GMC Hummer EV owners should be very careful not to damage their vehicles’ taillights, because they are apparently extremely expensive to replace. One owner was recently quoted $4,040 not including labor for the replacement of the passenger side taillight, which seems quite steep, even for an expensive, premium vehicle like the new electric Humvee.
Forget about stealing catalytic convertors…go for the taillights!
Hummer EV - Car and Driver
MSRP: $87,000 to $110,000
Horse Power: 1,000
Weight: 9,640lbs
Battery: 2,923lbs
Power Train Warranty: 5 years, 60k miles (that’s reassuring)
One “option” is 2 spare tires; cost is $5,200!
Peak Clown World? I doubt it:(
Thanks GMC for doing your part to save the planet from Climate Change!
I agree that $4400 for a taillight is a little shocking…
But bear in mind that LED lights tend to cost a lot more than incandescent bulbs of yesteryear.
AND… there probably aren’t a whole lot of spare 2023 Hummer EV parts out there. Somehow I suspect that until production ramps up…prices for a lot of these EV parts will be high.
OP makes a good point, when deciding on which vehicle to purchase, good idea to consider the total cost of ownership, not just the purchase price. That’s presuming you care about car expenses. I expect many purchasers of high-priced vehicles have other expenses way more than car expenses, so aren’t overly concerned about this sort of problem.
There were posts here a few years ago about high priced headlight replacement parts. The car’s had the type where the headlight would turn along with the steering wheel. Haven’t seen much about that issue of late. I wonder why? Have the manufacturers stopped offering that turning-headlight function?
If you buy a Toyota Corolla Cross with the optional adaptive headlights they cost $1,475ea to replace, But most won’t know how expensive those lights are until one or both need replaced.
Even used headlight units for one of my cars are $500+, turn signal housing $400+, and hood another $600+ .I don’t even want to look up the price for new parts.
You have to remember it is supply and demand and inventory control. A rare item costs money to keep in stock so they have to figure in months or years of carrying costs. As opposed to a fast moving item.
For the kids out there, I like to be stocked up during these turbulent times, but spoilage and obsolescence are two costs associated with stocking up. I had a spare jug of laundry detergent I bought maybe six months ago on sale. Dang thing developed a leak on the freezer and lost about a third of it. Heh heh. Ya takes the good with the bad, buys your ticket and takes your chance.
Yes, that’s true. I doubt that a GMC dealer keeps a lot of Hummer EV parts in stock. More likely they order them from a regional warehouse or directly from the factory. That’s what happened when our Silhouette transmission was replaced. The dealer ordered it from the regional warehouse and it took a couple of weeks for them to get one and fulfill the order. Warranty repair, BTW. It only cost us the 3 weeks we were without the van. Since we had 3 cars at the time it was a small inconvenience.
I unscrewed a flywheel bolt and found a crack in it. Car was ~15 years old, dealer didn’t stock, couldn’t find it anywhere, not even salvage. Dealer ordered it from Korea…took over a month and cost $25.
If the dealer, no one, will stock a flywheel bolt for 15 years…who’s going to stock those EV battery’s? Actually, you can’t really stock them that long, the correct question is who is going to make EV batteries for 15, or 20 year old EV’s…I say no one…@15 years, they’re all salvage if they even make it that far.
They can’t stock parts for 15-year-old vehicles? The inventory depends on the demand, we can get hybrid batteries from the warehouse for 15-year-old vehicles the next day. Nobody stocks a flywheel bolt for a Hyundai Excel because there is no demand.
You should manufacture batteries for 15-year-old EVs, you could make a fortune.
EV batteries decay just sitting there; can’t build them and shelve them for 15 years. You have to keep the manufacturing ability alive along with the raw materials.
After just 8 years, Ford has stopped supplying EV’s batteries for the Focus and no one has stepped up to “make a fortune” selling those batteries; and they won’t…because it’s a huge money loser…the battery will cost as much, or more, than the value of an 8 year old Ford Focus. After just 8 years, the next stop for those cars is the salvage yard.
Once an EV hits 8 years, it becomes a “hot potato”; you don’t want to be holding it when that battery expires. Telsa gives an 8yr/100k warranty, yet marketing says they can last up to 30 years…lol…who you gonna trust!
Do you think the replacement parts for a 15-year-old car are 15 years old? No one warehouses a 15 year supply of parts, they are manufactured and stocked to meet demand.
Ford only sold 9000 EV Focus in the states during that run and many may have been for fleet use. That is a terrible market to supply batteries. Tesla manufactures 10 times that number of vehicles each month.
Like finding parts for a 67 Mustang, NOS(New Original Stock) parts will continue to be a thing for a long time. That shell they sell for Mustangs and Camaro from the mid 60s are NOT 60 years old, they are made from new steel and are probably better than what they used back then for the originals.
Batteries are recycled and repurposed if they are not good enough to go back into EV batteries. Hell, in 15-20 years the replacement batteries might be of higher quality and better materials for said 15-20 year old EVs.
Why do people talk about replacement part cost on brand new vehicles? I always hear about battery replacement costs and how people are terrified of having to replace them yet you never hear about anyone talking about replacing the engine and/or transmission on a brand new vehicle.
I mean, $60k for a replacement engine for a brand new Shelby GT-500 is outrageous. Another $20k if you need to replace the transmission in it. That’s just absurd and I can’t see why anyone would buy a brand new GT-500 if it’s going to cost $80k to replace the engine and transmission and that’s not counting the labor involved in taking both out and putting the new ones back in.
Maybe we can’t afford it but a lot of people can. Also, just because the cost of replacing the power train is high doesn’t mean replacement will occur while the original owner possesses it.
It’s simple. How many engines have you had to replace in your entire lifespan of owning cars? How many batteries have you replaced in that same timeframe? This is people’s frame of reference.
In production volumes, gas engines have been around a long time. Fundamental design is relatively well known and people have long experience with them. By the same token, batteries are relatively new technology in production volumes of vehicles and the costs of repairing/replacing them is already well known to be rather expensive. Couple that with people’s experiences in battery longevity in many consumer electronics as well as starting batteries in cars and you arrive at the reason why many people are leery of purchasing an electric car.
I mean, $60k for a replacement engine for a brand new Shelby GT-500 is outrageous.
Well, let’s stick to apples to apples comparisons. How many people can afford this car? How many do you see on the streets?