OT: My New Car Lasted 1 Week!
I graduated college in May 2009 and was fortunate to get a financial job right out of college. I saved up my money to buy a new car that I purchased on Saturday March 20th. I am someone who buys American every chance I get. I was looking at a Ford, but my father allowed me to use his GM points towards a new car purchase. The amount of money towards a GM car was significant enough for me to purchase a new 2010 Chevy Malibu.
I used the car for exactly one week and had a tire issue with 382 miles on the vehicle. I cannot recall an incident where my tire went flat. I noticed the meter saying the tire was low and heard the tire having issues so I pulled into the nearest restaurant. There are alot of potholes in NJ,PA due to the weather. I had to call onstar on Saturday night while I was driving my friends to go out. They put the donut on the car and I drove home.
Monday I drove the car back to the dealership after hours for repair. Today I called the dealership and the technician said it would be $385 to fix the rim and tire. I was stunned. He said it was not under warranty. Warranty or no warranty does anyone else think the dealership should fix my issue free of charge or am I nuts?
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do? My father is off work today and visited the dealership but they would not budge. They said $385 was at cost. My Dad balked and took the car to a repair shop. The dealership said they would pay for the difference if it’s cheaper. I will be going as calmly as possible after work but I cannot believe that this is deemed acceptable customer service. At the very least they should fix my tire and apologize for the inconvenience. If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.
What a pain in the ass. Sorry man.
Its no wonder why the American auto industry is such a huge fail.
The only 3 acceptable car companies to date are FORD Honda and BMW. The American car Industry is not a fail. The UAW is a fail.
You obviously have NO idea what your talking about because the UAW had nothing to do with the greedy dealer that wont fix this unfortunate persons rim /tire issue.
I just figured I would try to be more childish with my post headline.
So, you are saying the American auto industry is doing just fine?
No, he's saying that no matter what logic you use to determine what fine and not fine are, there is no way that you can say that only American automakers are not fine and every one else is fine. If you are talking about financials, Ford is borderline making money. If you are talking about car quality, Ford is doing better than most foreign automakers. If you are talking about car sales in America, then all automakers are hurting.
"If you are talking about car quality, Ford is doing better than most foreign automakers."
I'm not really sure how we would determine that one. Not saying it's true or not true, I just am unsure of what you would use one way or another to determine the levels of quality of comparative vehicles.
There is a statistic that is kept which is the number of defects reported within (I believe) 1 year of purchase. That number is released around this time every year, so the numbers for the 2010 model year haven't been released, but they beat Toyota (usually the automaker to beat) in 2009 and 2007. If you search google for "ford beat toyota in quality", you will see a bunch of headlines, many of which the stories for have expired due to time.
JD Power Initial Quality Survey. Over the last few years Toyota's problem's per hundred have been increasing, while American automakers have, for the most par been decreasing.
I'm saying that Ford is doing extremely well. Chrysler (Despite currently outselling Toyota) is probably the worst automobile company in the world right now. And GM is still rebuilding... I just don't think it's fair to associate the American automobile industry with failure since not all of it is failing.
Thank you for the voice of reason.
- Signed PROUD BMW Owner
(Although I think the X5/3/6 are the only ones that are manufactured - fully - in the USA)
March 31st, 2010 at 12:06 AM ^
Does anyone else think it's ironic that Les Miles has knowledge on this topic?
Even though all Ford plants in the States are unionized, with UAW employees? Somehow I miss the logic here.
So you're telling me the UAW told GM they needed 140 different catalytic converters when Toyota has five. The UAW designed some of the most uninspired looking vehicles. The UAW promotes failures to HQ because they have relatives at the RenCen (they do promote failures in a similar fashion though). The UAW encouraged Rick Wagoner to take more in 2006 then the top 23 Toyota execs despite leading the company to a large loss while Toyota made money. Yeah, it's all the UAW's fault.
By the way, FORD is a UAW company.
I'm not surprised the tire is not under warranty. They're certainly vulnerable. It really sucks that they won't fix the rim for you though. Maybe you can try to get them to agree to that compromise?
There is no way a new car should have an issue this soon, and if it does, the dealer should take care of it. Sure maybe the tire is damaged due to nail or something but still the rim, they should cover it. Just me.
