ZFLASH

Need to rant a little, $9.95 part cost me $345 . I know all about the Vette tax,I've been paying it for awhile now,but that's FREAKING ridiculous. Pulled into my garage Sunday,went to put it into park and nothing happened. I thought the tranny cable broke again,this happened in November. Had it towed ($145) to the shop where it sat for 1 1/2 days,then get a call and I'm told that the plastic clip (typical GM part) that holds the cable broke. This part is $9.95,labor $190 , this is what bites about these cars when you don't have the know how to fix it yourself. Another thing is, why didn't they ask me to replace that same clip when replacing the new cable? Okay,sorry about rant,I feel a little better. NOT! L8R ZFLASH

R2R

Man that's bad. The plastic bushing for mine a month ago was $6.40 at AutoZone and 10 minutes to install which included jacking the back end up and crawling under. I wrote it up on the forum for future fixers.

02z06dave

I had an even worse one happen with my cavalier. The piece that attaches the shifter linkage to the trans broke. The part was less than 2 bucks. Labor to remove and reinstall the engine and trans to get to it was over 700. With the tow, I was in for over 800 bucks to fix something that costs less than a slice of pizza. Cavalier tax

ZFLASH

Thanks for rubbing it in,just joking. The reason I took it in,was I thought it was the cable again,which was still under warranty. How's Rocky Mount,haven't been up that way in about 15yrs,is it still growing? Thanks,L8R ZFLASH

VETJAZZ

Totally sucks!

ZFLASH

That sucks too, that was my point about GM and it's plastic parts. L8R ZFLASH

transce

poor engineering tax

Evil-Twin

You mean that a ten year old part broke? And it took them two hours shop labor to install this clip? time to sell it.
FYI a 10 dollar addendum to your auto insurance will pay for a tow.

Vetteman Jack

For parts like that, GM should have made them out of metal, not plastic. I guess the cost for the plastic ones was a lot cheaper for the bean counters, the heck with the customer.

Evil-Twin

Plastic parts were a specific design because of the gas guzzler tax. One of the top priorities Dave Hill demanded was to " Make it Light " kudos were attached to any lighter weight revision. Some plastic parts were even made lighter using Balsa wood. The other issue was to keep it within budget. People have no idea how a car is designed or why they just assume its some asinine reason. Once a demographic is established and a budget is made, its the job of the design teams to make it happen. Keeping it within budget, on time and light weight enough to get under the gas guzzler tax was a major focus.

R2R

Rocky Mount has been home since '87. It's been an ok place to live, work, raise a family. Growing a bit, probably close to 50K population now. It has a couple of new schools, couple of new roads, good golf courses and good weather. No complaints. I've got a buddy down the Houston way who says that's a really good place.

oldschoolvette

good point

Mastertvtech

This is one of my biggest fears after reading lots of threads here in the past. Does anyone have a picture of the parts that fail and a shot of them on the vehicle? I have read that they have issues on both ends and would like to add inspection of those to my yearly checks.

And lastly, a stupid question: If stuck in park how does the C5 get onto the flatbed?

El original

First thought when reading this thread you guys were writing about Porsche's as I owned one some years ago and these were typical experience's with the exception of the part price...which would have you sit down when quoted...lol. Hey you wanna play, you gotta pay!

ZFLASH

I do have towing on my Ins. that I forgot about,called them up and it was good for only $40. I said that's it,and she said that it's been 10yrs since I've updated my towing policy . So I'm getting the $40 and updated my towing for more. Also I'm going to call Amex,since I've got towing with it and try get it through them too. L8R ZFLASH

ZFLASH

Not a stupid question,because I didn't know when the tranny cable popped. There is lever in front of the driver side rear tire on the tranny,this will allow you pop it into neutral and push it out. Just be sure to use emergency brake and some blocks behind tires when jacked up. L8R ZFLASH

Sidewayz6.0

You're absolutely right. If you think a Vette tax is bad, then you've obviously never owned a German car.

ZFLASH

I've got no prob with the 10yr old part with a 136k miles on it breaking. I thought maybe it would have been a nice suggestion for them to replace it when they were doing the tranny cable,since they were already under there and had it apart. Common courtesy is all, since when they do make a suggested upgrade I'm usually all for it. That's all, L8R ZFLASH

jdot

I wonder what the weight difference is if the clip had actually been metal instead of plastic. How much wgt did is save on the guzzler issue?

Oldvetter

Yep, I have it in my policy, paid for the cost several times over the years. Much cheaper than AAA.