Vibe / Matrix ; PROBLEMS and ANNOYANCES : do this >

[wiener]

Call TOYOTA or GM CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTER TOLL FREE NUMBER listed in your OWNERS MANUAL and let them know what your issue is . The more complaints they get the sooner the PROBLEMS ( ex.; clicks and clanking , stalling , tailpipe rust , etc. ) and ANNOYANCES ( ex.; silver around instrument cluster , vents and cdp , rattles in dash and CLUSTER , etc. ) will be addressed . Makes for better car for all who own or buy . SO : let the BITCHING begin !!! ( That's what makes this country so great ) Take Care

[NSimkins]

quote:SO : let the BITCHING begin !!! ( That's what makes this country so great ) While I agree with that statement, I personally don't believe this holds true when attempting to resolve an issue with GM (or Toyota for that matter). To put it simply, they don't care.Now, they may say that they care about what you are saying, nothing ever gets done.GM/Toyota is going to take minor squeaks or rattles with a grain of salt and by default recommend you see your local dealer's service department to resolve your issues (even though you may have already done that with no resolution.. why would you be calling them in the first place? )It has been my experience that GM (Toyota is probably the same) probably won't address your concerns, no matter how many people complain. This goes with fact of my '01 Cavalier Z-24 (current vehicle design has been out since 1995) and the Vibe (first year). For example, problems with Cavaliers (seemingly easy-to-fix) go unaddressed to this date (squeaks, rattles, mechanical problems) so I personally feel the Vibe will be no different.It takes a problem that may compromise safety of vehicle operation before the manufacturer will more and likely consider making a change.For example, my old '93 Cavalier's horn assembly (in the center of the steering wheel) spontaneously just popped out of the center and hung down by 2 wires in the middle of the wheel. Luckily I had the opportunity to maneuver safely off the road before it could get caught in the spokes while I was turning, etc. This was the only interior annoyance "fix" GM had issued as a bulletin about the vehicle.. hence it was due to safety concerns.I guess I have this mentality now due to the fact as when I bought my '01 Cavalier brand spanking new from the dealer, I immediately had 'quality' control problems as well as mechanical problems with the vehicle. I had the frame of mind that the vehicle should be perfect and problem-free and obviously should have all it's kinks worked out being it was a 3RD generation vehicle... right?! WRONG.GM's answers for most of my problems, be it interior defects or mechanical bumps (suspension creaks, rattles) was for me to turn up my radio. And as you can see, my weeks of service center visits, calls to GM, talks with service dept. managers, all lead up to this great (?!) answer from the manufacturer.So my final word on this (I don't usually rant!) is that if I can't fix the annoyance myself, and the service center can't, and GM wants me to listen to my radio 7 notches louder..... I will just have to deal with the problem... or get another vehicle (no guarantee they don't have problems of their own either).It is an unfortunate fact that the manufacturer's don't listen to their customers.Personally, the Vibe has been one of the best choices (so far ) I have made when purchasing a vehicle. I have in no way regretted purchasing the vehicle yet. My Cavalier was different.. I was regretting the purchase about 1 week after I acquired the vehicle.Look at this thread for further proof: http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=83

[wiener]

to let them know of problem so can get file number and goes on record , which will hopefully help w/ issue presently and in future . Thanks

[dlmetzger]

As an ex-vibe owner, I have to agree with NSimkins. GM will do nothing when you file a case with customer service. Customer service actually serves the dealerships more than GM itself. None of the info you send in ever goes anywhere except for getting filed in a huge data bank never to be accessed. So save your time and forget customer service, better to contact Consumer Reports, BBB, JD Power, Local Papers, etc. if you want to contact someone about problems.

