The Reliability of V6 Engines: A Lesson from Honda

A V6 engine can bring joy and power to a vehicle, but some models have left much to be desired. In particular, engines built by General Motors (GM) have been known to be less reliable than those made by other manufacturers. The author of this article has had the misfortune of experiencing firsthand the problems that can arise from owning a GM-made V6 engine.

My own experience with a Saturn model equipped with a GM-built V6 engine was particularly grueling. The car burned oil excessively, which led to the engine's demise due to lack of lubrication. The author notes that it's essential to check and maintain proper oil levels to prevent such problems. While it's true that oil-burning engines can wear out faster than their well-maintained counterparts, there's still value in learning from this experience.

The American V6: A Mixed Bag

While some American V6 engines have been praised for their performance and power, others have left much to be desired. The author notes that the quality of these engines can vary greatly depending on the manufacturer. It's essential to do your research before purchasing a vehicle with an American V6 engine, as you may be dealing with potential problems down the line.

Electric Cars: A Mixed Bag for Manufacturers

The rise of electric cars has brought both excitement and skepticism. The author has called out various manufacturers for their lack of transparency when it comes to testing their products. Specifically, the author requested a chance to test drive an electric pickup truck from one of the major manufacturers. Despite numerous attempts, no manufacturer has been willing to provide the author with such an opportunity.

The author notes that this reluctance on the part of manufacturers is likely due to concerns about being "bad-mouthed" by someone who tells the truth about their products. The author is a mechanic and not afraid to speak his mind, which may have contributed to manufacturers' hesitation in providing him with a vehicle to test.

A Different Approach from China

However, when it comes to smaller electric cars made in China, some manufacturers are willing to provide the author with an opportunity to test their products. The author wonders if this might be due to lower expectations or fewer repercussions compared to larger, more expensive vehicles.

The Future of Electric Cars: A Cautionary Tale

As the automotive industry continues to shift towards electric vehicles, it's essential to consider the long-term implications of these changes. The author notes that while some manufacturers claim electric cars will become cheaper and more efficient over time, this is unlikely to be the case. In fact, many manufacturers are now using less expensive batteries in their newer models, which have compromised performance.

The Future of Electric Cars: A Cautionary Tale (continued)

Furthermore, the author notes that electric cars tend to have shorter ranges and may require more frequent charging, making them less practical for long-distance travel. As such, the author believes that electric cars are unlikely to become a dominant force in the automotive industry anytime soon.

Conclusion

In conclusion, owning a GM-made V6 engine can be a costly mistake. However, by learning from this experience and doing your research before purchasing a vehicle with an American V6 engine, you may be able to avoid similar problems. When it comes to electric cars, manufacturers' reluctance to provide testing opportunities is likely due to concerns about being "bad-mouthed" by someone who tells the truth.

