Here's some more distubing scenarios with this car:
The horn incident
One evening at 4 in the morning, a police officer is knocking on my door. He informs me that my car alarm had been ringing for an hour and that it just sounded like the battery died. He was right, the battery WAS dead...but he was also wrong. It was the horn, not the alarm. The car horn was somehow stuck on....as soon as I hooked it up to my wifes car to give it a jumpstart, the horn start blaring....I drove this car from my house 5 miles to my buick dealer with the horn stuck in the on position...Incidentally, for those of you that would say "just pull the fuse"..I couldn't even do that, because the fuse for the horn was on the same circuit as the fucking fuel pump! How's that for idiotic engineering!!!
The car was fixed two days later, after they replaced the entire steering wheel loaded horn assembly, including the air bag and all of the electronics. exactly 1 week later...I get that same knock on the door from that same police man. I shit you not...same problem...
It took a total of 2 additional returns over the course of that winter to service to get the problem solved....
windows
my driverside window stopped working. I had it in for service the following day. They fixed it that afternoon...and I drove it home. As I'm driving home, I pull down the window...sure enough it works. I hit the button for the passenger side front window...that one doesnt work. I freak out...try the other windows...they work fine. I drive it back the next morning and demand that they not only fix the window on the passenger side, but make sure there are no problems with the rear 2 windows that have yet to break. "Sure, no problem" they tell me...
I get back to the dealer later that evening...get in my car and try the passenger side window. works fine...so does the drivers side. Before I drive off the lot, Icheck the rear windows. Both BROKEN.
The car stayed there for another 4 days...they had to remove and replace the entire wiring harness going to the windows.
Since then, I have only driven Hondas. Seriously....I wont fucking touch another car other than a Honda or a Toyota. I've never had one problem with any of my Hondas....one has 2X the clocked miles that my buick had...and all I've had to do is change the oil on a frequent basis.
If you want to buy an american car because you've got some hang up about being a patriot...or have a grand daddy that used to kill japs during WWII and would be rolling in his grave he he knew you bought a Honda....well, then, all I can say is sorry.....because if you're that pig headed to remain hog tied to a 35 year failed auto industry in this country, you've got bigger problems.
While people will counter with "but hondas are made in this country too...american cars cant be all that bad"....you need to recognize that the problem with the american car industry is its QC standards and its entitlement programs. Americans make good cars....but even americans dont give a fuck when they have a guaranteed job, gauranteed pension and are working for a company that cares more about reporting earnings through fake accounting and cooked books...than it does delivering a solid product.
I'm sure some of you have heard the stories about american cars getting returned to the dealer after rattles have been noticed in the quarter panels.....turns out, someone on a GM line was sneaking into work with beer every day and the only way to dispose of the cans without getting caught, is to drop the cans into areas in the cars where the welds would be sealed....Try and sit there with a straight face and tell me that this would happen on a Honda or Toyota line as well? You cant.....but deep down in your gut, you can see this happening on a GM line...and that's what's scary.
It's a waste of money to buy an american car....just because it's american. Not only that, but you're doing the industry NO good. Thinking you're a patriot because you're "buying american" is stupid...
...what's american about this process...is the vetting out of industry. It's darwinism for corporate america. Sometimes businesses fail. They fuck up...and fail. For 30 years, the Big 3 american auto manufacturers have been failing....only to survive through fraudulant means.
As an american, your duty, first and foremost, is to buy the BETTER product. That's free enterprise. That's capitalism. That's what matters. It forces those that are not making the better product, to do so....and it rewards the hard work of those making the better product.
Blindly supporting the fucked american car manufacturers, just because you think it's patriotic....is ironically, more like comunism. Forced support of an industry....
It's not right.
As americans, you need to stop buying shit. That goes for chinese crap, american cars, shitty lying weasel republican douchebags from arizona, dope smoking president-elects from chicago....it doesnt matter....
...this country's dying because people have become complacent and have been supporting the wrong things in all the wrong ways.
The japanese auto industry is actually one of the better run industries in the world. It's tooled for flexibility. It's well-budgeted. It takes care of it's workers, foreign and domestic...and it makes a good product.
Why the fuck would you buy a car from a company, just because it's american...when the company has been misappropriating funds for 30 years, bowing to union pressure, maintaining a drunkard workforce (due to the company's unwillingness to tell the unions to fuck off), releasing shitty products, etc??!?!?!?!
That's not patriotism....that's buying a product that doesn't work, because it's for the good of the state.....how fucking ludicrous.
What's sad is most of the people that would chest thump and vag-flap about buying an american car....would probably spit through their teeth that they are more hardy americans than most......but they certainly dont act like it.
You want to buy american? Buy a product that works. That's free enterprise!
