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My Story About GM Quality


I’m more often than not an advocate for General Motors and their (now obvious) pursuit to transform their products into the greatness that many of us have known they are capable of for years. However this latest experience with GM product is having me, for the first time, question whether or not GM is still instating these virtues they keep preaching about. Fortunately for GM, I’m a realist. I know bad products happen and I think that is what is sitting in my garage at the moment.

This 2005 Equinox LT FWD entered our garage in March 2005. It was built that same month, which was a request by myself because I did not want an early-build Equinox due to bugs. Nonetheless the build-date of this particular ‘Nox pleased me, so it came home. Not long after that, May to be exact, the Equinox headed up to the dealership because the center console armrest was peeling something fierce. They ordered a new lid for it and that settled that.

July, August and September were fuel economy months for the ‘Nox. I had been getting 8 to 13 miles-per-gallon on mixed driving, so it went to the dealership three times over those three months for that. I then take it upon myself to figure out what the problem is, so after a little research I find that there was actually a technical service bulletin (TSB) out to recalibrate the odometer because it is inaccurate at low speeds. HA! There is the fix! So I have the dealership do that to the ’Nox. While we were at it they also replaced the radio head unit due to the paint chipping off of the buttons (that were rarely ever touched mind you). They also had to tighten the shifter knob, as it was floppy and loose. This all with 2,300 miles on it. Gas mileage numbers were better after the TSB (odometer was about .3 off per mile when driving 35 MPH or lower), but to this day I have only once gotten reasonable gas mileage.

The new year rolls around with no visits to the dealership until July! The antenna base (located on the front quarter panel) was so loose that driving down the highway the whole base would move about an inch fore and aft. I was concerned that it would get torn off (scratching the whole panel), so I took it up and they replaced the whole base. I now understand why they moved the antenna on the 2007 models. Then in December it went up because the drivers seat was squeaking every time you would just slightly move, it didn’t want to start sometimes and one of the plastic lug nut covers just randomly broke off. All was fixed except the starting problem.

This vehicle has a bad luck streak with oil changes. At the 3,000 mile oil change all was well, however the rest have not been. At the 6,000 mile oil change they discovered that the front axel was leaking, “pretty bad” too. That called for another trip to service. Then just in July of this year I took it for the 9,000 mile oil change, and they come back telling me to get it in for service ASAP because the intake manifold is leaking oil. Oh joy. So it spends a few days at the dealership over that as well.

Fast forward to this week. The Equinox is sitting in the garage and I decide to go somewhere. I get in and it doesn’t start, and all the electronics and dash lights were tweaking out. I don’t mess with it, just call Chevrolet Roadside Assistance. I push it out of the garage and let them tow it to the dealership. Come to find out it needed a battery and some fuse. Thankfully the battery was covered by the warranty.

The interesting part about this whole situation is that throughout the intake problem, I contacted Chevrolet customer service with no response to ever happen. As someone who works in customer service myself, I was very nice with them. I know being arrogant and rude gets you no where. I was able to find out that Chevrolet contacted the dealership to confirm everything I E-Mailed them about, but I never got any response of any kind. Granted, my E-Mail server was down for a short time during all of this, but I left my phone number and E-Mailed them four times.

My motive behind contacting them was; to inform them that this Equinox has issues and to see if they would at least offer me something. I thought at the BARE MINIMUM they would offer an extended warranty. Particularly when the vehicle qualifies for my state’s Lemon Laws. I guess not.

The Equinox is going up the dealership again tomorrow. The last couple of times I have washed it the driver’s side window leaks water into the inside and the rubber seal on the spoiler is cracked and will probably start to leak as well. I dread seeing what they will have to do with the window, as it doesn’t appear that there is an easy fix for it.

If it weren’t for my G6 being such a good vehicle, I would start to question GM’s “improved” quality. I know lemons happen, and I for one truly believe that I just got one of them. I am okay with that, because it could just as easily be a Toyota lemon. Lemons are not exclusive to any one brand. I just wish GM would have more concern than not responding to me and basically pretending there is nothing wrong.

NOTE: The dealership is one of the main reasons I am able to be so cavalier about having this vehicle. They are GREAT. That is one thing about GM; most of their dealership (around here anyway) have excellent customer service. GM needs to learn from them.