Purchased 2008 Cobalt (29k mi) on 1/19/10. Almost every week since have taken back to dealer for same warranty work: engine light on. Dealer shop is great to work with, but the problem is only fixed for 24-48 hrs and then recurs. Always “300” type problem code (engine misfiring somewhere). After six trips to the shop, this is still happening. I have called GM Customer Assistance and they now have a ‘specialist’ involved. But what if the problem still isn’t fixed? What is my next step?
Check out these two links to find out more about your stat’s lemon law.
Thanks for the feedback, Joseph, but as I understand it the lemon laws only apply to cars that you purchase new. This car had been with a rental car company for over a year without ANY warranty work. After the dealership bought it at auction in June '09, their service dept manager used it for 4 months to drive to and from work, putting another 4k miles on it.
I guess another question might be what is causing this? I mean, after all this time, shouldn’t the engine light be acting up before now? I’m beginning to think that the problem is something I am doing, but for the life of me can’t think of what I could be doing wrong to cause this.
One other idea I had for the cause of this problem, is that the car was previously owned by a rental car company in Hawaii. We live in Wisconsin. The dealership tells me that the car’s onboard electronics make the adjustment to climate, and they haven’t gotten any problem codes to indicate that it isn’t working properly.
Check with your state. Some states do have lemon laws for used vehicles.
Does the car DRIVE okay?? Can YOU detect any misfire??? Perhaps there IS no real problem, just a “computer” glitch…It’s very difficult to fix something that is not broken. A used car is still a used car…
Your car sounds just like my corporate vehicle. I have a 2009 Toyota Prius (< 10,000 miles) that has had problems with check engine lights. The codes are always the same (misfires); the dealer resets the CEL and can’t find any problems. They typically blame it on bad gas or how “Toyota recommends not running car with less than a quarter tank of gas”. To top things off, they always bill my company the cost of reading & resetting the code, as they claim it’s not a warranty issue.
From what I can tell, there’s not anything that I can do. I’ve always like Toyotas but I think this will be my last one.
Your next step is to let the process work. What I mean is GM has assigned a specialist too your vehicle, let him do his job. Most likely your car went to the “wrong men” on your previous visits.
Call in the GM Zone Manager and have your case arbitrated. That’s the way I had to resolve a problem with GM vehicle. I came out way ahead.
Thanks for the info everyone! I was notified this morning that the GM Zone manager is now involved, so I am hopeful this will be resolved quickly!
You should also keep in mind this problem may not even be a warrantable issue. If it’s determined to be a fuel related problem or one that is attributable to abuse from it’s year as a rental car then warranty may not pay one cent of the repair.
Odds are they will take care of it but I just wanted to make you aware that not all problems are warrantable.