You think hot rod parts are expensive?

I really hate like hell to say this, and I know I'm going to take abuse for it, but here goes anyway. You sir, are correct! The Big 3 make an inferior product, have inferior service, customer service is almost non-existent, and charge the most for their vehicles, parts and service. The cars the Japs are making anymore are FAR superior to ours now. And, here's the biggest rub of them all.....they are becoming the most American made cars out there!

While the Big 3 are laying off American workers at a record rate and moving plants and facilities to China, Mexico, and India at a record rate.....all the while wondering why their sales are going down and they're failing, the Asian car companies are moving here to the States and they're blowing us away in sales, customer satisfaction, and reliability.

Again, I hate to say all of this, but its a fact now....whether you like it or not. Its sort of a shame that when you want to buy an "American Car", you have to buy a Honda Civic that's made in Ohio.

I understand that the Big 3 are American companies, but what would you rather do?......Buy a GM, Ford or a Chrysler, and keep 200,000 Chinese, Indian, or Mexican employees working? Or, buy a Hyundai, Toyota or Honda and keep 200,000 Americans working?

I'm to the point where I'm going to go with the Toyota or Honda. Its the most money for my dollar, a better running car, and at the end of the day, an American worker gets to cash the paycheck and put it right back into our economy and he can keep his house and keep food on the table for his family.

I hate like hell anymore to think that if I buy a Ford truck, all I did was put that money into the pocket of some Uber-rich CEO so he can lay off 10,000 workers and relocate that plant to China.

This is just another reason why hot rods rule. They're American, and you can work on them yourself!

 

I don't care if you like it or not I'll buy AMERICAN and if and when it breaks I'll just buy a new one.
If some of you guys were as smart as you think you are you'd know your ass is showing!

 

That's why I bought a 54 Chevy as my next daily driver. We needed a second car and I'll be damned if I'm going to spend 2-3 grand on a depreciating piece of crap. I work at a dealer and some of the guys were asking why I bought an old piece of shit.. Hmmm...
I can put 3-4 grand into my "old piece of shit", and if I take care of it, I can get that money back if I decide to sell in a few years. Try that with a Cavalier. Parts are cheap- 15 bucks for a pair of taillight lenses. What's a Cavalier lens worth? Front wheel bearings? OH, I took them out and REPACKED THEM. Try that on a Cavalier, Honda or whatever-it's more like $250 for a hub assembly. I paid $25 for a replacement transmission. You can't even get a trans filter kit for that on a newer car. Hell, I even got seatbelts for $16 each, not $135 or more for a new car. Oh, and I don't have to scan test it when it breaks down. No emission testing required. I could go on...
Todd

 

I always get a quote from the dealer to have something fixed on my wifes car, which usually every month, then I laugh on the phone and do it myself for 10% of what they quoted on the phone.
Fact is, they all break, even my trusty old landcruiser's fuel pump died the other week.

 

This is exactly what the automakers want. With expensive parts, the average driver suddenly has cost justification to trade in on a brand new car with a warranty.

Thus the real crime isn't the $1200 cable, it's that the $1200 cable probably caused thousands of owners nationwide to trade the car on the spot.

 

It's not just American cars with crazy parts prices. My friend works at a body shop where a customer came in with a newer Lexus IS300. The customer was quite pleased that he only cracked the headlight lenses and buckled the hood in the accident. Easy fix right?

The headlights are filled with gas; total cost $3,500 for both lights
Bare hood; $2,000

With the body work and installation the customer paid almost $7,000? WTF? I got about that much in my '49 Ford coupe at this point.

What manufacturers are really saying is: Forget about actually owning a car, just keep making payments on a new one and scrap the rest. The problem with the logic is that shitty parts prices lead to low resale values which will drive up the cost of the payments. That's exactly what happened to Audi a few years back. Everyone dumped them after the warranty period and you couldn't give one away.

