Trans trouble ... too good to be true?

tinman · July 21, 2004

I have a 01 2500ld 4x4 gmc that has had lots of tranny touble. At 7k and a year old the dealer replaced the trans. At 19k and 2years 9 months old the had to retorque the converter. At 20k and 2 years 11 months old they replaced the front pump, converter, the sun gear, and some other misc parts. At this point I contacted GM and they gave me a componted warranty on the trans for 3 more years. At 21k and 2year 11&1/2 months old the pressure regulator went out on the trans. At 21500 miles 3+ year old the dealer reapalced the pressure regulator again. Drove for three more days a really bad whine comming from the trans. Call Gm and told them the trouble with the trans. Took the truck to the dealer they were very nice. The told me that the factory was sending some one to look at the trans. They called me today and told me that they are going to replace the trans with a new one . They also gave me a intresting offer hence my question. They want to buy my truck back and offer me a DMAX/ ALLY in its place. I am kinda suspeciouse of the offer. Have anyone heard of this on a three year old truck? I am a year passed the lemon law in this state. I am going to meet the owner of the dealership on thursday. I would love a new truck but dont want to get shafted

elgineddie · July 21, 2004

OK, I've been in the garage for an hour sniffing sea foam exhaust and quite buzzed but if I'm reading right, you are getting an offer from a dealer to buy out your lemon?? Certainly there is something in it for them... they won't have to fix the trans AGAIN in a friggin month. As nice as it sounds a dealer is still a stinkin dealer and looking out for numero uno. If it's a buy out, then it's like going to buy a new truck. That is, you get $crewed with tax and a bad trade-in allowance. If it's a swap, you should do it tomorrow! I am guessing it won't be a swap but you could let them know if it isn't a swap or a very, very, very good deal that is just doesn't make sense for you.

My 2 cents.

Ed in Chicagoland

tmf6902 · July 21, 2004

There's no such thing as a free lunch....

lrymal · July 21, 2004

I have read of complete buy outs and vehicle replacements before, but with trucks exhibiting severe CSK. I'd find a legal eagle and have him ask lots of questions. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Shaners · July 21, 2004

The brother of a lady I know had a complete exchange for his Tahoe after several problems with brakes.

The owner of the dealership could not find him another diesel Tahoe, so they let him pick out the options and they ordered him a new one.

Tolliverme · July 21, 2004

I had an 01 Silverado 1500 Ext Cab LT 5.3. I continually had a problem with the transmission not shifting properly from 2nd to 3rd. After many trips to the service department i filed complaint with the Better Business Bureau. the end result was GM offered me a buy back. The way it worked was they took the total price that I payed for the Truck including taxes and applied a formula based on the mileage that derived a dollor ammount for usage and they deducted that amount from the Total I paid and refunded me the difference. I then negotiated a deal for a new truck. It turned out to be a pretty good deal. By the time I turned the truck in i had driven it for 2 years and had 30,000 miles on the vehicle.

The refund amounted to about $6,000 less than what I paid for the truck. $6,000 to use a truck for 30,000 miles is not a bad price when you do the math.

The dealer was also very eager to deal on the replacement. So I gave him the exact specs on what I wanted and he found me that truck and had it brought in. The price was negotiated from a starting point of the invoice and i kept all rebates.

End result was I gave back a $32,000 (MSRP) truck and bought a $38,000 truck and it cost me $6,000 more than I got from GM in the Buy Back.

It sounds maybe a little to good to be true but it happened and it was amazingly easy.

carguru · July 21, 2004

I had the same experience with my '99 2wd ECSB. The dealer tried to fix the problem since 500 miles on the clock. It was in a total of 9 times for the same tranny problem. My truck never seemed want to go when I gave it gas from a dead stop. Finally GM offered to buy my '99 back after 2 years 10 months and 21k miles later. I got about $2k less than the original buying price once all of the formulas were applied.

In total, I got my current '02 for $4k financed at 0%. I thought that was a pretty good deal. I'm happy.

tryn2lrn · July 22, 2004

I had them buy back my blazer and it was just like above, I paid, if I recall, $0.23 a mile for the usage of the vehicle. It was like having $25 k down payment. Plus the satisfaction of dumping that nightmare