Good Story, Please Read. Don't let it happen to you
08-29-2007, 10:52 AM
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Good Story, Please Read. Don't let it happen to you
Hello Fellow Members,
I wanted to let you know about what is going on in regards to my car. Perhaps it will shed some light for those in the future who perhaps may come across this issue. On August 18th, 2007 @2:30pm I was on my way to the Woodward Dream Cruise on Woodward Ave near suburbs of Detroit. I was driving my 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt SS/SC down to a parking spot near the area to enjoy a nice day of hot cars and beautiful weather.
I was on my way with my girlfriend in the car when out of no where my clutch pedal went completely down to the floor and would not come back up. Keeping calm I ended up getting the car into neutral and coasted to the side of the road. At the time I was in 2nd gear doing about 50 mph and shifting into 3rd when it went down to the floor.
I looked under the car to see if something perhaps came loose or became busted (no I was not on my car at the time) and noticed nothing out of the ordinary. I checked under the hood to see if anything was de-attached and did not see anything broken. I was told perhaps my clutch master cylinder was out. I was told to check the car in regards to that part but it remained into the locking plate that it resides in and seen nothing wrong there.
I proceeded to have it towed to the dealership which I have been to of many times before.
This is the same place where I purchased my car as well. It won’t be until Monday before I found out anything in regards to my car. It was Saturday. I went to the cruise in my other car after I had the SS towed to the dealership and the tow truck driver drop me off at home.
Monday rolled around and my service manager called me to inform me they would need a $60 look at fee to check my car out. He noticed the clutch pedal down to the floor. He explained to me they will look at it here shortly to determine the issue. Half a day goes by and they call me to say they got my clutch pedal back up with a pry bar. A Pry bar? Why would you use such a thing? They explained to do further diagnosis they needed the pedal back up.
I did not hear from them after that. They explained it could either be the clutch pedal or something in relations to the clutch in general. I still have the stock clutch and have treated it pretty well. The car was engaging in gears fine and had a good pedal before everything all the sudden stopped working.
The next day I decided to call the dealership to find out what was going on with the car. It is now Tuesday and they have had my car for two days now. They explained to me the normal tech was not in yet and it would be sometime before I found out again what was going on. Lunch time rolls around and I finally get the call I was awaiting for, the fate of my car.
My service manager called me to inform me that they found out this plate that attaches to my firewall which houses the clutch master cylinder is broken and the clutch master cylinder is no good either. They explained to me that this may not be covered under warranty for it was not a drive train component. They decided to get a GMPP adjuster out to check the car out and see if this falls under warranty.
Wednesday rolls around and I get another call. This time it was the dealership again. The adjuster came out and denied my warranty claim. At this point I called GM Customer Care to explain the situation and they told me that they will investigate. After a half a day on the phone GM Customer care comes back and says they cannot do anything for me. They said the dealership holds the right to deny the warranty based on claims of the GMPP adjuster.
I was told the plate broke because of the clutch pedal and pressure from the clutch master cylinder(my foot did it!). The clutch master cylinder is made of 95% plastic. The plate which is houses into is made of steel. Odd. How did this break? I asked the dealership if this is a common part to break and they explained they never seen this. I called GM Customer care and they agreed. Now at this point why did this plate really break? Reasons unknown to me at this present time. I digress..
Next day I talk with my buddy who is a GM Tech at a reputable GM dealership in the state of Michigan and also in my car club. He explained to me that this should not have broken and the clutch pedal has a physical limitation to how far it can travel and the clutch master cylinder should not have caused the damage they claimed it did. I called the dealership to find out how much this fix would cost. I was told $50 for the plate (they knocked $10 off. Whoopie) and $800 for the labor. This is where it gets interesting..
I asked them why it cost so much, to my surprise they said because the dash would need to be completely ripped out and would take most of the day (about 8 hours) to replace this. Bullshit! I am not paying for this. This sounds so fishy.. I explained to them I will not pay for this repair. They said you don’t really have a choice unless you want your car back on the road. I told them to hold off.
My buddy (The GM tech) said we can do this (meaning fix the car). I call the dealership and explain to them I will be doing my own repair on the car and I will be by later to get it, they were shocked. They asked why I wanted it out, I said the repair bill is too expensive and there story did not add up. They did not believe me I would come by and actually get it. I get to the dealership after work and call a tow truck to come tow my car. I asked for how much I have to pay to bail my car out of the dealership they said $60 for the look up and that’s it.
