2016 GM to go to a 60k power train warranty

[Brian S.]

Probably just a corn ball idea, but I have seen stranger things in my life. Just the cynic in me that always looks for an ulterior motive. Started in me back in the day when the military said we had to destroy the village in order to save it.

Or Joe Biden saying "As crazy as it sounds, we have to spend money to save money!" when pimping ACA to seniors.

[HondaHawkGT]

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/03/09/gm-buy-back-5b-shares-assuaging-harry-j-wilson/

 

I doubt it's just a coincidence that just days before this warranty change, GM was forced to dump $5 billion in cash to buy back shares. That's the problem with publicly traded companies, what's good for the shareholders comes at the expense of the consumer and can force the company to make poor decisions.

[Cowpie]

And therein lies the rub. You are free as a consumer to buy from whomever you want. Just like no OEM is required to offer any kind of written warranty, or when they do, how long it is for, anyone is free to choose whether they buy from that OEM or not. It is called voting with your wallet. If GM takes a hit because everyone jumps ship, that is the way it falls. If this warranty cut remains in effect, GM is running on the notion that it will not affect their sales. Somewhere, their marketing folks have reams of data that give them the motivation to go this route.

 

I still think there is some ulterior motivation behind all of this, like I mentioned earlier. I could be wrong, as I usually am. But something in all of this smells of a rat. GM has not gotten the nickname of Government Motors without reason.

[truckofwinandawesome]

I can't disagree with that statement enough. The build quality of my '14 and '15 are miles ahead of my '09 1500 or '14 2500HD.

 

The "quirks" most people are complaining of on here wouldn't be covered by the powertrain warranty anyway. They're stuff that would fall under the 3/36 B2B.

 

and more often than not, its an ELECTRICAL or POWERTRAIN MANAGEMENT issue that is ONLY Covered by the 3/36, and problems are most likely to crop up AFTER the 3/36 is LONG Since Expired! its a problem I had to Deal with in my Aveo THE HARD WAY, and the $544 Bill I had to pay OUT OF POCKET is STILL painful to look at even after 8 months!

[JerryCanada]

From my understanding, the only money saved by GM would be not having to repair vehicles powertrain issues between 60-100k. If they bother making the change it must be because the savings are worth the risks. I love my '14 Sierra but if the company who sells them can't trust their powetrain to be trouble free until 100k miles, why would I? The money they will save will come directly out of the consumer pocket to pay for those repairs out of pocket.

[Brian S.]

From my understanding, the only money saved by GM would be not having to repair vehicles powertrain issues between 60-100k. If they bother making the change it must be because the savings are worth the risks. I love my '14 Sierra but if the company who sells them can't trust their powetrain to be trouble free until 100k miles, why would I? The money they will save will come directly out of the consumer pocket to pay for those repairs out of pocket.

Exactly. Or something else is going on like "Steel costs us 10% more now, where do we get that money, to leave price and profit the same? Oh drivetrain warranties score low on customer response surveys, and cost about that much." .

 

Why WOULDN'T they (drivetrain warrantys) score low on a customer poll? People take them for granted, and if you read these forums what appears to matter most to people is "Truck goes fast when I stomp it" and "I like the loud noise it makes when I stomp it". Truck buyers aren't thinking about "Hey, I've got a $500/$600 payment for 5 years. It would really suck to tack $4k for a new transmission in year 4.".

[Hutch65]

Let's see. One truck is steel, the other is aluminum. One uses stout displacement for power, the other pumps up the pressure with turbos to get the power.

It would sure make more sense look closely at both of them and do some comparison. More so this year than ever in the past, the Chevy and Ford are different.

This is all pretty obvious to most of us, so what does Chevy do? Why cut down the powertrain warranty by close to 50% ! This would be my silver bullet if I were a Ford salesman. C.mon GM, I bought the Chevy back in '07 and one consideration was the great warranty! Right now while battle is really heating up you infer you won't back your truck over the long haul ??? !!! Some sales strategy! Fire whoever said this was good thinking.

[Cowpie]

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[becker87]

Just some food for thought. I had my truck to the dealership to put new tires on the other day and they found a few other things that needed attention. Front axle leak, radiator hose leak and something else. It was kind of nice that none of the fixes were out of my pocket. Now saying that though I completely forgot I had the 100k and was completely willing to pay for the fixes, guessing more people are on the same lines as me for thinking.

[RyanbabZ71]

Personally doesn't sway me one way or another. My 5 year powertrain warranty was up in November, I only had like 47K miles on my truck. I can see how it would affect people who drive a lot of miles. I am still dealing with a cracked dash issue (past warranty) but that's another story.

 

 

Ryan

[NEFisher11]

This will sway me when i purchase my next truck. Gm was in my trucks rearend 3 times to get it right last summer and they just replaced both u joints on the rear drive shaft and replaced the front axleseal. All of this happened after my 3yr36k ran out. I have owned the truck 3 years and have 60k on it, so those would be out of pocket repairs for me. Both of which i think came to early and makes me doubt my currents truck lifespan.

[Cowpie]

Only problem for me is, no one, including GM, is making anything that really gets me excited, car or pickup.. I just look for what can more closely fit what I need, what I can live with, and how good of a deal I can get. I never even take notice of the warranty length, regardless of brand. Just does't make it into the top reasons for any selection I make. I have to spend so much time trying to find what would work for me, what I need to avoid, and trying to get something that has most of the features I need and want. Unfortunately, that usually also means have to take a stack of features that I could do without since the OEM's do all this bundling crap.. Getting to be, anymore, I loath having to ever shop for a vehicle.

[Cowpie]

Well, FCA (Fiat - Chrysler) has jumped on the same warranty bandwagon as GM. So the trend has begun......

 

http://www.carsdirect.com/automotive-news/chrysler-cuts-back-warranty-coverage-for-2016-models

[MikeNH]

Can you blame them? GM dumped down, Ford never even offered the 100k coverage and every import brand I can think of stops at 60k aside from the Koreans.

['01LS1]

This will sway me when i purchase my next truck. Gm was in my trucks rearend 3 times to get it right last summer and they just replaced both u joints on the rear drive shaft and replaced the front axleseal. All of this happened after my 3yr36k ran out. I have owned the truck 3 years and have 60k on it, so those would be out of pocket repairs for me. Both of which i think came to early and makes me doubt my currents truck lifespan.

 

The new warranty is going to run 5yr/60,000 miles. So unless your issue happened at 60,001 or greater am thinking it still would have been covered?