GM announces 6 new recalls, 7.6 million cars in US

[BHopkins]

Originally Posted By: boundarylayer
Originally Posted By: edhackett
Originally Posted By: Olas
Dont construe this as GM bashing because thats.not how.its.intended...but...how hard can it be to do things right the first time.round?
AND
When they consistently get it wrong, why do.people.continue to.purchase their product?


Take a look at Honda's record. They don't seem to get it right the first time either, 265 recalls on the Civic, 263 on the Accord. The 2001 Civic had 25 recalls issued. Why isn't this news and people swearing off Honda?

http://www.hondaproblems.com/recalls/

Ed


The presence of recalls means the car company owns up to its problems. Thats a good thing. Having to pay for the recalls, in that business atmosphere, means they are taking steps to prevent future design/inspection problems.


It is really difficult to measure a car company by the number of recalls. As mentioned above, a lot of recalls can (but does not necessarily) indicate a companies strong commitment to the quality and safety of their product. Very few recalls could indicate that a company is unwilling to accept responsibility for issues once the car has left the dealership. On the other hand a lot of recalls can (but does not necessarily) indicate that a car company has been indifferent to quality and safety in their design and production practices.

One thing that can be measured by recalls, is a huge financial loss.

I have sworn off buying GM products. But it isn't because of ignition switch recalls. And it isn't because they took taxpayer money to bail out of bankruptcy. What really yanks my chain is the way they treat their suppliers. (Yea, I work for a Tier I automotive supplier.) If the way they treat their suppliers is any indication of how they feel about customers, then I don't want to be one of their customers any more than I want to be a supplier. I think the recent ignition switch fiasco has proven my hypothesis to be accurate.

I did notice that my Alero is on the most recent recall list. My ignition switch has already been replaced. Hmmm. I wonder if they will still replace it, if it is no longer OEM. Ignition switch has already been replaced when it failed about 3 years ago.

 

[mikered30]

This is well beyond laughable now, just very sad.

 

[gfh77665]

Originally Posted By: CurtisB
Originally Posted By: SilverC6
I'd be selling that stock before it gets as valuable as the old GM stock.

The thing broken at GM is innovation and the carry-over management remains the problem.



This is exactly the reaction that patient investors will inevitably profit on. Buy the stock at rock bottom when emotions run high, than sit on it for years. I don't think GM is doomed and there may be money to be made from this.


Exactly! GM is actually being smart here. They are getting out all the bad news in one shot, and then will recover once the media attention winds down. Their stock price will rebound nicely in a year or so. Look at Toyota, "TM" after the acceleration recalls. Its nearly doubled since.


I bought in at $32.50.

 

[Nebroch]

Originally Posted By: BHopkins
I have sworn off buying GM products. But it isn't because of ignition switch recalls. And it isn't because they took taxpayer money to bail out of bankruptcy. What really yanks my chain is the way they treat their suppliers. (Yea, I work for a Tier I automotive supplier.) If the way they treat their suppliers is any indication of how they feel about customers, then I don't want to be one of their customers any more than I want to be a supplier. I think the recent ignition switch fiasco has proven my hypothesis to be accurate.


http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/...-258885661.html

Failed companies should go bankcrupt to make room for new and better...

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Originally Posted By: boundarylayer


All customer service lines at car makers are rude, so GM is no different. Over 26 years, I've called BMW, Ford, Chrysler, and Chevy lines at various times. All tried to give me the runaround. Standard practice.


Interesting. Over 55 years of vehicle ownership I've only needed to contact customer service once and they were extremely polite and helpful. I sincerely doubt that it's standard practice-my experience was completely positive. Since for you they have always been "rude", have you considered that it may be you?


http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...ise#Post3264294

 

[boundarylayer]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
Swore off GM after they refused to fix .......... 1-800-chevy or whatever it was kind of treated me rudely, too.
Originally Posted By: boundarylayer
All customer service lines at car makers are rude, so GM is no different. Over 26 years, I've called BMW, Ford, Chrysler, and Chevy lines at various times. All tried to give me the runaround. Standard practice.
Interesting. Over 55 years of vehicle ownership I've only needed to contact customer service once and they were extremely polite and helpful. I sincerely doubt that it's standard practice-my experience was completely positive. Since for you they have always been "rude", have you considered that it may be you?


