i posted the weekend i bought my 04 c5 vert that the clearcoat on the wheels had fine scratches in them. so i talked to the dealer on monday morning 1st thing to let them know. so i take the car up on wed night (less than a week after i bought it) with less than 200 miles on it, the sales manager looks at it. he then askes me to bring it back so one of the owners can look at it. my wife then takes the car back on thursday, and nobody knew what she was talking about. so now i go in there yesterday with the car (348 miles total) and h ave the sales manager, service manager and one of the owners look at the car.

the all stand around and wisper to each other about it, then i get the whole "we dont know what we are going to be able to do" crap. i get the "the car was sitting in the showroom in front of my desk for weeks and i never saw the scratches" line. ok, thats fine, neither did it when i looked at the car in there. the light was not good and i didnt get down on all 4's and inspect the rims. i expected for a 58,000 dollar car, i should have to break out the white glove and magnifying glaass to inspect it.

so today when i get to work, i get a call and the sales manager says that since they think it happened after i bought the car, the only thing that GM and the dealer are willing to do is pay 2/3 of the cost of a new set of wheels if i pick up the other 1/3 which comes to about 500 bucks (mind you after i bought the car), and i didnt steal the car either, i paid a fair price for what was my dream car.

so now im in a delima, do i suck it up, pay the 500 bucks or do i get a lawyer or live with the fine scratches in my dream car for the lenght of time i own it.

the sad part of the whole thing is that in the last 5 years, i have bought a bran new gm car/truck every single year.

2000-bought a 99 GMC leftover
2001 bought a 01 trans am
2002 bought a leftover 2001 gmc sonoma
2003 bought a 2003 silverado 2500hd
and now 2004 a 04 vette

as a loyal gm buyer and the purchaser of a gm crown jewel as the vette, i would expect a little better treatment than insinuations that i somehow scratched the wheels on my own vette in the 1st 36 hours of ownership....what a crock!


so now i sit here with the memory of my 1st corvette as a bad experience.

ok, im done venting now.

 

Move fast on this...most states have a statute that allows you to return a newly-purchased vehicle within a given amount of time. The amount varies widely. Call your bank and ask their auto loan person, they'll know.

 

Sounds like someone cleaned the rims with a rag or something and no water was involved. Anyway, we know negligence was involved, but GM is not responsible for that. The dealership is liable for how they treat their cars and customers, not GM. So don't be mad at GM, be mad at the dealership and the idiots who are responsible. The dealership has to carry insurance on every car on the lot, they just don't want to have to make a claim. If you truely feel that the scratches are unexceptable by fair standards (ie their not tiny and can only be seen at a certain angle), then you should say so and consider the $500 getting out cheap unless you can talk them into trading tires and rims with another Corvette in their invetory. They may go for that hoping the next guy won't be as picky as you. Good luck.

Dean

 

I had gouged wheels on my ranger at the 1st svc. "well, the porter said he didn't
do it"
so now i bad mouth the dealer every chance i get. (oh, i have bought several more
rangers since, from another dealer. and of course, i remind my orginal sales guy
upon delivery!

 

Here is the GM customer service #: (866) 932-4368

I have had to use it a few times, most notably to get my column lock fixed under the recall notice even though my car did not fall in the specific VIN #s listed.

I know its not a GM problem, but they may be able to put a little pressure on the dealer to do the right thing. Since you have been such a loyal GM customer, I think they would be very interested to hear how you are being treated at this dealership.