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New spy sled

M

MAZDASPEED

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Jul 19, 2000
Messages
1,126
Location
MA
It's nice and vague.....Ordered in January, just got delivered this past week. Honestly aside from the style, shape and lack of any measurable horsepower, it's not a bad work car. Rides nice, has good visability, heated seats more interior room than my last car.

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Looking good .. hopefully will be a lot more reliable than the Stratus was!
 
Rouar said:
Looking good .. hopefully will be a lot more reliable than the Stratus was!
Click to expand...

The Stratus was terrible! Every member of my team had the same problems. Bad alignments, bad exhaust systems, slipping transmissions, dash lights going out, HVAC controls not working, windows sticking.

Last night we encountered the first problem with the Malibu at 215mi on the odometer. The car has the extra airbags option including bags that blow out of the seats and curtains that drop down, but Sue doesn't weigh enough to trigger the weight sensors for the airbags on the passenger side. She must be right at the sensor cut because occasionally it works, occasionally it doesn't.

Honestly it's this kind of crap that would sway me from buying a GM for a personal car. Black box, automatic DRLs, adaptive airbags.....It's all crap. the DRL reaaaallllly tics me off. There are times that I do not want my headlights on but I definitely want the car running, in order to turn the automatic lights off the radio display including the time, cuts out and "AUTOMATIC LIGHTS OFF" is displayed until I turn them back on. If I want airbags and paid more for them, make them work all the time. If I want the headlights on, I'll turn them on, it's not that difficult to adjust a switch.
 
I HATE dealerships!!!

I HATE dealerships!!!

SO, at 750 miles two weeks ago I take the Malibu in to have the airbag sensor checked....As I indicated in the last post, it would appear that Sue who weighs approximately 110-120lbs does not weigh enough to trigger the airbag weight sensor in the front passenger seat. The service writer (another female weighing around 120lbs) was having difficulty getting the seat system to recognize her....if she bounced up and down or pulled up on the seat. After about an hour they came out armed with the owners manual saying that in the manual it indicates that if someone does not weigh enough to arm the bags they should sit in the back. They said that theres nothing they can do for me. Instead, they actually recommended that Sue ride in the back of this NEW car!!

So, I contact the leasing company, they too were appauled by the suggestion that I have my wife sit in the back. They recommended that I take the car to a different dealership. Last week I went to Diamond Chevrolet in Worcester and got into a rental (which GM refused to provide me with a rental, so the leasing company set me up thru Enterprise with a 2007 Cadillac Sedan "Deval"). After one day at the shop, the dealer called to say it was ready for pick up. Sue and went to the dealer and after about 45 seconds the airbag system sensed that she was in the passenger seat and the airbag system armed. The dealer said the they think the system is working fine but they went ahead and reset the airbag system. We drove the the car home and called it a weekend.

Monday night we took the car out and again it took 45 seconds to arm. We went to our next destination, took another 45 seconds to arm. Half way home I see the airbag system change switch to OFF mode by itself. Sue was unable to get it back on. I called the leasing company back and they said to bring the car back to the dealer.

Tuesday I called and spoke to the service manager and he suggested that I bring the car back to the dealer and got back into another rental car (again GM refused to provide a rental, so the leasing company set me up thru Enterprise with yet another 2007 Cadillac Sedan Deville). I received a call a short time later saying that they can't find anything wrong and suggested that I come and get the vehicle. I called the leasing company and expressed my concerns and they too agreed that I should not be driving around in a car that has an occasionally function set of airbags.

This evening I stopped in after hours (their service dept is open for pick up to 9:00pm) as I had yet to hear back from the dealer I thought I would stop in and check the status of the vehicle and get my Mass Pike speed pass. Instead, I see my car outside in the pouring rain with the driver side rear window down!! I raced into the dealer and suggested that they IMMEDIATELY raise the rear window and have the service manager contact me tomorrow morning with a status of the repairs. There is water all over the back seat, floor and door panel.

