A couple months ago I was finally able to buy the car of my dreams (or so I thought). I bought a c6 z06 Corvette with 25,000 miles on it and it had been previously owned, but it was certified by GM. The car was in mint condition…. Until NOW! On September 2nd 2010 I thought I would take a cruise and go play racquetball, but my plans were soon altered. My car made a loud banging sound and stalled out five minutes after leaving my house. I then proceeded to call a wrecker to have my car towed to the nearest open dealership which happened to be Munday Chevrolet. At first they were very nice and courteous on the phone and said they would take a look at my car right away. I explained to Louis Anzaldua that my car would not start and was leaking fluids. He stated that they would look at it and he would see if they could cover my car under warranty since it had less than 36,000 miles. Two days went by and I had not heard anything from Munday Chevrolet, so I figured I would call them and get an update. Louis stated that the motor was blown and that they will NOT be able to cover the car under warranty because it had “after-market” valves and “after-market” programming done to the PCM.
September 4th –
When I found out the news I was shocked because I knew both were NOT true. The car was certified from GM and the previous owner told me that he had NOT done any modifications to the car. At this point I felt like the dealership was lying to me and they just didn’t want to own up to the cost of a new z06 engine which is around $15,600 plus labor. After finding out that Munday Chevrolet was not going to be able to claim my car under warranty and said my car had after-market parts I decided to do some research on my own. It just so happened that when my engine blew up the president of the Sam Houston Corvette Club saw that I was stranded on the side of the road and offered help. After talking to Sid for about 30 minutes, I asked him if he knew of anyone that specialized in just corvettes and he told me about Frank’s Vettes and he also said they have a very good reputation. (A lot of people from the clubs use him too) I thought this was very interesting because Munday Chevrolet is one of the sponsors for the Sam Houston Corvette Club, but yet the president of the club recommended that I take my car somewhere else. Later that day I called a wrecker service and decided to have my car towed to Frank’s Vettes, but found out that the wrecker was not able to pick up my car because Louis Anzaldua would not release my car to the wrecker company. I then called Louis and asked him what the problem was and why would he not release my car to the towing company? (This is when things got UGLY). Louis asked why I was having the car towed and insisted that I leave the car at the dealership for them to fix. I told Louis since you and Munday Chevrolet lied to me about my car and are not covering it under warranty I would like a highly reputable corvette specialist to fix my car instead. Finally at the end of the day my car was towed over to Frank’s Vettes.
September 6th –
After finding out that my motor was blown and it had to be replaced a friend and I decided to go take a look at my blown motor at Frank’s Vettes and we got to see the supposedly “after-market” valves. I spoke to Frank Coleman, who is the owner Frank’s Vettes and he said “GM lied to you, they didn’t want to cover this under warranty the moment they saw it because it is an expensive bill. The valves on your car ARE stock valves and I can prove it to you. Each valve has a GM part number on it that is uniquely identified with your Vehicle Identification Number.” (Now I am really starting to get angry at GM). Frank also said they probably told you that your PCM had “after-market” programming because that information is proprietary to GM engineers only. I asked Frank if there was a way to prove that my PCM had been programmed or not and he stated that we could print the calibration codes from my z06 and a few other z06’s to see if they match. So we did just that! I decided before I have a new motor installed in my car that it might be a good idea to document everything and take LOTS of pictures! (Don’t worry you will get to see all of them... The calibration codes, the blown motor, and the valves with a GM part number on them)
September 8th – Time to call GM’s corporate headquarters and open a case
After a long weekend of distress I wanted answers! Why did Munday Chevrolet tell me that my valves and PCM were “after-market? ” Why would they say this is my car was a certified GM car? How did they NOT notice the “GMP-12591644” part number that was on each valve? Are these service mechanics not professionals? The part numbers for every part in my car can be associated with my Vehicle Identification Number! After gathering all of the evidence and details on my car I decided it was time to call the corporate headquarters and find out why my warranty was really denied. I called and spoke to a “District Specialist” named Jessica and told her about my C6 Corvette Z06, gave her my Vehicle Identification Number and asked if there was a case opened by Munday Chevrolet? She said, “Mr. George, there doesn’t seem to be any cases open related to the VIN you provided or your name, would you like to open one? ” (Now I am really angry at Munday Chevrolet they never even opened a warranty case!) I ended telling Jessica my whole story about what happened to my car and that it just barely reached 30,000 miles and now I have to replace the motor that costs a lot of money. Jessica was very nice and said that she would open a case for me. The case # is 71-868278908. Her phone number is 1-866-790-5600 ext. 31466. I then told Jessica why Munday Chevrolet “denied my warranty” claim and that I could prove that they were lying to me. Jessica asked if it would be possible for me to fax or mail any documentation that I had to her, so I did. A few days later after she received the documentation Jessica verified that my valves were stock with “their internal engineers.” GM then decided to pursue the issue about my PCM being “after-market.” At this time, I am thinking now GM just wants to deny my claim, but sure…I’ll prove them wrong on this too, but this one is going to be harder because the codes are “internal” to GM. So this is the tricky part…How do I prove that my calibration codes are stock and if they are stock how can I tell? Well since Munday Chevrolet lied about my valves not being stock, I assumed that they lied about my PCM not being stock too because they just flat out did not want to pay for a new motor and the labor involved with it. (Unless it came out of my pocket) Jessica stated that she will submit all of the documentation to a supervisor and have the Houston district manager Manny Sosa take a look at my file. I told her that I wanted to have my PCM codes re-submitted to GM because I feel like Munday Chevrolet falsified information.
