The future of GM

Yup, California doesn't care if your headlights don't work, if your bumpers are held on by baling wire, your steering wheel has 180 degrees of play in it, and your floorboards and body work are swiss cheese - but if you're off by 1 part per million in your smog test, OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!
 
Our MOT (Annual Inspection):

What does a garage look at during an MOT test?

Components tested during your MOT test:
for cars...
Vehicle identification number - a vehicle identification number must be permanently displayed and legible on a vehicle first used on or after 1 August 1980
Registration plate - condition, security, legibility and format of letters/numbers
Lights - condition, operation, security and correct colour. The headlamps will also be checked to see if the aim is correct
Steering and suspension - correct condition and operation
Wipers and washers - operate to give the driver a clear view of the road
Windscreen - condition and drivers view of the road
Horn - correct operation and type
Seatbelts - all seatbelts installed are checked for type, condition, operation and security. All compulsory seatbelts must be in place
Seats - front seats secure. Front and rear backseats can be secured in the upright position
Fuel system - no leaks, fuel cap fastens correctly and seals securely. The fuel cap will need to be opened. Make sure the key is available
Exhaust emissions - vehicle meets the requirement for exhaust emission. These vary on the age and fuel type of the vehicle
Exhaust system - complete, secure, without serious leaks and silences effectively
Vehicle structure - free from excessive corrosion or damage in specific areas. No sharp edges
Doors - open and close. Latch securely in closed position. Front doors should open from inside and outside the vehicle. Rear doors may need to be opened to gain access to testable items
Mirrors - presence, condition and security
Wheels and tyres - condition, security, tyre size and type, and tread depth. Spare tyres are not tested
Brakes - condition, operation and performance (efficiency test). Suitable vehicles will be tested on a roller brake tester. Vehicles such as those with permanent 4-wheel drive will be tested either on a suitable road using a properly calibrated and maintained decelerometer or, if one is installed at the test station, a plate brake tester.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/Mot/DG_10016070
 
thedguy said:
Missouri has a flat out safety inspection as well, does a lot to keep most of the complete trash off the road. It's one of the few things I do wish we had here.
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Complete truth. You'll still see some "cars" on the road every once in a while, but our safety inspections really do take a lot of trash off the road. A lot of places are really strict about it, too; the shop that I frequent wouldn't even pass my 240SX because the left highbeam was out. Is nice.
 
Yeah, in Texas we don't have many "rolling wrecks" any more - for much the same reasons. The worst you'll see on a regular basis is some beater running around with no two body panels the same color or that's recently been in an accident or something. You hardly ever see "long term rolling disasters" around, and you pretty much never see a car trailing smoke.

It's amazing that a nanny state such as CA who says they care so much about the environment and people's health and safety completely blows on this issue. I remember my first couple of years here in TX, wondering where all the rolling deathtraps were since my CA experience told me that a certain percentage of the population would be driving them (and making me hate life when I was stuck behind them on a motorcycle). I eventually discovered that all the deathtraps in Texas were consigned to the junkyards as they should have been in CA. :D

To bring the conversation back on topic, those deathtraps in CA and the vast amount of filler in the junkyards in Texas are usually domestic vehicles and usually GM products. That's one hell of a lot of customer ill-will they're going to have to overcome.
 
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We don't have any inspections here in Victoria (only when selling a car usually) and we don't seem to have much on the road that is a rolling death trap for all involved.
 
dino_martini said:
The 9-3 for us has been perfect, no troubles at all.
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Come back and tell us that when you get to about 50,000 miles. :p

We had Saabs in my family too. To think I could have become a Saab-head instead of a Jaguar fanatic.... :mrgreen::lol:
 
Jaguars are also far less strangely engineered than Saabs. :D

Though I hear one of the few good things that GM did for Saab was to kill off a lot of the pointless weirdness. I still want to kill whatever moron at Saab thought that they should put the ENTIRE 9000 Turbo together with protected Torx fasteners (the ones with the posts in the middle).
 
dino_martini said:
The 9-3 for us has been perfect, no troubles at all.
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They've got so many problems that GM took Saab off their 100k/year power train warranty. I was going to buy a marginally used one when I bought my Ford but I can't afford to BURN fully synthetic fuel and change it every 3k miles.
 
You mean oil sludge? Old problem, solved several years ago.
 
Yes and GM is in the business of selling new cars, not old cars :p
 
You know I've been thinking about all the important cars here that are american, if these companies go under we are fucccccked.
Police cars, all public works cars, hell every transport van and truck the isn't tractor trailer is fords, chevys and dodges. All of those businesses that use them will be in trouble :/
 
The interesting thing also is what rammifications does GM declaring bankruptcy have on all it's subsidiuary brands? Not as in having to sell them but what happens under local law to the companies.
 
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGJjTZTPmgo[/YOUTUBE]
 
Of course they'd FLY to Washington, God forbid they ever DRIVE the cars they build.
 
Rokovak said:
Of course they'd FLY to Washington, God forbid they ever DRIVE the cars they build.
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ummm.... that's how many miles?
Most people even low class would fly, that's a 9 hour drive.
 
katwalk said:
ummm.... that's how many miles?
Most people even low class would fly, that's a 9 hour drive.
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It's 524 miles and 8 hours 49 minutes per Google Maps. I agree, while it would have been amusing to see them have to drive some of their worst products that far, that would probably not be a very good use of their time.
 
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