I will never purchase a car from either GM or Chrysler, both should be out of business, sorry to say it but both companies (Chrysler twice) have failed to be competative businesses. You are seeing one of their failures as a business currently.
How no new car should have an issue like this. So all tires and rims should be immune from failure no matter how large the pothole or nail one drives over. The entire vehicle should be covered under warranty regardless of usage? To say this is a failure of their business is laughable.
1 car companies (all of them) cannot make every last thing a warranty...
2 Tires and rims, no company, toyota/honda/ford/ any of them would take care of this issue.
When you buy your car they offer you the tire warranty by the tire manufacturer, if you bought it then the tire is under warranty, if not then it is the chance you took. The rim, well again, no way would they offer a warranty to this either.
Now a dealer could take care of you but they are not in business to lose 400bucks every time a customer destroy's their tire and rim...
btw, to the original poster, how many times do financial companies reemburst customers their money that was lost in a fund ran by your company? Thought so, so what makes you think a car company should do the same for you?
Sorry but this was way off base to expect that,
being uninformed.
Guy buy's a new car proceeds to drive over pothole bending rim and popping tire. Wants Manufactor to fix for free lol
keep buying Japanese cars baby!! Not only do they not allow us to import are cars there!!!!!!!!!!!!! they tried to blow us off the map :)
But that would be a tire warranty issue. Contact the tire manufacturer. If it failed that fast, they should cover it.
Doesn't GM have the money back guarantee now? or are they no longer doing this? You seem to meet the criteria.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2009-09-10-gm-money-back-guarantee_…
I just bought a new car yesterday. This makes me nervous.
I've purchased 4 GM vehicles new and have never gotten less then 190,000 miles.
Ironically, the first vehicle I leased, a Blazer, blew the radiator at 8,000 miles and again at 20,000. Was I glad I hadn't purchased it.
My second car was a Blazer and it was a complete POS. I don't think I'll buy a Chevy for quite some time (or ever) because of it.
GM cars really have gotten much better. 125k miles of driving to UM games on the road among other things and the oil and brakes are the only things that I have had to work on. My Saturn has not been to any shop/dealership since I picked it up.
since you do not recall an incident that would cause a flat tire, I would ask the other repair shop to look at the rim and wheel to see if there is some sort of defect that damaged the tire. A defect that could not be caused by driving on the rim, that is. If that's the case, then you could argue that the vehicles rim was already damaged, which should be under warranty. I'm not surprised that GM dealership is telling you the rim is not covered under warranty if they assume that you damaged it by driving on a flat tire.
No car company has tires or wheels as part of their warranty unfortunately, its just something they don't cover for some reason. Im guessing your insurance deductable is more than 385 becuase insurance will cover to fix the wheel, but not even insurance will cover your tires. You could also call goodyear and tell them what happened and they might help you out, thats probably your best bet.
Not true. We have coverage for tires and wheels on one of our Honda cars.
i had it on my nissan as well but i think it was through the tire company that works with nissan, not nissan themselves
first 10,000 miles or 1 year
March 31st, 2010 at 11:56 AM ^
Oh man, we are so screwed. We are getting negged because we admitted to owning a "foreign" car. Oh the humanity!
March 31st, 2010 at 11:59 AM ^
I wish I could anonymously neg the person who anonymously negs a good post.
If they are replacing the tire pressure monitoring sensor (thanks for making these mandatory paranoid America and Firestone) and also check to see if you can find a used rim from a Malibu. The used rim will work fine and will be substantially cheaper than a new one from the dealer. Same with the sensor.
Or replace the tire? If it's to replace the tire, and you want to bring the cost down, try Sears or any other tire shop for cheaper alternatives. Plus the tires you get at Sears are under warranty, whereas my experience with dealerships is they offer no warranties with tires, replacement or otherwise.
GM won't cover that, but I feel like either the dealership or the tire company should; either (a) the dealership sent you out on a busted tire, or (b) the tire was defective to begin with. Hopefully you have a lawyer in your family who can "negotiate" your way out of the tab.
On the bright side, I think you chose a good model. I own a '05 Malibu, and I absolutely love it. I haven't had a single problem that wasn't caused by the shitty drivers around me.
to me when I leased my last car. I literally drove over a nail within the first week of owning the car. Ford was gracious enough not to charge me for the service, but I did have to pay for the tire. It was a 2007 Ford Edge and was a brand new model at the time. They had to ship a tire from a distribution center because the car was so new that they didn't have any of the tires in stock. Although it totally sucked to have ruined a tire so early on, I defintely understand that Ford nor any company can be responsible for tires punctured by random unluckiness.
