I watched this interview yesterday and 1) as an owner of old cars and 2) an engineer that has worked on different product lines in electrical industry, this interview really hit home for me. I am sure a lot of things discussed will not be a surprise to anyone, but it is always nice to hear what goes on from someone on the "inside" as opposed to some rando on the street.

Cliff notes:

• Cost cutting measures have taken a huge precedence over quality/longevity of vehicles.
• Engineers are not to blame for poor quality, but rather upper leadership and bean counters.
• GM only cares about getting you to purchase another vehicle through tools such as planned obsolescence... getting cars to go 200k miles is a thing of the past.
• Part shortages for repairs are not necessarily caused by shortages, but the reluctance for GM to give up tier 1 parts that have been allocated for new car production. As covered in the interview, GM only cares about selling new cars, and has little to no interest in making money off of repairs. Hence the priority to provide parts to new cars rather than dealers that have had cars waiting months for repairs.
• If you are looking for something to last, don't buy anything post 2006. This model year is obviously GM specific, but the general takeaway is to stay away from cars that are loaded with modules and have virtually everything operating on CAN BUS.

There is more...

 

Well, that's depressing.

This is definitely not though. Part two comes out today, IIRC.

 

 

 

This generation of SAAB 900 was widely criticized as being "GM-ized" and "not a real SAAB anymore", but in retrospect there's still a lot to like about it...

 

My father used to have this car a couple of decades ago. I have so many great memories with this car from my childhood.

 

 

A tour of Italdesign's history and original concept sketches of the Delorean, BMW M1, Lancia Delta.

 

2 of my favorite car YTers got supercars Im actually interested in hearing about

 

I enjoy watching Fenton's channel

 

 

Peck Brothers shenanigans are always a good time, but this Acty 4WD vs T&C AWD on a trail is something my buddies and I have always wanted to do. Now I just need to find a clean AWD T&C...

 

Came across this channel yesterday, just a couple of Dutch guys documenting their high-quality builds with excellent videography. Instant subscribe for me.

 

I haven't watched Donut in years, since they built the Tacomas, but they have gotten me back with this series of videos where they overland an SVX across the country. Good presenters, and good content

 

I'm with you on this, I'm not a huge fan of most of their content - but this has been a fun series to watch. Reminds me a bit of the Top Gear adventure episodes of the past

 

Looks like a good series!

I've been watching the Hoonigan Rally Speedrun Championship series with Wyatt from Team O'Neil rally school. I find it pretty entertaining.

 

Japanese grandma sells her RX-7 back to Mazda after giving up her license at the age of 80. What a lovely final tribute and how lucky she is for her car to get preserved!

I had to look up giving up your license in Japan is a thing and you have to retest at age 75.

 

Petrolicious is back on track

 

The Ken Block/Gymkhana influence is strong here.

 

Amazing how VW can put out a production like this and highlight the many things that are special to it's core fan base (ie harlequin livery, etc.) yet still be almost irrelevant in today's age. I'm guessing the bozos way at the top had no idea this was coming together...