Rick from AZ

Travel trailer and 5th wheel owners beware! The newly designed GM Heavy duty truck isn't worth buying since they never thought they needed to make replacement parts available for them. I bought a new 2020 GMC Sierra 2500 HD SLT Crew cab, 4x4 with 6.6 Duramax in March of 2020. Little did I know when I bought it . The new body design meant they had apparently made no plans of making any more body parts than they needed to build them. I had one of the rear tires blowout (right rear) which absolutely destroying the right rear fender inner and outer assemblies. We were blessed that we had postponed leaving on a 4000 mile trip towing our travel trailer a week earlier. I can only imagine what may have happened if we had doing been doing what we bought the truck for when it happened. Suddenly at the posted speed on I-10 east of Phoenix , the truck develop a vibration that then immediately became blow out. The highway was clear , no objects on the road, just smooth concrete pavement . The TPMS system had no low air warnings and the truck had just been it for an oil change and safety check over 500 miles before this happened. I called Onstar and they came and Installed the Michelin brand spare and I took it to the dealer for a damage estimate . In their infinite wisdom, GM radically changed the inner and outer rear fender assemblies for 2020 and newer to be unique to GMC models only. Chevrolet models are unique to them as well , so they make less parts available in the first place for whichever brand they sell less of. Now add the covid factor and not only are the parts on backorder but they can't even provide a projected date of arrival. After hearing that wonderful news , I started researching the parts supply issue. From the sounds of it , they don't even project even catching up till first or second quarter of 2022. At least our truck is driveable, with a" custom by steel belt shrapnel" right rear fender, but I am one of the lucky ones I guess. Some poor owners are stuck with their vehicles stored at dealers completely undriveable, sitting out in the elements until front fenders and hoods and bumpers show up possibly by next year . Important lesson learned GM parts supply system has become the victim of just in time inventory as needed by the production line only now. Talk about planned obsolescence to ensure new sales. Especially when the put POS tires on during assembly on the line now too. A strategy that if if becomes true My vehicle will be less of a vehicle than I paid for a protracted period of time through next year . My previous GMC 2016 3500 HD base model crewcab came with better quality stock tires and served us well for 31,000 miles us well. If I end up waiting till next year for the parts the dealer has ordered to repair the body damage, they will have lost a long term customer. I doubt they will even care how many customers they are losing because of their poor management decisions They become a company that can't even support the vehicles they have produced with any reliable sources of parts. Not holding my breath.