FCA US will have to buy back Ram trucks over steering defect

'01LS1 · August 1, 2015

Thats what amazes me with so many loyal diehard GM guys leaving for Ram's when the quality is not there historically. I have a distant relative, his parents and in-laws family only bought GM trucks and SUV's for decades (wagons before the SUV's kicked in). He had a '99 Silverado that he bought new it turned 8 years old had over 150,000 miles on it and the transmission goes... Decides then anything made by General Motors is garbage and switches him and his two daughters all into Ram truck drivers and then traded the wifes Suburban in for a Wrangler Unlimited and later on a Durango. Claims they make the best vehicles but trades them in every 2-3 years. Just a longwinded side story.

The media in general seems to hate GM. So if one has an issue with a vehicle & GM recalls are headline news daily it makes it a little easier to switch if you are hell bent mad. Even though other mfg's barely get mentioned when they have the same or similar recalls/problems. Heck, FCA among others was refusing to recall vehicles in the past two years & nothing much in the media about it what so ever. Sure it may have made autonews or autoblog, but nothing main stream.

I know mfg's have to run a line between a vehicle meet compliance standards vs being able to turn a profit. But like in the Ford F150 crash test thread, if GM would have purposely left out supports for two of their three cab configurations it again would be on every online & paper news source. Obviously GM is not innocent. But it sure seems like there are different standards they are held to or scrutinized for.

Doug_Scott · August 1, 2015

The media in general seems to hate GM. So if one has an issue with a vehicle & GM recalls are headline news daily it makes it a little easier to switch if you are hell bent mad. Even though other mfg's barely get mentioned when they have the same or similar recalls/problems. Heck, FCA among others was refusing to recall vehicles in the past two years & nothing much in the media about it what so ever. Sure it may have made autonews or autoblog, but nothing main stream.

I know mfg's have to run a line between a vehicle meet compliance standards vs being able to turn a profit. But like in the Ford F150 crash test thread, if GM would have purposely left out supports for two of their three cab configurations it again would be on every online & paper news source. Obviously GM is not innocent. But it sure seems like there are different standards they are held to or scrutinized for.

I think that most don't think that the "media" is a business like any other. They have to turn a profit. The only way they can increase profits is to gain more readers/watchers/advertisers. To get more people to follow them they need to be able to grab and keep their attention. If they have two news stories that are roughly about the same in being "newsworthy", the story that impacts more of the public will get more attention from the media.

Then you have the human nature factor. We don't want to hear about good things, we have to hear about bad things. What I really want to hear on the news is when they go get the interview with the mother of the kid that was just killed an hour ago say "happy he was killed, he was an ass". The media must be looking for that response. Why else do they feel it is so important to ask a relative how they feel about the death.

My point in all this is quite simple, the media is not there for news, they are there to make money by getting your attention anyway they can. Once you accept that, you will stop thinking they are there to help or protect the consumer.