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I've sent this letter to USA Today and I'm going to put it in the mail to GM directly. I'm posting this letter on the message boards I use. I ask that if you feel the same, you copy and post this letter on any other message boards you use and send out via emails to people you know. Please post your opinion of my letter here. I'm glad I took a week of writing to come up with this one. My early versions could not be printed in a newspaper due to language and extreme anger. I think this one is better thought out.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
To: The people of General Motors
From: Your Former Loyal Customers
This is an open letter to General Motors from your former loyal customers who became victims of your products’ poor reliability. We enjoyed purchasing your vehicles. We enjoyed driving them. We enjoyed the service we received from your dealerships. We enjoyed the reliability,…right up until the vehicle’s warranty expired. Not long after the warranty expired, things began to go wrong. I’m not talking about things like brake disc, belts, tires, or other normal wear and tear problems. I’m talking about things like faulty electronic AC controls, GM’s PassLock theft deterrent system not recognizing our key and locking out our engine, brake rotors warping so badly they need to be replaced, and leaking intake gaskets (within about 50,000 miles) for example.
What makes the above even more upsetting is, thanks to the internet, we’ve discovered that not only did you know about these problems for several years (thanks to discovering your service bulletins to your dealer networks) but you did not
Did not correct the problem at the part manufacturing plant.
Did not correct the problem in the vehicle manufacturing plant.
Did not correct the problem in vehicle’s in the dealers’ inventory
Did not correct the problem in current customers’ vehicles at no cost to your customer.
Knowing all this, why should us, your former loyal customers, return to you for our next new car purchase? Why should we take you at your word that the quality of your vehicles is greatly improved? If you want us to return to you then it’s going to take more than words of assurance. It’s going to take action. We understand that mistakes happen at various stages of production. What we don’t understand is this great stone wall of denial of fault you and your dealers have put up between yourself and your customers. GM, please tear down this wall.
Actively seek out components that repeatedly fail in your vehicles
Find the source and cause of these failures.
Implement corrective actions to fix this problem.
Put in this correction at the source; component manufacturing plant or vehicle manufacturing plant.
Fix the problem in your existing vehicles as your customers bring them in at no cost to your customers.
You do the above and customer word of mouth will begin the process of improving your image among not only your current customers, but also among past and potential future customers. It will also improve the quality of your product. With improved quality will come improved vehicle sales. You think Toyota and Honda out sale you because their vehicles have as much styling as a toaster? It’s long lasting build quality that is the result of you failing in sales to these two auto makers. You improve your quality, you stand behind your vehicle’s quality, and you improve your customers’ support and customers will return. Until then we’ll continue to avoid your company’s vehicles.
So once again I ask you,…why should us, your former loyal customers, return to you for our next new car purchase and why should we take you at your word that the quality of your vehicles is greatly improved?
David Bordelon
Lafayette, LA
I will copy and paste this and send it to ford and chrysler LOL.
I thought about doing this as an open letter to all American car companies but I honestly had no personal experience with either Ford or Chrysler (until my wife recently purchased her 2007 Chrysler Sebring a few months ago) so I didn't think it was fair of me to do so. I've always only owned GM vehicles.
And the Big 3 scratch their heads, wondering what happened to their loyal customers.
That's not correct.
You're UNpatriotic for NOT "buying American" even though the once-big 3 kept pouring junk off the assembly lines. You're supposed to accept that because they are "American" companies. Ignore the fact that a company like GM slaps together v6 engines in Shanghai, China, just to ship them back to the states for use here (3400 v6 -> Chevy Equinox). (We can save the dive into why it is still so expensive to do biz here for another day, another thread, et al.) That's what I repeatedly see online.
Ford...they started using that plastic intake on the 4.6L v8 after 1995 and had to go back to aluminum repalcements once those started acting like the cost-cutting more they were (cranking open...good bye, engine), v8 engine spark plug blowouts, cruise control POS issue, bringing us the Ford Contour/Mercury Cougar...it's close to nap time, I'm sure there's more I could think of.
Chrysler? Other than seemingly every engine they sourced from Mitsubishi having leaky valve seals, they brought us the Chrysler Aspen. You know, because the public asked for an upscale Dodge Durango.
The only person at GM that truly "gets it"(Lutz) is like, 78 years old. The only person besides Lutz that's worth anything is maybe Nesbitt, the head of Cadillac. I'm betting that unfortunately, GM will ultimately fail.
became victims of your products’ poor reliability.
I stopped reading there because it was obvious that your letter was pure BS. GM products have been the most reliable I've owned... and I've owned enough to know. What is your problem with GM (or American in general as seems to be the tone of this thread)?
I got a letter yesterday from Mini USA extending the factory warranty on two sensor units on my 2005 Mini Cooper S to 2011, since the units had some field failures. Since it's only a percentage of cars on which these units fail (and it isn't a safety issue) it isn't a factory recall.
The Mini has been a reliable car, but, IMO, that's how some of these things should be covered - not by secret warranties which you only know about if you ask, but by publicly admitting the problem and agreeing, in advance, to fix it if it comes up.
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You may have found out his problem by reading the post completely...
