Quote:
Originally Posted by JerTM
As a GM tech for 12 years, I can attest to this. I really do believe that any engineer that plans on having their designs built should be required to do general maintenance on cars for 2 years before their designs can be made into a product. And once a year they are sent to a shop for a week to do more general maintenance on their own designs. I understand that the bean counters have a pretty heavy hand in what makes it into a car as well, and that manufacturing processes need to be taken into account but some things are just assanine how they were assembled it baffles me. I often come across things that would have been much much simpler if they had moved a bolt, put a bolt in from another direction, or changed the entire design completely. I can't count how many people leave complaining that it costs $85 for a head light bulb. The bulb is about $10, but I have to remove your entire bumper to change it. Don't get me wrong, I come across genius level components from time to time that just make life so much easier and cheaper for the customer.
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I figure its done because pretty much nobody buys a new car with 'ease of maintenance' as a priority. When buying
used? Sure, sometimes. But not new. And most of those pain-in-the-ass things only come up after the warranty expires and likely with a 2nd or maybe 3rd owner. So its not going to cost GM (or any other automaker) extra to pay for the work to be done nor a new sale from an annoyed owner.
Meanwhile, all they get in return for doing a little more design for maintenance is a bit less less griping from mechanics (of both the professional & shade-tree varieties). Thats not worth much.