Why a Cadillac XLR brakelight can cost more than a used Corolla

[graytoad]

Good 'exposure' article. This should be sent to every 'inbox' at GM Cadillac division and demand they release the manufacturer rights!

Why A Cadillac XLR Brake Light Can Cost More Than A Used Corolla

 

[rheavn]

These cars will never gain value until parts become readily available. If there are no parts they will continue to drop in value.

jmho.......................................Steve

 

[beaver_jd]

heavn, I think we will see a solution for our headlight / taillight problem in the next couple of years. There are a couple of members here working on replacements so we have to think positive,
John F.

 

[rheavn]

I bought a X, so I am thinking positive. The problem is not just isolated to the headlights & taillights though.

Steve.................................

 

[long Tall Sally]

I bought a X, so I am thinking positive. The problem is not just isolated to the headlights & taillights though.

Steve.................................

You are correct its almost every part on the car. We have a member with an 09 cannot get the fog light cover . a 50$ part but no longer made. The only things that GM still carry are items that cross over with the vettes and if they do there are literally hundreds of those parts used cheap. There is no reason as stated that they should not release parts they no longer support to the open market.

 

[Bill S.]

Hey

These are the issues which haunt me. Am not discounting the headlight tail light issue, but .......

transmission cable connector issue
top operation components- - pump, cylinders, modules
suspension -shocks costs
cost implications of fuel pump failure

Bill

 

[pure zen]

Jason Torchinsky > written from Jalopnik.com






"Why A Cadillac XLR Brake Light Can Cost More Than A Used Corolla"

Why A Cadillac XLR Brake Light Can Cost More Than A Used Corolla

What the hell is going on here? $2,050 to $3,495 for a freaking taillight? What are these things made of, saffron, rubies, and cocaine?

Not exactly. What they are made of are LED strips and printed circuit boards, both of which are becoming fragile and failure-prone as they age, and with a deadly combination of GM not producing replacement parts and a very repair-unfriendly design, the result is absurdly high prices for replacements.

This is especially bad because taillights are one (or, I guess usually two) of those things that, legally, you have to have working on your car to register and drive it. It’s not like the XLR owners with bad brake lights can just opt to leave it broken—if they want to keep driving their cars, they have to get these lights working, somehow.

XLR owner’s boards are full of owners realizing how boned they are, and frustrating attempts to find replacements. Some have attempted to repair the lights, and in doing so you can see the full depth of the terrible design decisions made when designing these lights:

This thing is like an object-lesson in how not to design something you don’t want to be disposable crap. There’s no screws or fasteners to easily gain access to the internals, you have to heat up glue to 220 degrees just to get the lens off, and when you do, you’re greeted by a whole bunch of non-removable LED units and a printed circuit board with a coating on it that makes it near-impossible to repair or replace components, assuming that you even had the skills and knowledge about how to deal with dense, modern, surface-mounted semiconductor components.

What’s baffling is that this is a taillight, one of the few components remaining on modern cars where it’s expected that an owner can perform basic maintenance.

Most cars still have access panels so owners can replace failed lamps or LED units in taillights with minimal trouble, because these minor failures can lead to not being able to legally drive your car. Also, you know, safety and such.

I thought at first it should be possible to gut the internals of a broken XLR taillight and just rig up a simple set of replaceable LED units for brake, tail, turn, reverse, and side marker lamps, maybe using aluminum flashing to make a housing/reflector structure.

Doing so would assume that the wiring harness for the taillight had discreet 12V wires for the different taillight functions; however, when I look at the connector diagram, that appears not to be the case: GM needs to be called out on this matter.
It looks like the connector is just sending signals to that circuit board, which has a small embedded computer to interpret those signals and translate them into whatever combination of lights is needed. I think that’s what’s going on, at least—all I can tell is that it’s not as simple as a wire per brake lamp, tail, turn, etc.
I think it might actually be cheaper and easier to just wire a whole parallel small wiring harness from the brake light switch, turn signal switch, and light switch than it would be to **** around with any of this mess. Or maybe you could program an Arduino to read the signals and interpret them properly?

This is just ridiculous — it’s not like the taillights do any fancy LED animations or anything like that — they work pretty much like any taillight from the 1970s and up, just needlessly complicated.

I think this is worth pointing out not because we have such a huge percentage of XLR owners among our readership, but because bad design like this—specifically, owner-hostile design decisions like these—need to be called out.

These XLR owners love their cars and likely want to enjoy them as long as possible, but this needlessly complex and unserviceable design is making their lives actively worse.

Things like taillights, that are legally required and are prone to damage (they’re often right at the exposed corners of your car, highly vulnerable in case of even a minor fender-bender) need to be easy for owners to service, especially as the car ages.

