the_yellow_dart

We can still choose gas powered cars for now with little consequences. As supplies start to dry up and China and India start driving more and more, the future supply is going to be a huge problem. There will always be -some- oil available for people with classic cars, but in my opinion it will probably not be a practical, affordable way to power a vehicle in 20 years, hell maybe even 10 years.

If it wasn't 40 grand, I would own one.... I agree that I think GM needs to get this technology cut in half and will see sales explode with new buyers. They are working on it. In 2001, the first iPod came in two sizes... a 5gb and a 10gb. They were Mac only and couldn't be synced with PCs without some very annoying hacking. All they did was play music. They cost $400 and $500 respectively. Today, a full color touch screen iPod nano with 16gb, built in radio, video playback, and accelerometer is $149. The iPod classic, the closest relative to the original iPod, now has 16 times the capacity of the original for a mere $249. The Volt is the original iPod of cars in this regard.. the proof of concept and of market. True, except I think that the Prius/Insight were more like the iPod in your example... The Volt is more like the Zune. GM should have learned from Toyota and Honda how to make it more affordable. I'm glad the car is doing well, but in my eyes, it's a failure because of the price tag.

I looked at the words "Lancia Fulvia" and saw the word "Vulva", yeah - I have a problem.

They did some kind of fast ship on the throttle body to get it in quicker. Car has been repaired and is back to me. I paid just the $150 deductable as they stated. Liking my dealership more but still very angry with GM.

ps. I am pretty sure that my dealer is right about this no longer being covered. He showed me the area in his program where he can bill GM for various part codes under the powertrain warranty for the 2011 Cruze. Searching for 'throttle body' yielded no results. Then, he pulled up the same page for the 2009 Aveo for comparison and showed that there were several codes available related to the throttle body. He said that GM removed the throttle body and wheel bearings from the powertrain warranty in Canada in 2010.

dfelt, this is not the same part that failed before. However, this is the fourth time that I have had to get a rental. # 1 was just caused by dirty gas, they put some kind of additive in and cleared the code and it was fine. # 2 was a failed water pump. Replaced under warranty. # 3 was the two unrelated issues that happened in September - the plastic part that was leaking coolant, and also a vacuum leak. As noted, should have all been covered under warranty but wasn't. # 4 is this new trottle body failure.

Maybe not... http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2009/09/gm-downsizes-100000-mile5-year-warranty/ Then again, I just had this not-extremely-informative chat with GM Canada: Welcome to GM.ca’s Live Chat. Please wait while we locate a customer care ambassador to assist you. Diane S has joined this session! You have been connected to Diane S. Your session ID for this chat session is 48538. Diane S: Hi Matt! My name is Diane. How can I help you today? Matt: Hello. I was wondering if the throttle body is included in the 5/160,000 powertrain warranty. Matt: This is for a 2011 Chevy Cruze Diane S: Matt, please give me a moment and I will check for you. Diane S: Matt, I haven't found it yet. I know that it is part of your base warranty. Let me keep checking. Matt: My base warranty has expired. I need to know whether or not it is part of the powertrain. Diane S: I understand. I'll keep checking. Matt: Thank you. Diane S: There are various components associated to the throttle body that are covered under the powertrain. Your issue would have to be diagnosed. Matt: The dealer is replacing the whole throttle body. Diane S: The information that I am looking at includes the throttle body assembly replacement. Is the dealer not able to verify if this is a powertrain repair or not? Matt: They are stating that it is not, but information I was able to find on the internet indicates that the throttle body is included in the powertrain warranty. So, I am coming to you to determine which is correct. Diane S: Matt, there have been changes made to the powertrain warranty. The document that I am using has many exceptions and advises the dealer to go to other supporting information. Regardless of the on-line information you have, the dealer is in the best position to tell you on whether this is covered or not. As mentioned, they have the latest available information. Matt: The reason I am contacting you is that I have already had (with this vehicle) two dealers argue with one another over whether or not something else I needed was covered. After going through that experience, I do not consider dealers the experts... Matt: in this topic. Is there no master document that tells you what is and isn't covered? Diane S: Matt, I am referring to a master document and it says that this part is covered. However, I should caution that these documents change. The dealers may refer to their Zone representatives on whether this is covered. Matt: Alright. Thank you. Diane S: You're welcome. Is there anything else for today, Matt? Matt: No that is all Diane S: Enjoy the rest of your day. Diane S has left this session! Your chat session has ended.

Update: Throttle body is being replaced. Once again, parts from the US take 3-5 business days to get here... aggravating. Also aggravating is that this is not covered by powertrain warranty. Upshot is the dealer feels bad for me and my experiences with GM Canada Customer Service, and is agreeing to cover the part as if I had an extended warranty. I will pay only a $150 deductable instead of the full $400 cost.

It's an 2011 Cruze Eco manual (see my sig)

Your leadership makes this board successful. Considering that, I'm actually surprised you're as young as you are.

