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Tale of woe with my Chevy Silverado, If you don’t want to read this entire tale of woe then let me sum it up here. Your Chevy truck may rust out to the point of being pulled off the road because of rust in as little as 84,000 miles making it a loss for resale or trade in. I’ve had a Chevrolet Silverado since 2003. I purchased it new. It is an automatic V8 Z71. The off road sport model. This story isn’t about the multitude of issues that it has had regarding brakes, brake lines, rotors, wheel hubs, and bearings. No, that’s another story. Back in 2003 I worked out a price, with trade in of about $23,000. Since then, and as of this writing 2014, I’ve put in about $7000 of non maintenance work and parts into it. Yes, it’s going on 11 years old now but it’s only got 84,000 miles on it and it pretty much looks near new from about ten feet away. The other day I took it to my service station for an oil change and inspection. It seems that the frame is rusted out so much that an inspection sticker is impossible. The recommendation is to get rid of it as repair of the frame would be expensive as the rust is widespread and affects cross members that are pivot points. So, I’m stuck with a truck that looks great on the outside but has a rusted frame that makes it ‘junk’ status in a trade-in and unsellable privately as it’s not inspected.The vehicle has what I figure as half of it’s mileage. I’d expect to get at least 160,000 miles instead of the 84,000 it currently has. Why? Because even though I do live in the snow belt in Maine where road salt is used. I have a Tahoe that is 14 years old, has 164,000 miles on it (double the mileage), has been driven in the same area and housed in the same garage and has a frame that has a few years left in it. I called GM. All I’ll say is that I got a case number and promise of being called back. That never happened. I called and got another case number as there was no record of the first with the promise of a call back. That didn’t happen. I took it to a chevy dealer, on my own, who lifted it and documented the issue. They called GM and I was promised a call from them. That didn’t happen. I called again. My case number was classified as ‘issue resolved’. My last tussle with GM was a flat “you’re over warranty so there’s nothing we can do”. Two weeks to get that final answer. So what was I hoping for? A deal on a new vehicle? Some repair funding? An apology? Anything would have been okay. In looking for a new truck last week I did find out that Toyota had a horrendous frame rusting issue in some trucks from 2001-2004. What did they do about it? Up until 2012 they volunteered owners of these vehicles a new frame installed at Toyota’s expense or 150% blue book value of the vehicle. Thousands of truck owners were contacted and restitution was made. What about after 2012? They will still come to some restitution on a case by case basis as long as you own the vehicle. So, a warning. If you’ve got a GM vehicle and have been happy with it like I have with my older tahoe, well that’s wonderful. But, the next GM vehicle you purchase could be great or it could be a disaster that will drain your bank account and cause you to have to purchase a new vehicle before you’re ready. With GM, It’s a crap shoot. Other notes: Notice driving/headlights out on cars as they pass. Most are GM. (my truck loses them all the time. Look for used trucks on Craigslist. You’ll see a bunch. 2/3 of them a Chevys. When I see someone in a parking lot with a Silverado truck that is about the same year as mine I ask about it. I hear the same tale of woe.
