Received an Email from Al O. with this question

[95birdible]

"What aren't we doing for you? There should be things to do for your top to satisfy you."

I normally wouldn't post a private email but with all the issue we have had I feel it is appropriate at this time.
Now is your chance as an owner with top problems to answer this question.
Please keep it civil, clear, and concise.
Here is my response to his question. I will also post this on the Facebook site. Hope to see some responses there also.

I would like to Chevy be proactive instead of reactive with the engineering of the tops. It seems that this is a design issue that has perpetuated into the 2012 model year. The first instance I have read about was in March of this year about the rub marks.
I expect a complete fix of the top. It the least I can expect on a car I spent $41,328 on and have been waiting my entire 42 years for a new muscle car. All we want as owners is to know that there will be a complete fix in, and soon. My car was in the shop for 23 days from 8/4 thru 11/1 when I put it in storage for the winter. Parts were ordered on 10/13 and are still not into the dealership today. In the spring when it comes out of storage it's back to the dealer for a few weeks to have my second top put on. I will be well over the 30 days needed for the Minnesota Lemon Law to kick in.
My caseworker told me that the convertible top is considered a trim piece and not integral to the car. I told her so driving in the rain with the top up going 70 on the highway getting soaking wet is not integral?

That's all I ask. Get me a top that is going to last like you said back before the Indy 500. You are a man of your word and I hope to see a complete fix in by spring. If a field engineer needs to come out and fix this thing I am all for it. I love my car and both my previous Camaro's.

Thanks for all you do,

Jason

[Blitz]

Well worded.

I think the main thing, for me anyway, is that they have no idea how to fix it and a very large percentage of people have the issue (many may not even know it). I am one of the few holding out until a 'real' fix is found. In the mean time, I do have the rub marks, no hole yet, but I am fortunate to have the luxury of not needing to drive the car with the top up so it doesn't bother me a whole lot.

['11 cyber grey vert]

Hopefully, GM will get a "real" fix and not the band-aid type of fixes they have been attempting.Once a "real" fix is in and problem solved, GM should do a general recall of the convertibles to be checked out and repaired where necessary

[PAUL SS]

It's very impressive that someone like Al would reach out to customers.

[95birdible]

Actually I reached out to him first. Nice to see some communication. Hope the message is getting across. That is why I posted this. I know these forums along with the facebook group are being watched. Post up responses please.

[RamGrad]

It is very good you got a response. I would also like a little accountability on the service department end and not have to drag information out of them. I recently emailed the owner of the dealership I bought my car from because of the pains in the service department about the top.
I would gladly let the field engineers use my car as tester if they needed one. And the whole idea the the top is a trim piece is rediculous. We all paid a heavy premium for this "cloth trim piece", and it needs to handled just like any other functionable part of the car!

[Nutbutt]

That was very well worded and I applaud Al for his taking the time to ask. But to me this will be very empty without a follow up. The issue to me is that they (GM & Dealerships) have taken the problem very lightly and have just written it off as a normal thing with convertibles.

[Drago77]

I found it very difficult not to use multiple 4-letter profanities in my response to this E-mail...

I know in my career- I could never get away with this shotty level of service and melancholy attitude... Congrats Chevy- 1 long time customer lost!

[Steeler NY]

Originally Posted by 95birdible

"What aren't we doing for you? There should be things to do for your top to satisfy you."

I normally wouldn't post a private email but with all the issue we have had I feel it is appropriate at this time.
Now is your chance as an owner with top problems to answer this question.
Please keep it civil, clear, and concise.
Here is my response to his question. I will also post this on the Facebook site. Hope to see some responses there also.

I would like to Chevy be proactive instead of reactive with the engineering of the tops. It seems that this is a design issue that has perpetuated into the 2012 model year. The first instance I have read about was in March of this year about the rub marks.
I expect a complete fix of the top. It the least I can expect on a car I spent $41,328 on and have been waiting my entire 42 years for a new muscle car. All we want as owners is to know that there will be a complete fix in, and soon. My car was in the shop for 23 days from 8/4 thru 11/1 when I put it in storage for the winter. Parts were ordered on 10/13 and are still not into the dealership today. In the spring when it comes out of storage it's back to the dealer for a few weeks to have my second top put on. I will be well over the 30 days needed for the Minnesota Lemon Law to kick in.
My caseworker told me that the convertible top is considered a trim piece and not integral to the car. I told her so driving in the rain with the top up going 70 on the highway getting soaking wet is not integral?