As the LoneRanger and I have already pointed out, they can be rude when cornered. Yes, if you agree with their company line, gently roll over and let them state cover-up propaganda, then we all sing Kumb-by-ya and smoke a green one together, and they will stay polite.

Last time I called customer service was BMW 3 years ago for known frequent design defects in the suspension and transmission that the dealer told me about existed in nearly every 5-series and some 3-series they've serviced, and BMW's refusal to share information was non-cooperative and could be considered rude. I think the previous calls were all in the 80's and 90's, and I remember just the company defensive positions.

Ironically, I've owned a GM '11 Malibu with exactly zero problems from anything, no warranty issues, love the car.

 

[boundarylayer]

Originally Posted By: boundarylayer
The presence of recalls means the car company owns up to its problems. Thats a good thing. Having to pay for the recalls, in that business atmosphere, means they are taking steps to prevent future design/inspection problems.


Originally Posted By: BHopkins
It is really difficult to measure a car company by the number of recalls. As mentioned above, a lot of recalls can (but does not necessarily) indicate a companies strong commitment to the quality and safety of their product. Very few recalls could indicate that a company is unwilling to accept responsibility for issues once the car has left the dealership. On the other hand a lot of recalls can (but does not necessarily) indicate that a car company has been indifferent to quality and safety in their design and production practices.


The main point is that recalls feed back into the engineering culture at a company. When an engineering group does something that results in a recall, it causes them to be shamed into improving the culture of quality. Yes, human emotions can be harnessed for good in the corporate world. For example, how would you feel if you helped design a part that got recalled?

 

[ElastoHydro]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit

Interesting. Over 55 years of vehicle ownership I've only needed to contact customer service once and they were extremely polite and helpful. I sincerely doubt that it's standard practice-my experience was completely positive. Since for you they have always been "rude", have you considered that it may be you?


Once, in 55 years? You either live a charmed life or don't investigate enough. Having owned about 10 vehicles over the last 32 years, something has popped up about every 6 or 7 years on average where I had to call customer service to find out what the company was doing about issues, and in most cases they just side stepped the issue rudely.

 

[ElastoHydro]

Originally Posted By: boundarylayer
The main point is that recalls feed back into the engineering culture at a company. When an engineering group does something that results in a recall, it causes them to be shamed into improving the culture of quality. Yes, human emotions can be harnessed for good in the corporate world. For example, how would you feel if you helped design a part that got recalled?


It does sound like GM is making more of an effort to hold people within GM, engineers and managers (well, not top managers who "know no-thing", ala Hogan's Sargent Schultz) responsible for safety defects. Outside of the warranty period, a company can make you pay for repairs unless NHTSA gets involved.

 

[BHopkins]

Originally Posted By: boundarylayer
Originally Posted By: boundarylayer
The presence of recalls means the car company owns up to its problems. Thats a good thing. Having to pay for the recalls, in that business atmosphere, means they are taking steps to prevent future design/inspection problems.


Originally Posted By: BHopkins
It is really difficult to measure a car company by the number of recalls. As mentioned above, a lot of recalls can (but does not necessarily) indicate a companies strong commitment to the quality and safety of their product. Very few recalls could indicate that a company is unwilling to accept responsibility for issues once the car has left the dealership. On the other hand a lot of recalls can (but does not necessarily) indicate that a car company has been indifferent to quality and safety in their design and production practices.


The main point is that recalls feed back into the engineering culture at a company. When an engineering group does something that results in a recall, it causes them to be shamed into improving the culture of quality. Yes, human emotions can be harnessed for good in the corporate world. For example, how would you feel if you helped design a part that got recalled?


Absolutely. However, in the case of GM, it is difficult to see where hardships and trial in the past have necessarily fostered an attitude of improvement. That said, I strongly believe Mary Barra is doing everything she can to change the culture of GM. I wish her well.

 

[whip]

I'd like to say I'm shocked, but I'm not. GM recalls cars from the 90's. and people spew ignorance by making comments about how nothing changes at GM. Chrysler has 2 separate recalls for the minivan, and not a single negative comment.

 

[boundarylayer]

Recalls are danged-if-you-do, danged-if-you-don't. If you issue recalls (outside of forced NHTSA safety ones), you get accused of making shoddy cars. If you hide problems, issue no recalls, and claim your cars are perfect already and don't need any recalls, then you get accused of covering up stuff.