Thank You Edmunds.com
robertslatez71
Member Posts: 20
The reason I'm thanking you, is because we used your service to find the 2015 Chevy Colorado we wanted.. You system scans our area and found us a truck based on limited supplies.. Our truck was delivered to us Monday evening and we've been driving it ever since and to top it off, your system/service saved us at least 3K off of the price when we mentioned to the dealer that we found the truck using Edmunds.com.
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After a weeks wait (because my wife drove it for the first week) I drove the 2015 Chevy Colorado for the first time today from MD to PA and the results are in.. I hate it.. As a 6''3'' tall male here's what I had to face on a 4 hour drive:
1) I kept hitting my knees on the steering column upon entering and exiting the truck..
2) The seats do not have a memory setting because my wife is shorter than I,
3) The headrest (when lowered) forces my neck forward and is very discomfortable while resting between my shoulder blades..
4) I felt cramped in the drivers seat..
5) The hood "flutters" in high wind..
6) Many of the gauge indicator lights cannot be seen because the either the steering wheel is in the way or just because of improper instrument cluster placement.. it took me 40 mins to find the cruse control because it was blocked by the tac pointer.. Running at 2000 RPM the light can't be seen because it right behind the tac pointer..
7) The temp and fuel gauge are totally obstructed/obsolete being that they are at eye level to the steering wheel..
8) One other thing I notice while driving this truck, is that my wife and I caught each other yawning.. constantly.. does this mean Chevy/GM is putting the drivers asleep at the wheel with this truck?.. maybe it's missing excitement because several times we both nearly fell asleep..
9) I felt like my wife was hornswoggled into buying this trucks.. first we enter the dealer wanting 4wheel drive but settled for a 4x2 Then we couldn't decide what color.. But one thing that really yanked my chain.. was when the salesman told me the reason chevy is bringing these truck into the US is because many of these are being made in Mexico and that this midsize Colorado would attract the latino market.. and this is just the beginning..
The only Good thing about this drive today.. we got 23.7 mpg city & 27.9 mpg highway.
So now we're stuck with a $640 month payment and our insurance went up 20% for a truck we can't drive nor do I like.. Does this look like the face of a happy man.. I doubt it..
http://www.edmunds.com/car-buying/unwinding-the-deal-what-are-your-rights.html
We'll take note of all our options and make the appropriate decision and will report back at a later date with the outcome.
While at the dealership.. my wife asked me to sit in as many car/trucks as I could and actually be comfortable.. I tried sitting in the Malibu, Trax, Equinox and the Colorado.. The only one that felt half way close to being comfortable was the Colorado.
One telltale sign that I'll have trouble sitting or even entering into a car or truck is that if I hit my head on the door seal upon entering.. Once seated.. and the door is closed.. all of these cars/trucks have one thing in common.. they "squish" you into the drivers seat. The only way out of this squishy feeling is to sit in a full size truck.. but $45,000+ a chevy silverado is out of the question.
As time went on.. I felt my wife was being pressed to buy the chevy Equinox instead of the Colorado.. My wife even tried to sit in the Equinox and one look at her face I could tell that the Equinox was not going to "fit" our needs.
We were give a chance to test drive the Colorado.. but 3 blocks is not much of a test drive for me.. She seemed comfortable.. but I wasn't even in the passenger seat and I did tell her that this was her truck and not mine.. but clearly when travel is involved.. I'd be the one driving.. and clearly.. I couldn't drive this truck. While on my 4 hour travel yesterday.. and every chance I got to adjust the seat and steering wheel.. nothing worked.. lowering, raising, pushing forward and back.. moving the head rest.. Nothing work. At one point my arms started to go numb..
One thing that I've neglected to mention, is that we were to get a loan via our company.. and when we told the salesman that we were waiting for word from our company.. all the salesman started going crazy.. asking if we wanted water, food etc.. They even admitted that the black 4x4 was on the way to their dealership all in the hopes of having it ready for us.
But once we found out that the loan wasn't approved.. the salesmen changed that attitude and offered us the 4x2 instead.. Once the paperwork was being processed.. and my wife was taken back to the financing room.. There was no AC and temps reached 100 degrees..
Clearly the finance director even admitted that when he entered the room he couldn't breath because it was so hot in there.. I jokingly suggested that the dealer was giving us the "hot house" treatment as a means of sweating the cash out of us.. Right then, I should have told the wife to get up and walk out..
Mind you my wife entered the finance office with a set plan on how much we could afford to pay a month.. around $550 a month. Later she exited with "extras" tacked on.. thus upping our payments to $640 a month.
