2018 2500 GMC, Terrible

kwdelre · January 17, 2018

Hello everyone, I'm a first-time GMC owner. I just wanted to share my story of the current nightmare that is my GMC 2500. I saved my whole life to finally buy a truck and now I have nothing but problems. Considering the way this has been handled by GMC, it’s clear I made a huge mistake in my purchase and regret their attitude towards the issues. I apologize for the portions about the dealership, but I want you to know the full experience. Flame me all you want if you think I'm just 'hating' on GMC, I don't care.

I purchased a 2018 2500 diesel towards the beginning of Dec. on a Friday with 28 miles on it.

After getting a good screwing on my trade-in (told if it was white or black it would have gotten 4-5k more) I brought the truck home. On this first weekend, I see pink fluid all over the driveway. Perfect. Can’t drive it all weekend, and we only own one vehicle. Thanks GMC. Looking under the front-end I see fluid on EVERYTHING!! Guess that happens when fluid comes out freely into highway speed winds.

I was scheduled to get a bed liner installed a street away from the dealership that Monday, so I brought it in, in the morning and told my salesman. He brings me over to ‘repair.’ Even though it was a brand new vehicle off their lot with 130 miles, they weren’t in a hurry to address it. Nice.

After a WHILE he gets me a loaner so I can finally go home, but he needs it back at 4pm.

So I make another trip back at 4pm. Where’s my truck, I ask. Salesman says he had someone take it to another spray-in place in Houston, 20 miles away! I ask what the name of the place is and he doesn’t even know. So my $67k truck is “somewhere” with “someone” being driven with a major leak. Sounds smart. Repair hadn’t even looked at it yet.

They planned to leave it at the bed liner place overnight, so after demanding that my vehicle be brought back, it was and stayed at the dealership. The next day, Tues. they took the front end apart and discovered that the front cooler’s inlet was never welded! Good job on the pressure testing of a cooler, and general assembly standards. They said the inlet turned free; zero brazing or however it is welded.

I told the dealer I wanted my trade back. But of course, since they hit such a home run on it, it was already gone and sold. Awesome.

Take the truck home that night and drive for the first time at night, only to notice the headlights bounce and jiggle on the smallest of bumps in the road! It’s unreal; like driving a cheap little toy. I’m not talking about bouncing with the vehicle, it has reverb jiggling.

Call up to the dealer, visit again the same week and we drive it at night so they could see it and agreed that it was an issue. So at this point I tell them I do not want the vehicle. It was clearly assembled poorly and no one in their right mind should buy a vehicle that needs repair immediately, still on the lot. THAT is on GMC!! Dealer owner tells me they don’t have another one like it, even though they did, just not same color.

So at this point I’m reading the tea leaves and seeing how the dealer, nor GMC is going to do the right thing. So I tell him, okay if you can get me an extended warranty and fix the headlights, I’ll keep the truck. So he’s able to get the extended warranty. Great, much appreciated.

They order the lights and install them (yet another day at the repair shop). The lights jiggle worse. I can even see the entire hood jiggling the same way. Whatever this is all bolted to may be loose, who the heck knows. The dealership made their money repairing it under warranty and now does not return phone calls. Lights still don’t work correctly. Great safety hazard GMC; no concerns there huh?

So I call back and tell him I’m done with this and I don’t want the vehicle because they can’t fix it. An extended warranty does nothing for me on a new vehicle without properly working headlights. I tell him I would even go to the 3500 (which was actually cheaper!) and he tells me he will ‘work up some numbers’ and then never calls back. During this time however, the owner tells me that they are up to 3 new GMC 2500s with jiggling lights just since I saw the problem. So it's clearly not just me.

So I called GMC to deal with them directly. Wow…what a nightmare of a company. You can’t get passed the first level of customer support. Its like fighting an army with these people. Immediate defenses set up, to block a customer from a resolution.

I spent 30 min arguing with someone who barely spoke English and was told that my case was going to be “recommended” to a ‘senior advisor.’ These people are portrayed as helping you, but really have no intention of being able to do anything. They told me they would be communicating with the dealership for a resolution. Wait several days, they call and I tell then the same thing, I’ve wanted out of this poorly built truck since the weekend it leaked on my driveway.

Wait another week for the GMC “specialist” to call and after digging, she admits all she did was leave the dealership a message to call me! What. The. Hell. incredible “specialists” you have. Call was recorded, check it out GMC.

