A postive dealer experience - CTS timing chains

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GMBoy

GMBoy

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Some of you probably are aware of the timing chaing issue on certain prior 2010 high feature 3.6 engines. My 2008 CTS finally kept the CEL on for P0008. The car is out of warranty but GM is covering timing chains for 10 years and 120k miles. My car has 74k miles.

So - into my Cadillac dealer I go. They were informative, gave me a nice loaded SRX to drive. Replaced the timing chains and even fixed a small oil pan leak and replaced the thermostat with coolant flush and fresh Mobil 1 oil change. Washed the car too. All took just 2 days.

No charge at all - not even for the extra work they didn't need to do.

I was inpressed.
 
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Very impressive! Wish our local dealers were that nice.

Is there a way you can report positive dealership experiences, such as this, to GM?
 
Originally Posted By: edwardh1
what was the design error or parts error that caused it?
what timing belt did they use before and why did they change?
You are complementing them on rework

Most of us are okay with defects and errors as long as they are handled well. This is an example of that.
 
The bad stories of the way VW dealers blame many things on the owner abusing the vehicle and therefore do not honor the warranty, has put VW on my never even think of purchasing a vehicle from them if i were in the market for another vehicle list.

The good karma that this GM dealer is generating is something that will go a long way in keeping future customers.

Treat the customer like you would treat a member of you family, and guess what, they stay happy and put you at the top of their list of who to check with the next time they are in the market for another vehicle.
 
Originally Posted By: edwardh1
what was the design error or parts error that caused it?
what timing belt did they use before and why did they change?
You are complementing them on rework


They developed an updated timing chain.
 
its not rework.

I wouldnt consider changing a timing chain for the first time at 74000 miles a "rework"
 
Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
Treat the customer like you would treat a member of you family, and guess what, they stay happy and put you at the top of their list of who to check with the next time they are in the market for another vehicle.


^^ That is no longer true.
 
Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
The bad stories of the way VW dealers blame many things on the owner abusing the vehicle and therefore do not honor the warranty, has put VW on my never even think of purchasing a vehicle from them if i were in the market for another vehicle list.


Exactly. As I've said before on here, I'd love to justify buying a GTI. Even to the point where I'd consider factoring in an extended warranty just as "reality". Yet the bigger problem is reading on VWVortex and other forums about just awful experiences on warranty work with VW dealers and the fact that VW of America apparently has a "hands off" policy when it comes to dealing with these complaints.

"Timing chain issues" are also why I'd probably stay away from Nissan these days too. My 2005 Xterra had a known issue with timing chain guides, which Nissan did not decide to cover. That truck also had the radiator issue where the coolant would mix with the trans fluid. Nissan apparently got a class action suit for that one. We traded it before receiving word about the suit. I didn't feel like paying for a new timing chain and radiator because Nissan put some garbage parts into the truck.

If they just handled it like GM has here, I'd have no bad taste about it.
 
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Originally Posted By: NHGUY
GM sure never handled piston slap noise to anyones satisfaction...

That is not true. Tons of Corvette guys had rings changed to prevent the noise. Not necessary. Man get over it already. Tons of folks with trucks too. I have it, don't want to waste my time getting it fixed.
 
Originally Posted By: Gabe
Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
Treat the customer like you would treat a member of you family, and guess what, they stay happy and put you at the top of their list of who to check with the next time they are in the market for another vehicle.


^^ That is no longer true.


I disagree. When you have good experiences with a product or service you will tend to place it at the top of your list when shopping next time. However...if you are referring to brand loyalty, then yes that is not as strong as it once was. Many younger folks are not brand loyal to products and services like times gone by.
 
If you read the internet all experience mostly bad with a car maker. Very few folks come out to the internet unless rave about what got fixed. Yes there are the fans (GMBoy give that away) who rave but reality is people like to complain or seek answers.
 
Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
The bad stories of the way VW dealers blame many things on the owner abusing the vehicle and therefore do not honor the warranty, has put VW on my never even think of purchasing a vehicle from them if i were in the market for another vehicle list.


That was my experience. When I was thinking of buying a GTI w/DSG back in 2007 there was a thread on VW Vortex discussing how dealers didn't know that the DSG required service at 40,000 miles. I called the service departments of my three local VW dealers and asked when a DSG needed to be serviced. One guy asked "What's a DSG?", one said that the computer adjusts the DSG- no service is needed, and one shop actually knew the correct answer. Couple that with the fact that the salespeople made ordering a GTI sound like an impossible task(I didn't want a hole in the roof), and I went with a Mazdaspeed 3. One dealer was recently purchased by the dealer group that owns the excellent BMW dealer I use, so things may improve at the local level- but I would still have to deal with VoA if there was a warranty issue. Bottom line- I doubt that there ever will be a VW in my future...
 
Originally Posted By: rjundi
If you read the internet all experience mostly bad with a car maker. Very few folks come out to the internet unless rave about what got fixed. Yes there are the fans (GMBoy give that away) who rave but reality is people like to complain or seek answers.




That is a true statement.

That is why when you sometimes read a lot about a certain issue a product has you may think "wow! That's a product to avoid" when really - you are only hearing from the people who are upset and have the issues. There may be 100 people with the defect writing online about it versus 1000's who are completely happy.
 
Originally Posted By: rjundi
If you read the internet all experience mostly bad with a car maker. Very few folks come out to the internet unless rave about what got fixed. Yes there are the fans (GMBoy give that away) who rave but reality is people like to complain or seek answers.


So true. I have often raved here about "Internet Amplification" of issues by squealing owners who post all over the net and drum up a lot of animosity. There may be many thousands of happy satisfied owners for each one of the idjits.

Good job to GM.
 
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
Originally Posted By: edwardh1
what was the design error or parts error that caused it?
what timing belt did they use before and why did they change?
You are complementing them on rework


They developed an updated timing chain.


Do you know what the difference is between the old timing chains, and the "updated" timing chains?
 
Originally Posted By: GMBoy
Originally Posted By: rjundi
If you read the internet all experience mostly bad with a car maker. Very few folks come out to the internet unless rave about what got fixed. Yes there are the fans (GMBoy give that away) who rave but reality is people like to complain or seek answers.




That is a true statement.

That is why when you sometimes read a lot about a certain issue a product has you may think "wow! That's a product to avoid" when really - you are only hearing from the people who are upset and have the issues. There may be 100 people with the defect writing online about it versus 1000's who are completely happy.


Yep, I feel like a sheep bleating that over and over on the Cruze forum whenever somebody does a blanket slam on the car for having a problem. They crank out several hundred cars with different engines/interiors/options every day, some are bound to have issues. It's frankly amazing that such complex machines as assembly-line-produced cars don't have more problems than they do.

I wish some of the worse Chevy dealers would get the message that service matters. Maybe someday.
 
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