Why General Motors (GM) is doomed to fail

Posted by the dood on Sunday, November 23rd, 2008

I own a GM vehicle, a Cadillac CTS to be precise. I bought one because I saw the car in the Matrix, and it looked so darn cool I had to have one. Mine is a 2005, so i’ve had it about 3 years, and I love the car. I love the way it looks, and I love the way it drives. For the money, I think it was a great deal and its not as common as the Mercedes C-Class, BMW 3-Series and Lexus IS’s out here.

As a car, the CTS is great. I like it a lot. However, I will never buy a Cadillac, or any GM ever again.

Why? Because of the service, and particularly Dueck GM on Marine. When I lived in Nanaimo, Tom Harris was okay, but not great. They were always acceptible, but I was never happy with them. They screwed up my car a couple of times, requiring me to take it back, one time even causing my car to make a clacking sound every revolution of the tire because of something they screwed up, and when I was driving home at midnight, at 10km/h because I was afraid it was going to fall off, I freaked out on their answering machine. This kind of stuff should not happen.

When I moved to Vancouver, I needed to have my car services at a new dealer. The only GM dealer of Cadillac in the vicinity is Dueck. There are four Duecks. I don’t really have a choice. I went to Dueck GM, and sat in a poorly labeled garage while NO ONE served me, or offered to tell me where to go, while 3-4 other people were behind me, stuck in their cars because it was so full in there. There were 3 service writers helping one snobby guy and his dog in his Hummer H2, none of which even offered a “We’ll be right with you”. So meanwhile I am standing in this garage that I have never been to, unsure of where to go. There are no desks with someone to help you. Apparently you are supposed to just pull up to one of the cabinet-like things where no one is standing anyway. But when they are all full you really don’t know what to do.

I’ve had other cars, and the service was always a lot better. I really do like my CTS… and like the commercial says, when I turn my car on, it does return the favour. However, there are other cars that do it for me too, and I don’t have to deal with a bullshit service department that doesn’t give a shit about their customers. So Goodbye GM, you won’t be getting anything from me, and I think there are a lot of people out there that share my experiences, many of which are less vocal.

Hope you guys survive the recession. I won’t be helping you out 🙂

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