 

TWELVE HUNDO?!?!?! for a battery cable? geez, I thought I was paying a lot when I shelled out $350 for two group 31 1000 cca batteries, cable ends and 2/0 cable to make up all new batt cables for my diesel truck. even if I figure my labor in for the evenings it took me to put it all together I'm not even half way to the 'cost' of that cable.

I'm having a hard time imagining why (other than being inept and not smart) someone would go drop 30-40k on a new car/truck that's going to depreciate like crazy?! not only is the depreciation a high rate but most people pay interest on that! good grief, if I capped total cost at $30k for my 62 nova, that'd be a pretty damn nice car for a long time. and would probably hold it's value just a little better than your typical new mustang or dodge magnum.

well, then again, being a full time aircraft mech and a hot rod nut makes it slightly easier to produce my own running vehicle...

 

I can tell you from experience that some of those Service guys are Schisters!! One tried to screw me when I had a gear go out in my nissan pickup, lowered 4" and they tried to tell me it was because it was lowered and they had the same dang thing in the show room! about 4 Lowered nissans in there. And it was under warranty, so they give me a price of fixing it... $2600 for a used tranny installed.... yeah right. They were going to rebuild mine, charge me $2600 and file it for warranty....

I said Nope I ain't payin it... they said I owed $350 for the diagnosis and pulling the tranny, so me and pop pulled the trailer up there loaded it up and left the key they had with em... when they tried to collect, my pop just about made the guy cry he chewed him so hard! haha

Took it to a local tranny shop and the guy ordered the new gear and put it all back together for $110... and I reinstalled it my self in about 2 hours.

NEVER AGAIN will I go to a dealer and try to get some work done, unless it's in warranty.

NEXT EPISODE, I take my 96 Impala SS to the dealer cause it started over heating after I changed the water pump. They told me it was the head gaskets and it was going to be $1800! whatever... found out O'reilly's gave me the wrong temp unit, all of $4.50!

Every dealership I've went to has tried to bend me over!

 

So you want to buy my 2005 $42000 Ram diesel at 60,xxx miles that has eaten the seat foam, the ujoints, has a wheel bearing worn out, and the trans shifts funny every two years? you're welcome to it (truck has all hiway miles, and has towed my single car bumper pull trailer less than 10 times). I did the "Buy American" thing, and ended up with a truck "hecho in Mexico" that is not near the truck I traded in on it. When Toyota puts a diesel in the new crewmax, you bet I'll be looking to buy one. you can take the depreciation hit all you want. I'm done. same stupid type issues with my '98 F150, '99 Durango. and 2000 Intrepid.

 

my favorite thing to do with a 3rd gen dodge truck is pull the cummins out of it and put it in something cool!! just sold my '96 ctd ram and I'm picking up a '93...the ones that go 500k-1million miles, on average. I'm holding out for a tundra or taco for a comfy/reliable commuting diesel p/u.

it's so close I can almost smell the diesel fumes...'yota officially released that they'll have a diesel in the tundra (2008 model, I believe) and after that they'll have the taco's running basically the same 3.0L turbo diesel they've been running in the overseas 'Hilux' for years (Taco with a better looking body) that's good for 30mpg and all kinds of power for a lil' truck.

 

The dealers must love this. They make more off of a battery cable than they do selling a new car, and no commission to the salesman!

 

Wow..... just wow.... I'm glad I've never had a vehicle newer than '75..... Fuck all that shit.

 

oh yea 35 fords had the battery under the floor, and how many hot rodders put the brake master cyl under the floor and then some 32 rodders put the master cyl between the firewall and dash, and how many of use put a battery in the trunk with 10 ft of cable maybe detroit is watching us

 

Probably about three bucks.

