Why all the Bad Posts? <semi rant>

Guys/girls, with all due respect....

I've been reading this forum now since I purchased my TB a few months back. I have been EXTREMELY satisifed with the build quality, and operation of the truck. It is a 2004 EXT LS.

I see there are people with problems....and that is normal for ANY car line. You never hear from the thousands of happy people with no problems on their cars....just the bad ones.

These trucks are VERY complex in how they are built. The more I tinker with mine, the more I appreciate it. The biggest PITA with them, as I see it, is the proprietary serial bus that controls everything, with the resultant difficulty of modifying it; and, the lack of lift kits due to the axle through the oil pan.

FWIW, since I have bought the truck (as noted above, an LS), I have added: power/heated leather seats (from manual cloth), power heated mirrors (from manual!!! mirrors???), remote entry (factory) and a bunch of misc accessories (side moulding, tint, bug deflector, etc). It took a lot of reading and wiriing diagram research, not to mention tearing half the interior apart to do all this (so I route the wires in the factory harnesses....), but it has been great! I'm in the process of adding the DIC instrument cluster and the steeering wheel with the controls as well. Pretty straightforward stuff actually.

Again, after having worked on literally hundreds of different trucks/cars/SUV's in my life, I'm impressed with this truck.

To anyone who is seriously interested in working on them, get a set of factory shop manuals. Not exactly an easy read, but it has everything you need to know to work on it.

Finally, to those of you that are having frustration dealing with dealers....that seems to be par for the course with them. I don't care what vehicle you have, the dealershafts are generally clueless and will give you the run around unless you tell them exactly what you want done and what your problem is. GM really needs to get on them for this....

Count me as a Happy TrailBlazer owner!!! (except for the crappy mileage...doh!)

Its nice to see someone say something nice around here.
Glad you are happy with your TB.


Finally, to those of you that are having frustration dealing with dealers....that seems to be par for the course with them. I don't care what vehicle you have, the dealershafts are generally clueless and will give you the run around unless you tell them exactly what you want done and what your problem is. GM really needs to get on them for this

There are many good dealers out there.
A dealer is an independantly owned franchise and GM does have standards they are supposed to meet.
The dealers that most people have problems with are the ones that don't meet the standard..
If a dealer does not meet lets say the service standard, they cannot provide quality repairs that the consumer demands. Also, the dealer cannot offer warranty extensions and may not get reimbursed for warranty repairs that are done at the dealer.
What does that mean to you the consumer? well basically you may be dealing with a dealer that cannot provide the service you demand causing you to get mad at GM.
I often recommend to people here that if they are having problems with dealer A, to go across town and deal with dealer B.
Ask the dealer if they are 90% or more in their training standard, ask if they have any ASE certified Master Techs..more importantly ask the dealer if they have any GM Master Techs or any World Class Techs.
(FYI..out of 70000 GM techs in the US only about 500 are World Class)
There are dealers out there with outstanding service departments.. you have to educate yourself first

Good info on the tech levels!

I can definitely see this being an issue, as these trucks are a lot more complex than meets the eye. Unless you have a tech that is trained in the *proper* use of a TechIII, and knows that just hacking into wiring is no longer viable (due to the serial bus, as an example), you may have problems. I guess most of the feedback I hear on the different lists I am on, is that dealers are usually part of the problem, not the solution. That's too bad, as it creates a lot of bad feelings towards a brand....usually unwarranted.

I don't think I have ever been to the dealer in my 20+ years of owning cars...do the work myself to avoid the frustration :)

Oh, I take that back....I brought my 94 Z28 in to a dealer way back when for a problem with a vibration around 70mph. There was a TSB related to an out of balance driveshaft, so I knew what the problem was already. FOUR hours waiting there, and no less than THREE "meetings" with a service writer to point out service that needed to be done (not....it was fine, and still is), it proved my opinion that the uninformed are at their mercy :(

I agree with lkurek for now. I don't have the expertise that he has on the TB but I like them.
I just purchased a new 2004 LT in Nov and am very happy with it.
I like the ride, size, A4wd, etc. Have had no problems so far but still new.
I had a jeep grand cherokee limited new (95) and it had many issues in the 5 years that I owned it. I like the TB much better..

