General Motors recalling 400,000 mid-size pickups over brake light malfunction
The National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration has announced that General Motors is recalling over 400,000 pickup trucks due to
malfunctioning brake lights. While the automaker is unaware of any accidents resulting from the problem, trucks also
outfitted with cruise control lose that functionality as well. Trucks affected are the 2004-2006 Chevrolet
Colorado and GMC Canyon pickups and 2006 Isuzu i-280 and i-350 trucks.
[Source: WOODTV.com]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mick 4:39PM (5/01/2006)
On the plus side, GM actually sold 400,000 of those things.
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That One Person 4:46PM (5/01/2006)
#1 haha good one! lol
Yea, those trucks just fail at life...
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Jose 4:50PM (5/01/2006)
lol i agree with #1 but it doesnt seem like a bad small truck...(not the 4 door one but the small 2 door one)
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Billy Bob 4:55PM (5/01/2006)
It's a GM product, gosh darnit.
Why is a recall a surprise to anyone? DUH!
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Corey W. 4:56PM (5/01/2006)
30 Mins. and not one Toyota/GM bash!!
This has got to be a record for AutoBlog....
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Alex 5:29PM (5/01/2006)
The Colorado/Canyon are really not that competitive in their segment. Its made for your typical uniformed GM consumer. They only offer a pathetic 5 cylinder engine, and having test driven one its kind of a POS.
Will the recall impact the products sales? No, GM loyalist generally are undetered by any facts.
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JW 5:45PM (5/01/2006)
I like the Colorado in the picture, is that a custom truck?
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Mal Fuller 5:54PM (5/01/2006)
#6 - Alex says, " Its made for your typical uniformed GM consumer."
Gee Alex, what kind of uniforms do GM customers wear? Also, did you mean to write it"s as in it is, rather than its?
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A Bum In A Bus 6:10PM (5/01/2006)
For all you wonderful Toyota owners laugh at this.......
AVALON SHOWS DENT IN TOYOTA QUALITY: Fixes sought for 'problematic vehicle'.
Mark Rechtin - Automotive News - May 1, 2006
Since the Avalon's 2005 redesign, Toyota has issued service bulletins to dealers on these topics:
* Bad U-joint welds
* Faulty catalytic converters
* Leak in oil-supply line for variable valve timing
* Vehicle drifting
LOS ANGELES -- Alan Seider has owned 11 Toyotas since 1982, but his 2006 Avalon likely will be his last.
He says quality glitches have bedeviled his Toyota sedan, which he has driven less than 6,000 miles since he bought it last July. His dealer could not solve the car's problems. Toyota headquarters stonewalled his appeals, he says.
"There have been significant throttle control and transmission hesitation issues," says Seider, 45, a computer consultant from Roswell, Ga. "I've isolated 15 different rattles in the body work."
Seider is far from alone. Internet chat rooms such as Edmunds.com Town Hall are littered with complaints from Toyota loyalists about the redesigned Avalon, which went on sale in February 2005.
The Avalon's launch problems point to a larger issue. To meet demand, Toyota has added factories in North America and thousands of new employees. Executives are worried that Toyota's rapid growth may dilute its quality standards.
Toyota and Lexus divisions still exceed industry averages in various studies that measure quality. Toyota predicts that the Avalon will score well in J.D. Power and Associates' Initial Quality Study, to be released in June.
But the quality gap is closing. And Toyota recalls have spiked in the last two years.
Every production line produces its share of lemons. But Toyota already has issued a string of technical service bulletins to dealers to fix Avalons on the road. Changes are being made on the assembly line. Toyota representatives acknowledge there are some teething problems, but decline to call the Avalon a problem car.
The Avalon is the Toyota brand's most-expensive car, starting at $27,355 including destination charges. The redesigned 2005 model was embraced by consumers; Toyota sold 95,318 Avalons last year in the United States, up from 36,460 in 2004. Avalon sales peaked in 2000 at 104,078 units. It is assembled at Toyota's Georgetown, Ky., plant, alongside the Camry and Camry Solara.
