Good Feedback on the Certified Used Vehicle Warranty
By Brian McVeigh
General Manager, Fleet and Commercial Operations
Preliminary reports from our dealers indicate that customer interest has been encouraging regarding last week’s announcement that General Motors will provide a fully transferable 5-year/100,000-mile powertrain limited warranty with no deductible on 2002-2006 model GM Certified Used Vehicles.
You should note that there are no exceptions to eligibility for this powertrain limited warranty, which is standard only on 2002-2006 model year GM Certified Used Vehicles purchased on or after March 5, 2007. However, you may want to consider the many GM Protection Plan offerings, as they can be tailored to include only the powertrain components or broader coverage, based on your needs.
As I noted in my post last week, the GM Certified powertrain limited warranty is a strong statement of our confidence in the quality and value of GM vehicles, both new and used.
The results of studies by leading automotive researchers tell a story of growing quality. In 2006, General Motors scored the most wins in the industry in Strategic Vision’s Total Quality Index‚Ñ¢ for the second year in a row; with GM the leader in five of the survey’s 20 vehicle categories, beating Toyota, Honda and Nissan. GM was awarded the highest ranking in owner loyalty by R. L. Polk & Co. for the seventh straight year. And according to the 2006 Harbour Report on Productivity, GM has five of the top 10 most productive vehicle assembly plants in North America.
Building on these achievements, the GM Certified Used Vehicles powertrain limited warranty is another initiative to address the continuing perception gap about GM quality and dependability. Simply stated, there’s never been a better time in the program’s 10-year history to be a GM Certified customer.
- Posted in Cars & Trucks
SteveG
well, I bought my 2006 Cobalt in November, 2006 so i guess I’m screwed.
The car is being recalled to replace faulty fuel injectors. Unfortunately my dealer was not notified so i can’t even get it repaired.
How about getting your act together about recalls, GM?
Sam Houston
I still think you should make the warranty retroactive to any GM vehicles that fit within the 5 year 100,000 mile parameters.
And how do you decide which vehicles get a 5 year warranty and which get the 6 year warranty?
Gereon Langlitz (Germany)
In any case, that’s remarkable. I can’t think of any similar measure from a European manufacturer. If you want to buy a used vehicle in Germany with a warranty, this has to be done by engaging a third-party warranty-insurance, e.g. the “CG Car-Garantie” from Freiburg (Southern Germany). Of course you have to pay that on your own, unless the dealership doesn’t provide it as an incentive.
Rogers Place
All good until this warranty program starts costing GM money. Then they’ll just revise or end it. All us car buyers will be back on the street footing the bill for repairs.
Gary Smith
Looks like GM is taking a page out of Chrysler’s 80’s playbook, albeit now in the used car market. If we can’t get them in the used car market with quality/resale value, which they can’t, we’ll throw the warranty bone to the buyer. We’ve all been watching the U.S. automakers lose ground for how many years now? They still think they can get away with Madison avenue tactics as opposed to just building quality cars. They’ve been form over substance for too long.
Hey, how about the recent article in the WSJ about the fact that GM doesn’t even keep track of the options that sell in different areas of the country? Now some of the big dealers are running around collecting that information for them. Are you kidding me? Not keeping track of what sells for all these years? What a joke. How do these guys accept paychecks with a straight face?
Jeremy
Not building quality vehicles??? What???? I have a 2000 Cavalier, it’s been through an accident, taught 6 people how to drive a stick, and was my daily driver where I averaged driving 200-250 miles a day. The person before me drove it as a daily driver going 40 miles to work each way every day. The car has 167,000+ miles on it now and the only problem that it’s experiencing is the suspension and brakes. The brakes haven’t been changed for about 50k miles and the suspension was damaged from the accident. Explain how that’s not reliable. I know a guy that has a 2000 Impala with the 3.8 Liter and has a half million miles on it and it’s never been in for anything but regular maintenance. My dad works for a company where they used to drive Ventures. He put 132k miles on a 2000 Venture and it NEVER had a problem. He gets a 2004 Caravan and within the first week (with 12 miles on it) it was in the shop for the ABS going out and a door locking issue and that wasn’t the end of it’s problems. Another friend of mine has an 80s style Caprice Classic and it has 365k miles on it and it’s NEVER died and they barely take care of it.
