2011's #1 "Understatement"...brought to you by GM...
 

And I quote....

"General Motors is recalling 4,296 Chevrolet Sonic subcompact models to inspect for missing brake pads. The missing part could lengthen the stopping distance, potentially contributing to a crash, the company said today in a statement."

GM recalls Chevrolet Sonic models to check for missing brake pads - Autoweek

Seriously? No brake pads "could" affect stopping distance. And 4296 cars! How do you not possibly notice missing brake pads in over 4200 cars...even just some of them!

I don't know what's more sad...that GM missed the brake pads...or that you actually have to tell people...hey, your car may not have brake pads, and , umm, it might not stop very well!

How many people will get the recall...and...drive to the dealership!

Sorry...I know it is a serious situation, but the absurdity of the GM statement just set me off for some reason.

Happy New Years

I really think you are being unfair. Cars are complicated. There are thousands of parts. They only missed one. Lighten up man.:D

lol!

Seems you'd notice that when pulling out of the dealership with your new car. Step on the brakes...pedal goes to the floor, caliper spits out a piston and brake fluid shoots all over the ground.

Could there be more to this story???

Ya don't need brakes on a car that doesn't really run...

Dear GM owner.....stop
Your brake pads may be missing.......stop
Please stop by (or not) for a free brake inspection.

P.S drive slowly.

Owner: "Car makes a grinding noise when stopping"

GM Tech: "Could not duplicate condition on test drive"

If sold to a blond, they may not even notice...

Shortly after college I had a blonde girl friend (not girlfriend) that went out an bought a new car because the brakes on her old car stopped working. (blond moment #1). She said I could have the car if I could get it out of her parking lot. (blond moment #2) I pulled the wheels and found that she had ridden the bare pads down to the metal... so far that one of the pad backings was so thin that it slipped out of the caliper. At that point the piston was stopping the car, and finally wore down so much that it started leaking fluid and the brakes stopped working! (blond moment #3) :eek:

^this
you haven't been around cars much if you have not seen piston on rotor brakes in action ;)

it's a feature, the factory just preemptively eliminated those annoying and dusty pads

please,,please. let this girl be HOT!

To counteract that level of stupidity she better be a friggin swimsuit model....

Many moons ago I bought the wife a new Plymouth voyager. Yeah, I know. dumb.

After about 15,000 miles she complained that the brakes were making funny noises.
I told her it didn't have enough miles on it to have brake problems, but I test drove it anyway.
Then I parked it and went and bought new front pads and new front rotors.

That POS needed new pads every 12k or it would eat the rotors.
After 40k the tranny started going south so i bought her a new toyota sienna.
Trading that voyager in was one of the best days of my life.
the sienna was so much better.

You would think the guy pulling them off of the car hauler would have noticed it. Or the folks driving them off of the assembly line for that matter. That's just downright scary.

If they know about the issue NOW, why wait to recall those cars?

Stoned workers
 

Think maybe the $100/hr boys were even lucky to leave just the pads out.check out the report of these stoners.GM Workers Caught Smoking Pot While On The Clock! Video

Just minor details, stop being so hard on our top notch workers.....

I think there is a drinking and drug problem in GM factories. Government employees, ya know...

True! Percentage-wise, they are doing great!

C'mon, admit it, every time you assemble something, there's always a few parts left over. Happens to all of us!

re "Car makes a grinding noise when stopping", the worst one I saw was '68 Fairlane that was towed in because it "wouldn't go". It had been driven far beyond 'metal-to-metal'. The inside of the disc was worn all the way through, and the piston was cocked between the fins(?) of the two sides of the disc, locking it from turning. Should have saved it for a souvenier (sp).
Jim

A few years ago, this chick brings a car (used) over that she just got, and she wasn't happy with the brakes. Someone had done a brake job and had left out one of the brake pads on the rear. There was no fluid loss, but the piston and rotor were a write-off.

So we're in this thread by 21 posts now, and nobody has chimed in about the correlation between this company and the one making the "Volt" that cost the U.S. public (the taxpayers, anyway) hundreds of thousands of dollars per example?

By the way, a co-worker had one as a loaner last week. Kind of funny that if the temp is below 30F, the electric portion of the hybrid doesnt work.

Yet, another great product.

yeah...but howz the stock doin'?

I mentioned in the other "Volt" thread that I was present during the local dealers preview in which they tried to run Volts up I-70 to Vail for the day. They didn't make it. For the preview they only had a few gallons of gas in them and when it hit 20 deg the car had all sorts of problems including the battery disable feature. The three that were driving up to Vail for the preview had to be flat bedded back from a small town called "Dumont" before the Eisenhower tunnel. (under tarps BTW)

I used to work at a parts place.

I once had someone bring a rotor in that looked like this one.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...rake_rotor.jpg

Is this a "slotted" rotor? ;)

I also had someone bring some pads back because they were "defective" and wanted a new pair.

Sadly, they aren't the only person to ever do it because I found these pictures online.
http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/4...size/brake.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FCACwvBnLp.../IMAGE_227.jpg

Yes, the guy brought back a brand new set of brake pads that had a big "O" cut out of the pad material because he had put the pads in backwards and tried to stop his car with them like that.