Steve
Mesa,#2Consumer Comment
Wed, August 01, 2012
My experience with GM is that it is one of their favorites to tell customers whose vehicle is still under warranty, that a noise or a problem with their vehicle is "normal":
I took my 2008 Corvette ($ 70,000.- car) numerous times to different dealerships because it was having a loud grinding noise at deceleration. At the end the service director of Van Chevrolet (Scottsdale) who had never heard the noise told me "it is normal, all the Corvettes have this noise, nothing we can do about it." A week later I took it to a different shop, they found out that the transmission had severe internal damage. I called the Van Chevrolet Service adviser to let him know that it was not true what they were telling me about the "normal grinding noise" - he never returned my phone call.
I also reported a clunking and banging noise at acceleration, at least during 4 different visits at the dealership, it was never repaired or diagnosed while the car was under warranty. Now the bumper to bumper warranty is over but GM wants to charge me $ 70,- for "diagnosing" the problem. At the same time they are saying that the clunking and banging noise is "normal" and that it can not be fixed.
They also told me that it is "normal" that the door won't open if the key fob is in the "wrong" hand and that it is "normal" that the "key fob inside" warning feature also honks the horn if there is no key fob inside the vehicle.
"This is normal" seems to be the favorite explanation and solution for GM dealerships, I even believe that they learn this in training and that they are advised to tell this to customers if a repair is expensive or not possible due to a design flaw.