So after wasting 2 weeks, GMC has provided the worst customer service that I’ve ever experienced, especially on a vehicle. There is no way in hell I would purchase another GMC/Chevy or other. My advice to anyone that would like to avoid my trouble, if you are gonna buy a GMC, better get it inspected somehow. But even then, how could my truck's issues been caught? That is why GMC needs to step up and do the right thing. You sold me a problem...and who knows when the next one will creep up.

Anyone wanna buy it?

carlshepard79 · January 17, 2018

Wow. Ya know u have been very patient with them & to pay that much for a truck & it do that! A new truck these days should be able to go at least 100,000 miles b4 any major maintenance. Excluding oil changes, etc. If I were you I’d demand my money back. You definitely have a good case for a lemon law. Ya know I’m a Chevy man & I know there’s good & bad in them all but that is ridiculous. Would definitely act on the situation even if I had to hire a lawyer or something. I don’t know much about vehicle laws or purchasers rights but they’d be replacing my money or my truck. You’d probably be better off to go ahead & switch brands of trucks because you’ll never have confidence in gmc again. I know I wouldn’t!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

kwdelre · January 17, 2018

Thank you for your input. I guess I will look into the lemon law here in Texas. Not sure if this would qualify, but will ask my attorney. It's a shame, cause I really love the truck itself, but I just don't want to buy a problem. If GMC would step up with a swap, or even, I would pay the month's worth to them for a vehicle that didn't STILL need to go to the shop.

Thanks man.

gearheadesw · January 17, 2018

What a drag, I would not be happy in the least, either. Total lack of compassion. Makes you wonder how they even loaded the truck for shipping, if the radiator hose inlet or outlet wasn't welded on, really? Get a news channel in on this, maybe public pressure will help.

Buckshot556 · January 17, 2018

That blows man.

May want to trade into a Ford F250 now that they have most of the bugs worked out of their new 3/4 ton trucks. You will probably get raped on trade in though.

I really love my Sierra but there are some little issues with mine that really upset me as well. That being said, I know what to look for when I buy my next truck in 10 or so years

newdude · January 17, 2018

Did you test drive before purchasing? At all? Maybe even at night? The only real issue is the coolant everywhere it seems.

The giggling headlights is a normal issue. Its an HD truck, not a Cadillac.

Quote

#18-NA-001: Information On Headlamp Shakes or Flickers - (Jan 4, 2018)

Some customers may comment that the headlamp shakes or flickers at night over bumps.

HID headlamps do not have filaments like traditional bulbs. Instead, high-voltage is used in order to create an arc between electrodes in the arc tube (bulb). On HD trucks, when driven on dirt roads or rough pavement, the impact of road irregularities changes the position of the arc inside the capsule located in the light housing. This causes the arc to move on the electrode changing the position within the capsule (bulb) body and the relationship between the arc, the reflector, and the lens of the lamp.

This condition may be more noticeable on HD trucks, due to the stiffer suspension.

The vehicle should be compared to a known good vehicle:

If they are the same, Do Not replace the headlamp assemblies, bulbs, or any other component of the headlamp system for this condition. The light has not failed, it has no effect on the longevity of the system, there is no safety issue and only occurs at the edge of the pattern on rough road surfaces.

If the vehicle in question is notably worse than a comparable unit, the vehicle should be inspected for anything that might cause the lamp housing to be unstable and repairs should be made to correct that condition only.

O_J_Simpson · January 17, 2018

I'm sorry but you failed the test drive test. Always test drive day and night at least 100 miles. Most dealers will let you take the vehicle home overnight. If you would have done this you would have walked out on this deal. As far as your trade, you agreed to what the dealer offered. They did not force you to get shafted. This is on you.

drummerman · January 17, 2018

Well this is certainly a drag. I'm going thru a little something with GM on my Silverado as well..... something that a test drive wouldn't reveal... but eventually did at 700 miles..... best I can say is call the factory get a case number and pound the !@#$ out of them everyday. I agree, it seems like GM doesn't want to help.... heck they had a supposedly wrong phone number for me and that's why the adviser could not reach me.... she told me today that they will followup on lemon law claim weekly and verdict should be in about 8 weeks. Thanks GM. Way to run a business.

AKNick · January 17, 2018

OP, here's what I'd do:

-Get the radiator replaced. That'll end this problem for good. I'd recommend pushing through with the current dealership.

-Get your truck back and never go back to that dealership. Work to find a dealer you know you can trust, or do everything yourself if it's not a warranty claim.