[Chris]

I'm afraid this is an issue with GM. While I'm not sure Honda, Toyota, etc. listen well, they do try to maintain high quality vehicles as indicated by their lower value models being well represented in the JD Power surveys for quality. The only way GM will listen is to refuse to purchase GM. Yeah the Vibe is "GM" but all the important parts are Toyota (reason I purchased one!). GM has proven they will only listen when it hurts their profits.Just my opinion

[NSimkins]

quote:I'm afraid this is an issue with GM. While I'm not sure Honda, Toyota, etc. listen well, they do try to maintain high quality vehicles as indicated by their lower value models being well represented in the JD Power surveys for quality.I completely agree. I have family and relatives that always purchase foreign (Honda, Toyota, etc.) vehicles with no problems whatsoever. That is why they never need to contact their customer service, thus why you don't hear (or hear as many) compaints about them due to the lack of their need... which is good!quote:The only way GM will listen is to refuse to purchase GM. Yeah the Vibe is "GM" but all the important parts are Toyota (reason I purchased one!). GM has proven they will only listen when it hurts their profits. After my Cavalier, I made it known I wasn't going to purchase a GM vehicle (or American for that matter). The Toyota involvement in the Vibe was the sole reason for my 2nd GM purchase. I would DEFINATELY NOT purchase a first-year-generation GM-ONLY vehicle.. that's for sure.

[Frosty]

quote:After my Cavalier, I made it known I wasn't going to purchase a GM vehicle (or American for that matter). The Toyota involvement in the Vibe was the sole reason for my 2nd GM purchase. I would DEFINATELY NOT purchase a first-year-generation GM-ONLY vehicle.. that's for sure. Curious. My daughter leased a 2001 cavalier a year ago and was treated with extreme care. Her car has never skipped a beat, her only problem was with noisy hubcaps but I suspect it was from curb contacts.Her experience and other family member's 20 years of good experience swayed me into thinking that GM would take care of me and the Toyota parts would stand up well. Hopefully I won't be wrong 2 for 2.
[Modified by Frosty, 1:22 PM 9/20/2002]

[NSimkins]

quote:Curious. My daughter leased a 2001 cavalier a year ago and was treated with extreme care. Her car has never skipped a beat, her only problem was with noisy hubcaps but I suspect it was from curb contacts.Well being as you said hubcaps, I assume it was the base Cavalier? Mine is a Z-24 model. I have (still trying to sell it) the Z-24 so it has a little different suspension and engine... but everything else is mostly the same as the base model. I just find it hard to ignore consistent noises coming from the suspension while I am steering, clunking noises from the engine from bad mounts, strut mounts that last 1 yr or less.. my list goes on.I never encountered a rude customer service agent from GM, just lousy answers and no real concern for addressing the problem, as 'everyone' was having the problem. My dealer's service dept. were nothing shy is being the most helpful, but flat out told me I could complain to GM all I want but the dealer could do only so much before they would start to charge me for repeated visits for the same problem they say they can't fix.Performing a history on the Cavalier, I noticed alot of issues being expressed from years ago are still present on the latest 2002-03 models. That, in my opinion, is crazy.quote:Her experience and other family member's 20 years of good experience swayed me into thinking that GM would take care of me and the Toyota parts would stand up well. Hopefully I won't be wrong 2 for 2. I agree with you though, hopefully my Vibe will take care of me and GM will take care of me also this time around. Time will tell.

[NovaResource]

I've owned 3 GM J-Body cars and never had any serious problems with any of them. 2 Cavaliers (85 and 92) and a Pontiac Subird (93). As a matter of fact, the 92 Cav is now owned by my mother-in-law. She's had it since January of 99 and she doesn't take very good care of it. The 93 Sunbird is now owned by my father-in-law. He's owned it since July of this year (when I got my Vibe) and does take very good care of it. The 85 Cavalier was traded in on the Sunbird back in 96 and had over 140K miles on the clock. All three were great cars and never gave me any major problems except normal wear.

[NSimkins]

Scott, thanks for the post. You brought to my attention that I should have mentioned the problems I was referring to with the J-Bodies were built with the latest platform generation design (1995-2003).My 1993 Z-24 did not have any of the problems I described as I do with the 2001, as it was designed differently (still J-Body). My 1993 had 104,000 miles before I bought the 2001 (going on reliability of the 1993, which I should not have done).The pre 1995's were definately alot more solidy designed.I'm sure this is all due to the use of cheaper components and parts.

