Waiting For Good Door – The Problem with Chevy SSR’s
Recently a bulletin was issued citing a flaw in the SSR model of Chevrolet trucks. The apparent problem was that the original parts for the door were constructed of plastic. These parts weakened with time and normal use causing the door to "flex." As a result, the door would intermittently not open from the inside until it eventually became permanently closed from the inside. The defect developed in as little as a few thousand miles or a few months of use.
Owners reported being informed that "no problem was found" and "could not duplicate" on their first few repair attempts, even though Chevrolet dealers were sent a repair notice in 2005. When the door part finally failed, owners reported being told that the parts to fix it "weren't even made yet." Now, let's suppose that one of the owners of these vehicles was a lemon law lawyer—that is, a professional who is always on the other side of the desk listening to consumer issues. How would they deal with such an issue?
The Tale of the Slingshot Yellow Chevy SSR
It's true--even lemon law attorneys can buy a lemon! In this case, the 2005 slingshot yellow Chevrolet SSR truck was purchased by Ron Burdge of the Burdge Law Firm, Dayton Ohio.
When Burdge and his colleagues first bought the SSR as a company car, they never expected (and no one told them) that within a few days, General Motors would issue a service bulletin regarding door problems that would soon plague the firm's new vehicle. The following is a first hand account of their experience.
According to Burdge, "We took the vehicle in to the dealership when we first began experiencing problems, but the repair order came back "could not duplicate". The problem was that the driver's door couldn’t be opened from the inside. At first, it was an intermittent problem, and then it became more and more prevalent."
"As absurd as this seems", he continued, “Eventually the only way to open the door was to open the window and then open the door from the outside. Obviously, the first thing you think about is, if there's a fire or an emergency, how would you get out if the door was stuck? Multiply that issue by the fact that an owner may be pregnant or have a disability slowing their reaction time and then you have a major issue. That makes it a 'deadly defect'."
The Dealer Diagnoses
Burdge's story continues: "When we took it [the truck] in to the Chevrolet dealer, they tried to make a repair at their shop. Best guess is they took the passenger door handle and tried to make it work on the driver's door. Big mistake."
"When they called to say the vehicle was fixed, we went to pick it up and the service tech got stuck in the truck. We had to open the door so he could get out. I then got into the truck to prove the door was really not fixed and the tech getting stuck was not just a fluke. One of the service writers had to open the door to let me out," Burdge said.
He further explained, "They told us that the part was back ordered and wouldn't be available until early September. They tried to get us to take the vehicle but we refused saying that the vehicle was not drivable and that we would not put any of our employees in a vehicle that had a known deadly defect."
Fixed but Not Corrected
Burdge continued, "The vehicle sat idle for close to a month when they called to say the vehicle was fixed. We think what they actually did, though, was use the same defective part because the SSR was no longer in production, and the cost to retool it would be very high. During the time it sat at the dealership, we filed a claim with GM to repurchase the vehicle because it met several of Ohio's lemon law presumptions, specifically out of service for 30 days or longer and a deadly defect that was not repaired during the first repair attempt). GM immediately agreed to repurchase the vehicle."
A Happy Ending?
The fact that GM agreed to replace the vehicle was excellent, but there was still a major issue that no one at GM thought of. According to Burdge, the repair paperwork from the dealership was wrong, and this is something that happens to unsuspecting clients all too often. In this case, when Burdge attempted to pick up the vehicle the first time, rather than leave the repair order open because the vehicle was not fixed, the dealership instead (unbeknownst to him) closed it and opened a new repair order (when the part mysteriously arrived early) which was then closed five days later.
The three weeks that the truck sat in their shop was never annotated in the paperwork, so essentially, according to them, it was never out of service. When this happens to clients, it makes their cases much more difficult to prove. In Burdge's situation, however, the vehicle had been out of service previously for other repairs, so there was no argument "we also had loaner car records to prove it," Burdge said. Nevertheless, the question of falsified paperwork remains.
Conclusion
The 2006 Chevrolet SSR model wasn't involved in the technical service bulletin referred to in this article (also called a "secret warranty" because it isn't publicized by GM). Chevrolet issued the repair bulletin to its dealers on August 1, 2005. The 2006 SSR may not have been included because GM either corrected the defect or because the problem had not yet been reported on the 2006 model year line at the time the bulletin was published. However, it is rumored that that there are at least 512 vehicles waiting for replacement internal door mechanisms to be manufactured and that the parts won't be shipped until September 2006 at the earliest.
If your car or truck is in the shop, remember:
1. Keep your own diary of days out of service.
2. Don't accept inaccurate repair orders-- make the dealer write down the truth.
3. If you have got a dangerous defect, don't let them give you back the vehicle while parts are on order.
If your car or truck turns into a lemon, call Burdge Law Office at 1-888-331-6422. We know what it feels like, and we know how to get your money back or a new replacement vehicle.
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