Nissan vs. Chevy Reliability

Serendipity

Someone posted in my thread about electric cars that GM cars are not reliable. Not wanting to argue in that thread, this is what I've experienced firsthand with reagrds to reliability:

I currently drive a Nissan Maxima, and my Mom drives a Chevy Corvette C6.

This is what I've had to replace on the Nissan in the past year or so:
1. CV Joints - went to the dealer
2. Alternator (battery went dead a while later) - dealer fixed it
3. Starter (made noise before it went) - also went to the dealer
4. Dead Battery (probably because of the charging issues) - myself
5. Ignition Coils - $780 from the dealer!!
6. Thermostat (still have occasional problems, might need a radiator) - local shop
7. Front Struts - $550 or so - local shop
8. Rear Struts - $415 or so - local shop
9. 2 Brake Calipers + Brake hoses - don't remember the cost
10. Rear Brake Pads (did this myself) - $80

Compare that to Mom's car, which is made by GM:
1. Absolutely nothing, except routine maintenance (oil and filter changes).

So I don't believe the saying that GM cars are crap. Sorry!!

Ricardo

Not that I think this is the place to discuss this or it's a valid comparison, but you are missing some key info:

What year is the Maxima and what year is the C6? How many miles does each have?

Gaara

So your going to extrapolate your experience with two individual vehicles to two entire brands? Makes sense.

concealer404

Year of vehicles, total mileage, and average distance driven per year, please.

Also purchase price of each.

The Corvette seems to have the same maintenence plan as my 18 year old Toyota with 234k miles.

Jstas

Why?

bigaudiofanatic

Gaara wrote: »

So your going to extrapolate your experience with two individual vehicles to two entire brands? Makes sense.

I agree

Both my neighbors and my uncle have had tons of problems with gm and other brands associated with them. Toyota makes one of the best and most reliable trucks out their right now. And gm is wondering why they can not sell cars. It is because they are junk. When my neighbor had his in the shop for almost a full month and than decided to buy another one that is pretty bad. Than that one had problems such as trans slip rear axles breaking and so on. He said never again. You are trying to focus on one car vs another. Good way to compare if you really want to compare. Do it with brands I would rather buy and recommend a import rather than a car that might not make it to 120,000 miles. Our first import was a Honda civic 1996 bought brand new died at 298,000 miles on it original clutch and tans call it BS if you want but my father even asked them to pull the clutch out for him to mount tot he wall. Imports just last and last and also keep their value. Call it luck or whatever now we have 3 honda civics and a Honda element in the drive. His state car a Chevy cavalier that dot gave him has problems such as rattling and so on. People now a days want the best for their buck. They do not want to worry about their car breaking down in a year.

Oh also cv joints, alt, battery, struts, and brake pads are all NORMAL things to go on a car. When you want to talk about things going bad talk about transitions and such not things that are regular maintenance. Look in your manual most of those things will be in their.

Ricardo

appadv wrote: »

2000 Nissan Maxima.

So is this the Maxima? 2000? That's a great comparison, considering the C6 came out 3 or 4 years ago.

And I would also be so pissed if I had to change the battery or the brake pads on a 9-10 years old car :rolleyes:

dudeinaroom

GM's quality has been on par with just about everyone else, all makers have their problem vehicles, and GM's have lasted me longer than any thing else I have ever owned. On the other hand my inlaws have owned 3 Nissans and have not had a problem. I belive GM's quality has gone up because they have gotten rid of a lot of the people that drink on the job. Not here to argue as that's what this thread seems to have been started for. Watch what you ask for when you PM some one and ask them to post in a thread, they might just call it as they see it.

concealer404

Ricardo wrote: »

So is this the Maxima? 2000? That's a great comparison, considering the C6 came out 3 or 4 years ago.

And I would also be so pissed if I had to change the battery or the brake pads on a 9-10 years old car :rolleyes:

Oh hell, i thought it was a newer maxima....

kevhed72

I believe Corvettes are manufactured in a seperate, stand alone plant which manufactures only Vettes(?). This would lead me to believe Corvettes are pretty relieable vs. other GM cars, but Im guessing...

