Webthoughts

I saw my first new Chevy Silverado in the wild yesterday. I've seen them on Chevrolet Car Lots and such, but not actually out on the road.

The new truck is a far-sight better looking than the truck it replaces. I still cringe when I see what Chevy did to that truck with the '03 "freshening". I would have preferred that Chevy use the front end that they used on the new Avalanche, but I also understand their desire to position that truck more as an SUV with a cargo-bed than as a truck, so they want a distinct look between the two.

I still think, though that the C/K series pickups (from 1988-1999) were the best-looking trucks that GM ever produced (although the 1970 C/K pickups were close behind). Those trucks screamed "I'm a truck and proud of it!". The 1999-2002 Silverado/Sierra pickups were good-looking pickups, but they weren't that much of a departure from the previous generation. The 2003 freshening of the Silverado was incredibly ugly (and something on the Sierra freshening just didn't feel right).

The newest truck is a good-looking truck, but, if anything, looks almost too refined. Of course, that's what buyers are looking for. Those who buy trucks are looking for personal transportation, not just a cargo-hauler, so they are looking for refinement and class. I'm very sure that the new truck is a very capable truck. I just seems like it's trying to hide, a bit, that it's a truck.

If and when it comes time to look around for a new truck for my wife and I, I'm sure we'll look at the new Silverado. But that won't be for quite some time (hopefully), so who's to say what Chevy will be offering when we do?

So, I'm not really a Ford guy, but I think this is pretty cool. Here's the story (and lots of photos) of a guy who slapped a Peterbilt cab onto a Ford F350 frame and made a pretty sweet pickup truck out of it.

It took the guy three-and-a-half years (and who knows how much money) to build this thing. That's a lot of dedication and the results look great!

I read today that Toyota has finally beaten GM in total unit sales for a quarter and is expected to beat the American giant for the entire year. Although people have been seeing this coming for quite some time (especially with GM's financial woes), I don't see this as big news.

First, let me preface by saying that I know very little about the financial situations of either company (I have problems with my own finances from time to time, so multi-billion dollar corporations are pretty much beyond me). I have only a vague understanding of what went wrong at GM. So, in reality, everything I say here is just my own view of the situation. It may be right or it may be wrong—I truly have no idea.

That said, this could not have been a surprise for anyone. For a long time now, Toyota has been seen as a bastion of quality, while GM cars (and the other American manufacturers for that matter) have been seen as having sub-par quality: buy a Toyota and drive it for decades; buy a GM car or truck and watch it fall apart in five years or less—that sort of thing. In reality, that just isn't true. GM cars and trucks are pretty much close to Toyota cars in quality. In some cases, they beat Toyota at the warranty game too.

But, because of how the Big American Three handled things in the 80's and early 90's (where they truly did put out crap products for the most part), that stigma has hung over them even until today. Many people see GM cars as junk. Toyota is obviously the way to go. (Note that I'm not even addressing the overseas markets, which are a whole other ball of wax.)

So, it's not surprising to see Toyota overtake GM. It was bound to happen. It is just not possible in a free market for one company to stay in the top position forever. GM had a great run (even despite their issues), but they've been beaten (fairly or not) from that position.

And you know what? Toyota will eventually fall from that position as well. Who knows when that will happen (assuming of course that they hold onto it past this one quarter, which they probably will)? Perhaps Honda will overtake them. Perhaps Ford will. Who knows?

As for me, unless something really gets screwed up, I will still be partial to GM products. I will probably never own a Toyota. Some people agree with me, some don't.

This is just what happens in a free market and it's a beautiful thing.

Well, we pretty much figured that the writing was on the wall and when the diagnosis came back, it forced us to do some serious thinking: "Your transmission needs to be rebuilt."

That's what we heard when we took our 1999 Pontiac Grand Am SE2 (with 120,000 miles) in after it kept slipping back into first gear when it was supposed to be in second. I had hoped (probably beyond hope) that it might be something simple, but that was apparently not to be.

So, we looked at many different things (not the least of which was the fact that we were looking at additional money being put into the car in the somewhat near future for things besides the transmission) and eventually decided, we might want to go out and look and see what different type of cars are available.

I've installed a HomeLink transmitter in my truck.

HomeLink, for those who don't now, is a technology that is basically a garage door openers that is built into your car—no separate transmitter. It's really a pretty simple concept and I find it amazing that its only now been becoming popular within the last five years or so.

Many cars nowadays have HomeLink built in, but back in 1998 when my Silverado was built, it wasn't even an option. Instead, the overhead console (which was an option itself) had a compartment that opened up. You could velcro your garage door opener transmitter into the compartment and, when it was closed, a button in the compartment could be pushed, which would then push the transmitter button in the compartment.

When I purchased the truck, there were some parts missing from the compartment in the overhead console that allowed this system to work. The button could be pushed, but inside the console, the part was missing that would actually push the transmitter button. I never found that part in my searches, except from a dealer (and they wanted an outrageous amount of money for the part). So, instead, I kept the transmitter in the compartment, but opened the compartment to actually push the button myself.

This worked for a while, but earlier this year, the compartment door finally broke. So, I took the door off so I would still have access to the transmitter, but of course this was pretty ugly.

I began searching for a new door on eBay. Unfortunately, I never found just the door by itself. All I found were complete consoles, which I didn't need. I had a good condition console; I just needed a new door.

Even though I didn't find what I was looking for, I found something better. It turns out that even though GM didn't offer HomeLink in the '98 (or earlier) Silverados, they DID offer them in later model year Suburbans, Tahoes and Blazers (and their GMC corporate cousins). It also turns out that from around 1999 until 2002 (or thereabouts), the overhead consoles on those models were the same found in my Silverado. Therefore, the HomeLink module in those later models (which replaced the transmitter compartment I've described above), would fit perfectly in my Silverado's console.

So, while I was looking for a door on eBay, I instead found a HomeLink transmitter module from a 2001 GMC Jimmy. It was the same color as my overhead console and the asking price was reasonable. A few bids later and a few days for shipping and it was in my hands.

Here is a picture of it installed in the truck's overhead console:

It looks great and works great! I had a bit of trouble with the wiring (my own fault, really), but once I figured that out, I am very pleased with the result.

Now, some may ask, "What's the big deal? What's wrong with just having a separate transmitter?" Those people have a valid point. But, this was a cheap and modification that I could make to the truck with little risk of messing anything up. Plus, it is a solution to two problems in one: I don't need to find a new door and I don't need to find the part that pushes the button behind that door. I have it all built in now.

And, it just gives me some more buttons to play with, and that's always a good thing.