As for the future of electric cars, one thing is certain: they are unlikely to become a dominant force in the automotive industry anytime soon. With their limited ranges and potential for higher costs, it's essential to approach these vehicles with a critical eye and carefully consider your options before making a purchase.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enrev up your engines now when people naturally think of saturn's they think of little econobox a little bitty four-cylinder engine took her to the grocery store and back well this is a 2008 saturn aura and it is a horse of a different color it's a performance version the guy bought it for about five grand he's been souping it up you can see it's an aura xr 3.6 and as usual it's under the hood what counts though and check it out he's even got mice in the exhaust give it a big round now you can tell this thing makes more rattling noises the hydraulic lifters on these things they always go but it runs good enough you don't care but that's what the noise is well the bells are torn in again but they're not doing it for the center it's still running pretty good and even back then they put these stupid beauty covers on them it's unbelievable yeah you think people wouldn't want this stuff but hey at least checking out the manifold's still made out of aluminum that's not plastic yet now people wonder what happened to saturn well it's kind of funny a friend of mine moved to san francisco and he was the guy behind their ad company that we want to be your car company and then come visit the factory which was outside of nashville tennessee but the company failed not because really the company but because general motors owned it and they pretended it was an offshoot but they didn't let them have full independence and at the end they were trying to sell it to penske which is a very big company you sell those penske trucks and stuff what's a huge company but penske said we're not interested and so they just shut the whole factory down the main problem was gm they got mad because people said well the saturn's better than your cars and then they started taking workers off the saturn line and building parts in other places and that just pretty much finished off the company originally the saturn's did have poor quality a friend of mine in houston strange enough her name was linda toyota she was japanese american right and she always drove toyota's but she thought i'll buy americans so she bought a saturn where she bought one of the early ones of the four cylinder and the dash was glued in crooked i said what do you think of the sand and she says oh i'd say it's about 60 of my old camry but what the heck she drove it and ran it for a while but they did make them a little bit better as time went on but you know it just didn't pan out gm wasn't happy and they pulled the plug now like i said the early ones hey they weren't all that well made they had a lot of plastic but this later one it's got a lot of metal there's a big difference when they started making them they tried to put this thing that oh we're more green we're more ecological you know we're using plastic that won't rust and la la la but they kind of got a big hit in a pr department because they found out when they were casting the motors they were using styrofoam and when the metal went in the styrofoam all evaporated which of course ruins the ozone layer and when that came out they kind of had to lighten up on the we're an ecological green company when people found out they were using styrofoam but well what can you do you know pr is pr it's a pretty quick quarter so that's got plenty of room inside you can you can tell it's a gm it's pretty much all gm looking inside dash and everything it's got a reasonable back seat too it's got room in it he's got big subwoofers in the trunk there'll be some telling a collector's item he paid about five grand for this last year let's take it for a ride and see what he can do we're going down the bumpy road in rhode island here and we'll see for an old car really it doesn't ride all that bad i really don't notice the difference between this and the acura i just tested out and here we go step on i guess hey that engine's got a nice sound to it hey it's got decent pickup now here we go with the cutout now we have no exhaust yes you only do that when the police aren't around no it's conked down on the road get some guys push it out of the way we're gonna figure out what's wrong well it's low in oil so we're going to put some oil in the temperature was getting hot on it you got to watch on these things when you use oil you got to keep adding in and he did come all the way from buffalo to rhode island so he needed to check it he hadn't checked it yet so in goes the oil in the rain well it looks like we might have a blown engine here we'll try it again engine cranking over we got the top off the radiator overflow there's no pressure coming out it's not a big blow so we're gonna check with the oil we take the oil cap off put our hand on and crank it over well there's no real pressure coming out there either so i got my all compression tested out i checked the engine it was shot one cylinder only had 60 psi one at 95. the engine was just one out so you learned two lessons here numero uno if you want to buy a saturn with a v6 engine get the older ones that had hond engines they were excellent the american v6s ah they were kind of crappy the bell tolls for these engines and number two if your engine's an oil burner like that one make sure you check the oil all the time it was four quarts low in oil which led to the engine's demise up granted it was burning a lot of oil before then so the engine was wearing out anyways but it was finished off by lack of lubrication and it ruined the bearings and then the engine just broke internally if only saturn had been nicer to honda and they still let them use their v6 engines well as they say live and learn well you can learn from other people's mistakes don't make the same one don't buy a saturn with a gm made v6 engine but if you do have one make sure you check and add oil all the time to make it at least last as long as it can and here's some bonus questions and answers well here we go with continuing saga of electric cars if you remember couple months ago i made a video and i called out all the electric car manufacturers saying give me one for a length of time to try out i'll try it around the country try it locally try pulling stuff it's a pickup truck see how they actually work you know what i've gotten response from them nothing now i have almost 2 billion views on youtube you'd think if they had a product that they stood behind they would get free pr i don't do advertising so they couldn't pay me they don't pay me they just have to give me the car to drive around for a while or electric pickup truck but i haven't got one single response from any of them and you know why because they're afraid they probably know they really aren't that reliable they aren't that easy to drive cross-country they have all kinds of problems and of course realize they're built by what corporations because they're dead for the neck up they got to make decisions and give this guy a car he might say bad things about us don't give him one he might say bad things about us hey i'm honest i try stuff out if it works hey if i see something i was wrong about i'll say i was wrong about that that works you know that doesn't work as i expected they haven't done anything because they're afraid that their electric cars don't work that they will have problems that their quality isn't that good driving them cross-country is a pain in the rear end and that in cold weather they don't work all that well they're just basically afraid of having somebody actually analyze it i've known guys that wrote articles on cars their so-called automotive quotes journalists yeah they get free trips to norway to drive around the fields and on the glaciers with the new cars like the land rovers to see how great they are yeah well that's not an honest opinion right mine is i'm a mechanic i don't care one way or another somebody makes a better vehicle i'll talk about it hey i don't have any vested my interest to find something that's good so you don't get ripped off it's made right it's that hard to fix doesn't break down much you know that's all i care about i have no ulterior motive whatsoever and of course they're afraid of that they're afraid of the truth so i'm still calling them up but the only thing that i think might happen would be when they start selling the small chinese electric cars i could see them sending me one because they make them at a lower price probably would make sense they get some pr out there that hey here's the thing he's trying it out seeing what's going on i tested honestly i got no qualms about that but that's for the big ones the american ones and the koreans i've done anything from any of them because of course they're shaking in their boots that somebody's actually gonna try it out mechanic telling the truth about it so listen to all the bs about electric cars are here now it's the future yeah if it is a fuse it's going to be a pretty crappy future if you ask me when it comes to transporting yourself long distances and not spending a fortune getting them repaired and of course the price of them keep going up because the cost of nickels up the cost of lithium's up they kept saying as time goes on they'll get cheaper no they aren't they're going to get even more expensive and like in the case of tesla now they're using the cheaper batteries but they don't have as long range so they said oh well they'll go further and further they'll get cheaper no they're getting more expensive and they don't go as far so if you never want to miss another one of my new car repair videos remember to ring that bell foreign\n"