Cobalt Recall

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Koots
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Cobalt Recall

Post by Koots »

I don't know about anyone else, but this whole thing feels absolutely retarded to me. It's also more reason for stupid people to demonize a good company, a decent car and the best all around vehicle company in the world.

If I had a Cobalt and it had a loose ignition, I'd either accept my inevitable fate or go grab a new or good one at the junkyard and replace it. I wouldn't wait for an individual dealership to decide how to rip you off or deny you warranty replacement, if applicable.

So it's just another reason for elitist automotive journalists, magazines and car enthusiasts to slander GM in every way possible. Even positive reviews, like of most corvette's, are laden with "Wow, I can't believe it's a GM!" or the even more insulting "Wow, I can't believe it's an American car!".

I've got a 32 year old truck, that is 75% OEM (lift and tires, TH350 swap to replace OEM transmission, swapped in 04' Silverado seats for the front, that's all) and I had a loose ignition a couple years back, that used to shut off on me when I hit bad bumps (Imagine that with hydroboost brakes). I just went and replaced it, rebuilt my tilt steering mechanism and went about my life.

I guess I missed an opportunity for a lawsuit and to take the weight of personal responsibility off of my shoulders, eh?


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ifixalot
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Re: Cobalt Recall

Post by ifixalot »

It's tough to build a good car.
Toyota had 89 deaths from sudden acceleration, this issue has had 12 deaths.
Of course, any is too many. But this isn't so bad in comparison.
My daughter's ION is in for the repair and she has a loaner. I think it's great GM is standing behind it's product.
I think too, it's part the owners fault. Some people have 5 lbs on their key ring which makes the problem worse.
I worked on my daughters ignition. One day, it just would not turn to shut off. It's a known problem.
I never noticed that it would shut off too easy but okay.


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Rettax3
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Re: Cobalt Recall

Post by Rettax3 »

Okay, I live in a troll's cave, I guess. I never even heard about any of this until right now. My niece has had a Cobalt since she wrecked the Z-26 she sold back to me years ago, and she has loved the car, but... Sometimes, no news is good news, well other times I guess it isn't. I am sort of on a fence with this one. Mostly, I agree with Koots on this, I am sick to death of having to sign a waiver before I can take possession of a cup of hot coffee because it is hot and might burn my sensitive <CENSORED> if I actually try to take a shower with it or gulp the whole thing in one swig...

I have read some info on this now, and am hard-pressed to believe some of the claims that the cars became, to paraphrase, almost impossible to steer without power assist... I will NOT re-open that other debate here, but if you are incapable of maneuvering a Cobalt onto the shoulder of the road if the engine dies, then Darwin is simply making an example of you because you must have the physical strength of a two-year-old. Actually, most two-year-olds are pretty strong, so I would have to say that you must have the physical strength of a two-year-old Yorkie. I do understand that the car's characteristics change dramatically at an instant with power-loss, and an inexperienced driver could easily panic and wreck, but that has more to do with putting an unprepared driver behind the wheel, but it is easier to place the blame elsewhere. :no:

However, I am also sick of watching big companies like GM (and yes, it pains me to say Toyota too) figure out ways to trim three cents off the cost of manufacturing a product by cutting corners, using cheaper (not just 'less expensive') materials, or using 'lean' techniques that do not give assemblers enough time to do the job right each time, which leads to quality-control problems. Seriously, how long have these guys been building cars? Do you know what you have to do just to change the cussing headlight bulb on a Cobalt?? Sorry, but these are NOT well-designed cars. Each new model should be a step forward; an advancement in safety, maintainability, ease and/or comfort of operation, and performance/economy. Instead, they are the same old crap wrapped in a new package and made out of 10% more pot-metal and 30% more plastic. If GM has made a whole series of defective parts for ten years, then their R&D department is being over-paid, and they do owe people an apology. Dawning today is the new Chevy Pinto.

Three of my Berettas have had ignition-lock problems -one has stranded me at a 7-Eleven, one almost would not shut off a couple of times and then nearly stranded me at an Auto-Zone (my fault for continuing to drive the car, I simply didn't realize the issue was getting that bad that fast), and the third one was able to turn and start without a key. All of these cars had served well over 100k miles and years longer than the Cobalts have however, and while I can see it was cheap materials and a shoddy build-design that led to the failure, all machines eventually wear out and need repairs -it is just the nature of the beast. Should the design be better? Absolutely. Should the parts be better than they are? Probably. Does the consumer want to pay the higher price for better materials? Not usually. So, who is really to blame? :Search: When parts of my machines break-down, I fix or replace them, I don't (usually) keep operating them until someone dies, or go running for the 'Attorney' listings of the Yellow Pages. But hey, I grew up when personal accountability wasn't an obscene topic or simply the punch-line of a joke. :(