I called the leasing company and told them what I had observed and again they were shocked at this kind of service from GM. Honestly I'm not surprised, this is actually the type of service I expected from GM/Chevrolet.

Rant off.....
 
like I said over the weekend telling you to have Sue sit in the back seat is not an acceptable answer ... man I would be livid if I had to go through that ... but then again as you said right up from all lack of any design and power, handling ... basically anything would stop me from getting a car like that in the first place. well good luck getting it all straightened out, at least Ford made everything right with out issue when we found that water hose almost cut through by the waterpump pulley and didn't give me parents any grief ...
 
I'm not familiar with company car policies, but is there a way to get out of the vehicle (make/model) lease if you log enough complaints with it?
Even though the company likely received it at discount there has to be some concern for the satisfaction of their employees.
 
It seems like its been back to the dealer 3 times for the same issue and it has not been resolved. If I'm not mistaken, doesn't the lemon law come into play in this situation?
 
Dang, that really sucks about the repeat visits, Mazdaspeed. :nonono:

I sound like such an old fart, but some of these features in newer vehicles are just too darn smart for their own good. For instance -- and these are all rhetorical questions -- where did the 120lb cutoff come from? why is there a need for a sensor in the first place? is it bad/dangerous to have an airbag deploy on an empty seat? whatever happened to the notion that perhaps the individual knows what's best for him/herself? An extra gadget = more stuff that can break and go wrong.

I'm reminded of the growing trend in legislating car seats for people under 4'9" and under 70 pounds. Good grief. Last I checked, when I was younger, my parents plopped me onto the back seat of a 1978 Plymouth Fury wagon and just made sure I had the lap belt on. There were no childproof locks or window cutouts -- if we played with the door handles or the windows, we were bound to get a yellin'. Y'all can disagree, but I think I turned out all right.

"Back in my day..." :D
 
i find it funny that they have a weight requirement for the passenger but not the driver.
if the passenger airbags deploy fast/hard enough to hurt someone under 120lb, then what about the drivers side?

it is unsafe for the Panda to sit in the passenger seat, but she can drive the car?
i do agree that smaller inviduals should not be inseats with airbags, but 120lb? c'mon be serious.


if they wont fix the airbag, tell them you want a privacy wall installed between the front and back seats, so when Sue is back there you can put up the glass!
hehe
J/K
 
I think part of the issue is cost (promoted by, ahem, insurance companies Ryan). They don't want to pay for an airbag that deployed in a crash for an empty seat. That's why the driver side doesn't have one - the assumption is that someone is driving the car from that seat.

The weight limit is also based on the fact people may wish to put a child seat in the front - although any idiot knows you should not do that when you have a back seat. That's why trucks often have an airbag off button.

I think cars should have the button like trucks, but then again many people would be too stupid to use it correctly, thus defeating the purpose.

It really is a shame that much of America is so damn stupid the manufacturers even have to think of stuff like this, never mind actually put them in their products. Disclaimer: this post does not apply to any CEG'ers. We all know that we are pretty smart m'fers.
 
The biggest part is child protection. One dealer mentioned 35lbs should be sufficent to arm the bags, another mentioned 50lbs, so I'm not sure what the requirement is and I'm not sure these dealers do either. At this point My company and the leasing company have an open tech ticket with GM head quarters. If all of our fleet vehicles are being replaced with these Malibus with problematic passenger occupant sensors, they both might want to back away from GM.

In the various conversations I have had with the leasing company and PHH it sounds like I'm not the only one, but possibly the loudest or most stubborn. I almost feel like I'm pushing to many peoples buttons on this but it's not like this is a problem with bad reception on the radio or a slow power window, this is a major (and federally mandated) concern!

What I do know is that for the time being I am in the 2007 Cadillac until probably early next week. They are also trying to dry out the interior. You can bet that I will be going over this thing with my white Pebble Beach Gloves and a fine tooth comb!
 
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