The week of September 12th – Visit with Frank Coleman at Frank’s Vettes
I decided to go talk to my trustworthy mechanic, Frank Coleman at Frank’s Vettes to get answers and to check the progress on how things were going with my car. The new motor was ordered from http://www.gmperformanceparts.com / and its was cost $15,600. Frank stated that it would have a 3-year/100k mile warranty, but what good is a warranty if GM just backs out of them anyways? At this time Frank is very aware of my story and is not surprised that GM is mistreating me. I told Frank about the conversation that I had with Jessica at the corporate headquarters and I asked Frank if it were possible to have my calibration codes printed out from my PCM. Frank said that he knows a guy that does diagnostics on PCMs and would be able to verify the codes for me to submit to GM. Frank calls Diagnostics On Wheels and they arrive within the hour. Since this information is supposedly only available to internal GM engineers I figured that there is really no way to tell if my codes were “stock” or “after-market” because although I had the numbers printed out I needed another z06 to compare them with and it needed to be stock too. I was able to find a few members on www.z06vette.com that had their verification codes handy and was able to compare the codes. They matched just like I knew that they would. Now I had to prove this to GM.
The week of October 3rd 2010 – Convincing GM to take another look at my PCM codes
Jessica at GM was out on vacation for a very long time so now my case is transferred to another GM specialist, Robin. Robin said that they would review my case and give me a call in a few days to follow up with me. There were numerous times that she did this and it was very annoying. She would even call me to say “Mr. George, I am still looking over your case, is it alright if I call you next week? ” I wanted to get everything over with because I am out a lot of money and now it is beginning to cause mental anguish. The next following week I finally get a call back from Robin and I explained to her that I wanted to have my codes resubmitted for GM to look at, but I didn’t want to take them to Munday Chevrolet because they can’t be trusted. I told her that I would take my car anywhere else, but there. Again, she stated that she would talk to a supervisor and see if they could get this approved. Finally after a week Robin calls me back and said that she has spoken with Manny Sosa and he has agreed to let me have my PCM codes resubmitted at a different dealership. During this time I am beginning to think GM is finally going to own up to their faulty car and I am going to get reimbursed because Robin stated several times that she had “good news.”
The following weeks leading up to November 4th.
For some reason my instinct tells me that GM isn’t going to pay for any of the damages and they are just going to lie to me again. Meantime at Frank’s Vettes my car has been repaired and has a brand new engine installed. I am excited that I have my car back, but I am not excited about the new burden it carries. What was once a reasonably car to own is now a very expensive car to own. On top of the original investment I had to spend approximately another $17,000. I decided that halfway through my fight with GM that they probably were not going to own up to paying anywhere near this amount, so I wanted catch them in a lie. Remember when I said, how can I prove that my PCM is stock? Well, since GM approved of me taking my car back up to another dealership they were too dumb to realize that my car had been repaired already and that everything was BRAND NEW, including a new PCM. I decided to replace it all. Robin gives me a call back and said that Buckalew Chevrolet in Conroe, Texas (near my house) is expecting you and they are going to resubmit your PCM codes to us. So, with my freshly installed motor with less than 1000 miles on it, I decided to take it up to the dealership and have them submit my PCM codes to GM’s internal engineers. Harold at Buckalew Chevrolet said it would only take about 30 minutes and their engineers should be able to have an answer right away. A few days go by no call from Robin at the corporate office so I decided to call her because I knew it didn’t take this long. Finally after being on hold, I am able to speak to Robin. Robin stated, “Mr. George, we received your PCM codes and the codes did not come back as stock. I am sorry, but at this time we are not going to be able to assist you in payment for your new motor.” Now I am irate because this is absolutely impossible! The original PCM was replaced when the motor was replaced. The new motor is stock without any modifications whatsoever and has a warranty included. I have every single part of my old motor sitting in my garage! How could GM tell me that my brand new motor and PCM is not stock? They have again, flat out lied to me! Now I am really mad! Does that mean if my brand new GM motor blows up again that GM will not cover it under warranty because of the exact same issue? GM needs to take responsibility for this and pay for the new motor that I had to buy! I have attached a picture of the original valve that caused my engine to blow up and PCM codes that had nothing to do with my engine blowing up. Oh and to top it all off, Robin at GM said if I want a copy of any of the documentation that I need to write and official letter to GM requesting it. Isn’t that a load of crap!
People not to trust:
Munday Chevrolet, Manny Sosa, Louis Anzaldua, GM headquarters, Corvettes of Houston
Case # 71-868278908 – This letter is being sent out to a lot of people!
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