The Mail Bag
October 1999 archive
The Good
The Bad
If anyone from GM is reading this and would like to offer assistance to any of these unfortunate lemon sufferers then please send me email and I will see about putting you in touch.
Suburban complete brake failure
Another Suburban transmission dies
The Ugly (Censored with Aster*sks)
I have angered the King of Bud
Newer Email
From: Dan L
Subject: Your site
I think your site is really great. Sorry to hear about all the problems you encountered with your GM truck. I am writing because I myself own a 1999 Chevy Tahoe LT and I have had absolutely no problems with it. In the past I have owned a 1993 Toyota Landcruiser and a 1996 Range Rover 4.6 HSE. Those I thought were good cars. The toyota's breaks went out once, completely out, and it drove like an army vehicle compared to the Chevy. I loved the interior features, seating and the finishing touches a lot more, but for the money I have found my Tahoe to be number one. The Range Rover had the interior of a rolls royce and was a great vehicle, but it had no power on the road which is where I spend most of my time and it has a price tag of $70,000.
I decided to buy my Tahoe after my brother bought one himself. In the past 15 months I have put 26,000 miles on the truck. The only time it has been in the shop is for it's oil and filter change, and the car still looks brand new today. Not one rattle, squeek, the seat is solid, and I have found a comfortable seating position. I was with you, I didn't think it existed, but I am 6'2 and I put the seat all the way down and the back up, and slightly forward. for ten months I messed with the seat all the time, but ever since I found the described position, it hasn't moved.
So to keep it short, that sucks you had all the problems, and I am curious as to what you bought and how you like it. I will knock on wood in hopes that my Tahoe continues to be a great car. But like I said, for me, it has been the greatest car I have ever owned for the money. Maybe I got lucky, who knows, but I love my Tahoe.
I appreciate your sense of humor and wish you better luck with your new truck.
Thanks,
Dan L
From: Mike C.
Subject: No Subject
Hi - I came across your site by accident and found it to be very interesting. I've owned five Suburbans and have had nothing but excellent performance. As a matter of fact it saved our life once while being pushed by a drunk trucker (according to accident investigators). You may say that was just a fluke, but I say your experience with Suburbans is a fluke. Every car/truck has its problem(s). I suggest that you spend more time inspecting and test driving your next vehicle. Our dealership let us test drive every truck for a week (I know that's not long enough for mechanical testing, but it certainly is for comfort, vent location, air conditioning noise, mirror locations, seat adjustments, etc).
Sounds like your very bitter. Let me know when you find THE perfect car. I've owned 28 different makes and models, and I bet I could gig your choice.
M.C.
From: Tonya
Subject: What a lemon!
Hi there!
So how did you get my Suburban?----just joking, our situation was a little bit different. Let's just say the morning after we got the piece of junk my husband was driving it out of a gas station when the hood popped up. It crinkled in 1/2, Yeah, that was an exciting start! We have had numerous and too many things to mention after that but just recently the differentials (sp?) broke in our driveway (oil looks great on the new drive---lol) then the newest one is the transmission. I was driving along and the heap shifted down and then it wouldn't go passed 2nd gear. Oh by the way, no reverse either! Our lease is up in 2 months and the piece is in getting fixed AGAIN. We aren't sure what we are going to do yet. They said it is going to cost us $1,900 for the transmission on a 95 Sub. with 40,000 miles on it...that's nice isn't it? We just bought a 99 Eddie Bauer Expedition today so we really want to get rid of the Sub. It has really been a nightmare!! Live and learn....don't really know what else to do, just really tired of dealing with it all!!!!
Thanks for your page!
Tonya
At least this story has a happy ending. Tonya wrote back...
We ended up paying off the lease 3 months early and just gave it back. Frankly, we were quite worried about our families safety after all of the problems that we encountered! I guess you have to chalk it up to a bad investment and a lesson learned.