 

Well my family is back to buying Big 3 products. We fell into the road and Track stuff that Japanese is better. Lets see My sisters Nissan Sunroof FIRE. My brother-in-law Galant-3 trans and numerous other shit. My niece Honda- ALL electric windows and radio just stopped. Nope not fuses. Also her gas tank door will not close ?? Other nice has an Altima 36,000miles on her 4 sets offront brakes already. She drives mostly highway?? Last but not least the Camry's paint is peeling off WTF....Sorry 53sledsteve but I think your wrong here. It's all hype and advertising

 

Seems to me a guy could make a pretty good living by scouring the junkyards for these used battery cables and selling em for half that.....

I'm done "buying American" for now, too. The last two new Pontiacs (a 92 and a 98) were painful lessons in poor quality.

 

After being in the car business for ten years I have determined that all cars are junk in one aspect or another... Saying one type of car is better than other is simply preference, new or old, foreign or domestic.

My family ususally buys Ford trucks and Subaru cars.... We have had good sucess with them. Neither of them are more comfortable or powerful, but both seem to be tough when it comes to abuse and longevity. They are appliances.

I work as an advisor at a dealership and I agree that most items are expensive. If a customer has something coming to them, they get it - like the customer with the Mazda that has a rod knock 5,000 miles out of warranty and they did every maintanence due right on time. They got off with paying a $1000 deductable and getting the rest covered by Mazda....close to $6000 for a new engine.

I enjoy my job... It's tough to explain why someone has to pay a high dollar repair, but it's part of life. Most of these people have better things to do than shop around for that hole in the garage that fixes cars for $20 an hour. They want their cars fixed so they can get on with what needs done. Few who come here are auto enthusiasts.

My brother is a shop foreman at a GM plant... All this stuff about buy American... trust me, this is the place where the janitors make $100,000 a year and maintanence people put all work off until the weekend so they can make double time and a half. You can thank the unions for people buying Korean and other types of cars.

 

"My brother is a shop foreman at a GM plant... All this stuff about buy American... trust me, this is the place where the janitors make $100,000 a year and maintanence people put all work off until the weekend so they can make double time and a half. You can thank the unions for people buying Korean and other types of cars."

Amen...You can't compete paying guys $90-100K with OT making an average quality product. My parents used to buy only Ford or GM cars and got fed up. Now they own 2 Hyundais which have only required oil changes, tires, brakes and basic service in the last 5 years. Oh, by the way, the service is good and pretty reasonable, which is more than I can say about the Ford service department near me.

 

I only buy American...period. I have three Fords, three GM's. The only one that I have had any real problems with is a Supercharged Bonneville (don't buy one of those!).

I have a '00 Yukon which now has over 210K on it (it's a winter vehicle now), and, I will admit that I had to replace the Transmission at 200K. Other than that, it's been a great Vehicle. I just bought a brand new Z71 GMC pickup-love it, even though it only gets about 20 m.p.g. on the Highway.

As far as buying American, I think a lot of people don't see the big picture. It is important to employ Americans I agree, however, what isn't as transparent is that the American Companies are paying CORPORATE Taxes (by and large) and those Taxes are what pave American roads. Does Honda, Toyota or (insert Asian Brand name here) invest in America (other than having Factories here)? No. They pay their Taxes (and post their Profits)in Japan or wherever, and in many ways limit their exposure to American Taxes (not that American Companies don't try).

I think our forefathers are turning in their Graves at what is happening to our great Country-I, for one, will not tear down what they fought for even if it costs me a little more.

O.K., vent over-what's for Lunch?

 

http://worthwhile.typepad.com/worthwhile_canadian_initi/2005/11/who_pays_corpor.html

I have long wondered about how corporations were to influence culture. What it seems that they need, in order to "renew" a five year license, would be an ethics clause, that states in no-uncertain-terms, their charter allows them to operate with emphasis upon profit AND social contribution. It seems that the original permission, that of the corporate charter, has become an assumed grant, rather than a permission given by an "independent" legislative body.

 

"The only countries with higher rates are the United States, Japan and Germany: all much bigger and less open to trade than Canada.
Despite the recent cuts, Canadian corporate tax rates are still pretty high."