Knucklehead

there is a huge fudge factor in all of this....driving habits, road conditions,etc.. My wife has a 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe with about 28k miles or so...absolutley no problems other than routine maintenance which has been covered by the dealer, free oil changes etc...on the other hand, I drive a 2009 Chevrolet 2500 van which my company provides, I have about 25k miles on it, got it brand new less than a year ago..new timing belt, front brakes, failed AC condensor, 1 of the cig outlets dont work & the rear veiw mirror fell off...LOL. Its amazing GM is still in business...oh yeah, my company is currently begining to lease out new Ford vans. We shall see what happens.

Knucklehead

kevhed72 wrote: »

I believe Corvettes are manufactured in a seperate, stand alone plant which manufactures only Vettes(?). This would lead me to believe Corvettes are pretty relieable vs. other GM cars, but Im guessing...

excellent point.

shawn474

appadv wrote: »

Someone posted in my thread about electric cars that GM cars are not reliable. Not wanting to argue in that thread, this is what I've experienced firsthand with reagrds to reliability:

I currently drive a Nissan Maxima, and my Mom drives a Chevy Corvette C6.

This is what I've had to replace on the Nissan in the past year or so:
1. CV Joints - went to the dealer
2. Alternator (battery went dead a while later) - dealer fixed it
3. Starter (made noise before it went) - also went to the dealer
4. Dead Battery (probably because of the charging issues) - myself
5. Ignition Coils - $780 from the dealer!!
6. Thermostat (still have occasional problems, might need a radiator) - local shop
7. Front Struts - $550 or so - local shop
8. Rear Struts - $415 or so - local shop
9. 2 Brake Calipers + Brake hoses - don't remember the cost
10. Rear Brake Pads (did this myself) - $80

Compare that to Mom's car, which is made by GM:
1. Absolutely nothing, except routine maintenance (oil and filter changes).

So I don't believe the saying that GM cars are crap. Sorry!!

As others have stated, this is hardly a fair comparison. Each car / truck has its own set of issues (either short term or long term). I have a 2005 Nissan Titan that I absolutely love, but if it wasn't for the warranty, I would have put close to 5k in it by now. I knew the potential of these problems before I bought it.

Comparing a sports car to a sedan is apples to oranges - not to mention one that costs upwards of 50k to one that costs 30k.

Sometimes its a crap shoot as well. You might have that Maxima that has needed all of those repairs - others might have the same model and year and haven't had to do anything to it. The variable of factors that contribute to this is exponential.

concealer404

The Corvette is GM's Halo Car, it's going to be put together quite differently than a midrange massively mass-produced boring sedan.

madmax

From a Chevy guy with 30 years of experience driving GM products:

Never had a chevy which did not start and get me somewhere, and back.

Never had a chevy that wasn't cool.

Never had a chevy that got great mileage.

Never had a chevy which didn't have the electricals go bad one at a time. (door locks, switches, electric motors, guages etc)

Never had a chevy with even one electrical system working after 15 years.

Never had a chevy with more than 120K miles.

Never had a chevy that didn't die before I sold it.

Never had a chevy that wasn't fun.

Never had a chevy that couldn't outrun a ford.

Never want a chevy again.

nadams

kevhed72 wrote: »

I believe Corvettes are manufactured in a seperate, stand alone plant which manufactures only Vettes(?). This would lead me to believe Corvettes are pretty relieable vs. other GM cars, but Im guessing...

This is correct. They're all manufactured in Bowling Green, KY. My sister lives there in the (small) town, and on a past visit I went through the museum that's on site. It's pretty cool .

nadams

madmax wrote: »

From a Chevy guy with 30 years of experience driving GM products:

Never had a chevy which did not start and get me somewhere, and back.

Never had a chevy that didn't die before I sold it.

So it died at some point just sitting in your driveway? And you realised it before you actually went to go somewhere?