Welcome to car ownership!!
You replaced a tire because of a tread puncture? Did you drive on it or something? A tread puncture repair should be about $10.
I took it to Sears first and they said the puncture was either too large or in the wrong part of the tread to guarantee that a patch would work (can't remember exactly). I went all over the place trying to find the tire because the car was so new. I eventually settled with the Ford dealership because they only charged me for the tire at cost.
email your story to the Consumerist.
http://consumerist.com/
They can at least post your experience on the site and hopefully, some GM exec will help you out.
The Consumerist is useful every 1 out of 3 or 4 articles. Half the time the person emailing in a sob story was also in the wrong. Then they resort to the lowest common denominator of blogging by adding in the "Have any stories about XYZ corporation being terrible?" line, followed by hundreds of people teabagging each other in the comments.
I mean... if you think Michigan fans drink the Kool-Aid...
Edit: I should say that Consumerist should not be confused with Consumer Reports.
Thank your for your suggestions. I will bring the USA Today arictle with me after work today. I will also call the tire company when I get a chance. Appreciate your help everyone.
I don't think the dealership should have to cover your issue if the warranty doesn't cover it. They have no way of knowing what caused the problem - as you said, it could have been a pothole...or you could have driven irresponsibly. No way of knowing.
I think the US is the only country in the world where people have an expectation of the kind of customer service that covers you no matter what.
Buying a new car isn't a smart investment. Next time, go with a used car and you'll get more for your money.
Way to be understanding and NOT insulting. Geeze.
So there are nicer ways of saying what you said. I mean, you're right about them not having to cover the tire; however, this guy just bought a brand new car and now he has to shell out $385 on a new tire/rim. That kinda sucks, right?
He's getting plenty of sympathy from other comments. I didn't think I had to sugercoat my minority opinion.
OP asked for advice and honestly the best thing I can think of is to not get worked up about it and feel like you're owed something. That and to buy a used car. Also, don't pay for crap like onstar.
If its helps anyone feel better...yes, this is a not fun situation to be in. Sorry to the OP for his bad luck. As someone said...welcome to car ownership. They break and it costs money to repair them. New cars aren't immune.
March 30th, 2010 at 10:43 PM ^
Yeah, I agree with you...cars break. Often. It happens, better luck next time.
To be fair to the OP, I think Onstar is usually free for the first few months on new cars. Outside of that though, its a waste. Cell phones work just fine.
I will never purchase a used car because of the idiots that have no idea about car maintenance. If you by used you probably have about a 1-3 chance that it will be a POS off lease that the last guy skipped 2 oil changes and drove it like he stole it. Its too easy for dealers to put band-aids on problems that will hold out just until the warranty expires. IMO buy a new vehicle every time because then you have the warranty for the first so many miles based on the vehicle and if you do all the scheduled maintenance yourself the vehicle will last 200,000 plus miles.
March 30th, 2010 at 10:00 PM ^
Your argument doesn't make sense. A new car typically depreciates 20%-40% when you drive it off the lot. If you buy a 1-2 year old car with 20 or 30K miles and bank the difference every time you would end up with quite a chunk of change. I love news cars as much as anyone, but until I have a the cash just laying around for a 'luxury' purchase, I will buy used cars. Sit down and crunch the numbers used wins for the old bank account.
to an extent. If you buy a used car thats 1-2 years old you might pay 10-15 thousand dollars vs 15-20 thousand dollars. If you have cash your mentallity makes sense but if your financing like 99% of people whats another 5 thousand dollars to spend when your making payments every month. You get the warranty this way and you know all the work that has been done from day 1. I dont understand your definition of a "luxury purchase", if you need a car and want something that will last buying a new car vs used is not a luxury purchase. A luxury purchase is like buying a ferrari to drive five miles to work rather than buying a ford taurus. Banking 5000 dollars is a good idea to an extent but if you get a lemon like I described before where the last guy drove it like he stole it and you need something like a new transmisson, rear end, front end, or serious engine work of any type you will dump that 5000 into the car faster than you think.
which is usually a returned lease, you still get a full warranty and everything. It's like buying new, but for about %60 of the cost.