I pay the $60 fee and the tow truck is up there in 20 minutes ($90 tow). I get my car and tow it to my mom’s house to be repaired on Sunday.. till then we wait. Sunday rolls around. I enlist the help of several friends to come up and make this a day of learning and fun. I pay for pizza, pop & beer. It took 14 hours to completely rip the dash apart, put the new plate on and piece together the interior again. What a nightmare. Now I can see why they wanted to charge so much money. We end up getting it back together but find out the clutch master cylinder was no good. Here is where it gets interesting..
Remember that pry bar? Apparently they (the dealership) broke the plate which the clutch master cylinder houses into with either a pry bar or foreign tool. There is pry marks all over the area where the steel was at broke at to get to the master cylinder. This hole is where the clutch master cylinder is at. This plate also has all the cooling hoses for the heater core, the A/C and the power steering shaft. Apparently the dealership did not know what they were doing in regards to this and broke this plate which should have never really needed to be replaced to begin with. All you have to do to get the master cylinder out is to twist it like a pop bottle cap and it slips off. It has grooves into the plate where it slides into and interlocks.
So now I am pissed. I spent a whole day and wasted friends time as well because of a dealership mistake. I present my evidence to the service manager who explains to me it was already broke before it came in. Funny, how could that be when I looked down and seen the master cylinder still in the plate and the plate did not appear to have stress applied to it when it broke down. Now it all makes sense.
I’m trying to presently right now get a hold of my GM zone manager for the region where the dealership resides at and explain my case to him. The dealership will be held accountable for this mistake and make no mistake about it, some one is going to get burned. I called GM Customer care to get this information but they referred to me to my dealership. They could only provide a name of the Zone manager but not any contact info. If I want that information I have to call the dealership.
I call the dealership and talk to the service manager. He would not give me the contact information, I asked him why is he fighting me on this, he said he was not at liberty to discuss the contact information and to call GM Customer Care again to get this information.
I call GM Customer care and explained to them about the dealership not giving me the information, they said they should provide that (meaning the dealership) and that it’s not at customer care responsibility. I said to them to provide this information since the dealership won’t. He said let me call the dealership. They call the dealership and left a message. The service manager was not available at the time. I said why is GM and this dealership fighting me, I hear crickets and the rep on the phone explains that GM strives there best to provide the best customer service they possibly can. I said this is bullshit. I want to talk to someone who cares.
I asked if GM Customer care can leave a message with the zone manager to call me. They said they do not usually talk with consumers but said he would leave a note because of my circumstances I’ve already went thru. All they can do they said was leave a message on the voicemail for the zone manager. This is the point we are at right now. I am pretty ticked off that this dealership is basically getting away with murder. My car would not be running right now without the enlisted help of friends who know what they are doing. I ended up having to buy a clutch master cylinder for $161 to get the car moving. That’s all I needed but instead all this happened and now because of it someone is going to be responsible for this. Accountability should be held for the dealership for lack of trained techs.
If anyone actually works for a dealership or knows of any contacts besides GM Customer care that I can contact to get action taken please let me know. The little man should not get screwed like this.
-Mike
btw, pictures of the damage will make it's way on here tonight. I do not have access to an SD Card reader at the time where the pictures are on.
I wanted to let you know about what is going on in regards to my car. Perhaps it will shed some light for those in the future who perhaps may come across this issue. On August 18th, 2007 @2:30pm I was on my way to the Woodward Dream Cruise on Woodward Ave near suburbs of Detroit. I was driving my 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt SS/SC down to a parking spot near the area to enjoy a nice day of hot cars and beautiful weather.
I was on my way with my girlfriend in the car when out of no where my clutch pedal went completely down to the floor and would not come back up. Keeping calm I ended up getting the car into neutral and coasted to the side of the road. At the time I was in 2nd gear doing about 50 mph and shifting into 3rd when it went down to the floor.
I looked under the car to see if something perhaps came loose or became busted (no I was not on my car at the time) and noticed nothing out of the ordinary. I checked under the hood to see if anything was de-attached and did not see anything broken. I was told perhaps my clutch master cylinder was out. I was told to check the car in regards to that part but it remained into the locking plate that it resides in and seen nothing wrong there.
I proceeded to have it towed to the dealership which I have been to of many times before.
This is the same place where I purchased my car as well. It won’t be until Monday before I found out anything in regards to my car. It was Saturday. I went to the cruise in my other car after I had the SS towed to the dealership and the tow truck driver drop me off at home.