That's all I ask. Get me a top that is going to last like you said back before the Indy 500. You are a man of your word and I hope to see a complete fix in by spring. If a field engineer needs to come out and fix this thing I am all for it. I love my car and both my previous Camaro's.

Thanks for all you do,

Jason

Jason,
Well done I think you have said exactly what all of us want to say. JUST FIX THE KNOWN PRPBLEMS.

I do not have a Facebook account and have been unable to join in the FB comments, please post for us that are in the same situation. I have been following the service bulletins as they come out and had work done at dealer per bulletin. But I am not satisfied with the "Band-Aid" fix to a serious problem.

Thanks for taking the lead in this and keeping all of us in the "loop"

Scott

[95birdible]

Posted for you on the Facebook site Steeler. Thanks for the kind words.

Jason

[HDRDTD]

I for one, did have the rub marks and a small indentation that was wearing into the top like a lot of people.
I took it to my dealer who is very knowledgable, meticulous, and is also a Camaro friendly dealership who is also a sponser here on Camaro5.
Long story short, they hired a Chevy eng that helped design the top to come out on his own time to help fix my top and to help train one of the dealers techs.
They replaced the top, the rub marks are gone. Yes I have two small wrinkles (one on each side), but I could care less about them. As far as I'm concerned, they did a wonderfull job fixing my top and I'm tickled to death with my Vert. The only way I'd get rid of it would be to replace it with a ZL1 Vert.
My request/reccomendation would be for GM to help the various dealers to learn to deal with our top issues so they can fix them right the first time, every time. It's as simple as that.
From what I've seen and read on this forum, there are too many dealers that just don't know what they're doing when it comes to repairing tops, or they just farm the work out to a local upholstery shop that doesn't seem to do any better. Or they just have a crappy service department.
GM, either send a rep out to teach dealers how to handle our top issues, invite dealers to send techs to a GM hosted training seminar on GM's dime, or perhaps teach and certify a few regionally located dealerships when it comes to convertible issues.

That would be my request.

[whidobie]

I happen to work for a mfg (not auto) and the last thing you wish to do is to issue a recall for a problem. That said-you typically get more negative by not addressing the issue and you will be applauded by those who appreciate that you take ownership of the problem and fix it! There are multiple issues with the Convertibles-some serious and some not so. But for me spending over $50,000 every issue is important to me. TAKE OWNERSHIP GM

[J Wilkins]

Had mine replaced about a month ago, dealership's guy refused to do it, they had to bring a guy from the BMW dealership to do the work, he made a mess of my car at first, by two days later the driver side had came loose, side flapping in the wind, air leaks everywhere, big indentations across the top, rear seal all bulged out, would not close without forcing it down, came down once and slammed so hard the pin put a dent in the header panel! Needless to say I blew a gasket, I spent well over $45K for mine and it rode like crap with all the air leaks, I took it back, and that made 2 times within the first 12K miles, so they saw where I was going with the Lemon issue, and the Service Manager oversaw the corrections himself, much better now, still a couple of bugs I have found, rear defroster not working and is hooked up (concerning- all one piece with the top), passenger side window now malfunctioning and not going down when top engages, but at least it looks good again, not sure how long the tape fix will keep it that way!
Good Luck to everyone on this, real shame, such a nice car, but such a crappy top design!

[Nutbutt]

My top has been replaced and the rubbing has not shown up since. The replacement done by untrained outsource trim shop has created numerous problems. Some have been corrected other like the water management system keep coming back. I just hate the these band aid fixes that have caused other issues. It just seems that GM has not take the vert top issues seriously and not really spent any time trying to fix it. I keep getting apologies for the delays but even this is getting tiresome.
I just want MY car fixed ! I don't want another I just want to be able to use MY car the way its suppose to be.