Bad Vehicle Experience on GMC

I have to tell someone this so I thought this would be a great place to start. About a year and a half ago I bought a 2004 GMC Canyon, it was brand new. I had a heck of a time with the dealer which made buying it a very stressful thing to start with. That is a whole different story. So here goes the most recent one.

I had my truck for about a year and the Service Engine Soon(SES) light would come on with a quarter tank of gas and would go off it seemed once you filled up, this only had happened when it was cold. I asked a different dealership what was wrong. They said it probably is a gas cap problem or poor fuel the next time the light came on to bring it in. It went off again back at the end of March the 28th to be exact. They did some tests and said the problem is more than likely a valve spring problem that they have had on the Inline 5’s. They had a service bullitin that came out on them. So they were going to fix it….well it ended up being a head problem. So they said they had to order parts and stuff and it should be a week or so and I’d get it back. Well that week went by…they were missing some valves that were back ordered. So I end up waiting 6 weeks for valves. I thought I could get this thing in on a Lemon Law but found out that it can be done if it were within 1 year. Mine was 1 1/2 years… So they finally get it together and get it running it has now taken 1 day short of 7 weeks to get my truck back. I now have a truck engine that was tore down and put back together and they “think” it will be fine. GM won’t do anything about it and the dealership it wasn’t their fault they had to wait for parts so they aren’t really responsible. So I really don’t feel comfortable with this vehicle now even though I have 2 more years of warranty or so left. I don’t know if the problem is really fixed or not or if it is gonna leave me sitting somewhere. So my question is this to you…what would you do? Do you complain to GM more? Do you get a lawyer and try and go after them and possibley spend more money?(I won’t do this by the way, I hate lawyers), Do you now look for a new truck and take a beating on trade? I’m at a loss and don’t really know what to do? HELP ME OUT and give me some IDEAS?

Unfortunatly these types of problems are all to common with GM these days.
I think you would be wasting your time/money with any legal action.
Easy for me to say but I would keep it until the warranty is up.
I could go on and on here but I won’t.

drive it as fast as it will go,probablly 40, to a ford dealer. they deal with this type of stuff everyday, trade it in and they will give you max allowed trade in and you will drive off and have no worries for ten yrs or so

Sounds to me like they found the problem and fixed it. This is what warranty is for. Two more years of warranty, I would drive it every day like any other new car and not worry about what might happen. If a problem comes up, deal with and worry about it then.

BIRDDOG

Krisko, I am a union quality rep for Ford Motor Company and we have a system set up that customers such as yourself would be able to report there issues with a dealer panel board. These people are Ford Motor Company employees, not dealership people, and have the power to deal with dealerships or situations such as yours.

I am sure that GMC has a similar type of system set up. I would do a search and find out where your particular vehicle was made and attempt to contact someone at the assembly plant. If you are unable to get results speaking with a GMC Representative, I would try and contact there localy appointed union quality rep. With the automotive industry trends as they are, I would think that GMC would do what they could to maintain you as a customer.

If you had a Ford I would be able to direct you to the appropriate people, but if you had a Ford you wouldnt need to

Sorry….Couldnt help it !!!!

Krisko: you are blessed by the fact that you reside near the best mechanic I’ve ever met, whether it be vehicles of any make/model, guns, tractors, etc. PM me for details.

Waterfowler: YOU DA MAN!! Right on!!

Mark

Good advice guy’s……other then driving it to Ford Dealer and trading it in, that would result in the same number of problems plus……………WORSE GAS MILEAGE…..

Sunday go out and start it up in the driveway, throw a brick on the accelerator pedal, go in the house and watch the NASCAR race. When the race is over, go out and see how your repair job held up. If it didn’t, take it back and tell them it “blew up” going down the freeway.

maybe you can trade it for a new 6 liter powerstroke and then the ford rep will help you alot!

What are these “FORD” things you guys speek of ??

