Feds

Scroll down, someone was taking "spy shots" at my work:

http://www.solsticeforum.com/forum/s...6&page=3&pp=15

If you look closely on the second floor, you can almost see my desk

There's a link to the miata forum with some reviews by "grimace" He works here, and his reviews are pretty accurate. If I'm here beyond the end of the summer, I am actually considering trading the P5 for an HHR.

The best part was all of the "secret" stuff in the pictures that the guy missed because he was focused on the "spy shots" of the Solstice.

Alak

iTrader: (9)

Solstice is no match for a Miata. And Im only saying that because I own a Miata.

Mr. Eccentric

The execution on the new Miata is very tight.

What do you do at GM? Are those the offices on Col. Sam you're in? Why don't you get GM to bring back their rotary program?

Manntis

The Solstice has potential, but Pontiac, as usual, skips over the small things that could really make it sing and it is in jeopardy of commitee-think design.

Imagine if those Pontiac logos on the side were slightly higher and doubled as XKE-style hood tie-downs on the flank of the car, spanning the seam between a clamshell hood and the fender. Or if the tail lights actually faced backwards, instead of up *L* They look like Buic Rendezvous headlight units covered in red plastic and turned to face the rear.

Alak

iTrader: (9)

GM is lazy. Take the new 2.2L Supercharged Engine. They couldn't make 200HP reliable in N/A form. They got lazy and threw this little tiny 5 Inch Supercharger on it. They could have at least put a 7 inch on it.

Feds

I'm at the other end of the 'shwa, on Wentworth, across from the Tim Hortons. I design suspension pieces on the equinox/torrent/other secret stuff that may or may not come out.

I agree 100% that we have big trouble with detail work. I can find a tonne of woulda/shoulda/coulda stuff on all our cars. It's certainly not for lack of effort, it's just that "those who make the decisions" lack vision.

The ecotec program is actually pretty cool. A decent intercooler setup on the motor will give it another 30 or so hosses. That's not too shabby.

Speaking of the rotary program: If that photographer had come an hour or so later, he would have caught the solstice parked beside an RX-8, parked beside a supercharged cobalt, parked beside an HHR. And if he were really lucky, he would have caught my little FB power sliding out of the parking lot at the end of the day.

Manntis

Another thing is just when a GM product catches on, it gets cancelled. *coughFierocough*

Alak

iTrader: (9)

I donno, the V8 was marginally sucessful.

Nick86

iTrader: (1)

What kills me is what seems to make it through the QA process - not just after assembly, but in the design of the cars as well. If you ever have the misfortune of driving a sunfire, flip the visors down - you'll notice that it hits the rearview mirror! HOW DID THIS MAKE IT TO PRODUCTION??? You'd never catch that in a Mazda 3 or Honda Civic. I look at the Imapala too.... They obviously had problems seeing the radio readout in sunlight - so instead of addressing that issue by changing the radio readout, they moulded a small lip into the radio surround, just above the power/volume ****. The result is that you need the hands of an 8 year old Japanese girl to operate the volume **** successfully.

I agree that the higherups lack vision. They also seem to lack common sense and style. They hung on to the "Buy American" credo for so long that they were left behind by the Japanese. But now their domestic competitors (namely chrysler) have woken up to the fact that they better get some good products out there to compete in this market - and it has worked for them in spades. GM's answer was to flood the market with half baked concepts and rebadged Japanese/Korean cars that weren't selling to begin with! It's no wonder that they have slipped to "Junk" level on the stock market, and that they are going to completely restructure the GM brand. It needs it.

It's just sad that the technology and developments you have elluded to aren't given the urgency and priority they deserve. When GM develops a good product, it is recognized as such and it sells well. Why can't they learn from that?

Feds

I love the anger in people's response to GM. And I love it. It shows that the brand still resonates, and people want to see it succeed.

Your radio story hits the nail on the head. Rather than find the root of a problem, we just tack on bandaids until the result is acceptable. I noticed something similar going over the RX-8 that we had for display.

All of our new small cars have gas-charged struts to lift the hoods. A nice feature, until it breaks. I am sure that the struts are there because the hoods are heavy. I am sure the hoods are heavy because bracing was added. Bracing was probably added to stop the hood from resonating at certain frequencies. The hoods resonated because they weren't designed properly in the first place.

So, GM way: Hood vibrates -> Add bracing -> hood is now too heavy -> add gas strut -> gas strut wears out (as they all do) -> customer thinks GM quality stinks every time they open the hood.

The RX-8 doesn't have a gas strut. It uses a good old-fashioned prop rod. Why? Because the hood weighs about 3 lbs. It is easy to lift. It has proper structure and material selection to meet its functional requirements. Rather than start with a cheap hood, and add cost later, mazda started with a great hood, which they probably put on the car for the same $ as the reinforced GM hood + gas strut combo.

MyRxBad

haha... it's funny that you mention the hood as an example as the hood on the bonneville weighs about 30-50lbs! and guess what, both struts don't work. I need 2 hands to open it . Now I use an alum. bat to hold it up.

I agree w/what's been said so far. Everything except for Feds being famous!

Leigh Adams

now my volvo hood had two clever spring / linkage mechanisms which never wear out. I could also change the belts, change the oil, spark plugs, etc. etc. etc. in no time because there was room to have a dance party in the engine compartment. now when I look under the hood of new cars you can't get access to anything. sure that's fine for the time being, but in 15 years when these cars need quite a bit of maintenance under the hood, most people will be stuck.

of course they like to make them compact and tidy looking these days, but what about designing ahead of time for future maintenance space requirements? I also understand they don't want us doing our own maintenance.

Feds

Now Leigh, your Volvo was a giant car with a tiny engine, mounted longitudnaly (for the RWD layout). Of course there was lots of room.

Most cars today are Transverse FWD, so the engine, trans, and axles are all packaged in the space reserved for just the engine on the Volvo. Add increased cost and fuel mileage (weight) constraints, and the logical conclustion is bodywork shrink-wrapped around the mechanical components.

Servicing sucks, but you get a lot of car for your $. think of what was available in the respective categories 10-15 years ago, look at the improvements in quality, design, safety, etc; and then look at how little prices have changed. Something's got to give.

On top of that, since manufaturers have to certify that new vehicles will meet new-car emissions performance for 8 years, they don't want you to work on your own car, since you are a hack, and will probably screw up the emission controls.

It was always better in the good old days. Plenty of muscle cars had to have the engines dropped for spark plug changes, my 323 was a beeeeee-otch to work on, etc. Overall, I would say that servicing is about the same, save for the extra step of removing the beauty covers.

Mr. Eccentric

As much as cars like the Mazda3 have stolen some segment share away from the civic, corolla, cavalier etc. GM is still not overly concerned with competitors.

In Canada they still do such large volumes, they have the machine to undercut the smaller manufactures with gross incentives whenever they want.

If they spent more on quality interior materials for example, or improved other quality issues, they lose some of the money to leverage incentives, and that's their arena in the market. Agreed, simple design oversights would not have cost the manufacture anything if they had addressed them initially. However, with the majority of car consumers, pricepoint will eventually win out over product. It's easy to forget, especially in a forum like this... we're enthusiasts, we're critical, and we're not so price sensitive.

Aviator 902S

Please do not let this happen! Those in charge at GM are simply not qualified. They place higher importance on flash&dash and high initial sales figures (followed by high demand for replacement parts later on) than they do on building a quality product.

Any rotary GM produces is therefore bound to be plagued with reliability and durability problems and will set the hard work of the fine folks at Mazda back by over 30 years. Those ignorant V8-loving cleatuses who are always slamming rotaries will then have a valid point.