Then I have a friend with a 2002 Nissan Sentra Spec-3 with only 75k miles on it, he babies it, and it’s already on its second engine. I have another friend with a ‘94 Accord that only has 175k on it but it’s on it’s 3rd engine. That same kid now has an older Toyota and it died just trying to pass someone going 75 on the interstate and it has less than a 100k on it.
I don’t know where you all live but here in Iowa we actually use our vehicles and when you look at the construction sites you NEVER see a Toyota or a Honda “truck” doing anything but providing transportation to buy a burger from Burger King. The trucks actually doing work are Chevys that have well over 200k on them and still run like they’re brand new. So get over this “reliability” scam that the imports are convincing the media of by not reporting recalls (Toyota) or by just ignoring your faults in the case of Honda. Let’s be real people!!
gary smith
Well personal anectodes and numerous question marks at the end of the sentence may be on one side; however, there’s the market place on the other. GM, Ford and Chrysler are getting CLOBBERED. It’s not an accident. They’re are a myriad of reasons but they definitely include the fact the the resale value on the big three are dismal compared to Honda and Toyota.
I look through used car ads on a regular basis. The big three can be had for a fraction of similar aged, milaged and optioned Toyotas and Hondas.
As far as the pickup truck segment, let’s not forget that until recently, Honda and Toyota have stayed pretty much on the sidelines. A sales leader in that segment has yet to be determined. I’m not placing any money on the U.S. auto makers.
By no means do I relish the ineptitude of the American auto makers. They just seem to have a culture the has yet to catch on to a real commitment to quality - before design. Which they are now losing in design as well.
They’ve known what they’ve been doing. It’s the gamble they have continued to accept for a long time. Try to dazzle them with design and when that fails push product with incentives (and further lower the resale value of their cars). Now, they are losing. They can’t hide behind the incentive game any longer.
Gereon Langlitz (Germany)
Jeremy,
I absolutely can agree. My sister in law owns the Cavalier’s `brother¬¥, a 1999 Pontiac Sunfire (convertible). She also didn’t have any major problems so far and I liked to drive it during our visit in Florida. My 2001 Alero doesn’t need extra treatments at the workshop, neither.
J√∫lio Pimentel
Very interesting blog. Congratulations from Brazil!
Jeremy
Ok, let’s break this down. “GM, Ford and Chrysler are getting CLOBBERED” ? Didn’t realize that having 4 of the top 10 best selling vehicles was under the category of being clobbered. Then you add the Dodge and Ford in there and you just got to 60% of the top 10 best selling vehicles. I guess your definition of “clobbered” must be slightly different than mine.
“until recently, Honda and Toyota have stayed pretty much on the sidelines,” I understand saying that Honda has “stayed in the sidelines” but Toyota has been actively pursuing their truck segment for over 20 years. They have the TRD which is in truck racing constantly. But what’s interesting, if you look at what the “Toyota’s” generally use when they’re in off road racing, you’ll notice a Corvette LT1 under the hood, an Allison transmission, and a Ford rear end. What part of that makes it a Toyota? And Honda’s “truck” shouldn’t even be considered a truck. It sits on the Odyssey platform and it’s most powerful engine is a V-6 hitting just about 250hp.
“Which they are now losing in design as well.” ? So you’re saying that the Toyota Camry is a nice looking car? The average age of a Toyota owner is 52 years old. I wouldn’t consider that a benchmark in creating visually appealing vehicles. But then you could say, “well, Toyota has the Scion brand for younger drivers.” Yeah, I’m sure designing the Scion xb was a real tough challenge. Draw a box, make two circles for the wheels, and make a dash that looks as cheap as a 97 cent hotwheels car.
“Try to dazzle them with design and when that fails push product with incentives.” Yeah GM has used incentives, but they haven’t done anything but 0% financing for a long time. I wouldn’t consider 0% financing a negative thing either. If you were offered 0% for a house, you can’t tell me you wouldn’t take it. But what’s interesting is, as soon as you saw the sales of the Prius going down, Toyota is already offering $2,000+ incentives just to get people to buy them again. And I noticed more Honda incentives last year than GM.
