Like a Rock? — C/K truck image from the 1998 Buyer’s Guide.
To bring you up to speed, by 1997 we were driving a ’97 Blazer, and my beloved ‘80 Buick Park Avenue, both have been written about.
1997 was a very good year for the Downs family. The only downside was the sad divorce of my brother and sister-in-law. But, good came from that as we were able to bring Beth, my sister-in-law into our home, giving our children the chance to know their aunt. It was also the year that I bought the hardware store from Paul, my father-in-law. Yes, that’s right, Paul retired, and I now had my own business, Riverland Hardware!
Well, my Buick was on its last legs at 170,000+ miles and my accountant had suggested I go lease a new truck for the business. So, after putting up for a while with the Buick only wanting to start whenever, I drove it to my local Chevy store to look at the S10 trucks they were giving away for free, along with balloons and hot dogs. According to the newspaper anyway.
However, I drove out in a full sized extended cab Chevrolet Cheyenne with two options: Automatic, and one package (R1C if memory is good). This came with a tilt wheel, cruise control, air conditioning and a stereo with a cassette. The Cheyenne was white over blue cloth and with Rubbermaid floors. The venerable 4.3 resided under the hood. It was the perfect vehicle. And the lease was so cheap; no money up front, no deposit, just $278 monthly for 36 months!
I was really excited to have a non-Brougham-type truck. No carpet to mess up, easy to clean cloth, white (important in the Fort Lauderdale area, trust me), and better on fuel than the neighbor’s 2-year-old Dodge.
I had a bed liner installed, put beauty rings on, tinted the windows, and had magnetic signs made to advertise. I had a new tool in my toolbox to help me run my new business. That trick helped me in so many ways. Not only could I offer delivery, but I could now make trips to my wholesalers if someone needed something in a hurry. I really was enjoying that truck. In fact, we even drove it up to Charlotte one time.
Everything was terrific… until it wasn’t. With an empty bed, one person aboard, the transmission hunted from 2nd to overdrive back and forth; on flat ground. So I took it in for service.
At first, the fine folks at Chevrolet were reasonable and honestly tried to find and fix the truck’s issues. However, this wore out after my second visit, where I was told simply and directly, “We cannot find whatever the problem is. This truck, shifting and all, performs to specs. Therefore, kindly do not return to our dealership again.”
Wow. Ok.
Things continued going down for my beloved truck. One Sunday the kids and I went to pick up a half yard of sand. No weight involved and the truck’s engine sounded like it would grenade in a minute. My poor son looked at me with big eyes: “Dad, aren’t you going to pull over? Or do something?”
I said, “Nope. Chevrolet can’t find the issue when it’s running. Maybe they’ll figure it out with a blown engine!”
For those reading who’ve never had to use the Lemon law, congratulations. It is laughable at best. Between keeping every piece of paper, demanding paperwork from every dealer, to sitting through a BBB arbitration (whose volunteers range in age and expertise) it is really a big waste of time.
Finally, at the 14 month mark, I took my truck to a local dealer who was simply amazing. Per my promise to them, I will not name them. But after they heard the truck’s noise with another load of sand, they tried many repairs, desperately looking to fix the issues. This included a new transmission, new coil packs, tune up, fuel system flushing, new windshield (the other had delaminated), new wiper motor (it broke while in their possession), and a new cigarette lighter (the old one had a short).
But in the end, nothing would fix the truck’s real problem; a bad CPU that GM absolutely would not replace even if I paid for it. So, I was advised simply to reach out to the State Attorney General for Florida and I did. They asked for me to fax any repair documentation; 53 repair attempts in all! Eventually, GM agreed to buy the truck back, no defense.
When they called to ask me where I’d like to drop it off, I said “The selling dealer, of course!”
In the end, all worked out great. I got paid by GM, my sister-in-law met and married her wonderful husband, and we ended up running our business successfully.
Thanks for the story, Chip. And as someone who has been following your articles since I believe you started here on CC, I have to congratulate you for being a resolutely up-beat, glass-half-full, person who is also willing and able to keep pressing forward for resolution and a better outcome. That may seem like a easy thing to just toss out there, but it’s really quite a characteristic to be proud of, IMO.
I’ve never had to take advantage of a Lemon law, but I recall when such things were first invented and I was amazed that consumers were able to rally the political force necessary to get such legislation enacted. I was even more amazed when I heard that it was sometimes possible to use the legislation to get redress. But still, the thing that probably doesn’t surprise me is that it takes less than a day for a car dealer to take your money, but usually months for you to get your money back in the event of obvious product failure. 53 attempts….
This kind of thing makes me cynical. What happened to doing the right thing for its own sake? What are the odds of the author ever buying another GM vehicle?
I have known a couple of people who had to invoke my state’s lemon law, with uneven success. It is not a process for the faint of heart! There must be few things as frustrating as getting a brand new vehicle only to get hit by constant or unfixable problems.
