Rodents like wiring.

[Harold_V]

GM still cannot find the part so the car still sits....

Sounds like it was a very good investment (not). Think how nice it will be when it's 20 years old and has no miles to its credit.

My '99 Dodge Cummins 3500 (one ton) four wheel drive has only about 26,000 miles to its credit. Bought it new. It has low miles because I drive it infrequently, but it's always there for me when it's needed. I don't think I'd be very pleased with GM were I in your situation.

What do they tell you? Any offers to buy it back?

H

[curtis cutter]

GM still cannot find the part so the car still sits....

Sounds like it was a very good investment (not). Think how nice it will be when it's 20 years old and has no miles to its credit.

My '99 Dodge Cummins 3500 (one ton) four wheel drive has only about 26,000 miles to its credit. Bought it new. It has low miles because I drive it infrequently, but it's always there for me when it's needed. I don't think I'd be very pleased with GM were I in your situation.

What do they tell you? Any offers to buy it back?

H

From the local dealer I was told there was nothing they could do. I was told it was covered by warranty but that emission warranty did not cover a replacement vehicle. They gave me the 877 number to the national customer service center. At this point when we get the car back it is going to be sold and I will not purchase another GM product. My wife has been driving my 2011 Camry that has never once failed in its 207,000 mile lifetime and she may just get another Camry.

I too have an older Dodge Harold, a 1996 4WD 2500 that is about to hit the 100,000 mile mark.

[liveaboard]

I recently bought a 21 year old Mercedes coupe with 220,000 miles on it.
This thing is 5 computers, a supercharged engine, and 4 wheels.
It drives great; and it's got no rust at all.
But I know that the day will come when an electrical fault will end its life.

[belugawhaleman]

I had to rewire a mini lathe and later replace its speed control because of wire-hungry rodents.
Later I discovered that the beasts invaded my classic Chevrolet corvair and chewed its wiring as well. Very annoying!

[Harold_V]

Interestingly, rodents don't seem to limit their chewing to wires. When we moved to Washington, we owned an extremely clean, low mileage '86 GMC 1 ton pickup. We had yet to build shelter, so it was parked outside. Didn't ever have problems with wiring, but the fiberglass insulation under the hood was heavily damaged by those little buggers. They even managed to destroy the isolator (a large foam donut that surrounds the engine air intake for cooling) of our John Deere lawnmower, which was left parked under the rear walkway for a week.

All our vehicles are now housed inside.

H

[SteveM]

I recently bought a 21 year old Mercedes coupe with 220,000 miles on it.
This thing is 5 computers, a supercharged engine, and 4 wheels.
It drives great; and it's got no rust at all.
But I know that the day will come when an electrical fault will end its life.

I recently was stunned at how little some older luxury cars were selling for, so I compared the depreciation of high-end vs middle-market cars.

I used a Mercedes E class with AWD vs a Subaru Legacy. I think the comparison covered 10 model years.

The Mercedes started at at $60,000 and after 10 years fell to $8,000. The Subaru started at $24,000 and fell to $7,500.

When excessive (and I would say needlessly) complex cars get old, maintenance and repair costs skyrocket. And if the only place that will work on it is the dealer at $200 per hour, that's an extra kicker. The present value of all that cost is built into what a buyer will pay, reducing the value of the car.

A local fellow had a dead battery in his BMW. AAA couldn't get it to start so they towed it to the dealer. Dealer charged it up and called the owner. The dealer said "you need to call your insurance company". The car was totaled.

The reason the battery had gone dead was there was a short in some part of the rear defroster circuit. After charging it, the short caught the harness on fire. The fire didn't total the car - the repair cost to replace the harness did. It was 70 hours of labor at a cost of $14,000.

Steve

[liveaboard]

That's why the Mercedes was cheap; $3,500.
It's a really pretty car, leather interior, all mod cans, and it's supercharged.
The worst thing is the insane security lockout, infrared ignition key coded to the CPU and steering lock. I keep asking, but so far no one has told me any known way to swap it out.
A breakdown truck driver told me that half of all callouts are for failed immobilizer systems that won't let cars start. Usually only the dealer can unlock them.

Another factor is fuel use; the person who bought this car new for $60,000 probably didn't care much, but a person in the market for a sub $5,000 car is likely on a tighter budget.
Gasoline costs around $6.30 for a US gallon here.

I'm good with electrics, so I have an edge with keeping a thing like this alive; but I expect to be defeated by it one day.

I use a diesel car for most of my driving; the fuel cost per mile is about 1/2 what it costs to drive the Mercedes.
For mysterious historical reasons, diesel fuel is cheaper than gasoline in Europe [and other places].

I've bypassed the engine immobilizer on the 20 year old Mitsubishi diesel car., but even that has multiple CPU's; airbags, climate control and injection timing.
And rats nibble on the wiring and vacuum hoses. And once ate right through an AC hose.

[jcfx]

The reason the battery had gone dead was there was a short in some part of the rear defroster circuit. After charging it, the short caught the harness on fire. The fire didn't total the car - the repair cost to replace the harness did. It was 70 hours of labor at a cost of $14,000.

Steve

Holey Goldbricking Batman !

70 hours to replace a wiring harness !?!

Jim

[warmstrong1955]

It's not just the auto indusrty.
It's rampant in the heavy equipment industry as well.

Here's what the wiring looks like in an NT100 with the dashboard removed.
(An NT100 is basically an underground articulated flatbed truck)
Besides a whole lotta wires, they sure do some ugly work at the factory.

We had to replace the cab on this machine, and I can assure you, it took more than 70 hours just to remove the wiring.
Removing the cab....as well as installing the new one....was done in a shift.
We did not put the wiring in as is....

[warmstrong1955]

For what it's worth, here's what it looked like before we put the dash into the new cab.
We removed 408 wires, including the circuits we had to add.
It still did all the things it did before, and we added an electrical control package for a hydraulic water cannon.
Injunears......sometimes they stagger the imagination.....

[jcfx]

The wiring difference is night and day, nicely done !
I believe you when you say that the NT100 wiring took more than 70 hours,
btw who makes the NT100 you did the work on ? Googling returns those little
Nissan vans you see tooling around in Japan.

[curtis cutter]

All our cats have been adopted from those that hang around. As they were on the streets to before we started feeding them, they knew how to hunt. We keep them outside most of the time, except for in the cold days of winter, and they have always earned their keep.

That was our solution as well Pat when mice chewed up the wiring in my wife's 2015 Cruze. On another note, that car has been at the dealer for a month now due to a mechanical issue under warranty and they cannot find the part it needs anywhere... That is THE WORST car I have ever owned.

Still at the dealer. Shop has no time frame or part available. Checked on the use of a vehicle while mine is down for warranty repair. GM will evaluate the request and get back to me...