Craig's blog

To whom it may concern,

In December of 2003 we purchased a new 2003 Chevrolet 3/4 ton Suburban with the 8.1L big block engine and trailering package. We were replacing our 1993 Suburban because we have an 8,500 lb travel trailer that needed all the pulling capacity we could find.

I'm somewhat of a car nut and am reasonably particular about my vehicles and have made numerous "enhancements" to the Suburban. We find it quiet, powerful and comfortable. In many ways it's ideal for its purpose - taking our family of 5 (and the occasional friend) on trips while pulling our large trailer.

However, I'm writing today because I've been extremely disappointed in the quality of our new Suburban. While I'm afraid I've come to expect lower quality from American cars than from Japanese or even German cars, the problems I've had with our Suburban have been particularly disappointing. Here is a list of the problems we've had after 2 1/2 years and only 19,000 miles.

1. The gas tank has always been difficult to fill. It works great until about the last 8 gallons. After that I have to coax it along a couple of tenths of a gallon at a time. The dealer says it's normal.
   
2. At 2,000 miles we were towing our trailer and the "Service 4WD" light came on accompanied by a "clunk". After reading the owners manual I hoped it was ok to continue with our trip. It was. When I brought it in for service I was told it was fixed with a software update.
3. The optional trailering mirrors I had special ordered never worked reliably. My dealer tried to fix them several times. I finally gave up, bought aftermarket (Schefenacker) mirrors that are fantastic and sold the OEM mirrors on eBay.
4. The dome light on the DVD player installed by the dealer never worked. I was told it would be sent to the manufacturer for 5 weeks to be repaired. This seems ridiculous - why not install a new one that works (and then get mine repaired if you want). I've never had it fixed.
5. At 11,000 miles all the instrument panel gauges stopped working. The next day when I tried to take the car in to the dealer, the battery had died. I jump started it and drove it to the dealer. The dealer concluded that there was a short in the instrument panel. A new one was ordered and then installed. The gauges now worked, but they couldn't get the information display to work correctly. After a week they ordered another instrument panel. 2 1/2 weeks later I had the car back with a working instrument panel.
6. At 15,000 miles the instrument panel gauges again all stopped working. This time the battery was so badly damaged that the car had to be towed to the dealer (it couldn't be jump started). When the vehicle arrived at the dealer and the battery was charged, the instrument cluster worked normally. I always drive waiting for it to fail yet again.
   
7. At 17,000 miles as I was preparing to leave on a camping trip with my family the new battery again wouldn't hold a charge. I took it to the dealer the morning we were leaving and they determined (after 3 hours of diagnosis) that the rear HVAC module had an internal short and was draining the battery. They didn't have the part in stock, so I asked that it just be removed so we could go on with our trip. The part arrived a week later(!) and I took the car in to have it installed. It turned out the wrong part had been ordered so I had to leave the car at the dealership for 2 extra days.
8. A month ago we left for a long-planned 3 week camping trip to Colorado (we live in the SF Bay Area in California). Within an hour of our departure the engine began to make a "clicking" noise at high RPM when under load (climbing hills). The check engine light also came on momentarily. Having some experience with engines, I was concerned that it sounded like an internal engine noise and might be serious. I drove by the Monterey service department (which was on the way for that day's travel), but found they weren't open on Saturdays. We camped 50 miles south of Monterey for 4 days, so on Monday I took the car (without the trailer) up to the Monterey dealer. They looked it over
   and diagnosed it as detonation (pinging). They said the gas in California wasn't any good and I should use higher octane. While I sincerely hoped they were right, I was quite skeptical (as I told them). I filled up with premium fuel, and on Wednesday we continued with our trip.
   We drove through the California desert and climbed in the heat toward Las Vegas. The engine continued to make quite disturbing sounds when climbing significant grades. We stopped at what turned out to be an excellent dealer in Las Vegas (Bill Heard Chevrolet). They were very busy, but they immediately asked their foreman to ride with me while I drove pulling the trailer. We had gone about a mile when he (Rory) said, "That sounds like internal engine noise, and I don't like that the oil pressure is dropping some at higher RPM". He recommended strongly against our continuing to pull the trailer through the desert and then mountains of Colorado. It was June 29, the Thursday before the July 4 long weekend and they said they wouldn't be able to start disassembling the engine until the following Wednesday. Needless to say, we were devastated that we wouldn't be able to complete our trip. I do everything I know to maintain our vehicles so that we can depend on them. We finally decided to rent a motorhome for the 14 days it was going to take to fix our Suburban. This cost us $2,500 we hadn't planned on spending. In addition, we were unable to use both our own trailer and our own truck for the trip, both of which are outfitted the way we like them.
   We continued our trip in the rented motorhome and on Wednesday they began to take apart the engine as planned. They found a faulty oil pump and replaced it. When we returned 2 weeks later, we happily found that had fixed the problem.
9. Our drive from Las Vegas to our next stop, Reno was (thankfully) uneventful. However, when I started the Suburban on our final morning to drive home, the gas gauge read completely empty. The night before it had been 1/3 full (there should have been about 12 gallons in the tank). I was frustrated, but hoped(!) that it meant someone had siphoned the remaining gas out of the tank while we slept. I drove directly to the nearest gas station to fill up. The tank only took 32 gallons - it WAS 1/3 full. The next tank did the same thing. When the car is started with less than 1/2 a tank, the gauge reads empty. The car has now been at my local dealer for 2 days as they try to fix the latest problem.
10. The entertainment center installed in the roof by the original dealer now vibrates and rattles a lot. It appears it is attached only to the headliner. This seems like an incredibly poor design.
    

We are very fortunate that we don't rely on our Suburban for anything other than vacations; I can't imagine driving a vehicle that is this unreliable regularly (or using that much gas). If there were another vehicle that competed with the Suburban for the things I need it for, I'd be all over it. What I really wish is that General Motors could build cars that approach the quality of the vehicles I've driven regularly over the past couple of decades from Honda (Acura), Toyota (Lexus), BMW and Mazda.

I've owned several GM cars over the years. I bought a new 1985 Corvette and while I loved the car, I had many problems with it (including being stranded in the California desert for a week when the coil(!) gave out with <5,000 miles on the car). I had a 1993 3/4 ton Suburban with the 7.4L engine. I had a number of problems with it too.

I'd love to see GM thrive. It's hard for me to know how that is possible when other companies make much more reliable vehicles.

Please take this letter in the spirit it is intended - to help you understand the perspective of one of your customers.

Sincerely,

Craig Carlson