Thumper
12-05-2020, 11:36 AM
Years ago, I became suspicious of certain new items. It came from my bad experiences in the automotive industry and I've had a hard time shaking it through the years. It's also the reason I'm a bit stand-offish about this new Corona virus vaccine.
I grew up a GM fan, was a gearhead from as early as I can remember and eventually worked for GM for many years, 11 of those years in management ... ALWAYS with Cadillac (which included a few multi-line dealers). I'm going to refer back to why I walked away from that promising career. Cadillac used to be the ultimate status symbol, before the proliferation of luxury foreign models (Mercedes, BMW, etc). BUT, the popularity of foreign luxury cars was because people were tired of the garbage GM was stuffing down their throats. We somehow pulled through the oil crisis of '73, but I was in the military and missed most of it. I did notice, upon my return home, that the Japanese cars were becoming extremely popular and I actually ended up buying one due to the shock I experienced when I found gas was $1.00/gallon! (I was paying 17.9 cents/gal for regular and 19.9 cents/gallon for premium when I entered the service, then spent my whole tour overseas) The GM fat cats sat on their asses and could care less because they KNEW that the "stupid" US market would never turn away from domestic cars and GM was King of the domestic market, BUT there was an inkling of concern. After the 70's oil crisis, diesel was gaining popularity with diesel Mercedes, VW and Peugeot leading the way. Cadillac decided to fight back. They rushed into the diesel market by taking a frigging GAS Oldsmobile engine and converting it to diesel. A total failure and engines were blowing up so rapidly we ran out of parking at the dealership due to being full of dead diesels. Ok, THIS is America's premier luxury car?? What a joke. Remember, these were the days of 12 mo./12,000 mi. warranties on new cars. Due to a class action suit, GM ended up reimbursing owners 80% of the cost of a new engine if out of warranty. Considering the original most likely didn't live past 8000-9000 miles, the 80% replacement was usually these folks' second time around. Most of that money was used to convert to a gas engine replacement.
Enter the second oil crisis of '79-'80. That FINALLY rattled the GM hierarchy enough to throw them into panic mode. For the '81 model year, they came out with THREE engine options for Cadillac. One of those was the infamous Cadillac V8-6-4 which was rushed into production with minimal testing. It was a dismal failure and only lasted ONE model year, 1981. ONE year! It was that bad. Option two was the above mentioned diesel. Ha! Option three was an anemic little 6-cyl Buick engine. That did really well in a Cadillac land barge ... NOT!! Ok, Cadillac went into full overtime, scramble mode! The result? An engine they had started development on for the '85 model line! The HT4100, then rushed it into production to "save" Cadillac from the disaster they'd imposed upon themselves the previous year. The HT 4100 (HT, for High Technology and 4100 because it was 4.1 liter displacement) was an aluminum block with cast iron heads and cylinder sleeves! Brilliant! First of all, cast iron and aluminum heat and cool at different rates so there was a lot of warping going on. If that didn't cause head gaskets to leak, the fact the head bolts were screwed into the aluminum block was a death knoll. You could expect blown head gaskets within 6k - 8k on the odometer (about as long as the diesel option would last). Of course there was the "domino effect". Blown head gaskets meant water in the oil, water in the oil meant ... well, bearings and an oil/coolant mixture don't get along very well, so we had a huge High Tech dumpster full of "High Tech" engines! Oh, an interesting tidbit, the HT4100 lasted a few more years until being replaced with the Northstar engine, but interestingly, the HT designation was dropped. (I guess they decided the "high tech" designation was a bit embarrassing). Yep, more top of the GM line quality. Did I mention that was 1982, the year after the 8-6-4 / diesel / 6-cyl. fiasco? Minimal testing, dismal failures.
But, I ain't finished yet. During this time, the factory gave me a Cadillac Cimarron to drive. One of the head engineers with Cadillac handed me the keys, told me to "drive it like I stole it" and "see if I could break it", then get back to him. I did just that and even took the "see if I can break it" part seriously. I had a field day on some empty shopping center parking lots on a few early Sunday mornings. I'll give credit where credit is due, I couldn't break it, BUT ... with that underpowered slug, wtf was gonna break? To make matters worse, it wasn't even a Cadillac, it was a GM J body car (read; Buick Skyhawk, Chevrolet Monza/Cavalier, Olds Firenza, Pontiac J2000/Sunbird/Sunfire) with Cadillac badges glued on. THIS is a Cadillac?? I guess my few months of "testing" was testament to it's bullet-proof reliability. At it's introduction for 1982, it was presented as Cadillac's "World Car", meaning it was here to beat out the likes of the entry level BMW 3-series, etc. Cadillac's entry level car to convert new, younger, drivers. Sorry dickheads, they didn't fall for it. Maybe you should have done a bit of MARKET TESTING before dragging that poor excuse for a luxury car into the real world. My downfall was, I was a speaker at that introduction. It was not public, just dealers and their management, factory big-wigs and engineers, that sort of b/s. When I spoke, I was honest and they didn't like what I had to say in the least. I predicted that, with the pieces of shit GM was offering the public, the imports were going to take over the market, INCLUDING the luxury market. Hey, they didn't tell me what I had to say, right? Let's just say, I didn't make a whole lot of brownie points at that meeting.
What does all that jibberish mean? It's simply an explanation as to why I'm reluctant to immediately jump on board with this virus vaccine. I've experienced firsthand what can happen when something is rushed into production without proper testing. But, on the other hand, what choices do we have? Wait around and possibly come down with Covid during the interim? It's a coin toss right now. Admittedly, I'll probably get it when it's made available to me, but I have reservations. I think I'd rather sit tight for a short while and let the first group be the guinea pigs for the initial introduction, then ease into it when I feel comfortable.
