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CPO 2011 Chevy Traverse and Dealer Service
alexzapatka
Member Posts: 5
In February, i purchased a Certified Pre-Owned 2011 Traverse from a local dealership. i think i got a pretty good price on it. the vehicle was all checked out before we got it, and after we picked it up, we brought it to our local dealership for a once-over to make sure everything was okay with it. our local dealership said everything looked fine with it with their basic inspection except the in-cabin filter was dirty and needed replacing. this was not covered under the bumper-to-bumper CPO warranty and we needed to pay for it out of pocket. it was 37 or so dollars, not a big deal, and we had them install it.
since then it has been back to the dealership several times for service, once for the seat belt recall issue and once because the front struts were failing prematurely, and for an oil change. all of these have been covered under the CPO warranty, and other then the dealer taking an excessive amount of time to perform some of these services, they have been fine and have fixed the issues we have had.
now we are back at the dealership for service. there is another recall that is being taken care of (cant remember what this one is), we are having a sloppy steering issue, and the emergency break was making a weird noise when it was engaged. the dealer, again, is taking 3 or more days to take care of these issues... but that is not really want upsets me. they are saying i need new break pads and are telling me it is going to cost me out of pocket between $400 and $600. now, i understand that breaks are a consumable item and that they would not be covered under the CPO warranty... but i have had the vehicle for about 6 months. i live in suburban Connecticut, and i don't do a ton of stop and go driving. in the 6 months, we have put about 5000 miles on the car. the dealer said the breaks measure 2mm, and typically they change them at 3mm, so they are undersized now and must be changed before we pick up the car.
so here are my concerns:
1) from what i am told, in Connecticut with our driving conditions, brand new vehicle breaks should last around 50,000 miles. the vehicle is around 39,000. i believe that the breaks were quite worn before we picked up the vehicle when we first purchased it, and should have been changed. i dont see how in 5000 miles i could have gone from good/decent breaks to way undersized and in need of a change
2) the dealership has had the vehicle up on the lift 3 times, had the tires off and they didn't catch that the breaks were getting this bad at any point in time? the once over we paid for when we first brought it to them and the strut change both had tires taken off and breaks exposed where it would be plain to see that the breaks were quite worn
3) the dealership where i bought it has been very unresponsive to my questions about this. i have left messages with the president/owner, the person we bought it from, the service department, and several other people there, no one wants to address my concerns.
has anyone else had any issues with CPO's and non-covered items that should have been taken care of before the vehicle was picked up? what did you do? what was the outcome?
since then it has been back to the dealership several times for service, once for the seat belt recall issue and once because the front struts were failing prematurely, and for an oil change. all of these have been covered under the CPO warranty, and other then the dealer taking an excessive amount of time to perform some of these services, they have been fine and have fixed the issues we have had.
now we are back at the dealership for service. there is another recall that is being taken care of (cant remember what this one is), we are having a sloppy steering issue, and the emergency break was making a weird noise when it was engaged. the dealer, again, is taking 3 or more days to take care of these issues... but that is not really want upsets me. they are saying i need new break pads and are telling me it is going to cost me out of pocket between $400 and $600. now, i understand that breaks are a consumable item and that they would not be covered under the CPO warranty... but i have had the vehicle for about 6 months. i live in suburban Connecticut, and i don't do a ton of stop and go driving. in the 6 months, we have put about 5000 miles on the car. the dealer said the breaks measure 2mm, and typically they change them at 3mm, so they are undersized now and must be changed before we pick up the car.
so here are my concerns:
1) from what i am told, in Connecticut with our driving conditions, brand new vehicle breaks should last around 50,000 miles. the vehicle is around 39,000. i believe that the breaks were quite worn before we picked up the vehicle when we first purchased it, and should have been changed. i dont see how in 5000 miles i could have gone from good/decent breaks to way undersized and in need of a change
2) the dealership has had the vehicle up on the lift 3 times, had the tires off and they didn't catch that the breaks were getting this bad at any point in time? the once over we paid for when we first brought it to them and the strut change both had tires taken off and breaks exposed where it would be plain to see that the breaks were quite worn
3) the dealership where i bought it has been very unresponsive to my questions about this. i have left messages with the president/owner, the person we bought it from, the service department, and several other people there, no one wants to address my concerns.
has anyone else had any issues with CPO's and non-covered items that should have been taken care of before the vehicle was picked up? what did you do? what was the outcome?
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Comments
nope, this is the Chevy CPO program, not just dealer certified from who we purchased it from. We are able to take it to any Chevy dealer for warranty issues. When the struts were replaced, it was done at a different dealership than the one we purchased it from, but it was completely covered under the CPO warranty.
