Disappointed With '07 Avalanche

C & A s Dad · September 13, 2007

I was meeting with a customer of mine yesterday and I noticed a brand new Dodge Ram Hemi in the parking lot. When I asked him about it, he let me know that they had traded his wife's '07 Avalanche in on the Dodge.

This was her second Avalanche with the previous one being an '03. She had liked it so much and had such good service from it, they bought a new LT model in copper and it was a beautiful truck. In the 9 months of ownership, it had speant over 30 days in the shop trying to eliminate and correct rattles and other noises. This guy has always been a big GM fan and it seemed to hurt in to tell me this. He said after several attempts they even pulled the entire dash and all of the door panels looking for the noises. They even replaced all the door seals and the problems seemed to be even worse.

They finally contacted GM who told them they would send a rep. GM called back a couple of days later and said they had spoken to the Dealership and they just simply did not feel the problems could be duplicated all of the time and that a rep would not be sent. GM called him back again 2 days ago as a follow up ??? and he told them not to worry about it, he had fixed the problem. The C/S rep from GM was happy to hear this until he told her he had traded it in on a new Dodge.

He even said that the Dealership called him to tell him that they would be billing him for the door seals because he had put Armor All on them. He had never put Armor All on them but did use a spray silicone that was recommended to him by the Svc Mgr.

He said he cannot understand what was wrong with this truck. He said it had never been off the pavement but it rattled and had bumping noises in it like a truck with 200K on it that had spent it's entire life in the field.

Obviously, he is finished with GM products. I might add that this guy is a perfect customer for us and is great to deal with . I think if GM would have even attempted to meet him half way, he would have been happy.

You guys that know me from my posts, know that I am a big GM fan, and it really hurt me while he was telling me this.

asilverblazer · September 13, 2007

Sounds like this was a case of the cure being worse than the sickness. I would think the more they tear into the dash and door panels the MORE prone they would be to make noise.

***EDIT***

Not to mention how little difference there is between the new Avalanche and the old ones. Except for the front half they are essentially the same. Referring to the bed, mid gate stuff.

dsmazz · September 13, 2007

Wow, that's too bad. My previous truck was a Dodge Ram Hemi. While it was a fun truck to drive and had lots of power, it was rough riding, rattled quite a bit, and had severl squeaks. Aside from that, the fit and finish were not on the same level as GM. But anyone can get a bad vehicle.

mini1 · September 13, 2007

If he can't handle GM, then he can forget about Dodge. What a piece! The Ram exemplifies poor build quality, lackluster engineering and non-competitiveness.

BAD2500HD · September 13, 2007

Wow, that's too bad. My previous truck was a Dodge Ram Hemi. While it was a fun truck to drive and had lots of power, it was rough riding, rattled quite a bit, and had severl squeaks. Aside from that, the fit and finish were not on the same level as GM. But anyone can get a bad vehicle.

Man you got that right! my son owns a 07' Dodge and he can't make up his mine from day to day if he likes it or not ! it rides nothing at all like the Avalanche does as my wife has a 07' the better rig has got to be the Chevy, anyhow i think before i traded for a Dodge i would have looked at other GM prod. i to have had trouble with my 03' 2500 GMC and coulded wait to get rid of it now i have a 07'1500 Chevy with 500 miles on it and love it , my wifes Avalanche has had a squeak every now and then in what sounds like the back window but other then that nothing else , so far ! tell them good luck on the dodge and hope the like the ride and the noises they make ! ...P.S. GM can be a**holes my big problem was really with the dealership , but have found in the pass that all makes have there little noises some big and some small .

cerbomark · September 14, 2007

I hate to hear that too. I guess you can have this sort of thing with any vehicle. GM doesnt seem to be too concerened with customer service (in my experience). I find service only to be as good as the service advisor and Tech you get. My 07 Silverado is noise free at 5000 miles.

C & A s Dad · September 14, 2007

I agree with Mark 100% concerning the Dealer and the service. I am convinced that if the Svc Mgr at the Dealership believes there is a real issue, he can get GM involved and they will take care of it. If the Svc Mgr does not want to help, his opinions will influence GM.