Really does not need to be any more complicated than that.

Sadly, this is just the way the world is.. Businesses have a hard time keeping good employees because they can't pay them the wages they deserve, so they rightfully move on, which adds to the high turnover rate in service departments allowing for a service department to go from great to shit in a few years.

I have the Silverado with halogen lights, so I can't comment on the bouncing lights and am not sure how bad it really is. But I would think if you had the lights retrofitted for a different projector & bulb combo, it should get rid of that.

Sucks that you have to fix design flaws right away on your own. And you're right that GM engineering is lacking compared to some of their competitors and their customer service from a corporate level is definitely lacking. You're just not a priority anymore to them once they make their sale. GM sells to the masses who will buy their cars regardless of if Steve decides to never buy another GM because Tom will decide he's never gonna own another Ford tomorrow. Other brands with less volume rely more heavily on repeat customers, and are likely to have more of a customer-first corporate policy.

I came from a Toyota and the engineering and customer service is definitely behind Toyota. Sad to see, but I'm trying to make the best of it. Regardless of the brand, I hate spending time in the dealership for any reason, so I'm just trying to minimize any reason I have to go into the dealer--if I can fix it in my garage in less than 3 hours, I'll just do it myself in my spare time. Anything much more and it'll go to the dealer for warranty. If it's a part I need under $50, I'm very likely to just buy it, replace it, and not bother with warranty. Under $100...well, I still lose potentially $500 in lost income from having to have my truck sit in the shop for 2 hours... More cost-effective to just buy the part and swap it myself in less than an hour. (When's the last time you ever took a vehicle in for a 60 minute job and it took less than 120 minutes?)

I'm starting to think that since GM's official corporate policy is, "Collect $$ from customer, bend them over backwards if they come back, ????, profit.", that their service advisers need to be told how to do their jobs--they're clearly not trained on customer service and clearly do not operate with a customer-first mindset...

My first experience with lackluster GM service was less than a week after buying my loaded 2500 LTZ...battery died just sitting overnight in the garage. Ok, fine, I see from the build sticker it definitely sat on the lot for a few months and it's the 6.0 gasser in a lux trim, so it probably didn't get driven much. No big deal...just swap the battery in 10 minutes and I'm back truckin', right? WRONG... It took three hours because I was kept in the dark about what they were actually doing with my truck and by the time I found out that they were so brainless as to blindly follow the GM warranty procedure without applying any context to the situation, it was too late for me to step in and take care of business. They followed the instructions to the letter and tested the battery for an hour instead of putting a new battery in and sending me on my way while they tested it. I hadn't even had this $60k truck a week and they didn't even think twice about making me wait for the entire f'ing procedure. And then to top it off, they didn't bother having the new battery brought across town until AFTER they had done a full test on the old one and confirmed without a doubt it was bad. By the time I found out I was being lead through this goat-rope, it was too late and all I could do was wait longer.

But that kind of blew my mind they'd rather make the buyer of a BRAND NEW expensive truck sit in their service area for hours to replace a simple battery than just hand me a new one, send me on my way, and then deal with the warranty replacement on their own time... I mean, it's a BATTERY...

So I guess next time, I need to tell the service advisers how to provide proper customer support to me... I have a limited customer service component to my job, so I'm confident I can politely instruct them on how to do their jobs...

Just ridiculous... But again, just like everything else in this world...give someone an inch, and they'll take a mile. I gave my dealership an inch by allowing them to just do their own thing the first time to see how they did... They took a mile by not remotely caring about my situation. Always, always gotta be on the lookout for #1... That's why whenever I get lucky enough to find a shop/store that will go above and beyond for me, I try to use them as much as possible and send as much business as possible their way. Pretty pathetic though when the shop I paid $800 for SXS tires made me the offer of, 'If you ever puncture one of these, just bring it to me, I'll give you a new one off the shelf, and I'll deal with the warranty claim for you.' when I've spent less than $3500 over the past 10 years at that shop... But go and drop $60k on a truck and that's what you get... But they don't call them 'stealerships' for nothing... The majority of them, regardless of brand, serve just to bend you over whenever they get the chance.