I have to echo Jeff, above. You have had a lot come your way but have always found a good way through.
Wow! I have had perhaps 50/50 new and used vehicles over the last 50 years. I’ve only needed a tow three times, Vega, Vanagon, and BMW 528i. All with fairly high mileage (I guess 70k is high for a Vega, it was the timing belt). Of the maybe ten brand new cars I’ve owned, I’ve had minor warranty repairs and/or recalls on just a handful of them. No breakdowns or multiple service returns, ever, with a car bought new. I can’t imagine 53 attempts and needing to invoke a lemon law. And as I noted in my recent CC outtake, I really like GMT400’s. Oh well, thanks for taking one for the team.
That was an eye-opener. Reminds me of the reader who wrote in to tell us about the 46 trips to the dealer he had to make in the first year with his 1985 Firebird V6:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/classic-curbside-classic-1989-camaro-rs-gms-deadly-sin-6-46-trips-to-the-dealer-in-the-first-year/
Thanks for the story. Having worked (and still do) for dealerships for 29 years in total now, I can understand your frustration with the dealer. Personally, I feel a very high % of the problems with vehicles could have a much more positive turnout if the dealers understood customer service.
In my life of car ownership (way too many vehicles that I’ve owned and that’s another story), I’ve been very lucky with my GM products and is probably why I stick with them. I can honestly say that I don’t recall any issues in the past 30 years and that includes new Chevy’s, Buick’s and Cadillac’s. Now, I’m not saying that I haven’t had a squeak or rattle or a noise that was frustrating. We’ve all been there. But if I did, they got fixed by GM.
However, if I may, here’s three stories pertaining to new cars I’ve had. First was a 2002 VW Passat. We loved the car until we didn’t which started around 9,000 miles. The list of issues is long, so bottom line is that we kept getting check engine light and at times would flash and the car would shake badly. I took it to the selling VW dealer several times with no luck. Finally a few months later I got a letter from VW explaining an issue they have been having and it described our car to a “T”. I called as they asked and finally got through and the lady asked me a bunch of questions. We got to the end and she asked if our check engine light was on at that time. I said no and it’s intermittent and she told me there was nothing they could do. I laughed and said there’s something I can do: Trade it. The next day it was traded on a 2003 Buick Century.
Second one: I went out of order on this one. It was a brand new 2001 Lincoln Continental. My first new Lincoln. With only a few hundred miles, the wipers started going on by themselves. Took it to the Lincoln dealer and since it wasn’t happening all the time, they couldn’t find anything and proceeded to tell me I must be turning them on myself. That didn’t set well with me. So off I went. A few months later on a cold February morning while on the 4 lane highway, the check engine light came on. Then it started flashing and it made a noise. We were heading toward where the Lincoln dealer was, so I decided to just keep driving it there. Sadly, it shut off shortly after and had to be towed. Timing chain broke and the engine was shot. The car was at the dealership for over a month and they gave me a Ford Focus as a loaner. Really? That car too was sold after getting it back.
Final was a 2005 Kia Amanti. I loved the look and it was such a nice car. I called it the best Korean Buick ever made. Well, till about 3 months into ownership and suddenly the very quiet car was no longer quiet. Just like that, it developed a wind whistling noise around the drivers door mirror and a wind noise around the sunroof. I checked everything out and noting was broken, damaged or out of place. It was so bad that my wife asked why I had the sunroof open when it wasn’t. Off to the dealer 90 miles away. Strangely, the car’s MPG was also very bad. It was getting about 19 highway on a good day and about 16 average. Compare that to the Buick we had sitting next to it that would do 31 highway and average 24. At the dealership, they heard the noises and couldn’t find anything wrong. Thus, they told me they could not do anything. I asked if they heard the noises and they said yes. I asked if that was normal and they said no. Hmmm. Ok, so they sent me home with nothing fixed and had told me my bad MPG was probably because I was constantly driving into the wind. haha. The car was promptly trade the following week.
Sorry for the long post. Just thought I’d share all that and make the point that dealerships can make or break the deal every time.
I have a 2000 Chevy C-3500 single cab with a 350 cid and the big automatic and the same type of option and I am 12 miles shy of 300,000 miles and I can’t say enough good about my workhorse. It has worked on a small farm, pulled horse trailers and our 30′ travel trailer across country several times. with only normal maintenance repairs. I do baby it, meaning I do regular oil changes and use synthetic, I have the tranny serviced every 50,000 miles with a filter change and new synthetic ATF, even in the rear differential. I tune it up my self and do compression checks and my range is 120 to 123 psi on all cylinders. I guess I bought a diamond in the rough… I take care of it and it takes care of me. Now retired, it is my daily driver and I have no compunction with hooking up my smaller travel trailer and heading anywhere.