First-year blues
It's a car-buying axiom that one should never buy a car in its first year of production, before the bugs are worked out. But in recent years Toyota and Honda largely disproved that old saw, delivering nearly bulletproof vehicles from Job 1.
Now the Avalon redesign is showing that even mighty Toyota can slip up.
Kevin Clingenpeel, a 37-year-old insurance litigator from Fort Mill, S.C., loved his Avalon for the first 2,000 miles. Then the transmission shifts became erratic, especially in cold weather. The engine developed a persistent knock, which could not be cured by changing grades of gasoline or by using a fuel-injector cleaner.
"I pulled up next to a Ford F-350, and I could hear my valve train clicking louder than his diesel," said Clingenpeel, whose Avalon is his family's third Toyota.
Clingenpeel says his dealer gave the car "a wink and a nod" when he brought it in three times for repairs. Clingenpeel then appealed to Toyota headquarters to send out a district service manager. Toyota refused. Now Clingenpeel is looking to sell the car.
"It's sad because there's a nice car hiding behind all this," Clingenpeel said. "But this is not up to snuff from what I would consider from Toyota."
Small irritations
The Avalon's problems have drawn notice from Consumer Reports magazine, which has for years given the Avalon high marks.
While still giving the 2005 Avalon its highest scores in most categories, the magazine's overall quality rating for the car was average because the Avalon scored below the Buick LaCrosse, Kia Amanti, Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego.
Anita Lam, data program manager for Consumer Reports' auto test center, said problems with the Avalon cropped up in steering, suspension and body integrity.
"These are first-year teething problems. We anticipate the second model year will be much better," Lam said.
Toyota spokesman John Hanson called the Consumer Reports ratings "the sum of small irritations more than anything else."
But Hanson acknowledged that Toyota has been concerned with the initial wave of quality problems for the car. Toyota's priority has been to find and remedy problems, get the fixes to the production line, and issue technical service bulletins so dealers can fix the faults on vehicles already on the road.
"The Avalon is the most complex vehicle Toyota Division sells, so just by definition it's a problematic vehicle," Hanson said.
The Avalon's transmission lurch is especially noticeable in low-speed crawls during rush hour, Hanson said. Previous Avalons had problems shifting smoothly at high speed with high engine revs. Toyota fixed the high-speed lurch by changing software algorithms, but the adjustment caused a low-speed lurch.
The low-speed problem "is all software," Hanson says.
Some customers are voting with their feet. In Seider's case, he replaced his wife's Toyota Sienna minivan with a Honda Pilot. He doubts he will replace the Avalon with another Toyota.
Said Seider: "I am so disappointed in Toyota. I've had previous first-year vehicles, but nothing like this ever happened. Toyota's build quality has declined in recent years, and there seems to be nothing the dealer can do. Toyota has reached a size that they've lost sight of the individual customer."
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That One Person 6:21PM (5/01/2006)
#9 Bum...I read that article and just chuckled.
People hold Toyota on such a high pedestal and think that the company is invincible. And this proves they are the opposite. They are no better than the Domestics.
I will admit, Toyota is a decent car company and I am not bashing it. I just wish some people would realize that Japanese car companies are not God's gift to the automotive world...
ANYWAYS, a friend got a Colorado as a rental once. It was brand new. There was like 200 miles on the odo. It rattled like mad. It ate gas like mad. They may be durable as all hell but there are better alternatives out there....
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Jeff Gilleran 6:40PM (5/01/2006)
"The Avalon is the most complex vehicle Toyota Division sells, so just by definition it's a problematic vehicle," Hanson said."
"These are first-year teething problems. We anticipate the second model year will be much better," Lam said."
That pretty much sums up most first year vehicles anyway.
You need to know that buying any first year model vehicle no matter the brand.. even from Toyota can have issues not even the manufacture sees come to light by realtime buyers.
"Some customers are voting with their feet. In Seider's case, he replaced his wife's Toyota Sienna minivan with a Honda Pilot. He doubts he will replace the Avalon with another Toyota."
Is that just personal opinion based on just 2 models of differing years and designs?.
His case is personally unique and I doubt the norm.