Ultimately, you're on your own, but I think it might be a bit early to throw in the towel and try to get the vehicle bought back or lemon law'ed. I'd just get the radiator issue fixed, then tell the dealer they've lost your business forever (leaving a negative yelp/google/facebook review will do more for you though; if you tell them in person, there's no oversight, so they won't act on anything you state 1-on-1 at this point it sounds like), figure out something else with the lights, and move on. Probably not worth your time continuing to fight them. If you truly want to get out of that vehicle though, then that's your prerogative. But in the end, it might just be easier to live with the bouncing headlights than potentially risk running through all this AGAIN with a different dealer/brand.. (But I admit I've not seen just how bad they bounce)

amxguy1970 · January 18, 2018

What area you trying to accomplish with this post since you just joined not to be a contributing member but to just complain. Seems both sides failed, you with your due diligence and them (both the dealer and company) with responsiveness. You have a couple fixable problems and a difficult dealer that you decided to do business with, keep working to get them fixed and be an adult and next time do more homework before buying. Headlight safety hazard, haha. It is a mechanical piece of machinery, nothing will always be perfect. A leak though extremely rare that early is not unheard of, you can find similar stories on any forums with whiners such as your self. An inconvenience yes, but they got that fixed and added some compensation with an extended warranty which is very nice and didn't need to be done.

My advice, get it fixed and drive it or take the hit and sell it and move on since you are comfortable losing money, who loses that much on a trade in, who's fault is that? While the dealer delayed they certainly have been handling your issues and concerns. Is this your first truck or especially HD truck? Take some responsibility for our own mistakes as well, neither side is innocent here...

Tyler

amxguy1970 · January 18, 2018

2 hours ago, AKNick said:

OP, here's what I'd do:

-Get the radiator replaced. That'll end this problem for good. I'd recommend pushing through with the current dealership.

-Get your truck back and never go back to that dealership. Work to find a dealer you know you can trust, or do everything yourself if it's not a warranty claim.

Really does not need to be any more complicated than that.

My first experience with lackluster GM service was less than a week after buying my loaded 2500 LTZ...battery died just sitting overnight in the garage. Ok, fine, I see from the build sticker it definitely sat on the lot for a few months and it's the 6.0 gasser in a lux trim, so it probably didn't get driven much. No big deal...just swap the battery in 10 minutes and I'm back truckin', right? WRONG... It took three hours because I was kept in the dark about what they were actually doing with my truck and by the time I found out that they were so brainless as to blindly follow the GM warranty procedure without applying any context to the situation, it was too late for me to step in and take care of business. They followed the instructions to the letter and tested the battery for an hour instead of putting a new battery in and sending me on my way while they tested it. I hadn't even had this $60k truck a week and they didn't even think twice about making me wait for the entire f'ing procedure. And then to top it off, they didn't bother having the new battery brought across town until AFTER they had done a full test on the old one and confirmed without a doubt it was bad. By the time I found out I was being lead through this goat-rope, it was too late and all I could do was wait longer.

But that kind of blew my mind they'd rather make the buyer of a BRAND NEW expensive truck sit in their service area for hours to replace a simple battery than just hand me a new one, send me on my way, and then deal with the warranty replacement on their own time... I mean, it's a BATTERY...

So I guess next time, I need to tell the service advisers how to provide proper customer support to me... I have a limited customer service component to my job, so I'm confident I can politely instruct them on how to do their jobs...

Ultimately, you're on your own, but I think it might be a bit early to throw in the towel and try to get the vehicle bought back or lemon law'ed. I'd just get the radiator issue fixed, then tell the dealer they've lost your business forever (leaving a negative yelp/google/facebook review will do more for you though; if you tell them in person, there's no oversight, so they won't act on anything you state 1-on-1 at this point it sounds like), figure out something else with the lights, and move on. Probably not worth your time continuing to fight them. If you truly want to get out of that vehicle though, then that's your prerogative. But in the end, it might just be easier to live with the bouncing headlights than potentially risk running through all this AGAIN with a different dealer/brand.. (But I admit I've not seen just how bad they bounce)

Agreed with the first and last part in bold. The battery part though there is some issues. You wanted them to just throw a battery in not knowing if that was the case? Sucks you had to wait but they A) had to follow the process from GM in order to get it warrantied and B) had to test to be sure that was the cause and it wasn't something else which means they also had to have it charged. Although it turned out to be that simple there was no way for them to know that was the case with out testing or to be reimbursed without following GM's procedure. How mad would you have been had they replaced the battery and it dies again the next day and it turned out to be something else? At least they checked first to be sure, that is the last thing they want is to have you come back for the same problem or replace something that did not need replacing and having to have another go at it again...