God Bless,
Tonya
From: Bob K
Subject: 98 2500 Sub
Nice web site. It certainly gives me a sense of Deja Vu.
We leased a 3/4 ton 7.4liter 4WD Sub in early May 1998, so we've had it 17 months and it now has 29,500 miles...
I guess we have been pretty lucky.
It has left us stranded only once...and has been in for service only about 10 times in 17 months:
4 FE Alignments (several of which were not done particularly well)
2 rear differential grinding sound repairs
2 Exhaust rubbing against crossmember repairs
3 severly rough shifting repair "attempts"
1 rough starting repair attempts
Interestingly nothing in the interior has fallen apart yet, although it all looks like it will at any moment.
There are many noises this thing generates (grinding, squealing and thuds), but because I am so paranoid about having them attempt to fix anything for fear they will screw even more stuff up , I may be avoiding some trouble...so I put up some with the noises.
By the way, my previous GM vehicle was a 95 'vette, which nearly invoked the lemon law on 2 occassions...I won't even go into the nightmares there! After the vette, I had sworn off GM cars...not just for the lousy engineering, cheap parts, and shoddy assembly, but for the idiotic service managers and incompetent techs.
Even after this comparatively "good" Suburban, I have now written off GM trucks. Only problem is I have 18 months left in my lease....
By the way, we love Krispy Kreme as well...unfortunately we moved from Charlottesville, VA to St. Paul MN and no longer have one...:-(
Bob "No more GM's" K
From: Stephanie H
Subject: Loved Your Story
I am so glad I found your web site. I was beginning to think I had lost my mind. You see, I too am the proud owner of a Suburban lemon. My is a 97 model year, 1500 series, 4 wheel drive. Since purchase (7/97) the repairs include:
4 sets of front brakes
2 sets of rear brakes
Electrical failure-driver's window
Electrical failure-air conditioning
Total power failure when ABS system deployed (of course nothing could be found to be wrong or the problem recreated) I was told I was probably low on gas when I applied the brakes thereby making the gas slosh and the truck to power off)
Violent gear change between 2 wheel drive and 4 wheel drive (once again-all systems check out fine)
Leaking battery, corroded battery cables-complete with bulging battery from boiling acid
6 new tires- since wheel alignment is not something that can be performed on a Suburban
Loud noise from steering column-nothing could be found wrong until yesterday- I was one of the lucky ones who experienced complete steering failure while making a left had turn across 4 lanes of traffic
Wheel sensors repaired twice
I'm glad your story had a happy ending. I'm still working on one.
From: Anon
Subject: No Subject
Hey just thought i would pass along the fact that my sub was a year old in march it went in with ac problems in june after i bought it. Over heated when you stopped at anything. Now it's at a dealership in terrell tx. with 40,000 miles on it and the transmission is messed up. When asked if their trans. were only good for 36,000 miles i was told i guess so. Was told that it would be 430.00 just to look into it...........love this car.
And there's more....
Called the dealership and they said it would cost 495.00 just to look at it with out ever fixing it. The 1-800 # said that this was reasonable. The suburban was bought with a tow package on it so that i could tow a travel trailor. The 40,000 miles come from driving to Dallas Ft. Worth airport once a week where i pay $12 a day to park in cover parking for three days and then back home agian. 384 miles round trip four times a month. It has a total of 286 tow miles on it. The trailor has been towed a total of three times, and I was told that i abused the transmission. I'm a thirty eight year old female, married with four kids. The car origanally stickered for $48,844.00, and they would not stand be hind a $2,200.00 dollar transmission. My daughter has 150,000 on the Camry...never been in the shop. I put 190,000 on the nissan....never been in the shop. My son has 275,000 miles on his ford truck never been in the shop. And my husband puts 100,000 plus on the his fords, that he buys for work , yearly.....no problems with them.......My chrysler had 200,000 on it and never had a lick of problems out of it....Oh yes I'm looking at the fords....and when the dealership gets the color in that I want, this one is gone.....They have sold me on never buying a GMC product again....I'm the best advertisement that Chevy has going........Want to know how to make sure the whole world knows a stroy......TELL A FLIGHT ATTENDENT.....
