Problems with dealership after buying a new Camaro

[scotthalas]

Had to do a fuse pull on my 2012 SS........my dealer filled it up with 85 octane and it ran like crap.......

[mcbeth15]

Originally Posted by Laserjen

Thanks. You're just up the road from me, so I imagine you've probably dealt with some of the same dealerships in the area I have!

I've taken my Chevys for service to JP in Aberdeen for years now and haven't had any major problems with them. I bought two camaros and the wife one truck over the years from them and the sales folk have been good so far. I got the first Camaro from Curletts (now Bob Bells) back in 79. Got the second from JP in 84. Had a couple of Blazers in between that one and this one from different dealers but JP has been doing the service on all of them. Good to see a GM service rep is getting involved, I hope it all turns out the way you want. Be sure to keep us updated. Good luck.

[MiracleAces]

Unfortunately the part about not getting paid for the sale because of the bad survey is incorrect. If their total survey scores for the sales quarter are below a certain level they wont receive a bonus for the dealerships. Most dealerships depend on this bonus.

I can tell you nothing annoys a GM more than a customer going over the sales managers head and constantly calling the GM. This will result in some action for you hopefully. Here's the bottom line - no matter what the situation is, you've been inconvenienced (beyond the initial drop off and loaner issue). I dont really think they owe much more than a proper paint job, but they haven't done that for you. You bought a new car - you deserve a new car. The biggest mistake buyers make (because they dont know about it) is they dont get a proper 'We Owe' at the time of purchase. This form states exactly what the dealership owes you or promised you at the time of the purchase. It is generally OK'd and signed off on by the manager. Without this, it is tough to hold the dealership accountable.

[Renegade]

Originally Posted by heRS

Laserjen if this is a brand new car, I'd take it back. You deserve a brand new, undamaged car if you're buying a new car. The runaround you're getting is bs.

Sounds like that Carfax commerical always giving you the run round..like just show me the car fax!

[strych9]

I went through something similar with my car. Just stay firm, but polite. Continue to work with them until the car is 100% up to your expectation. It took me several visits and some headache, but we finally got there.

[Laserjen]

Ok, I just picked up my car from the dealer. Here's the bad news...they did a terrible job with the touch up (I could still see the bare metal on half the scratch on the driver's door, apparently they took some of the touchup paint off when they were finishing it).

The good news is they admitted right off the bat they did a s@#t job and don't have anyone who can do it better, so they are going to get someone else who can to look at it. They will repaint it (and redo the clearcoat for the side of the car) if I want so that is still an option. I prefer to wait and see if they can do a better job with the touchup first (at this point I'm confident I could have done a better job). I know most of you think I should get the car repainted, but honestly I worry about how good of a job they will do and there's no going back to the factory paint job after that.

As long as they continue to work with me until I am happy I will be patient.

Also, they told me to pick out some GM accessories for my trouble. Any suggestions?

[Avenging Orange]

Sounds like they are trying to do right by you. I'm glad you were patient with them and not go off the deep end like some here suggested.
I see it this way........you signed on the dotted line that you accepted the car in the condition it was in.....knowing there were flaws.
As for a repaint.....I agree on waiting to see if someone can do a good touch up job. Example: My '06 GTO needed the front facia repainted. I took 3 times to get it right. It kept peeling/chipping off.
Good luck.

[paul84043]

You know, if this were almost any other vehicle, this would probably not be a big deal, but we're not talking about "any normal vehicle" and they need to be aware of that. They SHOULD know this already.
Camaro owners are almost rabid about the appearance of their vehicles. Not to mention some of us paid upwards of 40k for our babies.

The car off the showroom floor HAS to be PERFECT.

I have received a couple bicycyle handle dings via my younger daughter, and my wife has bounced if off a curb more than once but you know what...that's a completely different issue, and it's MY issue.

It was cool to see Chevy Customer service pop in here, hopefully things get straightened out and this doesn't detract from this time in your life that shoud be unbelievably happy and exciting.
A year later and I still walk to the garage door an open it just to look at the car for a second....

[Laserjen]

With all the drama this week I almost forgot why I got this car...but driving off in it last night after just 3 days with a boring loaner and all the excitement came right back to me. Yes, I want the nicks fixed right as they should be...but we all know how these cars attract rock chips so it's not like the paint would have been perfect for long anyway! A few surface imperfections don't make it any less of a blast to drive.

[Cam2011]

I would never take delivery of any car unless everything is perfect and it doesn't have to have anything installed, or repaired on it. This way you eliminate the grey areas. As for not having gas in the loaner, simply ask which gas station they have an account at (most all dealers have one) and fill it up there, if that is not possible then fill it, get a receipt and present it to them for recompense. Do like the rental agencies do, charge them at a $6.00 per gallon for your time (kidding).

[Laserjen]

Originally Posted by Cam2011

I would never take delivery of any car unless everything is perfect and it doesn't have to have anything installed, or repaired on it. This way you eliminate the grey areas.