Tyler

Tahoe02 · January 18, 2018

OP, in most states the Dealer has three attempts to fix your issue. Keep calm and take it back for the headlight issue. Documentation is very important. Contact a Lemon Law attorney in your area (Google search). They are the experts and let them guide you through the process. Most do not require any up front money and get paid through the Lemon Law process.

Largely Unknown · January 18, 2018

It can happen to anybody. I bought a Tacoma once that was a turd because of a transmission pump issue, and the dealer/distributor gave me the runaround too. Frustrating. Toyota had their own mediation/complaint etc process and did not recognize or care about the state's process. The state had another separate process for the lemon law. Florida has a lemon law hotline run by the attorney general's office.

There are so many things to check on a test drive, that I always miss something that I had intended on checking, even though I've seen it all by now with dealers. You have the sales people, always in a hurry, occupying a part of your attention span and causing sheer exhaustion in some cases by their own lack of knowledge. You've got places to be, kids that need to be fed (if they're with you), and a ton of other things to do when you buy a vehicle. I totally sympathetic and would never say that you should have done this or that.

My only advice is to get your documentation organized, everything you've done so far. Figure out what your options are (including keeping the vehicle and having int fixed), and work steadily toward that insisting on paper documents as opposed to word of mouth and promises whenever you're able to push to that degree (not always an option, I acknowledge).

Good luck!

AKNick · January 18, 2018

7 hours ago, amxguy1970 said:

Agreed with the first and last part in bold. The battery part though there is some issues. You wanted them to just throw a battery in not knowing if that was the case? Sucks you had to wait but they A) had to follow the process from GM in order to get it warrantied and B) had to test to be sure that was the cause and it wasn't something else which means they also had to have it charged. Although it turned out to be that simple there was no way for them to know that was the case with out testing or to be reimbursed without following GM's procedure. How mad would you have been had they replaced the battery and it dies again the next day and it turned out to be something else? At least they checked first to be sure, that is the last thing they want is to have you come back for the same problem or replace something that did not need replacing and having to have another go at it again...

Tyler

Absolutely a great point. I was thinking about that when going through that. I did indeed want to verify it wasn't a deeper problem with the charging or electrical systems. Funny how I forgot that after the fact after some frustration with some other 'features' in the truck I didn't discover until a few weeks later. Goes to show that once you let an issue frustrate you, you can lose focus and forget to think about a situation rationally sometimes.

I admit if they had just simply given me the battery and then the same thing happened the next day, I would have only blamed myself unless I had wanted them to do a longer diagnostic and they had pushed back. I had expressed to the dealer before coming in for the battery that I wanted to be in & out as soon as possible, but was treated like a walk-in. Frustrating, but as you said, there was a benefit and it could have been worse; what can you do.

OP's main issue sucks and the other complaint is a documented 'issue'. Only fix would be as per newdude's post: dealer can compare to another unit and if his is significantly worse, they can replace under warranty. If not, he's on his own to fix it some other way (halogen conversion? Projector swap? Housing swap? More detailed analysis of the issue himself than the dealer is willing to do to determine a fix?).

But I definitely agree OP, what the dealer pulled with the bedliner was BS! That is just not acceptable. Not worthy of your business again. If you can, take the truck to another dealer for the lights; forget that issue with this dealer. Just get the radiator fixed and then put them in your rearview mirror. I vote just get it taken care of through a quicker means (like suggested above by myself and other members).

Just trying to point out that I think there's better ways to spend your time than trying to get a lawyer involved and fighting that fight. The issues truly are minor from what you've described. Money can be replaced; time can not. And unless there's no other dealer that's not significantly further away, then there is a more efficient path.

Anyway, just my 2 cents...

ewbldavis · January 19, 2018

I don't want to fuel a fire, but I'm curious as to HOW the dealer was approached about the issues.

I'm not downplaying issues, but I'm sure carrying on aggressively about "needing it fixed NOW and you bent me over on my trade...yada yada" will get you very sub-par customer service. Your initial approach and demeanor has EVERYTHING to do with the care you'll get. Hopefully this wasn't your first approach, but if it resorts to this it won't really help.

Maybe I'm also just lucky - no issues my previous Sierra, and the 2015 Silvy 2500 I recently bought with 30k seems to perform almost flawlessly. I did notice an occasional front end rattle, which is being investigated next week. I think it may be normal (never had a HD before), but checking it out since under warranty. At any rate, a calm approach and hopefully you can get it taken care of.