GM seems to have a problem getting parts to dealers when it's not a commonly replaced item. My guess is other companies do, too.
I think this is a side of effect of "just in time delivery," which every major car company has embraced. GM orders as many parts as it needs for production, and they are delivered just in time for production. Keeping inventory costs money, so GM doesn't want to do it, and vendors don't want to build parts that GM isn't going to pay for right away.
I imagine the scenario is something like this: Your dealer orders the part. GM Parts checks stock, and doesn't have any, so they submit a request to GM purchasing. GM purchasing reviews the request along with all the hundreds of other requests that come in for both normal production and repair, and eventually it works its way through the bureaucracy and the part gets ordered. The supplier has a regular production schedule (GM builds X Corvettes per week, so the supplier builds X parts per week), so they then need to schedule the production of 1 extra one, which takes a bit of time. Then that part probably has to be shipped separately from the normal production order, which takes the vendor extra processing time. A couple of days later, UPS delivers the part to GM Parts, which logs it in, figures out where it's supposed to go, and ships it to your dealer, which takes another day or two.
In the meantime, you sit and wait, all frustrated at the delays.
If it's any consolation, I don't recall reading about any other power steering failures on the forum, so it's an uncommon problem.
I think this is a side of effect of "just in time delivery," which every major car company has embraced. GM orders as many parts as it needs for production, and they are delivered just in time for production. Keeping inventory costs money, so GM doesn't want to do it, and vendors don't want to build parts that GM isn't going to pay for right away.
I imagine the scenario is something like this: Your dealer orders the part. GM Parts checks stock, and doesn't have any, so they submit a request to GM purchasing. GM purchasing reviews the request along with all the hundreds of other requests that come in for both normal production and repair, and eventually it works its way through the bureaucracy and the part gets ordered. The supplier has a regular production schedule (GM builds X Corvettes per week, so the supplier builds X parts per week), so they then need to schedule the production of 1 extra one, which takes a bit of time. Then that part probably has to be shipped separately from the normal production order, which takes the vendor extra processing time. A couple of days later, UPS delivers the part to GM Parts, which logs it in, figures out where it's supposed to go, and ships it to your dealer, which takes another day or two.
In the meantime, you sit and wait, all frustrated at the delays.
If it's any consolation, I don't recall reading about any other power steering failures on the forum, so it's an uncommon problem.
