Neighbors rolled the dice on a manufacturer buyback vehicle... and lost.

[The Critic]

When i was at Toyota this is how they handled buyback. After hours 2 from corporate they would get parts guy and 1 tech to stay for 2 hours. We would go through diagnostic and repair. If we didn't find problem then it got shipped to Texas learning center to be corrected.

That is the Toyota approach; I believe they continue to have field service engineering involved with every buyback case, which is why they have one of the lowest buyback rates in the industry.

 

[JTK]

This really is a shame. Like said above, South main auto or pine hollow diagnosis would likely have this problem figured out in an hour or two.

 

[Rmay635703]

On a modern car killing the juice altogether will have bad consequences.
Do you know what they would be?

Which is unbelievably stupid to start with, cars should be rock solid and stable if you need to remove a 12 volt even if that removal takes days.

 

[Tdbo]

Having dealt with a new vehicle that was a lemon and going through the lemon law process, anyone who would purchase a buyback vehicle is a glutton for punishment.
Enough said.

 

[tvaughn]

Well I will chime in because I speak from personal experience here in California.

Lemon laws are different throughout different states so I can't speak for anything else but California.

I went through a battery issue with my brand new 2024 Mercedes. This was purchased in November of 2023 and the manufacturer bought the car back in July of 24.

I will ad that this was a brand new car purchased for the first time by me with all rights and warranties attached to the car.

I asked a lot of questions as to what happens to the car once you surrender it. The answer was that it goes up for auction and
"it is disclosed that it was a lemon buyback"
and the reasons are usually listed. Which is a huge red flag to buyer beware!

It's unfortunate, but sometimes you get what you pay for.

My 2018 Shelby GT350 was also a Lemon Buyback (2 blown engines and a failed manual transmission...among a few other things). It eventually was on the dealer lot across the country with the branded title for sale, which was wild to me.

 

[zzyzzx]

Samcrac or Richfix could fix it.

 

[Elkins45]

My inherited 98 Chevy had an intermittent battery drain since the day after the warranty expired. It didn’t get driven much but occasionally it would go completely flat over 2-3 days. I ended up installing a second battery and a cutoff switch as sort of a self-contained jump box. All efforts to find the problem failed.

Then one day during deer season I was driving across an open field at our farm and I stopped on the high ridge to look over the hillside. There was no wind and it was totally silent…except for a strange clicking noise coming from under the hood. An electrical noise, like a relay clicking. When I stepped on the brake it stopped, but as soon as I let off the petal it resumed. It turns out the problem was the ignition switch sometimes didn’t actually turn everything off and left the ECU and related systems energized. Starting it and turning it off again usually fixed it although sometime it took more than one cycle.

I guess I had never just sat quietly in the cab for a few moments when turning it off before, or I had my foot on the brake when I did. A new ignition switch solved the issue, but it took years to find the problem.

 

[CKN]

This really is a shame. Like said above, South main auto or pine hollow diagnosis would likely have this problem figured out in an hour or two.

Except the GM Techs are only allowed so much time for diagnosis..as has been previously mentioned. Then it's buy back time.

 

[John105]

This is great news (on top of the 6.2 dfm), as I aspire to getting a Tahoe/Escalade 2025+ lol

I know about bad GMC/Buick service as I lived it from 2011-2017 (stopped going to the dealer after extended warranty expired--they took 1 1/2 years to fix a captain's chair under warranty) as back then Buick had a 4/50 and we extended it 2 years. One time when I got a shuttle ride the driver was telling me about the Yukon wind buffeting noise and how irate customers were about spending almost $80k (this was 7 years ago I'm sure they are $25k more now) and having a wind noise that can't be fixed.

Stay the course, I am a GM fanboy.

 

[mikeduf]

That ignition switch is exactly what my 24 Mercedes GLC 300 had. It was a bad switch that energized the entire system. It took them four attempts but they finally fixed that.

Then one day I was at the local park and all warnings went off in the car no Rhyme or Reason. All warning sensors and safety features all stopped working.

That's when I said enough is enough and went back to the dealership for a fifth time to have that fixed.