Thanks for letting me vent
From: Tom C
Subject: How's your Dodge?
I just wanted to say I love your web page. I had a lemon 1997 Chevy K1500 extended cab truck that had many of the same problems you experienced (hey, maybe "They all do that!" just like the dealer said over and over!). Unfortunately, I was not as lucky as you--I didn't have the patience to fight GM to the end, so I traded the truck on a '99 Dodge Ram Quad Cab. Fortunately, we'd purchased the chevy (not deserving of a capital letter in the name) on GM discount and the Dodge was slightly used, so I really didn't lose anything in the trade.
The Dodge had 13,400 miles on it when I bought it. It's lasted more than one oil change without needing a trip to the service department--something the chevy rarely (if ever) did. When chevy made it more than 3,000 miles between visits for service, it was because I couldn't get an appointment at the dealership in time! The Dodge does have the "moaning transmission" syndrome on cold mornings but at least they have a fix for it--I'll take it in at about 20k to get it fixed when I have the transmission fluid changed.
I enjoyed your comparison post to the Dodge newsgroup right after you got your truck. I've noticed the Dodge (with a 318) doesn't have nearly as much power as the Chevy (er, chevy) but it handles much better (no 40 degree lean on curves), it actually stops when you press the brake pedal, and it slows down when you let off the gas. Like you mentioned, I've gotten really attached to the steering wheel mounted radio controls. All in all, the Dodge is much more fun to drive than the chevy. I test drove a '99 chevy before buying the Dodge (because of the GM discount)--it didn't drive much different than the '97 I had although the interior was very nice. The bottom line was: I just couldn't give GM any more money after the shafting I'd received!
Sorry for my rambling... Keep up the good work on your web page!
Tom C
Chevy Trucks: Like a rock? What a crock!
Chevy Trucks: They all do that!
From: Anon
Subject: 1999 Chevy S10
Purchased my truck just this year and at first I was happy with it. Now I am starting to notice alot of Sh*tty things happening!
1. The third door rattles constantly(has been recently "repaired")
2. The drivers side door is not closing properly
3. The passenger's side window will not close if there is the least bit of wind blowing and applying pressure (dealer not able to "duplicate problem")
4. The third seat in back was nearly impossible to pull down (dealer has repaired)
5. Small plastic piece from under passenger's seat falls off for no apparent reason
6. Console extremely loose (wobbles back and forth)
7. Small plastic piece falls off console during a routine car wash
This truck is not built like a rock it is built like a piece of soft stool that bends and gives under the slight pressure of anything that comes in to contact with it! My truck does not even have 5,000 miles on it and I have only used it once to carry a desk on it. I only wonder what would happen to it if I started to use it like a real truck. No, I don't wonder I can see it falling apart like the piece of Sh*t it is. I regret that I will have to start dealing with the jerks at GMC and I regret having purchased a Chevy "built like a piece of Sh*t" truck!
Just Sign Me,
Owner Of Another Piece Of Sh*t!
From: Joe M
Subject: QC? WHAT QC?!?
Man, does your story sound all too familiar. We bought a '91 new when we
lived in Houston. The first thing to be replaced was the complete third member.
My wife saw a puddle of gear lube under the right rear, I called the dealer and they came to tow it.
They called to tell us the housing had been miss-machined to the point where it had to be junked.
THAT should have told me something. We are now on the third transmission, third water pump, third radiator,
second set of electric motors in both front window operators, second rear A/C fan. Ball joints on both sides.
U-joints twice, when that did not fix the vibration they replaced the driveline. Still vibrates
above 60 mph. Oh yeah- FOUR alternators. Never did figure out why it it was eating these.