This is all pointing to some of the reasons why I don't like/want any of the new cars. I just don't see them as being better than the older ones, and they certainly should be. But here is an idea; if today's drivers can't operate a car safely if the power-steering goes out, and the manufacturers want to save money on entry-level cars designed for young drivers, how about they DON'T PUT POWER-STEERING SYSTEMS IN THOSE CARS... The extra exercise might burn a few calories and help curb the obesity 'epidemic' in the country too... :wink: Now if the cars could also whiten your teeth three shades and tell you who Johnny wants to take to Homecoming, they would be just about perfect... :roll:


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3X00-Modified
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Re: Cobalt Recall

Post by 3X00-Modified »

To sum it up, I think the issue people may have is the engine dies for one and the ignition itself also locks the steering wheel from turning... I would agree that would be a major issue.... BUT The source of the problem... aka hanging 15lbs off the ignition key is just sheer stupidity from the start. All my vehicle keys have their appropriate key/s, door and ignition if applicable the remote and one ring to identify them... THAT'S IT. The other 5lbs of keys that I own are on a carabiner and I carry that separately.

And yes the main source of the issue is the lack of personal accountability.... No one takes responsibility for their actions these days and it's how everyone is being raised... Part of the reason why I don't even want to bring a child into this world... I fear what we are turning into.


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Koots
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Re: Cobalt Recall

Post by Koots »

3X00-Modified wrote:To sum it up, I think the issue people may have is the engine dies for one and the ignition itself also locks the steering wheel from turning... I would agree that would be a major issue.... BUT The source of the problem... aka hanging 15lbs off the ignition key is just sheer stupidity from the start. All my vehicle keys have their appropriate key/s, door and ignition if applicable the remote and one ring to identify them... THAT'S IT. The other 5lbs of keys that I own are on a carabiner and I carry that separately.

And yes the main source of the issue is the lack of personal accountability.... No one takes responsibility for their actions these days and it's how everyone is being raised... Part of the reason why I don't even want to bring a child into this world... if fear what we are turning into.
The locked steering wheel would explain some outrage LOL

I agree with you 100% though. I have great parents, but things were all kinds of fvcked for us. SO I'm not ready to just put a poor kid through that, I need to calm down and stop being such a crazy person before I can start thinking of raising a child.


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Re: Cobalt Recall

Post by woody90gtz »

3X00-Modified wrote:And yes the main source of the issue is the lack of personal accountability.... No one takes responsibility for their actions these days and it's how everyone is being raised...
Hit the nail on the head. That's our biggest problem.

crap breaks. Fix it!


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Rettax3
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Re: Cobalt Recall

Post by Rettax3 »

3X00-Modified wrote:To sum it up, I think the issue people may have is the engine dies for one and the ignition itself also locks the steering wheel from turning... I would agree that would be a major issue.... BUT The source of the problem... aka hanging 15lbs off the ignition key is just sheer stupidity from the start. All my vehicle keys have their appropriate key/s, door and ignition if applicable the remote and one ring to identify them... THAT'S IT. The other 5lbs of keys that I own are on a carabiner and I carry that separately.

And yes the main source of the issue is the lack of personal accountability.... No one takes responsibility for their actions these days and it's how everyone is being raised... Part of the reason why I don't even want to bring a child into this world... I fear what we are turning into.
No where in any of the tiny reading I spent my time on did I see anything about the ignition cranking all the way to the locked position, just one click to 'OFF' seemed to be the problem. Yes, if it did actually lock the steering-wheel, that would be a serious problem (which, shutting off the engine is pretty darn serious, don't get me wrong), but "Ahhh! I just lost power-steering, I'm gonna drift into on-coming traffic because I can't control the car!" is kind of ridiculous. Also, there were a lot of complaints about losing the power-brakes too, which, unless GM went way off with a new design, the brakes still work at LEAST once or twice, even after the engine has shut-down. There were also some comments that stated essentially that people died because the air-bags did not deploy because the ignition had switched off. Well, yeah, and the driver managed to run the car into something hard enough to kill themselves despite the seat-belts they SHOULD have been wearing... Again, don't get me wrong, the loss of life is tragic, and I am not trying to mock any of the crash victims or their families, but for me the bottom line is that accidents do happen, and if your car is unsafe then it is YOUR responsibility to fix the problem, and putting someone behind the wheel of a car and NOT making sure that they can handle an emergency is irresponsible, and NOT the fault of the manufacturer. People simply do not seem to pay attention to what they are doing anymore -they expect the machines they operate to do everything for them, from push-button parking to lane deviation warnings to automatic brakes used to avoid collisions. In thirty years, I want to see how a new driver would respond to my old Plymouth, which has automatic nothing -the transmission and even the choke is manual on that car- and no, it has neither power steering nor power brakes.

What if this was simply a case of the power-steering belt breaking? Would the number of accidents have been the same? Would the manufacturer still be blamed ten years later?


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1990 Turbo 3.4 5-Speed T-Type
1990 4.0L 4-Cam 32-Valve V-8 5-Speed Indy GTi (Project)
1990 Stock(!) 3.1 MPFI Auto Indy
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