A small rant about GM on a Mopar forum. That is okay isn't it?

We buy and sell cars, so we occasionally need parts and service from the factory guys that there is just no other way to get it done. And clearly, all the manufacturers are doing their best to drive us all to the stealerships as often as possible. That might be okay IF the stealerships were competitive and competent. But usually they are NOT!

First complaint: I ordered a headlight and bumper cover for a '17 Sonic. There were no aftermarket pieces and used were as high as new, IF you could even find any. The headlight was about $350 and the bumper cover was nearly $200. Nothing new there, but here's the kicker; the new headlight had a $125 core charge and the b/c had a $75 core. The reason? GM does not want parts out in circulation. Even if they are un-rebuildable.

Next up; a customer was buying a different 2017 Sonic and wanted to add cruise control to it. After going to several stealerships and getting differing quotes, I had to call GM service. 'Kim' from overseas was some help, but it took 50+ minutes to find out that the only way GM would do it was to sell the entire steering wheel even though the only parts needed were the left hand switches and the small harness to connect them. Those parts separately only cost about $50. But the kicker here, the cruise must be 'programmed' to operate. And the only way to do that is with a code that comes with the steering wheel assembly. So, instead of $50 in parts and a programming charge of $50 or $60. GM will get $350 for the wheel assembly plus the programming charge.

I understand that GM is not the only one doing this, but it is the most extreme examples I have come across. There is something seriously wrong when businesses FORCE us to do business with them. Isn't technology wonderful?

It almost seems that the car companies aren't in the business of selling cars anymore. They certainly don't want *US* working on them.

One interesting tidbit that pertains to my Mustang: I bought the base model, so, no colored interior goodies. But, if I wanted to add the stainless-trimmed, light-up door sill plates - I can! I can even pop them in and plug them in because the wiring is already in the door sill waiting to be hooked up. Will they work? Oh Lord NO! Why? Because you now have to connect into the body control module to tell the computer it has light up door sill plates now. $160 charge at the dealership to get that done and it literally takes them 30 seconds.

Notice all the big three automakers put their logo or symbol in the head and tail lights lately? It's there for a reason so you can't repop them with out a 20%+ change in appearance.

Mopars are like that now too. For some things wiring is already there and you just need to add the parts and enable the option. Some other things like fog lights or the backup camera if the wiring isn't there you can buy the package from mopar that has everything you need to install it and then need to enable it.

Call the "tuner" guys on here that think sct, superchips, or the rest of those glorified Ataris can do anything to keep a hellcat alive 20 years from now. They'll get your lights working!

A fellow at work told me the newest vehicles are now a one-of-one computer dedicated to your vehicle and married to only your VIN number. You won't even be able to change the time on the clock with those pissy little "tuners" let alone install a factory option.

All the manufactures should be hauled off to jail for this Extortion. I thought this was taken care of when the Independents battled and won on the OBD2 issue?

not any to add to the factory thing , but the used part thing when sis bent her 16 in steel rim on her 03 dart i was thinking $30-50 for used , when i did find a 16 it was like $90-120 used found a new one on ebay for $70 free shipping

the electronic problems with programming every time you do something aren't GM specific.
you have to do this with most all car manufacturers these days.

be happy it isn't a Volkswagen.
last week i repaired a 2019 VW tourag. i took the front bumper and grill off to do repairs. i backed it into the booth to paint the hood. i got multiple failure warnings on the dash that had to be cleared with a scanner. with the front bumper off the back up camera wouldn't work and wouldn't work until the bumper was re-installed and the codes cleared. the car had parking assist so this triggered the warning lights.
the car i repaired before the Tourag was a 2020 Tiguan with a panoramic sunroof. i had to repair the roof so i had to drop the headliner and remove the sunroof before i painted it. without the headliner and sunroof i got multiple failure lights on the dash from driving it 30' into the booth. i had to use the scanner to clear codes before the interior lights AND the sunroof would work again. i was thankful the car allowed me to install the sunroof, clear that code and the roof worked. i would hate to have to install the roof AND headliner and then find out something didn't work and have to completely remove everything to find the problem.

if you ever work on a VW that has a self braking feature DON'T unplug the forward radar unit and turn the key on. if you do this the entire system has to be reprogrammed and calibrated again. it takes 2 HOURS to do this.

i am sure there are the same or worse stories from other European car manufacturers.

Stories like this make me glad I drive a 1951 Plymouth.

somewhat the same same here.
i will NEVER own a modern car long term and i work at a new car dealership.
the newest car i own is a supercharged 08 mustang bullitt. and i plan on owning it for a LONG time. yes it has electronics in it. but in my opinion it's not that electronically advanced compared to what they put in cars today. compared to today's cars it's considered a dinosaur. i also own a 2001 honda that i will drive until the wheels fall off and a 2001 dodge ram truck that i will do the same.
YES i will buy a modern car, but only if it's a great deal and i plan on owning it less than 2 years.

The aftermarket will come around, it’ll just take time. Third gen Sebring/200 convertible for example, the tops are a nightmare. Dealers won’t touch them or will just f you over. You used to need the factory scanner to work on them. Now there’s this - https://appcar-diagfca.com/en/ . A laptop, a dongle, and this software and you can do anything the factory used to do. Beta version out right now you can program keys and pull pin codes.

It's not just GM. The newest car I own is a '98 BMW 740iL (second newest is a '97 540i) and they have plenty of computers and electronics. I'd never own a newer one because of the type of problems already described in this thread. (Unless I could afford to eat the depreciation on new ones, and pay the dealer when out of warranty or buy another new one. Which I won't).

At least this "old" car can be fixed by the DIYer. For example, the 540i decided this spring to start ignoring its remote key fob. Thanks to online forums, I discovered that the General Module had failed. To replace and reprogram was something like $800-1000 at the dealer. So I bought a used GM on ebay from an X5 for $25, hooked up my laptop to the car and reprogrammed it to match my chassis. Now it works again

Previously I had gotten tired of the built-in speedometer high error on both cars (US regs allow up to some ridiculous figure like 10% high, but never reading too low). Again, forums to the rescue! With the proper software, the dash computer can be easily reprogrammed to think it's a Japanese car (which by Japan's laws has to be right-on). Now my speedo reads less than 1 mph high at 60

Even though these cars are over 20 years old, it still is an odd feeling to have to use a laptop and learn programming to work on them.
No such problems on the '72 Dart of course

I picked that app up a couple years ago and it's fairly slick. What it lacks in rudimentary screen management it makes up for in simplicity, power and price. Yea, I did pick it up to chase a 200 convertible problem but oddly enough fixed it before getting the scanner to capture data during a failure in progress. I've heard plenty of stories about dealers not being able to fix the roof or even adequately diagnose it and that's mostly because they never see one and the tech de jour is too lazy to figure it out - the FSM covers it well enough that I figured out it with a few pirated pages.

fwiw: this is the problem 90% of the time:

That is an interesting app. I am looking into it for our shop. Which brings up another question; Is there an app like that for Ford or GM?