That's very interesting, thanks for sharing. I really like the Bolt (or did) but won't allow myself to buy another GM vehicle for other reasons. My dad is an old 60s car guy, GM diehard and a collector. Has a lot of six figure originals from their heyday. His favorite is definitely his 1970 Buick GSX SS Stage 1 that they only made 1,000 of or so. He's the original owner and it's all original. My brother has a Buick Grand National which is a pretty cool car too.
I never cared much about car brands but usually leaned towards GM as a result, Pontiac always caught my eye. GM's lineup seemed as good as anything. Once I had to take my car in for a recall I found how wrong I was. Both the dealer screwed me (expected) and GM corporate did as well (unexpected).
Long story short, they did an ignition console swap and after they were done they gave me 2 sets of keys and told me that one was for the door and one was for the new ignition. GM's CEO even stated on her blog that this was not to be the case. I wasn't the only person complaining about being told to have two sets of keys either. I filed a corporate complaint and they told me to pound sand. I did file a BBB report on the dealer and they never replied so I guess it just went on their record uncontested.
As well, GM later denied payment for a faulty gas tank issue that they sent me a mailer about for reimbursement but never paid me. The fix had already been done at the tune of $550. I followed their instructions exactly, quite time consuming tracking down receipts I no longer had and so forth. They still said I had something wrong with my application. Don't know what it was, at that point I was done hassling with them and had made my final decision on GM.
The verdict is no more GM for me or my family for the rest of our lives. There's plenty of alternatives. My wife now has a Subaru Crosstrek and I'm buying a Tesla Model 3. The new Honda Civic hatchback is pretty neat. Ultimately I believe I'm going electric from here on out, but never GM.
That sucks. Our GM dealer installed some counterfeit electrical parts (I bought it new!) and then it developed electrical issues — if you left it off for 8 hours it would sometimes drain the battery and fail to start.
At that point, other GM dealers refused to look at it without taking a large up-front deposit.
Corporate didn’t actually use the words “pound sand”. It would have saved me time if they had.
Eventually, I took it to a Chevy dealer, and they upgraded the radio firmware. The electical problems were caused by a CAM protocol bug that prevented the ABS from powering off sometimes.
This was all in the first 1000 miles.
It had unrelated issues due to the fake parts, but the dealer “honored” the warranty by switching them out for a different brand.
1,000 miles, you're probably covered by the lemon law on that if you just want to return it. I can't say at 1,000 miles I'd not be fuming about a large up-front deposit being asked of me.
Amazing. Well, I wasn't going to hand GM any money again anyway, but my slight admiration I had of their Bolt is now gone, so thank you for that. GM is pulling their usual cheap Android vendor that wants Apple prices method I suppose, which I should've known. Yup GM corporate simply told me that the dealer is their eyes and ears and could do nothing other than side with them. Really helpful.
I certainly hope you don't have any further issues with it for the remainder of its lifespan because this stuff is a big waste of time. I've been at the point for years that I'll just pay more and get the Toyota or Honda even if it looks like I'm paying for nothing on the spec sheet.
GM really goes out of their way to charm all their loyal customers.
I actually could have lemon-lawed it, but once it crossed that line it didn’t have any more trouble until the warranty expired.
A few months after that, the driver-side heater went out, and the radio started to fail.
The fact that so many things failed makes me think there are significant systemic issues with GM vehicle platforms (and not just individual components).
The more I think about the regenerative braking issue on the Bolt, the more I think my car had the same root-cause problem, which makes me wonder if it impacts their whole line: Traction control sporadically engages on a regular basis.
That’s not a big deal on ICE cars, but if they really disable regenerative braking when traction control enganges, it’ll eventually kill or severely injure a pedestrian. One of the worst things a vehicle can do is have an intermittent braking system!
Anyway, I no longer own the vehicle. Getting rid of it was worth every wasted penny. :-)
Good god (the heater, radio etc). Definitely sounds like the Bolt was rushed to market, a lot of those things are pretty basic QC issues. One thing going out early might be reasonably acceptable, but I agree with your other posts here, too many things to give the benefit of the doubt on. What did you replace it with?
Yes, I'm sorry you got screwed,, but every manufacturer has a story just like this one - I'm not really a 'GM Guy' but I don't think this is a fair brush to paint them with.
So many things went wrong that it’s hard for me to think I’m a huge outlier. Though, CR does currently rank Chevrolet (but not GMC) above Tesla for reliability:
And the Bolt is their most reliable car, apparently.
Perhaps I am being unfair, or perhaps they improved. Still, given the nature of the issues I hit and continue to hear about, I’ll continue to avoid them.
I never cared much about car brands but usually leaned towards GM as a result, Pontiac always caught my eye. GM's lineup seemed as good as anything. Once I had to take my car in for a recall I found how wrong I was. Both the dealer screwed me (expected) and GM corporate did as well (unexpected).
Long story short, they did an ignition console swap and after they were done they gave me 2 sets of keys and told me that one was for the door and one was for the new ignition. GM's CEO even stated on her blog that this was not to be the case. I wasn't the only person complaining about being told to have two sets of keys either. I filed a corporate complaint and they told me to pound sand. I did file a BBB report on the dealer and they never replied so I guess it just went on their record uncontested.
As well, GM later denied payment for a faulty gas tank issue that they sent me a mailer about for reimbursement but never paid me. The fix had already been done at the tune of $550. I followed their instructions exactly, quite time consuming tracking down receipts I no longer had and so forth. They still said I had something wrong with my application. Don't know what it was, at that point I was done hassling with them and had made my final decision on GM.
The verdict is no more GM for me or my family for the rest of our lives. There's plenty of alternatives. My wife now has a Subaru Crosstrek and I'm buying a Tesla Model 3. The new Honda Civic hatchback is pretty neat. Ultimately I believe I'm going electric from here on out, but never GM.