Rick Lupori
The biggest difference I have seen between U.S. auto owners and Japanese owners is maintenance. Very few U.S. auto owners are as vigilant about service as Japanese auto owners. This has an affect on percieved reliability when the car strands you on the road. The problem is it is the owners lack of maintenance that caused this to happen.
I have seen little difference between a U.S. brand and a Japanese brand car in reliability when both are given equal maintenance.
This makes the GM certified cars a best buy in the used car market. Many GM cars can be purchased for thousands less than a comparable Japanese model. Why spend the extra money? You are not getting anything for it. And if you do have a problem with a Japanese car be prepared to spend thousands more to fix it.
Until the resale values drop on Japanese cars or GM cars rise there is not one I would even consider as a used car purchase.
I would take advantage of the current situation and great warranty while it lasts.
Robert Wilson
SteveG you can take that vehicle to any chevy dealer and if the VIN is in the recall you can get it fixed. Get off your tail and get it done and quit blaming GM for something that really doesn’t exist. GM didn’t notify your dealer, Please.
gary smith
Well there’s breaking it down and there’s breaking it down. One question. You have the opportunity to purchase, no better yet, receive as a gift (allowing you to be “freer” to entertain risker/higher reward stocks), 10K, or pick your denomination, of shares of any of the mass market auto manufactures. Who do you pick?
Before you give your answer, I’m sure you’ll want to consult financial statements and statistics regarding market share, stock price, return on investment, bond grading, etc…, and their trends for the past 5 or more years.
Oh, and you might want to consult with the people at Diamler-Benz and ask them how their 80 billion investment in Chrysler is doing.
One can only speculate why the domestic auto makers have been so cavalier in their management of an industry that has been part of the backbone of the U.S. economy for so many years. It really gets me angry.
CaptainDan
Robert Wilson,
Now I’m sure you didn’t know, but Steve G posted on another blog (GM insiders) explaining that he DID take it to the dealer when he received the recall notice. But the dealer said GM didn’t tell the dealers anything about the recall, so the dealer has no way of knowing what to repair or replace. So yes, this is something GM is doing wrong.
Robert Wilson
Captain Dan and SteveG:
Look there is absolutely no way that GM issues a recall and does not notify dealers. In fact GM notifies all customers and Dealers are just that - they buy the vehicles first and then sell them to people like SteveG. I’ll tell you what - post me a reply here with your email address or other contact info., SteveG, and I’ll personally take your issue and insure that it gets taken care of appropriately. We’ll see if the Dealer wasn’t notified of a recall action and more importantly we’ll get the issue taken care of …
Robert Wilson
SteveG:
You’re also going to have to provide me with some information regarding this Fuel Injector recall, because I can’t see any recall on Cobalt having to do with fuel injectors.
SteveG
>Captain Dan and SteveG:
Look there is absolutely no way that GM issues a recall and does not notify dealers. In fact GM notifies all customers and Dealers are just that - they buy the vehicles first and then sell them to people like SteveG. I’ll tell you what - post me a reply here with your email address or other contact info., SteveG, and I’ll personally take your issue and insure that it gets taken care of appropriately. We’ll see if the Dealer wasn’t notified of a recall action and more importantly we’ll get the issue taken care of …
g linar
why not do the right thing and make the warranty apply to any vehicle in the range? I bought a 2005 chevy Silverado with only 6900 miles because the original owner passed away. It only has 9050 as of today and it will not qualify because it isn’t certified. This is the first chevy I have owned and the certified requirement just makes me angry.
Good Bob
I am new to this Blog so forgive me if I post in the incorrect topic or area.
Why not extend incentives to Certified used GM vehicles? Also, please extend financial incentives to Military Retirees both Active and Reserve members. I retired last year and now I feel left out. Many of us are still recallable. Many of us made many sacriices.
I thank you for you time, consideration, and patientce.
Bob
Jeff
Yeah whatever. I paid 2 grand for an official GM warranty and the car is still bleeding money. It all depends on what’s covered. Hint: it’s not necessarily everything you need to drive!
I’d be happier if rather than instituting plans and schemes, GM simply manufactured a few extra parts for each car and made them available at a reasonable price.