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Achille, OK Car Consumer Discussions

Re: buying a vehicle for the mileage... [graphicguy]

by fezo on Wed Jul 30 12:20:00 PDT 2008

It's kind of BMW's Achilles heal Wait til Richard sees that one!

Re: buying a vehicle for the mileage... [cotmc]

by graphicguy on Wed Jul 30 11:45:19 PDT 2008

cotmc....actually, I've heard the same thing as moo about the smg trans. Most of it from people I talked to in the BMW service dept. M3s are very tempting. And, the one you posted the pic of is sweet. Yet, I've never heard anyone who owned an SMG that liked it. It's kind of BMW's Achilles heal....along with i-Drive.

From AutoExtremist

by torque_r on Wed Jul 09 21:05:44 PDT 2008

Detroit. After writing about General Motors’ foibles and occasional triumphs - and its too many models/too many divisions/too many dealers conundrum - for nine years and counting, it’s remarkable that $5.00 per gallon gasoline has done what the executive brain trust at GM could never do during the modern era, and that is to force the company to face the reality that it must drastically and fundamentally change its organizational structure. Why it has taken the cataclysmic event of a radical adjustment in what this country pays for a gallon of gas to trigger GM management’s decision to finally tackle its Achilles Heel that has crippled the company in this new global automotive world is beyond me, given that GM’s multiple divisional structure - a legacy from when it once controlled 48 percent of the U.S. market way back in the 60s - had become woefully obsolete easily fifteen years ago. GM is on the brink of disaster today because its executive leadership – along with its embarrassing rubber-stamp board of directors – steadfastly refused to acknowledge the fact that the company could not function properly as a viable corporate enterprise while still configured to produce and sell double the market share that it actually has in the U.S. And while GM managers sat back and watched that market share inexorably slip away over the last fifteen years as Asian and European competitors took huge chunks of its business away, they continuously postponed taking the steps necessary – when they weren't avoiding them altogether - to reconfigure the company for the future. And now, they're out of time. What happened? How could a company with the kind of tremendously deep talent and brain power at its disposal that GM has be caught so out of position and be so out of touch with what’s going on to the point that it has now been left mumbling “woulda-coulda-shoulda” to itself while facing the consequences of their inactions and lack of foresight? After years of writing about this industry and analyzing GM, I can safely say the answer comes down to a very simple realization, and that is that no one at GM – from CEO Rick Wagoner on down – ever actually believed that what was happening in the U.S. market was really going to continue, that somehow, some way GM would rise up again and return to its rightful place as the biggest car company in the world. In other words, a level of hubris is alive and well within General Motors that is absolutely breathtaking to contemplate. I know because I have observed it up close. I have seen it in the way the company still treats its suppliers, for starters. But that’s not where the real trouble was and still is at GM. It’s the vast middle management layer - that gray morass of mediocrity that I have referred to with such contempt over the years - that has absolutely destroyed GM from within. I have watched in horror as these bureaucratic middle managers functioned as if the world revolved around their little fiefdoms inside the company, while listening in stunned disbelief to their shockingly narrow-minded perspectives on the automotive world and their place in it. Their willful naiveté took on a life of its own, and their cancerous go-along-to-get-along mentality literally paralyzed the company at every turn, no matter how attuned or enlightened the leadership regime in place was at any given time. But GM’s vast gray middle has always been a problem, even in its heyday, which means that ultimately the buck has to stop at the top - with the series of leaders over the years who allowed GM to wallow in its mediocrity and who ultimately are responsible for GM’s predicament today. Yes, you can blame Washington for allowing the import manufacturers to run rampant in the U.S. market with none of the penalties, duties or restrictions that their governments slapped on our domestic manufacturers when they tried to compete in their home markets, but that doesn't account for the 15-year period (the late 70s to the mid 90s) when Detroit built piss-poor vehicles that turned a sizable chunk of American consumers away from buying domestic-built cars and trucks, and for good too. And you can blame the cost-prohibitive contracts that the Detroit manufacturers entered into with their unions, based on the impossible notion that the good times would go on forever and that there would always be money to cover the bills at the end. And you can say that the global economy brutally altered GM’s (and Detroit’s) fortunes at an accelerated rate that no one could have predicted, yet those same manufacturers were savvy enough in some cases to take advantage of those new markets, while blowing their position in this market to smithereens, which defies explanation. And you can argue that no chief executive of a car company - foreign or domestic – had any idea that the price of gasoline would go through the roof in a three-month period, destroying much of their business overnight, yet these same manufacturers all did business in Europe where gas has been traditionally two and even three times as expensive as in the U.S., so none of that thinking ever crept into their future planning sessions here? I find it hard to believe, and frankly inexcusable at this point. But there were definitive signs warning us of what was headed our way long before this spring. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the ensuing gas price spike – along with the emerging economies around the world - should have given the powers that be at these car companies at least a clue that America’s gasoline “holiday” was about to be permanently brought to a close. And the full-size SUV market was showing signs of deterioration long before $5.00 gas prices permanently disabled it. American consumers – a faddish lot, by every measure – had started to lose interest in the hulking trucks three years ago (I referred to it as the growing SUV “bubble” at that time). But none of that hand wringing really matters now because today General Motors, once this country’s shining beacon of industrial might and a symbol of success around the world, is less than a year away from outright disaster and the distinct possibility that it will go bankrupt, or will have to consider an alliance with another manufacturer to survive. (I can’t even imagine where GM would be right now if it wasn’t for its Bob Lutz-led product offensive - Chevrolet Malibu, Buick Enclave, Cadillac CTS, etc. - which has kept the company afloat in these desperate times.) With the dire straits that GM finds itself in today CEO Rick Wagoner is now being forced to act on a course of action that he has openly scoffed at up until now, which is to consider a wholesale reappraisal of divisional operations in favor of a company-wide retrenching around the two GM divisions that still matter – Chevrolet and Cadillac. Once upon a time when GM controlled half the market, it needed all of its divisions to adequately c

