Now we play the waiting game – will this be the last time it has to go back?  I’m hoping that it is.

I’m still amazed at the power of the internet – yesterday I was getting nowhere with GM, but after making my story public I’m finally getting the traction I think this issue deserves.  But as a friend of mine pointed out, what are less technically savvy people supposed to do?  How do they get their voice heard and their issues resolved?  Personally I think GM needs to pay a bit more attention to customer service – 24 “business hours” for a response isn’t acceptable in this digital age of twitter, facebook, blogs, and real time information flow.  I will continue to update this blog as my saga progresses, so stay tuned to see how well the “new” GM handles my issue.

It’s been less than 12 hours since I posted the tale of my 2010 Chevy Equinox, and it looks like someone at GM noticed – my server logs show people from GM have viewed my post and have been reading my site.  Hopefully this means I might start to get some traction on the issue.  I guess that’s the power of the internet & twitter

I realized that since there is no contact information anywhere on the site, there is no easy way for someone to contact me and discuss the issues, so if anyone from GM wishes to speak with me they can call me at <REMOVED> – I want to make it very easy for anyone from GM to contact me.  For what it’s worth, I’m still waiting a call back from my customer service rep.

The ball is in your court now GM – will you step up and make me a happy customer?

Before I begin, I’d like to start by saying that if it wasn’t for the issues below, I would be in love with the 2010 Equinox – it has all the features I could want (Bluetooth, MP3, OnStar, etc) and is a very comfortable ride.  That said, my experience so far has been trying to say the least.  For the past 4 weeks my car has been in the dealership 4 times, and today it looks like I’m going to have to take it back again – it’s misshifting, “bunny hopping” when going into park, and *almost* stalled twice.  It does this weird thing with the tachometer when at low speeds where it will go up/down/up/down/up/down then stall, but if I hit the gas it seems to prevent the stall.

I contacted GM last week and “Shelly” was assigned to my case.  I left a message for her today and am awaiting a call back before I take the car to the dealer to have the latest round of issues investigated.

I’ll be updating this more now as I think it’s time time to put some public pressure on GM to get this issue resolve the ongoing issues.  Click on the “more” link to see history of the issues so far that I sent to GM last week.

To Whom It May Concern,

It’s important for me to note that my dealership (Courtesy Chevrolet) has been amazing throughout this process, but there is only so much they can do each time I bring the car in. To me this is a fundimental flaw in the engine as noted in GM Technical Bulletin #PIP4469E. The fact that casting sand and or non-ferrous (aluminum) machining debris in the camshaft phasers/solenoids made it past your quality control astounds me. So while they assure me this will be the “last time” I need to bring the car back my faith is quickly fading – I’ve been told the same thing three times in the past and less than a week later the car is back again for service.

On Oct 14th I brought my 2010 Chevy Equinox in for service after the “Check Engine” light came on and the vehicle started to randomly stall and shake at low speeds. My fiancee had driven the car to Windsor, ON the day before with students (she’s a teacher) for a golf tournament. When she called me on the 13th to inform me that our new car was having issues, I quickly drove from home to Windsor with our other vehicle so she had a reliable car to drive her students around it.

When I brought my car to the Dan Kane Chevy dealership on the 14th, they booked my vehicle in for service and said he would call me when the issue was resolved. At 12:13 I was informed that my car was fixed and around 1:30 I picked up the car and started the long drive back home, happy to know that it wasn’t a serious issue.

By the time I reached London, ON around 3:47PM the issue started again – the vehicle stalled and the “Check Engine” light came on again. I hit the “On-Star” button and was told it was the same issue as before – an issue with the “Intake Camshaft Position and the Exhaust Camshaft Position”

I took the vehicle to my “home” dealership (Courtesy Chevrolet) on the evening of the 14th, they identified that GM Technical Bulletin (#PIP4469E, I assume) was the issue again as it was the day before, and did another cleaning / oil change to the car. I picked it up on the 15th and was assured that everything was going to be fine with my car.

That weekend (Oct 17-18) the car started to stall once again at low speeds, this time while I was trying to make a left hand turn in a busy intersection. As you can imagine, this was a serious safety issue as I was stuck in the intersection after the light had turned red while I restarted the car.

I returned to Courtesy on the 19th and was told they were going to replace the solenoids in the car but the parts wouldn’t be in until the 20th. I was given a rental car, but it was a Pontiac G5 . I could barely fit inside it as my head was hitting the roof. I was told this was the best rental car that the GM $40 a day coverage could get me. To me this isn’t fair – I drop off a nice GM truck with Bluetooth, iPod interface, and XM radio only to be given a base model G5 as a loner. The rental car should at least be the same class as the vehicle being repaired.

On the 24th the car stalled once again at low speeds, but this time no lights came on. I decided not to go to the dealership I was traveling to the US on business from the 25th to the 28th and didn.t have time to deal with it. When I returned home, the car once again stalled on October 30th.

The car was taken back on Nov 2nd to the dealership for the 4th time in as many weeks.  They replaced more valves and solenoids and gave me a rental (this time a G6, not perfect, but getting better) and on Nov 3rd told me the car was ready for pickup.

At this point I have no faith in my vehicle – it’s plagued with this issue and no one seems to be able to resolve the problem. When I bought this car from the “new” GM I assumed the old issues of quality control and workmanship had been resolved, but it appears they haven’t and I’d like to know what (if anything) you are willing to do in order to help me resolve this problem.