Have you ever worked on one of your cars – be it your favorite project or the daily driver – and were left wondering, “What the hell were they thinking?” What I’m referring to are the quirks and sometimes blatant idiocies that auto manufactures incorporate into their designs. It doesn’t have to be anything major, perhaps even something small and stupid, but they left you feeling betrayed that you were conned into falling in love with something that wasn’t so perfect after all?

One of the best examples of this that comes to mind is the placement of the water pump above the OptiSpark distributor on the ‘90s LT1 engine. I mean seriously, it was almost like the engineers were being deliberately obtuse; hoping that the water pump would fail in an effort to take out the distributor at the same time, which is what usually happened.

To add further irony to this tragic comedy, the distributors themselves were expensive and fail prone – being only good for roughly 36,000 miles, right around the time the original warranty was set to expire.

This was wonderful news for all of the GM dealerships across the land that needed the business in their service department, but it was a slap in the face to consumers like you and I who entrusted GM in the first place in selling us a quality car.

Let’s also not forget the location and routing of the spark plug wires on said motor either. Performing what would normally be a simple task on any other engine, changing the spark plugs on the LT1 without the aid of a lift is as difficult as performing eye surgery.

Yup, I said lift. To change the spark plugs. But this was also partly due to the fact that (on the 4G F-body) half of the engine was shoved underneath the dash. The latter was true on the LS1 versions too, of course.

But this is just one example; I could go on for days about my other personal experiences such as the unreliable, garbage headlight motors on a ’98-’02 Trans Am, the subpar factory fuel system in an ’86-’87 turbo Buick or the cheap, and inadequate suspension bushings, drivetrain bushings, and motor mounts found in a 1G CTS-V. Oh, and let’s forget the brake and suspension setup (or lack thereof) on Pontiac’s “Wide Track” Grand Prix GTP of ’97-‘03. But I digress.

These were just some examples that I have personally dealt with, and to say that the Chevrolet Division models of the era didn’t have any shortcomings as well, would be a complete farce.

In GM’s defense, all of these vehicles were designed, built, and sold during a time when they were more concerned about simply reaching sales numbers and keeping the union happy, and not so much about the long term, which entailed quality customer service and building a high-quality product. Everything was built down to a price, and if the bean counters didn’t see the value in something then it wouldn’t be done.

As a matter of fact, it wasn’t just slightly better vehicle components that didn’t make the cut; there were entire production-ready concept cars that either got the thumbs down, or were built half-baked as a result of this “logic.”

Remember the S-10 Xtreme? That was originally supposed to have an LS1 exclusively under its hood; instead it was nothing more than a factory mini-truck with a body kit, an upgraded suspension, and a wheel/tire package. Even the standard 4-cylinder engine could be had – what a shame.

This was also the era of the incentive; where automakers were basically giving cars away as a result of a somewhat stalled economy after the 9/11 attacks. The Big Three were slashing thousands off of the sticker of new cars in an effort to keep their cars selling and their factories running.

Unfortunately, this went on for several years, and consumers became accustomed to picking up a new car for a fraction of the price. But once the incentives had stopped being offered, the sales took a nose dive.

But it’s not just GM who has taken shortcuts on their models over the years – Ford and Chrysler are just as guilty too. I won’t get into the specifics, as those makes are beyond the realm of what I’m familiar with, but I will say that I think we’ve finally reached a new era of American automotive design and innovation.

After the big economic crash and the bankruptcies of 2009, what we ended up with were three major corporations who had a big wakeup call in the way they built and marketed vehicles, and although we are already beginning to the see the fruits of their efforts, I think the really cool stuff is yet to come down the pike, despite the scary CAFE fuel demands for 2016 or whatever it is.

Sure, GM lost Pontiac, and less importantly HUMMER, SAAB, and Saturn in the deal, but at this point I would have to say that’s a good thing.

Look at it this way; that just frees up way more development cash for Chevy, GMC, Buick, and Cadillac. For example, General Motors no longer has to spread the budget between two F-bodies, so this now means that all of the extra money that would’ve went to Pontiac for the styling differences and advertising for the Firebird, would all go to the Camaro, thus producing a better quality and more aggressively styled car.

Plus, with word of the new Holden Commodore and Maloo Ute (El Camino) coming stateside, there’s no longer a worry of which division of GM’s North American operation will get those models. Lately everybody’s been in a tizzy over the new ZL1 Camaro, but in my opinion, I think the best is yet to come!

-Rick