To be honest I was just anxious to get the keys and wasn't that worried about the scratches because I assumed a simple touchup would be all they needed. If the damage was more significant (a large dent or scrape) I wouldn't have bought the car.

Originally Posted by Cam2011

As for not having gas in the loaner, simply ask which gas station they have an account at (most all dealers have one) and fill it up there, if that is not possible then fill it, get a receipt and present it to them for recompense. Do like the rental agencies do, charge them at a $6.00 per gallon for your time (kidding).

They already agreed to fill up my gas tank (I only put a few gallons in the loaner), so in the end I came out ahead in the gas situation.

[lcrngrs]

Originally Posted by Laserjen

So a little over a week ago I happily posted pictures of my new 2013 Camaro (http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=247676). Now I'm running into some issues with my dealer, and I just wanted to get your input to see if I'm over-reacting.

My dealer located the car I wanted at another dealership. When I looked it over before signing the papers, I pointed out a couple of small scratches. The salesman told me they would fix those in the body shop no problem. I decided they weren't that big of a deal and trusted they would fix them to my satisfaction (ok, that was probably a mistake).

So Monday night I dropped my car off to get fixed Tuesday and picked up a loaner. I didn't notice until after I had left that the gas gauge in the loaner was on empty (as in, there was less than a gallon of gas in it). I found this mildly annoying, but wasn't going to make a big deal about it.

I contacted the dealership Tuesday evening to find out when I could pick up my car and was told it wouldn't be ready until Wednesday. Again, annoying but not worth making a big fuss over.

Today I again had to contact the dealership at the end of the day to make sure my car was ready, and was told they had just finished with it and I could pick it up. So I drove almost an hour (in traffic) to the dealer and when I get there, no one knew anything about my car. Finally, they track down someone in the body shop who explained my car wasn't ready (it still needed to be sanded and buffed). Furthermore, he said the scratches would still be visible after they were done -- which really sucks since one of them is at eye level on the driver's door where I will see it every day.

So now I'm really annoyed about everything. I'm also annoyed that I've been driving a Chevy Cruze for what will be 3 days, just over a week after buying a brand new 2SS/RS.

I sent an email to my salesman listing my complaints and am still waiting for a response. I'm not bashing the dealership since I haven't given them a chance to respond yet, I'm just curious what you would do or ask for in this situation.

If you don't mind answering, how old are you? If you are a young guy the dealership as a whole is just giving you the run around and you need to get someone to step up for you. If you are a guy who is older, say like 30 and up, you should know better than to let a dealer verbally tell you they are going to fix something without getting a complete explanation of what will be done and how it will be done. Unfortunately, you have a situation where you need to be forceful. Emailing the salesman is a total waste of time. You should have gone directly to the sales manager and mentioned how you would be giving them a big fat zero when Chevy emails you a survey. That hits them directly in their pockets. Don't accept anything but perfection and if driving a Cruze is what it takes to get it right, who cares? Don't let them take advantage of you!

[Dan1028]

Which dealership in MD was it?

I purchased mine from Fox Timonium, and it was a good experience. Service department went the extra distance on the first free oil change, too, with a complementary scrub-down of the car. Very satisfied.

[Laserjen]

Originally Posted by lcrngrs

If you don't mind answering, how old are you? If you are a young guy the dealership as a whole is just giving you the run around and you need to get someone to step up for you. If you are a guy who is older, say like 30 and up, you should know better than to let a dealer verbally tell you they are going to fix something without getting a complete explanation of what will be done and how it will be done. Unfortunately, you have a situation where you need to be forceful. Emailing the salesman is a total waste of time. You should have gone directly to the sales manager and mentioned how you would be giving them a big fat zero when Chevy emails you a survey. That hits them directly in their pockets. Don't accept anything but perfection and if driving a Cruze is what it takes to get it right, who cares? Don't let them take advantage of you!

I'm not a guy, and I do mind answering! After talking to them last night, I am more confident things will work out ok. Yes, they made some mistakes this week, but the main thing is they are committed to making sure I am happy.

Emailing the salesman was not a waste of time. It was his day off and I emailed him at home. He responded within the hour and forwarded my message to his GM, which resulted in the offer for some free accessories to compensate me for my wasted time.

I have not resorted to threats (although I did casually mention that I received the survey in the mail yesterday) because they are still trying very hard to fix things right. When I wasn't happy with their touchup they offered to get an expert to fix them, and if I'm still not happy they will repaint. What else would you expect them to do?

Originally Posted by Dan1028

Which dealership in MD was it?

I purchased mine from Fox Timonium, and it was a good experience. Service department went the extra distance on the first free oil change, too, with a complementary scrub-down of the car. Very satisfied.

PM sent. This dealership offers free oil changes and tire rotations for life with a new vehicle purchase, so I would like to settle things on good terms. They may have screwed up the first touchup attempt, but they washed and waxed the car last night and it looked pretty darn good.