Last night, my wife and I took a trip of about 100km to another city. I got off the highway at my exit and pulled up to the stoplight at the end of the ramp. All of a sudden the dash lights up like a christmas tree (Service Engine light, Engine Power Reduced light, Service Vehicle light, Traction Control light) and "CODE 84" shows up in the DIC. Engine power was extremely limited, I limped off the road at about 20 km/h. Pulled over, checked the fluids, everything looked fine. Tried restarting the car a few times, same thing kept coming up. I started to call GM customer service, then realized I couldn't remember what the number of the code was, so I started the car back up again to see, and it started fine. Hung up and went on our way. On the way home, the car did the same thing in the middle of a busy highway. Slowly lost speed despite the car being floored, until I hit a speed of about 40 km/h with the hazards on trying to get to the next exit, cringing every time trucks flew past. Tried restarting the car about ten to fifteen times, got the code everytime. Limped about 10 km home on back roads. Of course, the final time I restarted the car, in my driveway, it started fine. Took it in to the dealer this morning, no code showed up today. Driving a rental Cruze right now. Beyond frustrated with GM at this point.

dfelt - They're really not that different when you break it down. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Canadian_and_American_economies In Canada total tax and non-tax revenue for every level of government equals about 38.4% of GDP,[1] compared to the U.S. rate of 28.2%.[2] A significant portion of this tax differential is due to spending differences between the two countries. While the US is running deficits of about 4% of GDP,[3] Canada's Federal government posted a budget surplus of around 1% of GDP per year from the mid-1990's until 2008, and is projected to enter back into a surplus by 2016.[4] The deficit patterns and indebtedness of Canada's individual provinces vary like they do in the US among different states. Considered in a revenue-neutral context, the differential is much smaller - Canada's total governmental spending was about 36% of GDP[5] vs. 31% in the US.[3] In addition, caution must be used when comparing taxes across countries, due to the different services each offers. Whereas the Canadian healthcare system is 70% government-funded, the US system is just under 50% government-funded (mostly via Medicare and Medicaid); adding the additional healthcare-spending burden to the above figures to obtain comparable numbers (+3% for Canada, +7% for the US) gives adjusted expenditures of 38–39% of GDP for each of the two nations. The taxes are applied the same as well. Canada's income tax system is more heavily biased against the highest income earners, thus while Canada's income tax rate is higher on average[citation needed], the bottom fifty percent of the population is roughly taxed the same on income as in the United States. However, Canada has a national goods and services tax of 5% on most purchases, while the U.S. federal government does not, increasing the tax burden on Canadian low-income earners due to the proportional nature of a sales tax. Canadian GST does not tax food and other essentials and a GST rebate for low-income earners mitigates regressiveness.[6] In addition to the 5% GST levied on most purchases, some Canadians also pay a provincial sales tax at a rate that varies by province and can be as high as 10%. In Ontario, for example, where the provincial sales tax (PST) is 8%, consumers must pay a total of 13% sales tax on top of the purchase price. (It should be noted that Ontario has eliminated both the PST and GST, replacing them with harmonized sales tax, or HST, of 13%, which changes the sales tax on some items.) There are some purchases which are PST exempt, such as children's clothing. In the U.S., most states impose a sales tax, and cities and counties are often permitted to levy taxes as well, which can exceed 10% on purchases but realistically average at about 6-8%. Five U.S. states do not have any sales tax imposed.[7] The Canadian province of Alberta and all three territories have no provincial or territorial sales tax on top of the GST.

The differences are fairly slight really - only real significant differences are the Mazda and GM numbers. When you go model-by-model, our countries start to look a little further apart - Canadians tend to buy smaller cars. Which makes me wonder if GM's Canadian sales will improve as time goes on and the Spark and Sonic take off.

So what kicked off this search was my reading Oldsmoboi's post, "If Mazda survives that long", and thinking, "What a wierd thing to say!". It got me thinking, I wonder if Mazda is only doing well here in Canada. So here are some graphs I dug up. Mazda outsells Nissan here in Canada, where in the US they get beaten almost 4-to-1. Also, note the American GM-Ford-Toyota podium vs. Ford-Chrysler-GM in Canada.

Wow, so many of your are on your second gen smartphone, that's crazy. I'm still waiting for reasonable data rates in Canada before I get my first.

My height is all torso. Up until about 5 years ago when they started making cars taller, I couldn't fit properly in the drivers seat of most compacts or midsizers with sunroofs. My father's Grand Prix was torture - the edge of the sunroof dug into the top of my head.

I am 6'. My wife is 5'10". We recently did this in my Cruze.

Americans were finally really scared into changing their ways with this past recession. They are now paying down personal debt at record speed. Perhaps this will finally translate to some smaller auto sales.

I'm happy to see them offer it, and overall I really like it. However, personally I don't think I could get over the wierd rear chrome strips and tiny taillights. To me, it just reminds me of the face of a Neanderthal - small, sunken eyes and a pronounced, angry looking brow line.

I don't know. All I know is, in my opinion, they made two mistakes. One is not realizing that the part for the coolant leak was under warranty, and the other was not finding the vacuum leak, which really was the reason the engine was acting strange (down on power and lumpy idle) in the first place. To me, that's a misdiagnosis. GM Customer service says it's not. Is anything going to come of this thread going to GM? Oldsmoboi, have you heard anything? If this is left as it is, I won't even consider GM for my next vehicle.

There's going to be some lag on the effect of suburbanization also. There's a difference between moving to the suburbs once you've already established yourself as an active person who's not too lazy to exercise, versus growing up in the suburbs and establishing yourself as lazy from childhood. Also, think about the shift in our jobs. My grandfather never had to think about exercise, because he worked in a factory and got all the exercise he needed from a normal day on the job. I sit on my butt all day and have to motivate myself to exercise in what would otherwise be my 'spare' time.

They are claiming that the Huntsville garage did not misdiagnose my car. That was the most aggravating part of the conversation.

Yes. The one dealer covered the parts, their repairs, and the one rental. The other two rentals and the Huntsville diagnosis came out of my pocket. They claimed that the Huntsville diagnosis cannot be warranty covered since no work was performed. Also they claim that the two rentals cannot be covered since they were not GM vehicles.

It is gm customer service that I was already speaking with.

They are claiming that nothing should be covered. They are "meeting me halfway" with a $200 gift card for Goodwrench service. GM just lost a customer for life. This is ridiculous.