Designing taillights like these, with nearly zero capability to be serviced by the owner, cheaply and easily, show actual contempt for owners by the engineers who designed them.

So, screw you, GM, and these stupid, overpriced taillights. Please don’t pull any **** like this again. And that goes for all you other automakers, too.

 

[beaver_jd]

You are correct its almost every part on the car. We have a member with an 09 cannot get the fog light cover . a 50$ part but no longer made. The only things that GM still carry are items that cross over with the vettes and if they do there are literally hundreds of those parts used cheap. There is no reason as stated that they should not release parts they no longer support to the open market.

long Tall Sally, So here's my million dollar question. GM has the patents to make both the tail and head lights. If they do not want to manufacture them why can they not be forced by law to give them or sell them to someone who will. They are a safety item and items that need to be working to register a vehicle. Without them the car is worthless.
John F.

 

[long Tall Sally]

I assume they like the idea that when a car gets tapped In an accident , It totals as there are no lights. that way you rush out and buy a new 100,000 car from them instead of having yours repaired. The writer of the story missed a few things. Almost all led equipped lights have a circuit board to control the lights. Almost all manufactured lights front and rear in the last 10 years are sealed and have no replacement parts and are not made to be repaired. that's Ford Fiat Chrysler almost all of them .And new from the factory these lights can be several thousands of dollars. But at least you can buy them. I agree , as a safety item they should be required to either supply the part or make it such that it can be repaired They have even gone one step away from that. Several years ago they started charging a core charge for you old lights . That way those lights damaged in a collision have to be returned to them so they can destroy the parts assuring that only new ones can be bought from them. No aftermarket or reconditioned ones out there.

 

[pure zen]

Remember the 'old days' when you could buy a sealed beam headlight for $10-$20 and install it yourself?

In 2000 I bought a new car that you still could install the new 'bulbs' for $15 from the backside,,,but if that headlight module caught a rock or was damaged on the lens......its cost to replace was $750 each. I thought that was outrageous until I seen the cost going UP each year on headlight replacement costs. My '06 Viper headlights were $1100 each, but that now doesn't compare to finding a XLR headlight if needed.

Yeah,,the new style headlight are stylistic looking,,,brighter beam extends the range further to see down the road, but at a high cost...


Think I will look for a 1973 Maverick with a 302 to purchase so I can once again work on it myself and not get raped on replacement parts

 

[Caddyjack]

I had a 1971 Maverick with a 302...

 

[rexster314]

These are the issues which haunt me. Am not discounting the headlight tail light issue, but .......

transmission cable connector issue Those nylon connector bushings are readily available at almost any auto store.
top operation components- - pump, cylinders, modules
suspension -shocks costsYou can still get the shocks from Amazon for around 450 each last time I looked
cost implications of fuel pump failure

 

[pure zen]

I had a 1971 Maverick with a 302...

View attachment 9150

Thanks for posting Jack,,, that brings back some great MEMORIES.

I once had a '72 Merc Comet 202 model, 2dr post with a 302 4bbl carb and headers,,,, and that light-weight sucker was quick.
Same for my Mother's '73 302 Maverick... > little ole lady was 'fast' stop light to stop light

 

[Rachel]

I am so discouraged...I need a taillight - my blinker doesn't work properly. What the heck are we supposed to do? The mechanic told me that they are no longer making these taillights. Does anyone have a solution? I'm starting to think that I should just sell it for parts. It makes me want to cry.

 

[rexster314]

I can't vouch for for the taillight repair, but he did an excellent job of rebuilding my ECBM 2 months ago at a reasonable price

Tail Light Assembly Cadillac XLR 2006

 

[Bill S.]

Hey,

Am well aware that some of the "parts" are available. The haunting issues below are "issues" primarily based on the incurred costs and secondarily that finding a competent person to work them through is tough.

These are the issues which haunt me. Am not discounting the headlight tail light issue, but .......

transmission cable connector issue Those nylon connector bushings are readily available at almost any auto store.
top operation components- - pump, cylinders, modules
suspension -shocks costs. You can still get the shocks from Amazon for around 450 each last time I looked
cost implications of fuel pump failure

Bill

 

[long Tall Sally]

they patch them up not really repair them. Good for a quick sell to pass the problem on to the next guy. Vetteronics is the only one that has been doing them for years and does them correctly. He gets 650.

 

[rheavn]

Do you have any contact info for Vetteronics???

 

[long Tall Sally]

I show
Vettetronics is Travis Wolfe
618-975-3607
wolferestorations@yahoo.com

 

[rheavn]

Thanks a bunch