Brakes? 4 sets. Replaced rear drums. While looking at the front brake pads I realized they were the
same as the pads my parents old '75 Malibu used. Yeah. But it weighed about a ton less. This is not
all but gives an idea of what a fine vehicle we have. When I wrote to GM the response I got made me want to
puke. "Why, we are not aware of any problems with the 700R4 transmission." Right.
I now know why Consumer Reports lists the Suburban #1 on their list of used vehicles to avoid.
Thanks. This was therapeutic!
Joe
Surely they bought it back, right?
No, believe it or not I still have the damn thing. I also forgot about the complete brake master cylinder failure at 15,400 miles.
From: The Bells
Subject: Suburban Lemons
Hello.
I LOVE your site. You have a great sense of humor.......more than most people would have under the circumstances.
My husband and I bought a beautiful, candy apple red 1996 Chevy Suburban in Canyon, Texas.
(We live in N.M. but were visiting relatives in Texas and decided to buy a brand new suburban).
This 1996 Suburban was our first new one. We had owned two others and never had any problems.
On our drive home, we noticed that the truck pulled to the right. My arms were soooo tired when we arrived home that I couldn't even pick up a coffee cup.
Here's a list of the problems that we had during our 3 yr. ownership.
6 front end alignments
4 batteries
2 alternators
2x in shop to fix the sliding middle seat
1 calomiter
1 new stereo (the shop accidently replaced our stereo instead of the calomiter)
2x in the shop to fix passenger rear door (finally had to be welded)
2x in the shop to fix rear bumper (molding kept falling off)
4x in the shop to fix the relay switch in the rear a/c
This truck left us stranded 5 times with 5 kids. 3 sets of brake pads and the transmission was going out.
I got rid of my red lemon in July (It had 30,000 mi). At that point, it could not hold a full charge on the battery.
Somewhere there was a short and it could not be found. Chevy ended up giving us a trade assistant toward another vehicle.
Because we have such a large family, we ended up getting another suburban (it was either that or a Greyhound bus).
The new 1999 4x4 has done o.k. until last week. I filled up the gas tank (a crisp $50.00 bill) and have continued to smell fresh gas everytime I turn on the a/c or go around a sharp turn.
Please PRAY for us. We don't want or need another lemon. By the way, all of those jerks who e-mailed you and were rude, need to remember.....someday they too may be the owner of a lemon.....There are LOTS of them out there.
Cars are like people....They come in all sizes, shapes, colors and there are good ones and there are bad ones.
Take care and thanks for sharing your story,
The Bells
From: an anonymous AOL user
Subject: heres a what!
Hi i am a pure chevy fan and i have to say that it aint the truck its the driver err Ive got a 94 chevy truck and it keeps running and ive beet the hell out of it, my dads 50 chevy truck s still runnin like a beast and its the same engine and tranny and we've never touched it. my mothers 85 chevy has over 500,000 miles and we've never touched it and it keeps running like it was new so i think its all the drivers fault if u dont like it well then buy a ford they always break down and try a dodge my sister just bought a 99 cummins and the tranny is out of it! and the engine is about shot already and that just driving from town to home and its all hiway miles so i dont want to hear about chevy being faulty. if u dont like any of the above trucks then bye a over seas' piece of sh*t and that all i have to say
Well, apparently it wasn't all, since this came in right after.
Subject: by the way another thing to my mind
the controles are simple more so than a dodge or ford so if i can understand them u can to unless u are really dumb so take your site and shove it.
From: King of Bud.
Subject: No Subject
Dear sir,
Dont you tinkk that you should have noticed the design "problems" with the truck when you bought it , most of these things were designed and used on suburbans 10 years I think any idiot (except maybe yourself)ought to be able to use any of these controls did you not test drive it before you bought it. I think you were so p*ssed off you just started finding little sh*t to bitch about. Find something else to do with your time