I grew up a GM fan, was a gearhead from as early as I can remember and eventually worked for GM for many years, 11 of those years in management ... ALWAYS with Cadillac (which included a few multi-line dealers). I'm going to refer back to why I walked away from that promising career. Cadillac used to be the ultimate status symbol, before the proliferation of luxury foreign models (Mercedes, BMW, etc). BUT, the popularity of foreign luxury cars was because people were tired of the garbage GM was stuffing down their throats. We somehow pulled through the oil crisis of '73, but I was in the military and missed most of it. I did notice, upon my return home, that the Japanese cars were becoming extremely popular and I actually ended up buying one due to the shock I experienced when I found gas was $1.00/gallon! (I was paying 17.9 cents/gal for regular and 19.9 cents/gallon for premium when I entered the service, then spent my whole tour overseas) The GM fat cats sat on their asses and could care less because they KNEW that the "stupid" US market would never turn away from domestic cars and GM was King of the domestic market, BUT there was an inkling of concern. After the 70's oil crisis, diesel was gaining popularity with diesel Mercedes, VW and Peugeot leading the way. Cadillac decided to fight back. They rushed into the diesel market by taking a frigging GAS Oldsmobile engine and converting it to diesel. A total failure and engines were blowing up so rapidly we ran out of parking at the dealership due to being full of dead diesels. Ok, THIS is America's premier luxury car?? What a joke. Remember, these were the days of 12 mo./12,000 mi. warranties on new cars. Due to a class action suit, GM ended up reimbursing owners 80% of the cost of a new engine if out of warranty. Considering the original most likely didn't live past 8000-9000 miles, the 80% replacement was usually these folks' second time around. Most of that money was used to convert to a gas engine replacement.
Enter the second oil crisis of '79-'80. That FINALLY rattled the GM hierarchy enough to throw them into panic mode. For the '81 model year, they came out with THREE engine options for Cadillac. One of those was the infamous Cadillac V8-6-4 which was rushed into production with minimal testing. It was a dismal failure and only lasted ONE model year, 1981. ONE year! It was that bad. Option two was the above mentioned diesel. Ha! Option three was an anemic little 6-cyl Buick engine. That did really well in a Cadillac land barge ... NOT!! Ok, Cadillac went into full overtime, scramble mode! The result? An engine they had started development on for the '85 model line! The HT4100, then rushed it into production to "save" Cadillac from the disaster they'd imposed upon themselves the previous year. The HT 4100 (HT, for High Technology and 4100 because it was 4.1 liter displacement) was an aluminum block with cast iron heads and cylinder sleeves! Brilliant! First of all, cast iron and aluminum heat and cool at different rates so there was a lot of warping going on. If that didn't cause head gaskets to leak, the fact the head bolts were screwed into the aluminum block was a death knoll. You could expect blown head gaskets within 6k - 8k on the odometer (about as long as the diesel option would last). Of course there was the "domino effect". Blown head gaskets meant water in the oil, water in the oil meant ... well, bearings and an oil/coolant mixture don't get along very well, so we had a huge High Tech dumpster full of "High Tech" engines! Oh, an interesting tidbit, the HT4100 lasted a few more years until being replaced with the Northstar engine, but interestingly, the HT designation was dropped. (I guess they decided the "high tech" designation was a bit embarrassing). Yep, more top of the GM line quality. Did I mention that was 1982, the year after the 8-6-4 / diesel / 6-cyl. fiasco? Minimal testing, dismal failures.
But, I ain't finished yet. During this time, the factory gave me a Cadillac Cimarron to drive. One of the head engineers with Cadillac handed me the keys, told me to "drive it like I stole it" and "see if I could break it", then get back to him. I did just that and even took the "see if I can break it" part seriously. I had a field day on some empty shopping center parking lots on a few early Sunday mornings. I'll give credit where credit is due, I couldn't break it, BUT ... with that underpowered slug, wtf was gonna break? To make matters worse, it wasn't even a Cadillac, it was a GM J body car (read; Buick Skyhawk, Chevrolet Monza/Cavalier, Olds Firenza, Pontiac J2000/Sunbird/Sunfire) with Cadillac badges glued on. THIS is a Cadillac?? I guess my few months of "testing" was testament to it's bullet-proof reliability. At it's introduction for 1982, it was presented as Cadillac's "World Car", meaning it was here to beat out the likes of the entry level BMW 3-series, etc. Cadillac's entry level car to convert new, younger, drivers. Sorry dickheads, they didn't fall for it. Maybe you should have done a bit of MARKET TESTING before dragging that poor excuse for a luxury car into the real world. My downfall was, I was a speaker at that introduction. It was not public, just dealers and their management, factory big-wigs and engineers, that sort of b/s. When I spoke, I was honest and they didn't like what I had to say in the least. I predicted that, with the pieces of shit GM was offering the public, the imports were going to take over the market, INCLUDING the luxury market. Hey, they didn't tell me what I had to say, right? Let's just say, I didn't make a whole lot of brownie points at that meeting.
What does all that jibberish mean? It's simply an explanation as to why I'm reluctant to immediately jump on board with this virus vaccine. I've experienced firsthand what can happen when something is rushed into production without proper testing. But, on the other hand, what choices do we have? Wait around and possibly come down with Covid during the interim? It's a coin toss right now. Admittedly, I'll probably get it when it's made available to me, but I have reservations. I think I'd rather sit tight for a short while and let the first group be the guinea pigs for the initial introduction, then ease into it when I feel comfortable.