There is a humorous saying that a vehicle from General Motors will run like garbage for longer than most cars will run. I have no idea how true that is, but anecdotally, I have seen GM vehicles clocking in crazy miles despite constant misfires, low coolant, and oil that was last changed during a Bush administration.
As Brian wrote, poor General Motors has been having such a tough time with its L87 6.2-liter V8 that the feds are looking into it. Cheap Bastard:
Given the massive bloat these vehicles have seen over the past decades is it any surprise they’re now suffering from catastrophic heart attacks?
Ouch. Data:
This could negatively impact GM’s reputation for running badly longer than most cars run.
Plaid Seats:
In completely unrelated news, GM will be announcing its first ever GM Peace Prize winner tomorrow.
The Bishop made a futuristic EREV tribute to the conversion van. I just have to give today’s last COTD for VanGuy, because I love comments like this:
Conversion vans haven’t gone away. Yes, there’s fewer of them—lots of the conversion companies folded during the great recession—but you can still find plenty of new ones. It’s just that six figures is a lot to ask for a market that’s even more niche than it used to be.
I drove a conversion ’97 Econoline-150 for 7 years and I have no idea what you’re talking about with “absolute crap to drive.” They’re certainly not fast (although even then, I’m sure you could get a new Express/Savana one optioned with the 6.6l L8T 401 hp and 464 lb-ft, they claim)… but mine was comfortable as hell.
A lot of newer ones have some of the interior features you’ve already highlighted. If you want to look at examples, you can look up Paul Sherry Conversion Vans (just happens to be the nearest specializing conversion van dealership I’m aware of near me).
Used conversion vans near original condition are getting hard to find for a variety of reasons. I’ve mostly intuited these so I welcome correction, but:
- Decreased supply since great recession (fewer conversion companies around).
- Decreased demand (luxury good, high fuel consumption, etc.).
- #VanLife craze during early period of COVID drove general van demand through the roof, and a conversion van would likely be easier to work on in the interior than a typical one).
- Anyone looking for “a van” to use for cargo can just grab any old passenger or conversion one and rip the seats out.
Some states restrict commercial traffic from certain roads (such as New York’s parkways) but with loopholes that encourage using vans with windows for that purpose.
Ultimately, I think even an EREV just might not get the range desired for conversion vans, aka one of the ultimate road/day-trip vehicles. Getting 500 highway miles to a tank was a point of pride for mine, 33-gallon tank be damned.
And in spite of everything, I’m still hoping to acquire another sometime soon, because I cannot properly convey to you the feeling of a heart full of love when you’re driving 6+ of your closest friends in a luxurious space all your own.
Conversion vans rock, and until we get better battery technology, I think electrifying them in the U.S. is a fruitless endeavor. (I’m open to the idea broadly! But as road-tripping vehicles, I think they need a higher standard. But getting 500 miles out of one of them would probably put the Hummer EV battery to shame.)
Have a great day, everyone!
Top graphic image: GM
Between the L87 and the trash Ford/GM joint transmission, I’ll take a Ram or Tundra. Never thought I would say that I’d prefer Dodge over Chevy in any circumstance.
Give me a pre-2019 Chevy with a 5.7 or 5.3 and a TRUE Allison transmission.
The three GM ones are all excellent and stand on their own. Good work commentariat.
To be correct many GM Motors will run longer than expected. But not all of them. Cadillac V8-6-4 anyone? Northstar anyone? I think the longevity of GM engines tie more into redneck ingenuity finding fixes than anything a GM Engineer has done.
The V8-6-4 was perfectly fine once you pulled the wire for the cylinder deactivation, just ran as a normal, old Cadillac V8 after that
So the fact that it was discontinued after the R AND D was covered is not pertinent? Or paying for a motor that was expensive but okay for the big money but getting a less money motor?
The L62 was essentially just the same V8 Cadillac had been using since 1968, with a faulty cylinder deactivation system stuck onto it. Bypassing the system just turned it back into a normal 472 Series V8, which was extremely simple to do and was the routine “fix” at the time. There wasn’t anything wrong with the engine itself, unlike the HT4100, Oldsmobile 350 diesel, or Northstar, which were all seriously, structurally flawed and required significant engineering changes to improve
It was ultimately all CAFE driven, GM couldn’t just build L62s with the V8-6-4 system deleted at the factory, because then they wouldn’t meet fuel economy regulations, if owners and dealers did it afterward, that was a different situation. So, they rushed the 4.1 to market
I think the thought of a car company rushing a POS solution out the door like that is pretty crazy now, but I lived through the malaise era and am not surprised at all
GM has a long history of putting out things that needed more time in the oven, and then only fixing them after the reputation is destroyed. They just did more of it at once in the Malaise period
The sad thing is that the 4100 did turn into a very good small V8, once they fixed the issues and upgraded it to the 4.5 and 4.9, I’d take either of those over a Northstar any day.
I guess that was an oblique enough political reference to make it in for COTD. 😉
+1 to the conversion van love. My favorite vehicle we owned when I was a kid was a Dodge conversion van. So comfortable, so nice to haul all of my friends around when I was in high school. Unfortunately, also so thirsty. Driving it into a head wind on a road trip, my Dad always said you could see the gas gauge moving because it dropped so fast.
What?
The 6.2L is glorious when it works: Quiet, smooth, fast and excellent fuel economy for something with big-block power. It pains me to see the king of pushrod V8s bungle them so badly.
My parents were GM-centric. Primarily Olds, as I grew up. We had the occasional Ford pickup, and a Dodge pickup. But everything else they drove was an Olds or a Chevy. The last Chevy mom drove was a malaise era Camaro that was really pretty awful. Then she sold it and bought a used Saturn that, indeed ran poorly, but for a very long time.
I talked her into a used seventh generation Honda Accord and she loved it. Sadly, she wrecked it last March and that’s when my brother and I and the state of California decided she wasn’t competent to drive anymore. It ran fine until she accidentally rammed into the back of a truck with an exposed trailer hitch. (She was 88 at the time, now 89.) My brother and I are thankful nobody was injured in that collision. Except for the car, which was totaled.
General Motors: generally crap.
I can attest to the older SBC being able to run longer broken. Never really noticed, but drove the snot out of a 327 that seemed to run very well, but found out one cylinder had wiped out a lobe back in the 70’s when the Hotter cam was installed. found it out when removing the heads after dropping a big block into the car.
I really wanted to be a ford guy for some reason as a kid. Bought a few in high school and used GM for winter beaters, but with the weird engine generation and even same engine, but different year variations at ford, I certainly came around on the benefits of GM designs at the time.
But it was the way the Fords tended to not run at all when one or two cylinders were down that seemed to support this saying. Also I think the Ignition systems were just more junky in other stuff and the HEI made it so things ran, even poorly, but I could be wrong.
COTD!
I really hope GM figures this out. I’m not a big fan of their bloated, IMO dangerous trucks and SUVs but I applaud their efforts to make the engines in them as fuel efficient as possible.