They did software updates and sent me on my way 4 days later. I had a pretty good paper trail at that time so I Engaged The lemon law request.

Then it was a waiting game for around 3 and 1/2 months. And it was bought back at full purchase price to the penny. That's amazing you heard that clicking, Way to go!

 

[raaizin]

Dealers are not going to tie up a bay for quite a few days, and have a qualified person occasionally divide it more, set it up for test, and repeat until the problem is found. Too much space, time, and tying up equipment to be making money on these kind of problems.

Dealers can do standard repairs, anything out of the norm they cannot handle. Also mechanics want to book as many hours each week to increase their pay. Their pay structure does not reward smarts just who can do a brake job in the quickest time. I lived through this with our 2018 Audi Q5 which couldn't recognize its key sometime. Dealer couldn't fix and I had to trade it.

 

[willbur]

You know that old saying, of "Just say no"...?

Earlier this spring, the neighbors bought a 2023 Yukon XL SLT with 9,000 miles. They now have three kids and three car seats to use, and really needed the extra room.

The problem was, it was a GM buyback out of California. The first owner had it 4 short months. Problem stated was "battery does not hold a charge".

In the 6 months that they owned it, they were only able to put 3,000 miles on it, because... the battery doesn't hold a charge. Most of the time that they had it, it was trying to be fixed by one of two GM dealers, either the local Buick/GMC dealership, or the Chevy dealership 50 miles away that sold them this steaming heap. They also found out the hard way, that the local GMC/Buick dealership only gives out small Buick Encore loaners, that three car seats simply don't fit into. So, they ended up borrowing an SUV from a family member for several weeks.

After handing it over several times (over 3 months) to the local GMC/Buick dealership for them to try and fix it... it finally went back to the Chevy dealership that it was purchased from, and they tried for another 6 weeks to fix it. At least while this was happening, they drove a new Suburban with dealer plates.

Eventually, after 6 months of not really having a $50,000 vehicle to use, the Chevy dealer that sold it to them finally bought it back. Now, they're driving a Suburban from the same Chevy dealer.

And what did the Chevy dealer do with the Yukon that keeps draining the battery (other than be at least the third dealership who couldn't fix it)? It is back on their used car lot, for sale, yet again...waiting for some other unsuspecting sucker buyer to take it home. Apparently, the dealer is willing to take the risk in repeating this ordeal with some other buyer.

You'd think a dealership would send a troublemaker like that back to the auction (which is where they found it) while they had the chance, but apparently not. It is somewhat amazing what some of these dealers will put themselves and their customers through, to try and make a buck.

Suggest they contact the GM CEO when all else fails. Worked for me. Real fast, too

 

[emmett442]

So many "GM" and "lemon" comments in this thread. Doesn't make sense. The vehicle has had one simple problem. One. It happens. Not a lemon, not a widespread issue, nothing to do with General Motors.

If this vehicle was in the shop this much for multiple, unrelated issues, a vehicle where the owners are saying "what's next", THEN I could see throwing these arguments out there.

But that's not the case. The issue is the lack of competency in diagnostics by those who have attempted to make this one repair.

 

[jeepman3071]

So many "GM" and "lemon" comments in this thread. Doesn't make sense. The vehicle has had one simple problem. One. It happens. Not a lemon, not a widespread issue, nothing to do with General Motors.

If this vehicle was in the shop this much for multiple, unrelated issues, a vehicle where the owners are saying "what's next", THEN I could see throwing these arguments out there.

But that's not the case. The issue is the lack of competency in diagnostics by those who have attempted to make this one repair.

The lemon law usually applies when a vehicle has the same problem 3 times that is not resolved. All that is required in many states is for the person to bring the vehicle back in 3 times for the same issue and it not be fully resolved for this to apply.

My parents lemon-lawed a Honda Civic wagon back in the 1980s for this reason. It was a brand new car, but something was off in the alignment, or body, as it ate through a set of tires in about 1000 miles. They brought it back several times over the course of a few months to the dealer with no resolution, and after a few sets of tires the car was finally taken back.

