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http://www.odometer.com/rides/6872/13-brands-that-mechanics-wish-you-would-steer-clear-of#slide/13/1
The only thing I saw in that article I could relate to was the Subaru head gasket problems. Can anybody else vouch for what they’re saying about the other makes?
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I don’t give a lot of credence to that site due to reading a lot of what I consider to be subjective opinions and sometimes pure hack BS.
It looks like a list of annoyances and design flaws rather than actual reasons to dislike repairing said brands. Altima is Japanese for rotten floor ya know.
As far as being a professional Technician I think my previous shop foreman said it best; “If GM stopped making crappy cars, we wouldn’t have a job”.
Honestly the more lame systematic failures a brand has refused to improve upon, the better it is for us. Less time diagnosing, less time repairing. Everybody wins, except for the customer.
The only thing I’ll agree with is that German manufacturers like to take simple ideas and make them un-necessarily complex through over engineering. And WTF is up with triple square fasteners?
I’ve worked for both European and Japanese dealers. The Asians have their problems and to be honest, it used to grate on me to no end to wrestle problems all the time, come home, and after dinner watch some TV news blurb or read an article about how there are no problems with whatever Asian car is being mentioned.
As to those Triple Square fasteners; gag. I went into a VW manual transmission once and there is a shaft bearing plate held down with 5 TS fasteners. What made this even worse is that all five were countersunk heads buried down deep and were 5.5 MM.
No way to chisel them out and we did not have the factory service tool to remove them. That led to about 1.5 weeks of delay before I finally found an appropriate sized tool which I had to buy as part of a set of 4; and the only place I found them was the Cornwell tool guy as odd as that sounds.
Per the usual, I used that 1 of the 4 to remove and install those screws and have never needed them again.And the real pisser was that the customer who insisted I tear the transmission apart (signed the repair order multiple times authorizing it) changed his mind after being told the trans was bad; which was what I told him BEFORE I took it out of the car.
He then started griping and claiming that he never wanted the transmission removed and that we “must have forged his name on the repair order”.
The service manager let the guy walk away free from all of this and then wanted me to forget about any pay I was due for it. Not…..[quote=”DaFirnz” post=130269]It looks like a list of annoyances and design flaws rather than actual reasons to dislike repairing said brands. Altima is Japanese for rotten floor ya know.
As far as being a professional Technician I think my previous shop foreman said it best; “If GM stopped making crappy cars, we wouldn’t have a job”.
Honestly the more lame systematic failures a brand has refused to improve upon, the better it is for us. Less time diagnosing, less time repairing. Everybody wins, except for the customer.
The only thing I’ll agree with is that German manufacturers like to take simple ideas and make them un-necessarily complex through over engineering. And WTF is up with triple square fasteners?[/quote]
I used to tell people that I liked Fords because they were such good job security. Now that I work as a service repair tech, I argue with some coworkers about Dodges. They’ll tell me they’re junk. I say Dodges are good! Dodges are Money! I hate European cars too. I was told by one of my teachers that Germans engineer their cars the way they do because they don’t want just anybody working on their cars. But if they’re going to continue to make such a mess of their cars, they’re not going to find anybody to work on them at all. It’s not like they’re building a better car. BMW’s in particular are the biggest piles I’ve ever seen that aren’t American. I bought my triple square sets because I was starting to see a bunch of VW’s at one point. I likewise haven’t seen hardly one come in where I needed the triple squares again. There was another guy in the shop who didn’t have triple squares either and he found a way to remove a beetle oil pan with an air hammer. I don’t know how he did it either, just laugh at the fact that it happened.
I personally know that Hyundai and KIA are pretty much trash, right out of the box. If Honda is Snapon, then Hyundai and KIA are Harbor Freight.
[quote=”Pitt” post=130471]I personally know that Hyundai and KIA are pretty much trash, right out of the box. If Honda is Snapon, then Hyundai and KIA are Harbor Freight.[/quote]
And just like tools, you get what you pay for.
I prefer to work on XZN and Torx fasteners than deal with Allen fasteners.
A full set of bit socket doesn’t cost more than $300 from Harbor Freight (full retail, not considering sale prices), we’re talking XZN, tamper proof hex, tamper proof Torx, Torx, e-Torx, Torx Plus, ball end Allens, etc etc. If your box is missing any of these bit sockets you are considered obsolete as a technician in today’s repair industry and it’s time to upgrade and buy more tools.
Kia and Harbor Freight might be Harbor Freight. Snap-on to me is an American institution, like well American cars used to be (like a 69 Chevelle with a 396 or something). I know of no domestics now as good as Snap-on tools. When I bought my Civic recently the seller offered to throw in a Lumina, probably for nothing, or close to it. Don’t need the headaches. Had that been a broken Snap-on tool you bet I would have taken it.
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