Monday rolled around and my service manager called me to inform me they would need a $60 look at fee to check my car out. He noticed the clutch pedal down to the floor. He explained to me they will look at it here shortly to determine the issue. Half a day goes by and they call me to say they got my clutch pedal back up with a pry bar. A Pry bar? Why would you use such a thing? They explained to do further diagnosis they needed the pedal back up.
I did not hear from them after that. They explained it could either be the clutch pedal or something in relations to the clutch in general. I still have the stock clutch and have treated it pretty well. The car was engaging in gears fine and had a good pedal before everything all the sudden stopped working.
The next day I decided to call the dealership to find out what was going on with the car. It is now Tuesday and they have had my car for two days now. They explained to me the normal tech was not in yet and it would be sometime before I found out again what was going on. Lunch time rolls around and I finally get the call I was awaiting for, the fate of my car.
My service manager called me to inform me that they found out this plate that attaches to my firewall which houses the clutch master cylinder is broken and the clutch master cylinder is no good either. They explained to me that this may not be covered under warranty for it was not a drive train component. They decided to get a GMPP adjuster out to check the car out and see if this falls under warranty.
Wednesday rolls around and I get another call. This time it was the dealership again. The adjuster came out and denied my warranty claim. At this point I called GM Customer Care to explain the situation and they told me that they will investigate. After a half a day on the phone GM Customer care comes back and says they cannot do anything for me. They said the dealership holds the right to deny the warranty based on claims of the GMPP adjuster.
I was told the plate broke because of the clutch pedal and pressure from the clutch master cylinder(my foot did it!). The clutch master cylinder is made of 95% plastic. The plate which is houses into is made of steel. Odd. How did this break? I asked the dealership if this is a common part to break and they explained they never seen this. I called GM Customer care and they agreed. Now at this point why did this plate really break? Reasons unknown to me at this present time. I digress..
Next day I talk with my buddy who is a GM Tech at a reputable GM dealership in the state of Michigan and also in my car club. He explained to me that this should not have broken and the clutch pedal has a physical limitation to how far it can travel and the clutch master cylinder should not have caused the damage they claimed it did. I called the dealership to find out how much this fix would cost. I was told $50 for the plate (they knocked $10 off. Whoopie) and $800 for the labor. This is where it gets interesting..
I asked them why it cost so much, to my surprise they said because the dash would need to be completely ripped out and would take most of the day (about 8 hours) to replace this. Bullshit! I am not paying for this. This sounds so fishy.. I explained to them I will not pay for this repair. They said you don’t really have a choice unless you want your car back on the road. I told them to hold off.
My buddy (The GM tech) said we can do this (meaning fix the car). I call the dealership and explain to them I will be doing my own repair on the car and I will be by later to get it, they were shocked. They asked why I wanted it out, I said the repair bill is too expensive and there story did not add up. They did not believe me I would come by and actually get it. I get to the dealership after work and call a tow truck to come tow my car. I asked for how much I have to pay to bail my car out of the dealership they said $60 for the look up and that’s it.
I pay the $60 fee and the tow truck is up there in 20 minutes ($90 tow). I get my car and tow it to my mom’s house to be repaired on Sunday.. till then we wait. Sunday rolls around. I enlist the help of several friends to come up and make this a day of learning and fun. I pay for pizza, pop & beer. It took 14 hours to completely rip the dash apart, put the new plate on and piece together the interior again. What a nightmare. Now I can see why they wanted to charge so much money. We end up getting it back together but find out the clutch master cylinder was no good. Here is where it gets interesting..
Remember that pry bar? Apparently they (the dealership) broke the plate which the clutch master cylinder houses into with either a pry bar or foreign tool. There is pry marks all over the area where the steel was at broke at to get to the master cylinder. This hole is where the clutch master cylinder is at. This plate also has all the cooling hoses for the heater core, the A/C and the power steering shaft. Apparently the dealership did not know what they were doing in regards to this and broke this plate which should have never really needed to be replaced to begin with. All you have to do to get the master cylinder out is to twist it like a pop bottle cap and it slips off. It has grooves into the plate where it slides into and interlocks.
So now I am pissed. I spent a whole day and wasted friends time as well because of a dealership mistake. I present my evidence to the service manager who explains to me it was already broke before it came in. Funny, how could that be when I looked down and seen the master cylinder still in the plate and the plate did not appear to have stress applied to it when it broke down. Now it all makes sense.