"There have been significant throttle control and transmission hesitation issues," says Seider, 45, a computer consultant from Roswell, Ga. "I've isolated 15 different rattles in the body work."
Ok, I understand a "software issue" as hes a computer consultant, with the known transmission issue.
But how has he isolated 15 different rattles... Hmmm.. care to name them?
What methods did you use? ultrasonic measurement, torsion testing, actual measurements?
I dont know ANY car that doesnt have at least SOME body structure flex.
The Car might be new, but come on!.
Personally,Ive owned several new cars and I dont typically crawl out the window while driving to find where a "squeek or rattle" comes from.
Generally, I hear things in the interior, and sometimes a squeek from a strut.
I can understand a rattle for squeek from Interior parts because they can be much easier heard and sometimes seen.
I think someone is exaggerating just a pinch?
The issues Im sure will be taken care of.
I can say that I think toyota might be "speeding" thier launches for reasons of being competitive with other brands.
Nothing wrong with that as long as quality doesnt slip too far.
Just proves that Toyota is just like every other manufacturer and makes a vehicle that isnt the standard they usually, or would like to be.
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Zippy Maboonogian 6:44PM (5/01/2006)
Wasn't the Colorado / Canyon platform engineered by Isuzu and transplanted here?
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david 6:59PM (5/01/2006)
just in case anyone is wondering, the cruise control and tail lamps are from a japanese supplier.
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Corey W. 7:41PM (5/01/2006)
"Will the recall impact the products sales? No, GM loyalist generally are undetered by any facts."
HAHA... It never ends!!!
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That One Person 9:03PM (5/01/2006)
I think this truck was a mistake on GM's part. They should have noticed where this market was heading by looking at the Dakota and Tacoma. The Dakota was what they should have gone after. Its been a pretty big truck for its segment for almost a decade. And they have been offering a V-8 in it since it was introduced (I am correct, right?). I almost bought a 96 Dakota with a 318 in it and it was the size of the Colorado.
They should have thought this out a little bit more...
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AM 9:39PM (5/01/2006)
#9,
Just goes to show that Americans build crappy cars.
I don't completely believe that, I just thought I'd keep the theme going!
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gbh 9:55PM (5/01/2006)
As much as most folks find GM product to be, uhh, not the standard of excellence - don't forget, GM doesn't really 'make' most of the car/truck/whatever.
Most of automobiledom is a collection of sub-contracted parts from all over the planet. GM is just like Wal-Mart - they tell the supplier what they will pay and that's that. And, next year, they'll pay you 5% less.
Beyond GM's inherent inability to design product that works and is inexpensive enough to keep feeding that pathetically bloated monster, they have subcontractors who are also trying to make money and pay their $30+ and hour forklift operators (plus benes).
People talk about continuous improvement. Unfortunately, the ethos at GM is just like Wal-Mart's - continuous cost cutting.
The point of diminishing returns has long since been passed. The subs WILL hit the price point GM (or anyone else) chooses to pick. Quality will continue to decline, and, pathetically, they will all wonder what happened.
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A Bum In A Bus 9:59PM (5/01/2006)
# 17...You're an idiot.
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Alex 10:20PM (5/01/2006)
I actually think #17 is on the right track to some extent- The large automakers are defining a consumer product, sourcing the content, and responsible for the systems integration.
Certain core areas, such as powertrain are retained in house and even those are being sourced.
If this is the cas GM is failing at a high level- they are failing in managing their supply base (poor supplier designs, and quality), and in creating or defining the wrong product for the market (5 cylinder engine?). The Colorado is a failure.
At any rate, how does the Avalon article relate to this post?- why in the world do these GM employees or fans throw these unrelated grenades into the discussion.
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Andrew 11:13PM (5/01/2006)
Colorado/Canyon are in fact designed by Isuzu....agreed not the best truck in it's segment but a solid competitor...with the upgrades this year w/ the I-5 pusing 242 hp that is a solid improvement. The interior needs some help but again this was a "pre Lutz" vehicle so even though it's brining solid #'s it's not where it needs to be and I am GM fan.
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