After owning my first C7 Stingray since January 2017 and putting 18,900 miles on it, it finally needed new tires. I brought the Z51 Corvette to Stillwater Motors to have new Pilot Sport 4S tires installed, and while in there I noted there was a harsh grinding noise when shifting into 2nd gear and eventually the transmission would not go into 2nd. Upon inspection they confirmed my issue and proceeded to disassemble a majority of the car to remove and disassemble the 7 speed manual transmission. The mechanic found a plethora of metal shavings inside and the root cause was a failed 2nd gear synchro and damaged 2nd gear. GM would only approve a transmission rebuild rather than a replacement, unlike I had requested. So…. 23 days later the dealer called and had the car finished and reassembled. This is where the fun begins… upon arrival I noted the car sat higher than before (about 0.5” after measuring). I asked why the vehicle was not returned to original ride height and was told it was in spec…. ok. No big deal. The bigger deal is when I went to drive it home. Approximately 117 miles into my scenic detour home along the St. Croix River, the car would not shift out of neutral and the dash illuminates with a check engine light and service park brake light. The shifter would not move out of the N position however the car was still locked into 5th gear and did not display gear position. The engine was also in a limp home state with PO734 code present. So, rather frustrated at this point after waiting almost a month for my car to be repaired, I call the dealer. They instructed me to limp the vehicle back and drop it off…. They claimed the shift linkage may have been out of alignment and they would recheck and get back to me…
For the sake of brevity, I will fast forward to today, 35 days later from when I initially dropped the car off to get new tires. I have made 4 more dealer visits since returning the car after they instructed me the issue was fixed… only to have the fault set before even leaving the lot! The car has not returned back to my house since Aug 30th due to these issues and the dealer unable to repair the transmission or properly diagnose the issue. At this point, I am very upset with the situation and have missed out on 3 significant road trips due to this, as well as make vehicle payments on a premium car while I am stuck I a cheap loaner Malibu.
As if all of this turmoil was not bad enough, there were also blemishes on my carbon side rocker panels which were not there before and scratches on the fascia from pushing the car around by hand, along with a dead battery and squeaks and rattles on the interior from removing most of it to reinstall the trans shift linkage, which I question if interior removal was necessary. I am extremely upset and dissatisfied. I am not convinced this car will ever be the same and without issue and request that it be bought back from GM. After much correspondence with GM customer assistance, I have yet to get any resolution on this matter. This level of inconvenience and customer assistance with such a premium vehicle is unacceptable. WI lemon law applies to vehicles which are still under factory warranty and have a defect covered under warranty and not able to be repaired and leaves the vehicle inoperable for 30 cumulative days, so I may proceed that route.
Has anyone else had to deal with such terrible customer assistance or a vehicle buyback from GM? This all seems like a nightmare.