Erik Tracy

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

I agree

Both my neighbors and my uncle have had tons of problems with gm and other brands associated with them. Toyota makes one of the best and most reliable trucks out their right now. And gm is wondering why they can not sell cars. It is because they are junk. When my neighbor had his in the shop for almost a full month and than decided to buy another one that is pretty bad. Than that one had problems such as trans slip rear axles breaking and so on. He said never again. You are trying to focus on one car vs another. Good way to compare if you really want to compare. Do it with brands I would rather buy and recommend a import rather than a car that might not make it to 120,000 miles. Our first import was a Honda civic 1996 bought brand new died at 298,000 miles on it original clutch and tans call it BS if you want but my father even asked them to pull the clutch out for him to mount tot he wall. Imports just last and last and also keep their value. Call it luck or whatever now we have 3 honda civics and a Honda element in the drive. His state car a Chevy cavalier that dot gave him has problems such as rattling and so on. People now a days want the best for their buck. They do not want to worry about their car breaking down in a year.

Oh also cv joints, alt, battery, struts, and brake pads are all NORMAL things to go on a car. When you want to talk about things going bad talk about transitions and such not things that are regular maintenance. Look in your manual most of those things will be in their.

I used to believe that Toyota made bullet proof trucks, but my 95 Toyota SR5 blew a headgasket after just 62,000 miles (new engine was 3K!!), fuel pump went out, and the ignition switch died, and the radiator fan went bad and I had to have that replaced as well.

I'm ready to re-evaluate ANY car manufacturer for reliability and I do believe that there is some misplaced bias that Japanese cars = good, and American cars = bad as far as reliability.

AsSiMiLaTeD

No company is perfect, nobody makes a bullet-proof product, Toyota included.

The question I have to ask myself as a consumer is a matter of odds, which vehicle am I LESS likely to have issues with? Research via virtually every available resource both online and in print led me towards my Japaneese brand of choice, but there's no guarantee that it won't break down on me on the way home today.

dorourke07

We all love our cars and have the reasons why everyone else's cars are junk. I would go by the JD Powers site for reliabity and satisfaction. They collect massive amounts of data on teh subject. http://www.jdpower.com/autos/articles/2009-Vehicle-Dependability-Study-Results

Pretty much they are all decent anymore. Hell Buick tied Lexus in 2004 for best quality.

potee

I'v had 4 buick since 1995 and have never had any problems that were serious. I also never had to leave one more then a couple of hours at the dealership for repairs. The one I have now 35,000 miles on it only problem I broke a door handle.

TSWisla

My family has owned several Chevys and they were awesome. We also have own 2 QX4s and they are outstanding as well. I really like GM and Nissan!

madmax

nadams wrote: »

So it died at some point just sitting in your driveway? And you realised it before you actually went to go somewhere?

They were all slow deaths. The power steering pump develop a drip, the water pump would start to go bad and leak out the front, the window motors would become intermittant, the alternator would slowly quit charging, the guages would go bad one by one, the oil filter holder would start leaking, one fan would die before the second one died, the brakes would start to seize/heatup/release causing intermittant failures of one corner, the heater core would start to steam up the interior, turn signals would stop working, brake light switch starts becoming intermittant, the idiot lights would start coming on intermittantlly, you name it. At some point it is sitting in the driveway and you just know not to drive it another day. I went through this scenario with 7 of them. Finally you realize that people driving other types of cars (foreign cars) don't seem to deal with this sort of thing. Hey, I gave them the benifit of the doubt since 1976 and will no longer play the game, no matter how cool they look.

McLoki

I have a chevy tahoe that just became my daily driver. It is a 2001 tahoe 4x4 and we purchased it a about 3 years ago with 105,000 miles on it and in great shape for $10,000.

Now it has 130,000 miles on it. Replaced tires, brakes, spark plugs and all fluids on it. (all expected and knew I would have to replace them within 30,000 miles when I purchased it)

Thus far it starts every time, tranny still seems strong (but I know that is a weakness with this model year tahoe) and runs great.

Issues we have that do not affect drivability - but does speak to quality a little...

passenger window will occasionally go down and VERY RARELY go up. (it stays up all the time, if you forget and put it down - hope its not cold or raining out)

Door lock randomly lock and unlock as you are driving it. (if you leave the keys in the car with the power on (like when you fill up with gas) - it may or may not lock you out of the car. lesson learned - take the keys with you and don't sweat your car unlocking and then locking again as you cruise down the highway at 65mph.

