I had a coworker who bought a new Suburban a few years back. Since it was bought primarily to haul kids around and those kids soon had their own vehicles, the Suburban sat for days and somethimes weeks at a time. Problem after problem surfaced and the owners were less than happy. Then, someone (maybe it was I) told them to drive the dang thing more often. They started driving it every day and lo and behold, the problems stopped. For the last three years they have had zero problems, The moral: drive the car or sell it.

Regarding your suspension issues: 90% of the problem is the type of tire you are using; the runflats are horrible for everything but steering response. I recall Car & Driver's first road test of the BMW Z4. They were shocked at the dartiness/lack of confidence-inspiring behaviour of the suspension and steering - that is, until they realized that the car was equipped from the factory with runflat tires!

Seats: Unfortunately, the average American is close to 300 lbs and many car manufacturers feel as if they have to accomodate all those lard-butts. Lotus, on the other hand, maintains no such desire. Try to fit a 300-lb person in one, I dare you! Of course, Lotus sells far fewer sportscars than does Chevrolet, but for those who do fit, handling is on another level.

That being said, I must mention that I don't blame you at all. Right now, I beleive Porsche is the most reliable upper-level sports car out there. I wouldn't get one, but you may want to consider one.

Good luck.

Dave

 

Interesting... had that same problem crop up this morning when I got back from BG.

Took it in this morning and the mechanic shows me the location of the leak and tightens a bolt.. easily. He did the same to two others but not so easily.

Hope that is the fix.

 

Especially about the tires. 95% of the problem.

The seat holds me well at 180 lbs.

 

You ought to keep your .02 to yourself.

Surprised the battery goes dead after sitting a few weeks? You act like it should go dead or its OK for it to go dead after a few weeks. Incorrect.

Maybe he had it towed to dealer so maybe they would find the source of the problem. Sounds like typical GM service and they didn't/couldn't, but maybe he was hopefull.

 

you obviously got a few issues if you were car savy or even remotel ... nevermind.

good luck and im sorry you didnt enjoy your experience.. but please dont be that guy who had one bad experience and now is against them and trash talks the car.

 

beckel: Lease (since you apparently don't know any better) yourself a Toyota or Honda. Either will fit your personality much better and you will be much happier. You can than come back on this board and brag about your gas mileage and the number of red ***** on the Consumer Reports "tests".

 

In spite of all the pains I hope it brought a few smiles to your face during those years.


Good luck with the Vette's replacement.

 

beckel,

I don't blame you for feeling the way you do.

Sounds like your car was a lemon. I've had mine for 2years now and have had only one problem--the steering censor went out while under warranty.

No matter what anyone says, I'll always believe you can't buy a better car for the money (per my personal experience).

 

I'm going through a lemon law case with GM at this time on my 2005 CTS-V. It is NOT as easy as everyone thinks and I am going to be giving them the car plus a check for "usage". There is no "money back" in my case, the lemon law does not protect the consumer.

 

Run - Run away from it!

 

I agree with you if it breaks fix it, but if i had a brand new car and all that happened i would definately never own another again. Especially if it was my daily driver.

 

completely understandable! Must have been one of those friday afternoon cars...

 

 

sorry to see you go.

I have been on the forum since 2000, a year after I bought my '99. I luv my C5, but I strictly like it for its great performance only. Fact is There leaves much to be desired on the GM corvette other than performance and it doesnt bother me to admit that. Things break too easily, repeated failures, repeated diff and tranny leaks, GM's unwillingness to address the major issues, their bs regarding their bad ring design in 2000which caused oil to burn, the Column Lock debaucle, the fuel sending unit issues (over and over), the list goes on. And whereas I consider myself fortunate in minimally experiencing these problems, I dont selfishly scoff at other owners when they have these issues. So I sympathize for you bro.

There is a good good chance that this will be my last corvette and that hurts a great deal to say as I have had 4 of them. But GM really has been sucking the past several years.

Anyway, good luck with whatever you buy.

 

Actually, while it's clear there must have been an electrical issue somewhere, the real sad thing that the dealer –*despite their good customer service –*couldn't recognize that there was an issue, find it, and fix it. If they could have gotten it straight after the second battery replacement, this guy might have been singing a different tune about GM. Sure, the tires aren't the best, but he admits he knows the reason they're a compromise. And the interior... well, let's all admit that when our Vettes are running great all is good in the world, but if we want to nitpick the interior did get the short end of the R/D money.

Peace to all.

 

Sometimes parting ways is the only solution.

 

That really hurts, and I really sympathise with you.
When a car gives trouble like that it is understandably easy to just get "fed up with the damn thing". I had a Lincoln that was a pain in the butt......it ran fine....when it ran, but it would have one thing after another go wrong with it......constantly. I've had 2 more Lincolns since then and they were both fine. I bought a new Pontiac Formula 350 that developed a rough idle and would also just die on me out of the blue. I took it back to the dealer more than 12 times for this problem, drove hundreds of miles getting to and from the dealership, and spent way too many hours waiting for the car to be "fixed'. GM said there was nothing wrong with the car.....but then again they weren't stopped in the #1 lane in downtown Los Angeles on a Friday afternoon in it either!!! They didn't want to fix it and they fought like hell against the Lemon Law suit.....but lost and I got a full refund of the purchase price of the car. I have a Chrysler Concorde right now as my daily driver, and I have heard horror stories about their unreliability. I have had mine for 5 years and it has been a great car and has 120,000 miles on the clock!!!
My wife is much smarter than me ..........she will only buy Hondas........or if forced into a second choice, a Toyota. I have to admit to owning a couple of Hondas myself, sure they are reliable, and sure ....they are boring.

As for your battery, of course it should stay charged for more than 2 weeks. I have a Chevy pickup truck sitting in the garage which I use about 5 or 6 times a year, it isn't on a trickle charge, and it starts every time I need it.
It does seem your car has/had an electrical problem, and the power steering shouldn't go out at 7,000 miles. The no spare tire thing is a "design flaw" as run flats are not the answer. And plastic light gears, GM should be able to do better than that. Excessive wind noise in a $55,000+ car.....well that shouldn't happen either, even if it is a sports car. The suspension....well, yes, leaf spring suspension is a little Jurrasic!

 

Wow, Thats some trouble there! Surely not the norm. If it makes you feel any better, all car models have very odd stories similar to this one, My BMW being one of them a few years back.

Good Luck

 

Yep, I can't blame you. It sounds like you got the bad one. Shame because you are missing out on an otherwise incredible automobile. In sharp contrast I traded my trouble free 59,000 mile first model year 1997 in for a C6 and I hope and pray that it will be as good as my C5 was to us. Best of luck to you.

Paul

 

Bummer dude. Best of luck with whatever car you purchase next...