Pier, While I can sympathize with you, this happens quite often. Especially on a newer vehicle, with a known issue, parts can go on national backorder for months. This is not specific to GMC, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda and on and on. It happens to them all. Being a service manager at a dealer, my advice, as others stated above, drive your truck and don’t worry. Having a factory trained tech repair your vehicle, is the best you can do for yourself and your truck. You have factory warranty. One thing I would suggest is get ahold of the consumer line, and tell them your situation, alot of times here, when I have a customer with a new vehicle and has major problems, we have Chrysler put a extended warranty on them, typically extend powertrain to 10 years, 100,000 miles. If the vehicle is truely repaired, it costs everybody nothing, if it is not, then it costs Chrysler and not the customer. Good Luck.

big g

check your mail.
Jigmaster

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maybe you can trade it for a new 6 liter powerstroke and then the ford rep will help you alot!

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And you’ll get to drive around in a little go-kart while your truck is in the shop over and over and over again.

Well, if you don’t know what GMC stands for here it is, Garage Man’s Companion. You should have bought a Chevy. Just kidding!!! I feel for you. I had to put a new transmission in my truck. This only cost $1800.00. And what worse is that they only give you a one-year warranty or 10,000 miles which ever comes first. I would just drive it like you normally do. If you have any more problems take it right back to them.

Great advise…big G.

I had the same trouble with Ford, bad knock in engine, 5 recalls, and bad service at the dealer. It was all fixed under warrenty, they extended to 100 thousand miles…..I went to the nearest Chev dealer and traded it in on a Suburban….been smilin’ ever since. This kind of stuff happens to all makes and models…………drive it or trade it. I know how you feel about not trusting it, that’s why I traded mine.

If you had extra expense, like renting a car, or missed work, you could always try small claims court. I’ve used it and it works great. No lawyers, just explain the situation to a judge. It usually only costs you a few bucks to get on the docket, and often, the dealer will settle with you just to make you go away. I’ve found these courts to be very fair. If you want to go this way, pm me and I’ll give you a few pointers.

I appreciate all the advice guys….It is nice to get other’s opinions on things like this. I’ve actually been actively looking to trade and the way it looks I’m going to be stuck in the truck. I can’t afford to take the hit I’m gonna take. Like I said before I’m not going to sue the dealership or GMC it isn’t worth the time or effort. I did have a rental the dealership paid for. The only thing that sucked is you could only do 100 miles per day or then you would pay the milage. I drive about 90 miles a day to and from work so that put a damper on things. I got some other things I’m looking at so I’ll keep you guys informed.

You could trade it in for a Fix Or Repair Daily or just keep it. None of my GM’s have every stranded me. My next truck will be another GM.

About four years ago my son graduated from Waukesha Technical College as a GM Mechanic. He was sponsored by GM and woked as a GM intern while in High School.

At the graduation ceremony a GM VP asked him why he selected General Motors. His answer was simply they are among the worst vehicles built so I figure I will get more work. Still works for GM and is still quite busy. And has not changed his mind about the quality of GM products.

Incidently, he drives a Toyota which the folks at his delaership are not overly fond of.

Well I said the heck with it and got a different truck. I ended up getting a 06 Dodge Dakota. So I guess I don’t need to worry about it. My wife to be and I didn’t feel safe or comfortable with having the truck. We have 2 trips to the UP of Michigan and one to Canada this year and I don’t want to be left sitting somewhere. Plus having power of the V8 will be nice pulling the larger boat I have. I tried to deal with GM and spoke to a couple reps yesterday and they wouldn’t do much, except the extended warranty. I guess when I invest that much money into a product I expect it to work and function. I never had any problems with my 2001 Dakota and don’t expect much with this one. I would have stayed with Dodge but I went for fuel economy with the Canyon….now they get the same milage out of the V8 as they do with the I5 so…..I now have more power and higher towing rating. I’m happy…..thanks for the help guys.

Good Luck sitting somewhere. What kind of gas mileage did you get with that inline 5. I know people that are getting 23 Highway and you will probably get 16 with that dakota. I almost bought a canyon last year, but because it was a new model and a unproven I5 I decide not to.
Goodluck with the Dodge.

My Canyon running highway miles got me about 20-21 mpg. If I hooked my boat or anything up to it it went to 15 mpg. It just didn’t have the performance it was promised. The Dakota now with the 5 speed automatic instead of the 4 speed went from 17 mpg highway to 20 mph with the 5 speed auto. The people I know that have the new Dakotas said they get about 19-21 just like the Canyon did. Plus the milage won’t go down as much with the towing because of the higher torque or horsepower. I’m very confident I made the right choice.