The other thing you can do is complain to GM that you think the selling dealer didn't perform all the required CPO checks and you paid extra for a CPO car but didn't get full value for the certification. Try writing a Dealer Review too - sometimes higher ups at the dealerships see those reviews and try to make things right.
i definitely am going to find another dealer. The one we have been using use to be so good, but has gone down hill customer service wise in the past few months.
I had no idea about the dealer reviews. I will be sure to fill out one or two as soon as I can. In truth I was posting here hoping that the Chevy customer service agent that hangs out here would read my situation and offer some advice/help. But the help and advice you have offered has been most excellent! Thanks so much!
We're sorry to hear of your frustrations with the brakes and complementary parts associate with your concern. We would be happy to assist you with this. Please private message us your VIN, current mileage and contact information for further review. I look forward to your message and working with you.
Marlea W.
GM Customer Care
GM Customer care has contacted us and has set up a case. they have given us to a higher level of customer support, a specialized care representative. i do appreciate that GM is getting involved.
i have also been talking to both the selling dealer and the servicing dealer. the selling dealer claims that they did a pre-sale inspection on the vehicle. if the breaks are at 50% wear or more, the replace them. their paperwork shows the breaks were between 50 and 60 percent, and therefore did not warrant replacing.
the servicing dealer has also had the car in several times, they have replaced the struts, done an oil change, rotated the tires, and performed a recall notice service. all times they performed a multi-point inspections and at no point did the notice that the breaks had excessive wear, until this last service.
so we talked to our specialized care rep at GM and they informed us that breaks are a wear item (as we already knew) and are not generally covered under any warranty. they were going to try to contact the selling dealership and the servicing dealership and see if they could work out a solution, but i am not getting my hopes up there.
i did some quick math, i know my numbers are a bit wonky, but i am close. they tell us that new breaks should measure 12mm. they should be changed at 3mm. ours measured 2mm. so that makes 9mm of break material that is "good". 60% of 9mm is 5.4mm. that means in 5000 miles of driving we did 6.4mm worth of wear to the breaks. roughly 70%. the car had 38000 miles when we bought it. they are telling us that in 5000 miles we did more wear on the breaks than was done in 38000 miles. in my opinion that means one of three things: 1) the breaks had a manufacturing defect that caused premature ware, 2) there is something wrong with the vehicle overall or, 3) either someone is lying about the numbers somewhere. i do not run a taxi-cab service, i do not live in Manhattan, i do not live in an excessively hilly place or do a million miles of stop-and-go driving. something somewhere does not line up.
we asked the servicing dealer for the old breaks, but they haven't called back yet. my guess is they are going to tell us that they have already gotten rid of them. it is our fault, as i forgot to ask for them when we picked up the vehicle, but we did call 10 minutes after we drove away (we picked it up right as they were closing, and everyone left right after us).
this cost us $519 dollars. it is sort of ridiculous to think that chevy/GM is going to loose a customer over this little amount of money. they probably have enough other customers that we are not high enough on the food chain to matter too much...
We certainly do not want to lose you as a customers. Please know that your agent has scheduled to reach out to the dealership again about this matter. You should be hearing from them with an update soon. Once again, I apologize for this experience.
Marlea W.
GM Customer Care
also, the servicing dealership has no obligation to pay for the the warranty as brakes are a wear item and are not covered under any warranty unless something is defective.
none of these take into account any of these real world facts:
we purchased the vehicle at about 38000 miles (my previous numbers were wrong). the selling dealership says the brakes measured 5.3mm during the pre-sale inspection. new brakes measure 10 or 12mm (cant remember, we'll go with 12 to give them the benefit of the doubt). they should be changed at anything less then 3mm. 12-3mm gives you 9mm of usable brake surface. that means that the brakes were (suspiciously) at almost 60% exactly. in 38000 miles of driving, 40% of the brakes were used. now, we had the vehicle for 7 months and put on about 5000 miles. in that 5000 miles, we wore the brakepads another 6.3mm (the servicing shop told us the pads measured 2mm and were undersized and that's why they needed changing). 6.3mm of the 9mm of usable surface is 70%! it took 7 months and 5000 miles to wear the breaks 70% of their usable life!
this tells me that 1 of three things are going on: 1) the break pads had a manufacturing defect and caused premature ware, 2) something else is wrong with the vehicle that is causing premature wear on the breaks, or 3) someone somewhere is lying about the numbers. either the brakes werent 5.3mm when we bought the car or the weren't down to 2mm when the servicing dealer said they needed changing.
now, i understand that these are a consumable/wear item, but the facts do not add up that this is "normal wear and tear". GM closed the case because they were unwilling to stand behind their brake pads and they were unwilling to get the dealers to provide the warranty themselves either. 520 dollars doesn't seem like a lot of money, but i certainly won't do business with either of these dealerships again, and i doubt i will ever buy a chevy again unless GM can come up with a solution.