Pontiac Torrent Questions
Car-and-Safety.com
Pontiac Torrent
Fri, 04 Nov 2011
This article is being written
from recent experience I had with a GM ...
This article is being written
from recent experience I had with a GM vehicle as well as some research into
this issue to learn just how far reaching it is.
I would like to bring to
your attention a problem that needs
attention regarding a on going issue with GM and hundreds of it’s
customers that own some GM products. This issue has been ignored/sidestepped by
GM since 2006 and continues today as this article is being published.
The problem is the heater
doors in these vehicles is a faulty design that WILL break not may break but
will. This is a safety issue at this time of the year if someone is away from
home and it breaks they have no way to defrost there windshield which can lead
to accidents.
The problem is the actuating
motor over extending the actuating arm of the heater door that causes stress in
the plastic the result is failure of the heater door (breakage) (heater/AC exchange door). This is a design
flaw not a wear and tear issue GM knows about it and has ignored it and they even
have the gull to try and get the consumer to assume part of the responsibility
for it.
If one contacts GM PR
offices on this issue the first thing they are told is “You could have
purchased a EXTRA warrantee to cover such things”. A warrantee to cover a badly
designed component that’s absurd. If you persist in this they then will have
you take the vehicle to the dealer to verify the issue then try to make a deal
to split the repair cost that can be from $500.00 to $1000.00 labor for a
$30.00 plastic part that was designed by GM this also is ridiculous. They try
to compare it to balls joint and tie rods breaking which is an insult to ones
intelligence the two do not compare what so ever.
Ball joint and other parts
fail because of wear and tear that is an expected issue at some point in the
life of the automobile. The heater problem is a design issue even GM can not
predict when it will fail it could break the very first time it is used or it
may go on for a couple years before failure it isn’t a matter of if or it could
possibly fail but when will it fail. Even after the broken piece is repaired
the issue of when is still there it can break again at any point in time then
you will be faced with the same cost again. Since the consumer has no hand in
designing this component GM bares all responsibility for it. You will be also
told that this is a “common problem issue that is why there has not been a
recall”. A common problem issue that’s to say the least and they see no need to
recall and fix the problem.
The person I spoke with at
GM tried to assure me that once GM fixes this issue it would not reinstall the
same type of parts the problem would no longer exists. When I asked him Has Gm
started to address this yet since it is ongoing since at least 2006 he told me
no they have no plans to that he knows of.
There are hundreds of owners
that have or had this exact issue. You can see complaints filed with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
web sight as well as people on forms all over the net.
The only resolution to this
is a forced recall or a mass boycott of all GM products that uses this faulty
component in there product line, since GM will not do what is right and step up
to fix this problem .
They need to stop the
continued practice of trying to get the
consumer to bare some responsibility and
cost to repair the issue, since they created it and knowingly installed a badly
designed component in there products in
the first place.
All of this just confirms
the talk of GM quality taking a nose drive for the past couple years. It seems
the talk on the net is true GM has gone down hill fast.
I was a GM customer most of
my life but now I say lets drop GM and Support Ford.
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