I'm sure all those 350Z owners will tell you how great of a transmission Nissian builds. Some of them have had it replaced two or three times under warranty.

 

Gee, ... and I wonder how many tens of thousands of 4l60's have failed over the years. GM has been putting a crappy trans in their fullsize trucks for years. GM owners actually accept and acknowledge that the trannies fail regularly. My best friend had his fail in his 91 blazer, that is the only reason he bought an extended warranty on his 2001 silverado. Isn't ironic that is started shifting hard last week?? Not even 100k.

Nissan built a fullsize truck from scratch, it took toyota 10 years and their fullsize isnt as capable as a Titan. Heck last time I checked the titan runs the quarter in 15.3, isn't that just a couple ticks slower than a silveradoSS?

Alot of new products suffer in initial. GM isn't a perfect angel either, some of you guys act like they walk on water. I'd rather have an initial problem with my wipers than shell out $2100+ on a truck with less than 100k that has never towed a trailer.

Wasn't there was a time when the toyota camry only sold 150,000 cars a year. Who is on top now? Some of you guys laugh at these "forin" cars but they are gaining market share and they aren't having to give cars away just to hold on to market share. The guys at the big three didnt take "forin" cars seriously for years, and they know they are behind the ball. Some of you guys are behind the ball too. GM isnt perfect, WAKE UP! No car marker is perfect but look at the company upcoming lineups. How many hybrids does gm have? One, the silverado hybrid, I have read two negative reports on it and one postive in CHP, I worry that CHP myight be a little baised. Ford has one hybrid, its a good one but they need more models.

And before one of you posts, "hybrids dont save you any money in th long run", yeah I know, but there are waiting lists to buy them, thats called demand, demand means you dont sell at employee price. You make a profit, or atleast make a profit once you can produce enough that the mass involved overcomes development costs. The prius is a good example, toyota is losing money now, but the technologly gets cheaper daily, they allready have the infrastructure in place, and they have a strong brand recognition. It will be a cash cow in a few years. Meanwhile when GM will finally get its first hybrid out and they will be losing money while toyota is racking up. Its called missing the boat.

 

You're betting that something else doesn't come along and make the prius "old" tech. Toyota isn't putting out the prius because they want to make profit on it, it's more because they are in a place where they can afford to eat some of their total profit in that segment, just so they can say they are the leader in the hybrid market.

 

Like I said before they aren't making a profit now, but i think they will be in the near future. Its one thing to be working on a product, its another when your product is in the consumers hands. GM is lagging behind. And whats wrong with being the leader in a rapidly growing segment of the market. Last I saw hybrid registrations were up 20% last year and expecting another 20% this year. The recent gas surge will only strengthen that. What was honda losing on the insight 5 years ago? I thought it was like $20k per car, I bet they are only losing a few thousand on the new civic hybrids, in a few more years I'm sure they will be profitable. Honda expects to sell 50K hybrids this year. So what do you think will come along and make the prius old tech, the insight made it five years and nothing ever beat its MPG.

I hope GM irons out the silverado hybrid, I was reading a long term update on it from one of the big mags and they said that the hybrid system was so jerky that it cause the dirt bike in the bed to bend the front wall of the bed into the cab. GM maybe the smartest company of all applying hybrid tech to their best selling model, but is a 1-2 mpg improvement gonna keep people in fullsize trucks when gas is $3.00 a gallon?? What about the cars? BTW the hybrid extended cab 4x4 was getting 14.8 mpg with them.

Camry, accord and altima hybrids are in the near future or allready here. Why is there no GM hybrid car in the near future??

 

Thanks for the news!

Personally, I hope they keep AWD in the mix...

Also, have you ever heard even a hint at an Avalanche SS ever being considered?

 

All Hybrid technology is a waste. NO auto manufacturer is going to have a "Cash Cow" with a Hybrid. Complete waste of money and resources IMHO.

I agree new technologies need to be looked at. But Hybrids OR Fuel Cells both are too complex and expensive.

Also, auto manufacturers will make nothing on these new technology vehicles (especially if you consider the R&D involved). Yes, eventually one of these technologies will take off and every vehicle will adapt and evolve. But to think Toyota is going to become Superior because of the Prius, is ridiculous. As soon as a valid technology takes off, EVERY Auto Manufacturer will be in this business and nobody will even remember the Prius.

And don't say I'm up GM's *** either, because I think the Hybrid Silverado is ALSO a waste of money just like the PRIUS.

 

At $3 a gallon, class leading fuel economy is going to be more important than class leading standard HP.

Chevy will have a 400hp/400tq+ 6.0L for those that need a lot of gasoline power.

 

Believe me, I know GM isn't perfect. Far from it. The Titan is nice, but neither is that perfect. I just don't need to read the extremely one sided verbal diarrhea redzed spews forth about how much GM sucks and how good Nissan is. It doesn't appear to me too many people on this site are behind the ball, quite the opposite actually.

About trannies. My dad's 4l60e has 150,000 miles on it, it is a work truck, and he pulls stuff with it all the time. There hasn't been anything that has need to be replaced on the tranny yet. I beat the hell out of my 4l60e, and it has yet to fail me, or even hiccup yet. I don't have a problem with GM trannies.

 

I dont like people that are one sided either, all automakers arent perfect.

I was researching last gen 2 door Tahoes and Z71 pickups last year and there were so many failures that people where on their second dealer installed tranny. Look at the edmunds message boards. The worst thing about it is that some of the opinions posted say that many of the GM dealers dont help the customers out. Heres a post of a guy that has driven his silverado around with a couple GM mangers and they tell him that the "clunking" in his transmission is normal. He took it in twice before he even reached 3k miles.

http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.ef190a2!make=Chevrolet&model=C%2FK%201500%20Serie s&ed_makeindex=.ef190a2

Heres what msn has on the 99 silverado.

http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Re...lverado%201500

lots of tranny problems listed there. I like that they show prices, lets you know what you are getting into. But to GM's credit, the 2002 silverado has much improved ratings. http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/re...lverado%201500

So what was that someone posted about 350Z tranny problems? http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/re...san&model=350Z The info speaks for itself.

Five out of five rating. Not bad huh aron? I dont disagree that someone could have had a lemon though, but you took a stab at a car that seems to have a good record.

As for the hybrid talk, like I said, I dont think they are the answer but they have great demand and the more that are produced the sooner they will be profitable. Cell phones where complex and expensive at one point. Now I dont even have a homephone.

 

Shhh, don't start that again. redzed went around and around with Doug Harden and I about the 350Z transmission...apparently, Nissan transmission problems are no big deal in red's world...how ironic.

 

Can you point me to some info about 350z tranny failures, I'd like to be in the loop.

 

Some of the numbers being mentioned for the 5.3 sound a little high to me...

 

Nissan's "automagic" transmissions have been terrible for the most part in all their cars for the last decade straight.

 

Mervz, what is your guess as to the model year for the next SSS? Also, will
and/or a reg cab be offered and what model year for us to expect this if it
will be available? Thanks.

 

Honestly, i'm not even sure GM knows what they want to do yet. From my talks, it seems they are very early in the program. My guess would be that once again, they will take the middle road, giving us a truck that isn't the highest performing, but will possibably pump up the handling to compensate. Chevy sees we want more power, a lower price, so i'm at reassured they are coming to us to get our opinion.