Engine Trouble

If it looks like an Oldsmobile, bears the Oldsmobile name plate and is sold by an Oldsmobile dealer, is it in fact an Oldsmobile? Chicagoan Joseph Siwek thought so until his mechanic looked under the hood of Siwek's new Olds Delta 88 last winter and found a Chevrolet engine. His discovery led to the revelation that General Motors has been using Chevrolet engines, not only in Oldsmobiles, but in Buicks and Pontiacs as. well. To date, 40 suits alleging fraud have been filed against GM--14 by states, acting on behalf of all buyers of GM cars in their jurisdictions, 26 by individuals.

Free Cars. Last week, after an initial period of stonewalling, GM yielded. It made an offer for which no auto executive could recall a parallel: it will take back any 1977 Olds, Buick or Pontiac equipped with a Chevy engine and give the buyer credit for the full sales price, minus 8-c- for each mile driven, on the purchase of a new car of the same make. Thus if the price of a Chevy-engined Olds less mileage deductions comes to, say, $7,000, the buyer can give it back and get a new $7,000 Olds (this time fitted with an Oldsmobile engine). If every buyer accepts that offer, GM would have to take back 128,000 cars, or 3.7% of its 1977-model production to date. Buyers who do not want to bother exchanging cars can have their warranties on the engine and drive train extended from the original twelve months or 12,000 miles to 36 months or 36,000 miles.

GM still insists that it committed no fraud: if a buyer expected a 350-cu. in, 170-horsepower engine, he got exactly that. In some cases, however, consumers have complained that their dealers could not replace oil filters or fan belts because the Chevy engines have slightly different specifications from Olds engines (GM says it told the dealers about the switches, though the dealers may not have paid attention or informed the buyers). The Chevy engines also delivered one or two fewer miles per gallon than Olds engines.

Sui Generis. The incident should awaken consumers to an underappreciated fact of auto-buying life: though manufacturers try hard to tout each car model as unique, autos are actually highly standardized products with many interchangeable parts. Ford and Lincoln cars made by Ford Motor Co. share the same engines, as do Dodge, Plymouth and Chrysler cars made by Chrysler Corp. Other automakers have escaped so far the trouble GM has landed in because their advertising has not given consumers quite as strong an impression that each car is sui generis as GM's ads have.

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