Q&A

QUESTION

Good day Dennis,

Why is it that auto manufacturers are not being held responsible for the countless flaws that we read about, associated with North American-built cars? Over and over we read in columns such as yours the same problems, whether it be Chrysler, General Motors or Ford. These companies refuse to act unless the issue is determined to be life threatening. Just recently, both trunk support struts on my Malibu failed, causing a 2-inch cut on my father’s head, which nearly required stitches. Whoever heard of trunk strut failure?

Canadians spend a good buck on crappy cars with replacement parts built in Third World Companies. This is not right and we need to do something about it.

How long are the “Big Three” going to get away with this?

It is no wonder that many people are still buying imports and spending even more money for them. Are we the taxpayers going to bail out the car companies again due to their inferior products? I look forward to your comments.

Sincerely, Steven from Hamilton

ANSWER

It does at times take the prodding from the Government or the continuous complaints from the consumer for the car manufacturers to address vehicle problems but in many cases, the manufacturers do, on their own, find faults and issue recalls. Overall, however, looking at what a vehicle goes through with rough roads; winter’s snow and ice; improper maintenance and lack of care, I think that the Big Three do put a sturdy vehicle on the road.

I tend to believe that the invention and use of robots to do what humans used to do is part of the problem today with the on-line production of cars. A robot is used to doing a programmed task and if a part is defective, the robot cannot see the defective part, whereas a human would see the defect and replace it.

What we should be focusing on is the short lifespan of home appliances. We used to expect twenty years lifespan on home appliances but now we seem to be happy if they last ten years. I do acknowledge that all car manufacturers do have their problems but with the rapid advance of the new technology put into the vehicles of today, we still get a good overall vehicle.

My concern now is the thought behind the minds of the car manufacturers when they want to do away with the building of cars. Their supposed mission is to only produce larger vehicles such as the SUV and Crossovers. My suspicion is that they want to circumvent the emission standards required by smaller vehicles but this is a subject that requires much more space than what I have available in my column.

The government could change the minds of the car manufacturers if the government really cared about air pollution, by telling the car manufacturers that with the bigger vehicles, the emission standards will not change but why would they, when they will be making billions more on the gas tax for these gas-guzzling bigger engine vehicles.

READER’S COMMENT

Hello Dennis,

I read with interest the query by Sheryl from Milton in your May 4th column. She stated that she had bought two "good used tires" from a garage. In my humble opinion, there is no such thing as a "good" used tire. Whenever someone replaces tires on their vehicle, it's usually because they're worn or have some other defect, otherwise people wouldn't be paying $150 per tire or more to replace the originals.

Far too many people don't seem to realize that their lives depend on the quality of the tires on their cars as they drive down a highway at speeds of 100 km/h or more. Motorists should be wary of blemished tires, or "blems", being sold at very low prices, along with offshore brands that are half of the going rate of well-known marques. There's a lot to that saying, "If it sounds too good to be true, it usually isn't." Hans Schmiedeberg, V.P., Southern Ontario Thunderbird Club, Burlington

MY COMMENT

I could not agree with you more, Hans. Over the years, in my columns, I have been trying to tell people that motorists do not get rid of good tires. If there is a tire complaint, it is usually because someone got a good deal on blemish tires or purchased a set of supposedly good used tires. A tire is the only thing between you and the road and the ditch is where you will find yourself when you take a chance on tires that you have no idea where or how they were used.