All eyes on the road ahead for the auto industry

by Barry ORegan | January 2, 2012 at 06:57 pm

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The automotive industry for 2012 is looking forward to a banner year, with new models to meet everyones needs in their quest of one upmanship over their competitors in order get your money.

Models, such as Honda and Toyota once touted as the most reliable for decades did suffer a setback when recalls over defective equipment from airbag deployment, seatbelts,(Honda) unintended acceleration to braking issues (Toyota) are just a few issues discovered and announced publicy by Honda and Toyota.

Overengineering seems to be an issue with all car makers, from Honda to Ford, where previously a simple parts replacement costing under a hundred dollars, now costs the consumer many times over.

While the auto industry provide all flash and mirrors in the hopes of dazzling the consumer with brillance, the fact remains, all this glitz and glamour year after year seems to take away the fact baffling a consumer in determining what is a defective part, or a safety issue and what is just everyday manufacturing flaw all automakers have leaves many a consumer out of pocket. One automaker advertising Quality is Job #1, certainly never polled the consumer before making this statement.

In the real world, if you the consumer were a design engineer, office worker, business owner or manufacturer and ran your business like so many automakers do today, would you not find yourself on the unemployment line, for shoddy workmanship? Of course you would.

Apparently with so many quality control checks car makers claim to do, it boggles the mind that so many shoddy mistakes still happen, and when they do happen, it's the consumer who has little recourse when all auto makers seem to make the same shoddy mistakes time and time again.

Two examples: Cadillac Escalade have an overengineered centre console, which has a a cheap plastic lockdown nib for the centre console lid and come with two plastic accessory cap covers to close over the consoles rear power housings. If any of these two ten cent plastic caps or clip breaks, the dealer announced the entire centre console will need to be replaced at $1,200.00.

The alternative is buying a strip of velcro and affixing it to the underside of the cap, with no cheap repair option to the plastic nib, you just live with it. While this is not a defect, it is overengineering and using cheap parts on a $80,000.00 luxury vehicle. These two cheap plastic parts will certainly reduce the resale value by a $1,000.00 later on.

A safety issue with Cadillac,not considered by Cadillac as a safety defect according to Cadillac is the overengineered power steering combo braking system. A sudden loss of power steering and you will drastically lose the ability to brake effectively. This happened to me at 10 miles an hour, as was making a right turn and found myself approaching a school zone crosswalk with children crossing. A sudden loss of steering and braking had me honking frantically, pumping the brake pedal repeatedly to the floor while shifting into 1st to try and slow down, still resulted in me driving a two ton truck through the crosswalk, albeit at a snails pace along the curb.

A bit of foresight by Cadillac in the design stage would have gone a long way.

2012 Chrysler Jeep: A friend purchased a brand spanking new Jeep to replace her 10 year+ old jeep which had seen better days.

Her excitement was eclisped thirty days or so later when driving on a rainy day to discover her carpets were soaking wet. Upon further investigation it was revealed the rubber door seals were not keeping the rain out.

While the jeep was still under warranty, she brought her brand new 2012 Jeep back to the dealership for an answer. The dealer response was not what she wanted to hear, when the dealer nonchalantly announced "Oh, Chrysler have been having problems with defective doors seals, especially with their jeep models". Certainly information she was not privy to prior when deciding to purchase a new 2012 Jeep. Though she asked the right questions at the dealership about reliability when considering purchasing her 2012 Jeep, apparently due diligence on the dealers part is lacking.

Six months later she has brought her Jeep back to the dealership a couple of times with the same issue, taking time off work, with dealership promises of getting it right. She isn't holding her breath, when the dealer said, not to worry if it still persists, her warranty is good till 2014. Little comfort as the musty smell from all the water egress into the carpet and suspected mould issues over the months still persists.

The dealerships reluctance to remove the carpet and underpad in order to treat the suspected mould, mildew and musty odour shows Chrysler's dealerships quickie ineffective solution is a cursory treatment with a febreze type product to mask the musty odour, but not cure the infestation.

While only two examples are featured, rest assured readers have their own stories.

Regardless of make or model, it seems consumers have little recourse, but choose between the lesser of two evils, in what appears to be a standard complaint every automaker makes!

In the real world if you and I used adhered to these same work ethics, would result in a strong case for dismissal!

The saying, "he who has the gold makes the golden rule" has never been so clear when it comes to automakers and dealerships relieving a consumer from their hard earned cash.

2012 will assuredly have the same decades old issues with automakers quality, nothing will change, except the model years of glitz and glamour of defectiveness. The automotive reviews for current models years have little information to inform consumers regarding defects, as most defects will only appear after a couple of years, and only if enough consumer complaints generate a database for automotive reviews to rely on.

Canada has resources to protect the consumer, though Canada does not have Lemon Laws, there are certain agencies that will assist you. You should be aware it is time consuming process, with a caveat that recourse and consumer satisfaction is only after the dealer has had multiple chances to correct the defects. You cannot claim any loss of time and expenses, only the vehicle issues at hand. Even then, in some cases, with used vehicles, the onus is on the consumer to be vigilante not the car manufacturer when it comes to previous recalls.

Below are the resources and informaton guides to rely on if you feel you have a case.

Camvap

Industry Canada

Consumer Reports

Consumer Protection Laws in BC

You get what you pay for, and then some!
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