So, in the last month, I wound up shelling out over a thousand dollars on my 2012 Chevrolet Cruze Eco’s transmission…specifically, the hydraulic slave cylinder, the clutch, the sprung flywheel, and over five hundred dollars in labor that, if the dealership had done the work, would’ve easily been $1,200 on it’s own, before parts. Put mildly, that’s a bitter pill to swallow. We were actually considering trading the little bastard in on just about anything else, and the only reason we didn’t is because we would’ve taken a financial bath…or would have had to offer up Angry Grandpa as a second trade in order to replace it with something better. Something breaking on the Cruze isn’t what bothered me, though…it’s how soon it happened. Understand that I purchased the car in April 2019, and shortly after the car was purchased, a replacement transaxle had to be installed because the six-speed the car was born with was whining like a lonely coyote. When I had that done, I bought a new clutch since, hey, if they’re in there, might as well knock it out in one shot. So what happened?
What happened is that the hydraulic slave cylinder failed and started leaking. That leaking brake fluid soaked into the clutch material and caused it to swell. For a while, things functioned…the material shaved off of the clutch, the car moved along well enough, no harm no foul. I put 15,000 miles on the car before everything went to hell. During the teardown, the flywheel damage was discovered, and since it’s sprung, it’s replace, not refinish. And let’s not get into the labor part…in succinct terms, the engine is left strapped to a cross-bar resting on the strut towers and everything else, from the cradle upwards, comes out. It’s a royal bitch of a job.
So what does that have to do with Uncle Tony’s latest video? Well, the Cruze is a perfect example of what he’s talking about: nothing seems to be made to last anymore, big or little, important or not. Look back on some of your projects in the last couple of decades, and I’m willing to bet you have an example on your hands, whether it’s a bolt that wouldn’t stay tight, a sensor that does it’s own thing instead of what it’s supposed to do, or even something as simple as trim that goes to shit within two years. Here’s some food for thought for you today from someone who’s seen the downgrading over his lifetime. You be the judge if he’s on to something or not.
I kinda think he is off the edge on the gold and silver stuff – but dead on correct on the degradation of quality in the consumer and automotive marketplace. While we have enormous strides in machining accuracy and electronics, we have seen similar backward progress in true quality in the relentless pursuit of increased profits through cost savings.
Sitting next to me right now is a Lionel locomotive – my father-in-law got it as a gift when he was five years old in the 1940s. It’s a beautifully detailed casting, weighs five pounds, and still runs nearly 80 years later. The modern equivalent is inexpensive molded plastic with nominal detailing and will be lucky to last three years – but it does cost less in inflation adjusted dollars. That same situation is repeated in every item we buy – appliances, furniture, and car parts.
In a highly regulated or high priced environment such as a new car or race car stuff, the quality and durability is generally forced or regulated in, and we as consumers reap the full benefits of technological advancements. But in a less regulated (or non-regulated) part of the market, the cost savings folks have their way with us, forcing the higher priced and higher quality products out.
Barry, your exactly right in my opinion, Great strides in a lot of things, just the reverse in so many things. Being in the car business, I have never seen so may bad batteries in the last 2-3 years. Summer, winter, makes no difference. Automotve paint is like painting with water colors. Won’t cover, expensive as can be. I don’t know whats going to happen.
On the flip side, I once bought a rare Lionel locomotive from the 1960s at auction. I’d recognized it as rare and made a good profit on that thing, but it was seriously cheap. Injection molded plastic body with minimal sink screening, not much inside besides a light socket and a motor. Didn’t even have a reversing mechanism.
There’s cheap junk and well made components in every era. And a lot more of the good stuff survives.
I don’t know of a front driver that DOESNT require a cradle and subframe removal for transmission r&r so insert make here and it’s the same story. I am not and never was a GM guy all of which was sealed while I was a service manager for Saturn in their final years. Good old badge engineering era with everything shared across platforms and quality control by no one. Heater cores , BCM’s , ignition switches, oil coolers , suspension bushings, control arms, wheel bearings , light switches were all routine during base warranty and frequently within the first year. With exception of the ever popular LCM issue in my 03 Vic and the trans harness issue fairly common to 6R transmissions in F150’s both of which Ford fixed free, I have been lucky enough to not have had problems big or small. I know people have their Ford horror stories and I know it’s 2020 not 2006 but I can only hope for the sake of their owners that GM has made huge strides.
Another thought , I have no idea if there is an owners group online for the Cruz but frequently the online forums have info on the common issues for any given model and the info might be out there on this issue . Might be worth checking.
And finally the “good old days” stuff was worn out at 100k cylinders ridged from fuel wash out etc.. 10 year old cars were OLD . New cars are more expensive more efficient longer lasting as well as more complex and expensive to repair, frequently with specialized tools , knowledge and computer systems. I will never own a carburetor again and never miss it. Let the hating begin in 3,2,1……
PS how many miles on the Cruz at failure ?
There are many things made better now, but overall I see quality has gone down. I have a little knowledge of manufacturing, and the days of “let’s make the best widget we can, and see what we can sell it for” are gone. The model is now “We need this widget to cost X dollars, let’s see how nice we can make it and still hit that price point. And if no one complains about quality let’s see if we can make it even cheaper until we hit our complaint threshold”
I am more than willing to pay more for quality, but I seem to be in the minority.
Willing to pay for quality and the ability to find quality today is a problem.
those Cruzes are utter garbage. My son in law had a Holden Cruze, same thing different market ( Aust) and he said to me ` this hose on the engines leaking’ this was a while ago, it was either a vaccum or a fuel line made of shitty hard plastic that cracked and failed when the car was 2 years old – and that was the start of it.. after a half dozen things went wrong in very quick succession I advised him to trade it in on a barra powered Ford Territory which he still has.Funny thing is , his car showed up being owned by a young couple down the road from where I live. One day it was on a tow truck outside his house and I was walking past.. stopped, told him of our prior history with it, he was having it towed back to the dealer he bought it off of and had lawyers involved trying to get his money back because the auto trans had gone amongst other things..
There are several factors at work here that are causing the decline in quality, Inflation… which requires higher wages for employees to make a devent living. Greed…. how much money do executives have to make for the work they do? (It seems as if the last thirty years have promoted white collar salary envy. I realize companies have to compete for talent but at what cost to the company and market as a whole?)
Profit margin and the multitude of terrible ideas trying to attain that end. My brother and father worked for Goodyear for years and when Goodyear opened a production facility in Mexico the products from that plant were trash. At some point in the hierarchy of the company structure someone made the decision to attribute all the failures in product from the Mexican plant to one of the American facilities. Why was this done? To justify their hairbrained decision to get cheaper labor? To cover someones backside for their inability to get a good product from south of the border?
Overseas imports, you can bet ypur bottom dollar that many of these overseas manufacturing facilities don’t give a rats ass about quality, only getting product out the door and making a buck. I went to a local auto parts chain store 10 years ago to get an alternator, after installing it it only lasted a day or so. Got a replacement from the same store, it failed faster than the first one. Went back and they bench checked the other seven alternators they had on the shelf. ALL of them failed. Are we really gaining anything by going overseas, I would have to seriously question that for any product I needed produced.