J-car that came off-lease with 20K miles or more was terrifying to drive at highway speed.

Contrasting with the "old" Toyota, my fomer mother-in-law's 1990-something Camry that probably saw one oil change a year took that abuse and hummed along.

 

[TheSlamma]

Same transmission the LS1 was paired with, I'd say its a pretty stout tranmission. But all parts will fail with time...

And LOL and GM vehicles not being reliable. It all depends on how you take care of them. I'm not saying the OP used and abused his TB, but all I've ever driven was GM and I have yet to have any major failures. All have had over 150k miles, and 2 over 200k (I'm a poor just-out-of-college student and can't afford low-mileage cars). The only thing wrong with my current car is that it eats brakes, but I'm willing to but new breaks on every other year because maintenance otherwise is really cheap...

I wish my history with GM was that good, from age 16-30 all I owned was GM and after 100K miles with great treatment and maintenance they all back stabbed me. 6 cars from GM.. and there will never be a 7th.

 

[Meghan54]

I would not call that a long list of issues for 250K at all. zero failures till 150K is pretty much great.

the only 'surprise' is the radiator end tank and that you actually replaced the cat :awe:

The end tank was a surprise, but eh, whatcha gonna do?

The cat.....don't know why it clogged, but it reared its ugly head while towing home a boat we'd just bought. A 3 hr. drive turned into 13......couldn't get the thing to run faster than 1500 rpm or tolerate any more than 1/4 throttle. The moment it starting happening, I almost knew exactly what was wrong.

Guess I should have replaced the O2 sensors before then.


Something we've noticed, rather I've noticed, is that the truck is darned picky about the parts that seem to work on it. If the plugs aren't Delco, the truck will start misfiring, acting up after about 5K of use. As soon as the AC Delco plats are put back in, it'll hum along for another 100K on the set. Same with plug wires and most of the sensors. If not Delco branded, the truck just won't run right. So, it gets what it wants....all Delco parts. Well, I do use a Goodyear Gatorback serpentine belt and Goodyear hoses, but the truck doesn't seem to mind them. 😉 But anything else, esp. electronic, it's gotta be Delco, no offbrands.


About our luck......we were looking at two identical Blazers when we bought the one we have, one plat. grey and one white. After driving both, the wife says we're buying the grey because she got a good "vibe" from it and a bad vibe from the white one. Guess I should trust her more. She wasn't wrong.

 

[Zargon]

luckily delco isnt too pricey usually

 

[desy]

Best car I ever had was a GM, the worst a Toyota.
That being said considering cars being built today I'd consider almost any of them

 

[bruceb]

3 year, 100,000 mile warranty?

Is that some kind of joke? lol

No joke. For certain GM powertrain parts used in a car or light truck
depending on when the part was sold (after 04-15-2005) you do get
3 years / 100K miles on a reman transmission and on a reman engine.

On my 1999 Grand Prix, the tranny lost 4th gear, due to failure of splines
on the 4th gear input. That part is made better in the reman units. I could
of kept using it as it was as it still had all the other gears. But I was concerned about metal parts maybe still in there.

 

[SparkyJJO]

<shrug> my 02 Trailblazer has been one of the best vehicles I've owned so far. Yeah, I've done some repairs to it, but the vast majority have been just simply wear items. I've put about 18k on it since last September, I drive a fair amount.

There are a couple things that are a stupid design on it for sure, but I dare you to find a car by any manufacturer that doesn't have some engineering stupidity going on.