[NovaResource]

That's ture. I've never really liked the '95-up J-bodies. Too small for me. I also disliked the fact that a V6 was not an option in that generation. The 3.1 in my 93 Sunbird was a great engine. I never really liked the GM twin-cam "Quad-4" 4-cyl that was used in them either. I think the new 2.2L DOHC Ecotec 4-cyl is much better. Hopefully the rest of the 2003 car is as much of an improvement over the 95-02 car as the Ecotec 2.2L is over the Quad-4.

[Sputnik]

I only had one problem with my 2000 Cavalier, which I had for 3 years. The gas guage broke and just as my boyfriend pulled off the 401, he ran out of gas. Curiously my friend, who has a 2001 Sunfire, just had her gas guage replaced

[NSimkins]

quote:I only had one problem with my 2000 Cavalier, which I had for 3 years. The gas guage broke and just as my boyfriend pulled off the 401, he ran out of gas. Curiously my friend, who has a 2001 Sunfire, just had her gas guage replacedWell glad you haven't had many problems and didn't have to deal with GM Customer Service.FYI, there were problems with most 2000+ Cavaliers and Sunfires pertaining to their erratic gas gauges.

[Sputnik]

Thought there must be because my friend (mentioned in previous post), her boss had the same problem as well. How come they wouldn't do a recall on something like that?

[NSimkins]

quote:How come they wouldn't do a recall on something like that?Well it's two things if the gauge broke, it would be replaced, but if it was just malfunctioning, they would probably just issue a TSB (Technical Service Bulletin) and fix it on a per-case basis.The issue with the gauge on my Cavalier was it would actually be empty, even though the gauge indicated 1/4 full on level ground. That is nothing major enough (safety related), probably, for them to recall the vehicles.

[Sputnik]

That was our problem as well... guage said we had at least 1/8th of a tank, but in fact, we had none. We didn't know it was broken until we ran out of gas.

[robodog61]

I had an annoying dash rattle from day one. I have a Civic with 190,000 miles on it with no rattles whatsoever, so this was intolerable. After reading posts hear and on Edmunds.com, I was able to pinpoint the problem and tell the dealer. The dealer ordered a special piece of felt from GM and installed it behind the gauges. All rattles gone! I am impressed. I hope no one else has this problem. It is very fixable, however. I let the dealer do it because I was afraid to break the assembly if I removed it.

[NSimkins]

Yup, we have a thread about that problem if you happen to encounter that noise again. http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=396Also you have to consider the Civic has been around for many years now and this is the Vibe's first year of production. Any vehicle manufactured by any company is bound to have it's quirks, both big and small.

[pmh013]

The Vibe is the first brand-new car I've ever owned, so I can't say that I have a lot of experience in dealing with dealerships & manufacturers when attempting to get repairs. However, I can speak from the experience I've had with my Vibe. ONLY after I reported my car to Transport Canada as being defective did I get any kind of response from anybody at GM, other than, "We're looking into it."If you're really concerned about getting your car fixed, ask your local dealership (if they've been less than helpful) for the contact information of your District Service Manager. This will not only send a message to the dealership that you're not kidding around, it should make them stand up and take notice. If the DSM can't solve your problem, ask the DSM for the contact info for their boss. Eventually, you'll end up with someone who will get you some action.You could always start right at the top, although I wonder if it would be as effective. Those at the top will probably pawn you off on somebody who should have looked after you in the first place. The names of GM Canada's Board of Directors is listed on their website (very easy to find). Although BoD's are generally only accountable to shareholders, it may be a way to get heard.The squeaky wheel always gets the grease. Either that, or the bearings seize.That's my $0.02 ... and it's Canadian, so it's probably not worth that much.

[pmh013]

quote:Don't expect to get the quality of a $100k car in a $15k car!Just because the car costs less, doesn't mean you should expect it to be troublesome. Sure, you're not going to get a leather-wrapped heated steering wheel and headlight washers in a car in this price range. But, you should expect the Vibe to be a quality, American-assembled, Japanese-designed automobile.

[meathead333]

i think it is for the most part.