 

[wtd]

Sounds like right up Pine Hollow’s alley.. Not surprised dealership couldn’t figure it out.

I was thinking the same thing. He and Eric O of South Main Auto work on a lot of cars that come from dealers who can't fix them.

 

[Ranger83]

We had a 2016 Tahoe bought used. Went to get it inspected and the right rear turn signal did not work.

Called the previous owner, who had a friend who was a tech at the local dealer. He told us it was the fuse BCM [Body Control Module] 6, and where it was located.

Turns out the Tahoe had six fuse boxes, including ones at each end of the dashboard.

Posted on a Tahoe owner forum and several others. We never did get a list of what fuse is where and what they control. Thing towed great, only reason to own one IMO.

Parents these days won’t buy minivans: they have to look like they are single and sporty, I guess. Neighbor with three young kids bought a big Ford SUV “because they’re good in snow.” And still has the lousy OEM tires on it….

 

[Chris Meutsch]

Paging South Main Auto… This is right up his alley, although it’s still under GM warranty.

Good call, he will certainly trace it down.

 

[Hootbro]

Samcrac or Richfix could fix it.

Samcrac has never struck me as a diagnostician. He usually Googles the problem and throws the top 3 or 4 search result parts at it and then gets a professional involved if he was not lucky.

 

[pbm]

That is the Toyota approach; I believe they continue to have field service engineering involved with every buyback case, which is why they have one of the lowest buyback rates in the industry.

That's why I'll only buy (new) non domestic vehicles from now on.....American companies seemed to have lost their way.

 

[f355spider]

Sorry-more of my too long winded thoughts. Just the kind that some should simply make use of the IGNORE/DELETE options if too much...... to put up with instead of the gnashing of teeth , moaning and griping.

Years ago many businesses used to really care about quality, reputation and loyalty to and from their customers and even employees.

Especially those known as The Big Three and similar large corporations , especially manufacturers. Those companies at one time , each employed their own group of "specialist." Those technicians that were trained as company/brand/division experts to travel the country to help out dealerships. Lots of those experts eventually moved on to better jobs elsewhere with the experiences they gained.
Some of them moved on to even better jobs and pay , working to make some NASCAR teams consistent winners. Those "Big Three" specialists , (troubleshooters) would be sent to dealerships who came across strange types of "brand specific" issues that their local dealership mechanics simply had not seen or could not solve. They needed this specialty help at times. I realize that auto quality and design has certainly improved by leaps and bounds the last couple decades which is great for all of us. Buyers and sellers.

According to several guys I knew over the years who were employed at dealerships , that program worked very good and was a job lots of the best skilled mechanics hoped to be promoted into if they were really good , liked the work , helping people and cared to travel.
No matter , if the info came from service managers, dealership technicians/mechanics/service writers to even salesmen that I got to know , they all agreed. They all told of very similar , positive experiences about those programs. They all have said it simply ceased to exist all of a sudden many years back. Most have said they recall that sometimes around the mid to late 90s it just up and vanished. If it is true of all , that those automakers no longer offer that kind of support to their own dealers/franchisees, that is totally sad.

Apparently they must not even care enough anymore to solve certain type issues? Did some pencil pushers someplace just talk them out of the effort? Maybe ran some cost/profit spread sheets to convince them that the money and the customers they stand to lose is not even worth the bother in this day/age?
When those type things that at times do go wrong and cant be solved locally , is it not even worth the money it takes to maintain a small pool of those very good and expert employees as support? Support kind of like all of the IT groups that nearly all corps maintain these days? At times I honestly wonder when planning on any major purchases , just how many? if any? do any companies still exist today that make customer satisfaction , consumer return businesses , brand , or even employee loyalty much if any priority in the scheme of running a consumer product industry/company?

A friend is a service writer for a Subaru dealership...her husband is a master tech for Subaru and is a regional specialist with a job you describe. I think he only travels within one state...but has a regular route he travels each month. He assists Subaru dealerships with troublesome cars that have unresolved issues.

I think most car manufacturers use their intranet to run their own internal dealer diagnostic forums to help each other...its cheaper.