Nice article-your point?
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btt

 

Thats why I like my daily driver to be basically worthless run-of-the-mill junk. I can leave where it sits, after I'm done running it into the ground, and replace it with another p.o.s. for cheap.

pretty much just like every thing else, in our economy.
it doesn't pay to get to attached anymore...

 

I read these threads all the time and it's hard to give much creedence to so-called "personal experiences." The life and dependability of a car reflects the owner (or previous owners) as well as the manufacturer. I'm sure some Chevy's have ran for 300k and Toyotas have blown up within a year, but you can't generalize from a few personal experiences. The American automakers got lazy and if they can't compete, they deserve to go out of business. Toyota and Honda are building factories in the US while the Big Three are closing 'em and laying off thousands of workers! I personally don't give a shit which part of the world my money is going to because whoever is doing the best job deserves it.

 

You are a criminal and so is your father. You committed theft of service. Whether you agree with the repair quote or not has absolutly ZERO to do with the FACT that they did WORK to diagnoss the problem. No one works for free. You owe them money for the work that they did do up until you told them to stop.

You owe them the hourly rate for as many hours as they have invested in diagnossing the problem. If it's $100/hr and they worked 3 hours before they said you need X work, you owe $300. Plain and simple. You didn't pay them to fix it, but you owe them for their time in trying to diagnoss it.

You should be charged with petit larceny and your father should be charged for helping you commit petit larceny as an accesory to the crime.

EDIT: Originally I started by appoligizing for the way this post sounds, but I took that off. The fact is you stole. I won't appoligize for facts.

 

I have to agree with that also.... Too many people walk into my place of work and act if things are owed to them.... I get the classic "I bought a car off of YOU in 1999, and this and etc, etc..." .... No sir, in 1999, I was in high school... and I work in the service department, I don't sell cars.... I am just in charge of fixing them.

It's a rant that it's hard to end... I have been on both ends of the spectrum, so I know what it is like to be a customer and be treated unfairly when getting a car serviced and I also know what's it like to be treated like a ass by a customer who might be a moron. I keep this is mind.

I understand if a car was misdiagnosed and maybe someone was trying to stick it to you.... It does happen. But I try to explain to customers that this is a place of business and not a charity.... The only thing that is free is air and the coffee in the lounge. If you have something coming to you I will see it and you will probably get it or something close.

 

Wow, this post has really gotten off track. I learned some interesting things from GMC Bubba a couple weeks ago about factory parts. I hope he sees this and chimes in because I'm in no way qualified to explain it. There IS a difference in factory parts apparently and they deserve more credit than I was giving them. The aftermarket makes all kinds of plugs, wires, and other parts with a wide range of tolerances (for lack of a better word) in order to fit many different makes and models. Some of that stuff just doesn't really work well in certain cars. It's all about technical crap that I don't know (but I almost care now). I can't see battery cables fitting this criteria but on injectors, plugs, wires, and other parts, I trust Bubba.

 

I agree with most everyone here - OEM parts are rediculous in price, but I do feel that they are superior in quality to A/M. maybe not your run of the mill SBC, but most of your newer cars with timing belts - I would suggest a OE part and an OE Waterpump. They seem to outlast A/M stuff. If you are just turning the car over (then A/M is the better route to take)


BUT I just looked up the part number for a positive battery cable for a '99 Intrepid
Part# <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=3 width="100&#37;" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=tabletext vAlign=top>5016667aa
Lists for
$47.20
The Negative Cable
4760567ac
Lists for
$51.95

I checked my OEM parts database for the prices and confirmed them with
www.moparmaster.com if you buy though a shop ususally you should be able to get close to a 25% discount on American OEM parts, Foreign OEM parts are less of a discount.

I think you may need to check on your dealer
</TD><TD class=tabletext vAlign=top align=right></TD><TD class=tabletext vAlign=top align=right></TD><TD class=tabletext vAlign=top align=right></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

NAPA Parts online lists them both
pos for $11.49 and the neg. for $11.29