I’m trying to presently right now get a hold of my GM zone manager for the region where the dealership resides at and explain my case to him. The dealership will be held accountable for this mistake and make no mistake about it, some one is going to get burned. I called GM Customer care to get this information but they referred to me to my dealership. They could only provide a name of the Zone manager but not any contact info. If I want that information I have to call the dealership.
I call the dealership and talk to the service manager. He would not give me the contact information, I asked him why is he fighting me on this, he said he was not at liberty to discuss the contact information and to call GM Customer Care again to get this information.
I call GM Customer care and explained to them about the dealership not giving me the information, they said they should provide that (meaning the dealership) and that it’s not at customer care responsibility. I said to them to provide this information since the dealership won’t. He said let me call the dealership. They call the dealership and left a message. The service manager was not available at the time. I said why is GM and this dealership fighting me, I hear crickets and the rep on the phone explains that GM strives there best to provide the best customer service they possibly can. I said this is bullshit. I want to talk to someone who cares.
I asked if GM Customer care can leave a message with the zone manager to call me. They said they do not usually talk with consumers but said he would leave a note because of my circumstances I’ve already went thru. All they can do they said was leave a message on the voicemail for the zone manager. This is the point we are at right now. I am pretty ticked off that this dealership is basically getting away with murder. My car would not be running right now without the enlisted help of friends who know what they are doing. I ended up having to buy a clutch master cylinder for $161 to get the car moving. That’s all I needed but instead all this happened and now because of it someone is going to be responsible for this. Accountability should be held for the dealership for lack of trained techs.
If anyone actually works for a dealership or knows of any contacts besides GM Customer care that I can contact to get action taken please let me know. The little man should not get screwed like this.
-Mike
btw, pictures of the damage will make it's way on here tonight. I do not have access to an SD Card reader at the time where the pictures are on.
Last edited by 3fo893013L; 08-29-2007 at 10:52 AM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
08-29-2007, 11:02 AM
#5
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OMG, make em pay!!!!! I hate when the stealerships try and screw the little guy just cause they think they can.
I've had so many problems with them trying to do work on my car that wasn't needed. At least you don't have ****. That makes it worse. They see a set o' bewbs and assume you don't know **** about cars. Can't even begin to tell you how many times they've tried giving me the runaround on stuff.
I've had so many problems with them trying to do work on my car that wasn't needed. At least you don't have ****. That makes it worse. They see a set o' bewbs and assume you don't know **** about cars. Can't even begin to tell you how many times they've tried giving me the runaround on stuff.
08-29-2007, 11:10 AM
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Mike sorry this is going on. I am sorry 05's and some 06's were built like complete dog ****. I love the look, feel, style and drive of my car. However I have had a ton of problems with it and continue to see others having similar issues. GM is a piece of **** corporation. Sorry to say but it is true. If you don't drive a corvette, a caddillac, or a GTO they dont give a rats ass. Funny they should put 10 x more emphasis on the "economy" cars since that is where they get their money from. Good luck with this. I would send my story to 2, 4, and 7 and I gurantee one of their people will call you back. Just tell them all you want to do is talk to the zone manager and they are giving you the run around.
08-29-2007, 11:10 AM
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I will concede this is the perfect example of a Jackass dealership not doing their job.
This is something that falling under the 3/36 bumper to bumper should have been covered.
Its not like the "oh i snapped and axle" or "oh my stuts are blown" threads.
I'll see if i can find you another rep number.
This is something that falling under the 3/36 bumper to bumper should have been covered.
Its not like the "oh i snapped and axle" or "oh my stuts are blown" threads.
I'll see if i can find you another rep number.
08-29-2007, 11:11 AM
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OMG, make em pay!!!!! I hate when the stealerships try and screw the little guy just cause they think they can.
I've had so many problems with them trying to do work on my car that wasn't needed. At least you don't have ****. That makes it worse. They see a set o' bewbs and assume you don't know **** about cars. Can't even begin to tell you how many times they've tried giving me the runaround on stuff.
I've had so many problems with them trying to do work on my car that wasn't needed. At least you don't have ****. That makes it worse. They see a set o' bewbs and assume you don't know **** about cars. Can't even begin to tell you how many times they've tried giving me the runaround on stuff.
08-29-2007, 11:14 AM
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Putting a fancy word like economy on it means CHEAP. Period.
08-29-2007, 11:20 AM
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Wow, I can't believe that horseshit. That sounds like the stealership here in MO. They try to rip you off anyway that they can. *rolls eyes* Hope you can totally kick their asses. +rep for you going after them.