Another thing I don't like.. OnStar.. although this can be a good feature in an emergency.. I get this email saying that our tires are low.. so I check them.. the dealer never checked the tire pressure before we left.. all our tires where 30psi. Onstar suggested that we inflate the tires to 35psi.. Does "Big Brother" ring a bell here?.. So with OnStar's admittance that they are "monitoring" our system.. I feel they are doing more than just monitoring or system and may actually be taking notes of our driving habits..
Currently in contact with the dealership & awaiting what they're going to says about our issue.. Does one take the truck back.. or make it more comfortable with new seats.. But adding just the seats would be half the battle.. I don't see us keeping this truck.. moreover I don't see us getting into the Equinox or a Silverado.. anything else.. I wont be able to fit into just an econobox without comfort or 4 wheel drive.. and we may have to search for an alternate brand..
Things are moving better than we had expected.. the dealer said they will have several other suv's on the lot for us to choose from and all within our price range.. and then we get to drive each one home the day we test drive them.. Currently there are 2 other SUV's lined up for a test drive.. and both test/demo vehicles are not Chevrolet.
It really is hard getting a feel for the seats, even on a longer test drive. We went from super comfortable basic seats on a Quest to an 8 way power seat in our Grand Caravan (with a tilt wheel) and while not as bad as your experience, I still wind up using a rolled up t-shirt to augment the lumbar (and I'm always fiddling with the seat controls).
Here is what we have to do (unless Ford or an alternative can help us out of this deal) is that we've allotted less than 2 years paying on this truck.. save money and when it's time.. trade it in for something else. Sure the seat deal would be a cheaper alternative.. but my wife isn't willing to comment to actually owning this truck.. right now.. she'll just drive it back and forth to work.. 24 miles round trip, keeping it low miles as possible.
I just submitted an email to Ford about this.. Just wondering if they can help us out of this bad deal and into a new Ford Explorer.
Well I can tell my wife is or has been shaken by this whole experience.. I recall yesterday morning her saying "We're getting rid of this as soon as possible" Now a few things have happen since my post of a few hours ago.. for one, the dealer continues to pester us for more money.. which isn't going to happen.. Also I sent an email to the dealer with "My terms" and I doubt they will go for this.. lastly.. a family member has stepped forward who knows how dealerships work.. and might help us.. But the final say.. Because this truck has hurt my back.. if it starts hurt her back.. I can see her driving the truck back to the dealer, handing them the keys and walking away.
It looks like we may have found an error on the paperwork which might get us out of the deal..
Stay tuned.. this aint over till the fat lady sings..
http://www.carfax.com/VehicleHistory/p/Report.cfx?partner=VAS_0&vin=1GCHSCEA8F1160145
Note about halfway down the page.. it says that while the truck was at this dealership.. the odom reading was 98 miles.. then the truck was driven to our dealership (157 miles away) where we bought it.. So now that I have that carfax page I'm going to detail every little scratch, dent, repair or error that occurs with this truck.. These people do not know how through I can be. However.. I did miss the 50 mile error and I blame this on that conference room being 100 degrees with no AC. Clearly the dealer was attempting to make us sweat. I think the dealership realized that my wife's eyes glazed over from all the sweet talking they did and then knew they had a sucker.
@stever and I have been in chat for a few days.. and he has offered a few suggestion.. some good some not so good.. but one suggestion he offered was that if we take long trips which I have to avoid in this truck.. we should rent a car etc.. this way I can sit in any car or truck as a means of testing them out before we search for them.. in essence this is what I was doing over the weekend.. We went to carmax and I attempted to sit in 12 cars or trucks all within our price range.. Oddly the two cars/suvs i could sit in comfortable was the Ford Explorer and Flex.. I still have a long list of cars/suvs I want to try to sit in.
The salesman was so knowledgeable about this issue, because he too suffering with the same crappy seats design as implemented by new government standards enforced back in 08. A Government mandate that focus on the headrest and other area of these seats.. The headrest juts forward more so than any other car or truck since 2008. Also, while at the dealership, I had a question.. what ever happen to bench seats.. and the only vehicle that has something similar to a bench seat is the Ford F-150 and even though I sat in one, 45K was wait out of our price range.
The final judgement on this issue.. we bought a new car with less payments going from $650 down to $489 a month.. and we dropped interest rate. going from 13.9% down to 9.9% all with no money down.. Clearly Ford and this dealership wanted to help us more so than that Chevy dealer. The vehicle we bought will have to remain a secret.. But we're saticfyed with this outcome..
Thank You Ford!
Take some responsibility and admit you screwed up. You're lucky you got into another car with no big $ hit.