Tough stuff. Notably, the EU and UK treat it as a safety issue and have a mandatory safety recall because it affects braking components. Safety recalls don't have anywhere that the manufacturer gets to argue about profit and say "Oh, it only affects a few cars we sold and we don't want it to cut into our profits." 100% of those cars are recalled in the EU and UK, period. Imagine if GM argued that they shouldn't have to replace the defective key cylinders in the old Cobalts because "The profit on those cars was so low..." [that we should continue to let people die instead of doing the recall]
GM pockets like $20,000 for every Escalade, Suburban, and huge Bro-dozer diesel dually 4x4 Truk-Nutz pickup sold. Use some of that profit to pay for the recall of the defective stuff they sold.
Notably, it's weird that ONLY the slave cylinders in the manual transmissions paired to the Diesel engines in model years 2016-2018 are failing. Those are the years of Opel/Vauxhall cars recalled. That whole thing points to a batch of transmissions made specifically for those cars (the transmissions must be made with specific gear ratios and final drive ratios), so whatever company supplied the slave cylinders for those transmissions must have a bad batch for 3 straight model years. Other cars with that transmission don't have this problem, so it must be something specific to THOSE SLAVE CYLINDERS for three years running that is the problem. How about going after the parts supplier for that? The transmission of my car was assembled in Austria, and I assume all the other 6MT transmissions come from that same plant. It's got to be one part supplier giving defective parts. Have them pay for it.
Just to be clear, I'm not saying the loss of money or lack of profit from these cars is a valid excuse to not do the right thing by the customer.. What I am saying is it absolutely plays into the calculation of what they do and do not do. As to the profit on the big cars, yep, but they LOSE money on small cars and electric vehicles, and you can thank CAFE standards for this situation. They make small high MPG cars at a LOSS, because they can't sell them at a profit, because they would have no buyers at those price points. So you then might ask: Why make cars and sell at a loss? Because the either do that, or do like former FCA (now Stelantis or whatever its name is this week) was doing.. they just pay EPA fines or pay Tesla for offsets due to CAFE standards. To even try to break even or make a profit, they have to massively inflate the prices of the larger vehicles people want or need (can't do a family trip in a compact with more than ONE kid, for example). That is why the cost of larger vehicles, new AND USED has been going up dramatically. Also, that is why we have longer and longer loan terms for cars... but this cycle can not continue. The new push to electric, with current technology is a pending disaster. The range estimates are overly optimistic. In real world highway driving these cars are NOT getting the estimates, and worse the idea that someone can get an electric pickup truck and tow ANYTHING for any distance is just pure fantasy. Only people that can afford an extra commuter car can make reasonable use of an electric vehicle with current technology, and the technology needed to change that dynamic is not yet close, the issue is storage, or battery technology and charging rates. I should also add the grid in no way has the capacity for a mass plug in rapid charge capability.
I know that is a long reply that seems to off topic, but to understand what the OEMs are doing, and why, it's important to understand the dynamic, not agreeing with it, but just what it is. They don't make money on the small high MPG cars, and thus the incentive to do anything after the sale is pretty limited on their end, I don't happen to like that, but I also know that the price of my Cruze fleet was lower than adjusted for inflation would have dictated for a compact car in the 2015-2018 time in history, because of CAFE standards.. and I know GM didn't really make much from my buying 4 of these cars.. so I don't expect them to be very helpful, and thus when they are not, I'm not surprised. Doesn't mean I like it, but I understand it.
Now when I had that 2007 GMC Diesel truck that ended up being a lemon, and GM wasn't too helpful in dealing with that one until a lawyer wrote them a letter.. that was much more difficult to accept, but they did eventually do the right thing, even as it cost them the additional legal fees to finally do so.. they would have been smarter to do the right thing before I got a lawyer involved, but clearly giant corporations are not often very responsive in these ways.