Thus far thats it. I have been very happy with my purchase and it is a blast to drive. I love the looks, like to drive it, the 4x4 system is awesome in the winter (with my 45mile each way commute) and the gas mileage sucks (averaging about 17mpg so far).

Maybe it all comes down to what you expect from your vehicle and what you will put up with. I would rather have a vehicle I love to drive and look at and will put up with some maintenance issues. Others look more for basic transportation and put maint. hassles at the top of the list for things they want to avoid.

There sure is something out there for everyone - good luck finding it.

Michael

BTW - to the OP, even if the lists were reversed between the Vette and the maxima - I would take the vette every time....

dudeinaroom

Another thing to take into account is maintenance. A Lot of people think that means just changing the oil. There are more fluids in a vehicle that need regular changing than just oil. There is also the shade tree mechanics who think a brake job is just slapping new pads on. I get so many funny looks when I ask people if they use any grease when they did the brake job, or if they cleaned the caliper up. How do the rotors look? then you get the whats a rotor question. When I worked my short little stint as a mechanic you would not believe how many people do not know how to check their oil. Then you go to change the oil and it does not come out because there is an inch and a half of oil solids on the bottom of the oil pan. Plain and simple the better you take care of a vehicle the longer it will last you. But in my personal experience, as well as friends and family members GM's seem to last the longest with lack of maintenance(engine wise). I have been a GM fan for a long time, but if I buy a new truck it's gonna be a Ford, and if I buy a new car well..... It will probably be some kind of Subaru station wagon.

Serendipity

The Maxima is a 2000 model year and the Corvette is a 2009.

When the Maxima was just 3 months old (this was Summer of 2000), an oxygen sensor went bad and needed to be replaced. Was covered under warranty. Then the ECU needed replacement, also covered under warranty. Then a blower motor went, etc.

Ricardo

appadv wrote: »

the maxima is a 2000 model year and the corvette is a 2009.

Oh, ok.

bigaudiofanatic

That explains why he has not had any problems with the corvette yet.

concealer404

appadv wrote: »

The Maxima is a 2000 model year and the Corvette is a 2009.

When the Maxima was just 3 months old (this was Summer of 2000), an oxygen sensor went bad and needed to be replaced. Was covered under warranty. Then the ECU needed replacement, also covered under warranty. Then a blower motor went, etc.

O2 sensor going out has nothing to do with Nissan. At all.

obieone

I've got a 2002 S10 LS, reg. cab, w/ 4.3L v-6. 50k miles, and aside from $500 spent on diagnostics for a bad control relay in the dash, I haven't had any issues with it.
My co. vehicle is a 2008 Chevy Express ext. cargo van with 98k miles, LOADED, and no problems.

How many miles are on the Maxima? One of the things about foreign(****) vs. domestics has always been the COST of repairs, especially at the higher mileages.

I also wouldn't rule out all **** imports due to Nissan & Toyota. I don't think I've ever heard anyone rip on Honda.

mantis

I owned a Nissan Maxima , 2 Nissan Pathfinders and 1 Nissan Xterra. I never had any problems with any of my Nissans.
I was also a Nissan tech for years .The dealer I worked for carried Pontiac , GMC truck , Nissan , Mitsubishi. There was a ratio of 50 to 1 Nissan broke down compared to the GM products. Facts are facts. Nissan builds a better vehicle then GM.
As far as a Corvette goes , they are badass but I would own a Nissan Skyline GTR over one any day of the week and 3 times on Sunday. My opinion.

GM makes nice looking cars and Trucks. Before I owned my first Nissan , I only drove GM cars except one Lincoln Mark 7 . All of my GM products broke and had all kinds of problems. Every single person I know has GM problems. The Fords are a little better as they tend to last longer and have less problems.

Think anything you want , Facts are facts . Nissan makes a hell of a vehicle. Better quality then GM. I will say that GM is getting better and I hope for there sake they stick around. The world would not be the same without GM.