Re: From another forum - CONTINUED !! [gagrice]

by kdhspyder on Tue Jul 08 20:51:41 PDT 2008

For you to say that the Prius battery will last 150K miles is just crazy talk. When you look at the average 15k miles people drive that is 10 years. We have no data backing up what you are saying. Miles mean nothing in the scope of time. Sorry this is not accurate. As I noted both the Federal Govt, Idaho National Labs, and Toyota have separately tested the Toyota hybrids to 160,000 and 180,000 miles respectively with no significant deterioration in performance. As a matter of fact in the Feds test I believe that the Gen2 got slightly better FE after 160,000 miles ( break in ) than it did in the beginning. There is data and it's published and done scientifically. Now that the mileage question is put to rest, you are only surmising that age has to overwhelm the batteries because that's the only arrow left in your risk quiver. But that's only your personal viewpoint. Nothing else. There is no proof at all that age up to 10 or 15 yrs has any significant effect on the performance of the hybrid batteries. There are no vehicles that old yet. Nonetheless the CARB warranty is 10 years. Up to that time there is no risk. You also like to show that any vehicle that is 10 years old is worthless to the owner. It is worthless to a dealer. It is possibly all the owner can afford. If after 10 years he has to replace an expensive battery that will make the Prius WORTHLESS. So I guess by your definition the Prius is a 10 year throwaway vehicle. I would probably agree with that. And at 10+ years old ALL mass market vehicles, not hand made LS400's, are next to worthless. At 15 yrs of age they are in fact worthless. An owner may have an unreasoning love of his or her teenager but that doesn't eliminate the fact that it is worthless. It may have some utility but it has no cash value if an attempt were to be made to turn it into cash other than for parts. Our 19 year old LS400 runs and looks better than many 3-5 year old cars. If we had to replace a $4k to $6k component I would give it to Father Carlucci as a donation. The point being I don't want a car that has that kind of built in expensive component that is deteriorating whether it is being used or not. That is the nature of batteries. It will be the Achilles heel of all EVs in the future. Fine for high mileage drivers not so good for low mileage long term owners. This may be true but there's no proof one way or another. It's all wait and see at this point. But the key point I believe here is that while I will grant that there's no guarantee of a 20 yr problem-free life, neither can the doubting Thomas's impute an automatic cost of replacement at the end of the warranty period. There simply is no absolute proof of age longevity. There is however beginning to be a volume of proof that mileage has no bearing on the performance of the batteries. 250,000 miles or 300,000 miles seems very very likely. We shall soon see with my friend Mr Carbot who just turned over 203,000 miles. That's the 2nd Prius he purchased from me. I'm chasing him but I'm far behind at 30 months ( 81,000 mi ) while he's at 54 months ( 203,000 mi ). He will likely reach 250,000 - 260,000 by the time his Gen 3 arrives next summer.

Re: From another forum - CONTINUED !! [kdhspyder]

by gagrice on Tue Jul 08 14:23:45 PDT 2008

I do understand your logic in thinking the mileage is the most important figure in calculating a vehicles life. We on the other hand look at Years of life. Our 1990 LS400 has not reached 95,000 miles yet. It is still running. We just replaced the 12 volt battery that was warranted for 7 years. It made it with one month to spare. I realize that lead acid and NiMH are different and have different life characteristics. For you to say that the Prius battery will last 150K miles is just crazy talk. When you look at the average 15k miles people drive that is 10 years. We have no data backing up what you are saying. Miles mean nothing in the scope of time. You also like to show that any vehicle that is 10 years old is worthless to the owner. It is worthless to a dealer. It is possibly all the owner can afford. If after 10 years he has to replace an expensive battery that will make the Prius WORTHLESS. So I guess by your definition the Prius is a 10 year throwaway vehicle. I would probably agree with that. Our 19 year old LS400 runs and looks better than many 3-5 year old cars. If we had to replace a $4k to $6k component I would give it to Father Carlucci as a donation. The point being I don't want a car that has that kind of built in expensive component that is deteriorating whether it is being used or not. That is the nature of batteries. It will be the Achilles heel of all EVs in the future. Fine for high mileage drivers not so good for low mileage long term owners.

Re: No warning, differential/transmission locks up on freeway [naz2]

by 600kgolfgt on Wed Dec 12 17:54:29 PST 2007

Unfortunately, automatic transmissions are an Achilles' heel with VWs - dating back to the 1970s. They have been notorious differential-eaters. The manual transmissions have been very robust. As far as your Jetta is concerned, the 2.0L automatic transmissions were made in Mexico, and are a mixed bag when it comes to reliability (at best). I have a 2003 Wolfsburg 1.8T with the 5-speed tiptronic transmission which was made in Japan by Aisin (the same supplier for Toyota, Honda, etc.) - which has been rock solid approaching 110,000 miles. The Japanese and German-sourced automatics are less likely to give you headaches than the Mexico-sourced ones. Unfortunately, these are only available on the Jetta/Golf 1.8T (Aisin), and the Passat (German transmission). Golf/Jetta 2.0 cars manufactured between 1993 and early 2005 came with the Mexican Transmissions.