08-29-2007, 11:20 AM
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OMG, make em pay!!!!! I hate when the stealerships try and screw the little guy just cause they think they can.
I've had so many problems with them trying to do work on my car that wasn't needed. At least you don't have ****. That makes it worse. They see a set o' bewbs and assume you don't know **** about cars. Can't even begin to tell you how many times they've tried giving me the runaround on stuff.
I've had so many problems with them trying to do work on my car that wasn't needed. At least you don't have ****. That makes it worse. They see a set o' bewbs and assume you don't know **** about cars. Can't even begin to tell you how many times they've tried giving me the runaround on stuff.
08-29-2007, 11:21 AM
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WOW...I am sorry to hear that they are trying to screw you over like that! I hope you get this resolved quickly and hopefully get a little kick back for their screw up.
Good Luck!!!!
Good Luck!!!!
08-29-2007, 11:26 AM
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Oh man, sorry to here your trouble! I too have suffered from tech errors that have all of a sudden become my responsibility.
I tried fighting it, and it ended up costing me several hundred dollars out of my own pocket in diagnostic fees from other mechanics and dyno's.
In the end, I had to just trade the car in. Nobody seemed to care that my "sports car" was only getting 131hp to the wheels and making a terrible buzzing noise and hitting 20psi of boost on a GM stage 2 pulley.
I hope you fair better than I did. But just know that battles between a customer and a dealership are rarely won by the customer.
I tried fighting it, and it ended up costing me several hundred dollars out of my own pocket in diagnostic fees from other mechanics and dyno's.
In the end, I had to just trade the car in. Nobody seemed to care that my "sports car" was only getting 131hp to the wheels and making a terrible buzzing noise and hitting 20psi of boost on a GM stage 2 pulley.
I hope you fair better than I did. But just know that battles between a customer and a dealership are rarely won by the customer.
08-29-2007, 11:28 AM
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I went from my 06 Cobalt SS/SC to an 07 loaded Avalanche. The way you get treated by dealers is proportionate to the amount of money you spend on a car.
With my Cobalt, I had to fight tooth and nail to get anything done properly, and under warranty.
I have not had any serious issued with my Avalanche, but when it does go to the dealer, I am treated completely differently.
With my Cobalt, I had to fight tooth and nail to get anything done properly, and under warranty.
I have not had any serious issued with my Avalanche, but when it does go to the dealer, I am treated completely differently.
08-29-2007, 11:31 AM
#21
Damn... this makes me really really mad. Take them all the way... i bet if you call the local newspaper, or news station... something BIG will happen.
"And tonight on the channel 6 news... Fraud at the Dealership? Is it real, and what you can do to prevent it."
"And tonight on the channel 6 news... Fraud at the Dealership? Is it real, and what you can do to prevent it."
08-29-2007, 11:31 AM
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pretty ignorant to treat differently based on cost of the vehicle. Considering that people usually take steps up the quality ladder when purchasing cars. If I buy another car new it will be more expensive than this one, and from a different manufacturer
08-29-2007, 11:32 AM
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I'm real sick of hearing things like this from GM. They have great cars its time they ******* back them...
I hope it all works out for u.
I hope it all works out for u.
Last edited by R&C_rallySS; 08-29-2007 at 11:32 AM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
08-29-2007, 11:37 AM
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damn
i would be pissed. make them give you free GMPP mods
(stage 2, exhaust, header, intake, dual pass)
i have no warranty, i voided it (its ok, i do my own work) but when i go there for parts(they dont have **** in stock), or that 1 recall(i dont go to the dealer i used to work at).. they give me ****. i should go to a saturn dealer
(stage 2, exhaust, header, intake, dual pass)
I went from my 06 Cobalt SS/SC to an 07 loaded Avalanche. The way you get treated by dealers is proportionate to the amount of money you spend on a car.
With my Cobalt, I had to fight tooth and nail to get anything done properly, and under warranty.
I have not had any serious issued with my Avalanche, but when it does go to the dealer, I am treated completely differently.
With my Cobalt, I had to fight tooth and nail to get anything done properly, and under warranty.
I have not had any serious issued with my Avalanche, but when it does go to the dealer, I am treated completely differently.
Last edited by chevysalesman614; 08-29-2007 at 11:37 AM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
08-29-2007, 11:43 AM
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Talk the general manager of the dealership, not the service manager. Plead your case to him, he's more likely to listen. I work at a dealership and it happens all the time.