As for Dealers many, I say many not all, always play dumb and just lead you on either to take your money on unnecessary over priced service or no service on warranty work. my opinion is the smaller the dealership the better the service dept. You may pay a little more for the vehicle but it is made up in customer service.

I have a 03 trailblazer and I am well satified. As far as going to a dealer across town to do warrenty work, they will service the cars bought from their dealership before they get to yours. Doesn't matter if you were there first, you will be service last. I have been told this by people working at the dealership. :nono:

Well......

I was creative with the VIN number. Go to a used car lot, or a dealer, and find a truck with the option you want. Give the dealer that VIN when you order....and you'll get the one you need.

As far as the schematic goes, just read in the back of your owners manual where to order a FACTORY shop manual (Helms). It's around $140, but worth it's weight in gold if you are doing any work yourself. DO NOT buy a Haynes or some other bookstore manual......it won't give you the detailed info you need.

As for your warranty....try a different dealer. If you are getting screwed by one, try another. If that fails, go the zone rep level....and KEEP DOCUMENTATION so you can tell them what you did when and who you talked to.

Guys/girls, with all due respect....

I've been reading this forum now since I purchased my TB a few months back. I have been EXTREMELY satisifed with the build quality, and operation of the truck. It is a 2004 EXT LS.

I see there are people with problems....and that is normal for ANY car line. You never hear from the thousands of happy people with no problems on their cars....just the bad ones.

These trucks are VERY complex in how they are built. The more I tinker with mine, the more I appreciate it. The biggest PITA with them, as I see it, is the proprietary serial bus that controls everything, with the resultant difficulty of modifying it; and, the lack of lift kits due to the axle through the oil pan.

FWIW, since I have bought the truck (as noted above, an LS), I have added: power/heated leather seats (from manual cloth), power heated mirrors (from manual!!! mirrors???), remote entry (factory) and a bunch of misc accessories (side moulding, tint, bug deflector, etc). It took a lot of reading and wiriing diagram research, not to mention tearing half the interior apart to do all this (so I route the wires in the factory harnesses....), but it has been great! I'm in the process of adding the DIC instrument cluster and the steeering wheel with the controls as well. Pretty straightforward stuff actually.

Again, after having worked on literally hundreds of different trucks/cars/SUV's in my life, I'm impressed with this truck.

To anyone who is seriously interested in working on them, get a set of factory shop manuals. Not exactly an easy read, but it has everything you need to know to work on it.

Finally, to those of you that are having frustration dealing with dealers....that seems to be par for the course with them. I don't care what vehicle you have, the dealershafts are generally clueless and will give you the run around unless you tell them exactly what you want done and what your problem is. GM really needs to get on them for this....

Count me as a Happy TrailBlazer owner!!! (except for the crappy mileage...doh!)
Welcome to the future. Please understand that all babies are adorable, it is just that some of them become Scott Petersons of the world. I paid considerably more for my TB than any other prior purchased vehichle. I did so mainly because of the saftey features the vehichle has to offer. I also never lease since I take car of all that I own. My 1950 Chris Craft will attest to this. Zero % financing was also a very nice incentive at the time. My expectations were that I could easily get 150,000 miles from the car with an expected cost of about $1200 a year in average maitenence, including tires, brakes and lubes. At 30,000 miles a $700 dollar clutch fan, proprietory product, needed replacement this was a shock. All it is supposed to do is cool an engine, I can cool my condo for a whole summer for less than $700 dollars. The starter is another $275 dollar item, that you will not be able to get in the aftermarket. Try to rebuild it, the plastic planetary gear is about a $12 dollar part, you cannot purchase it seperately. The starter is consider a throw away unit, no parts available, but they will charge you a $45 dollar core charge for this so called throw away unit. This is GM making money of expected part failures. When these two items need replacement on your vehichle, you will not be as disturbed as I was, because at the time I did not know, now you do.

I don't mean to flame but how did a clutch fan at 30,000 miles cost you $700 when it is clearly within warranty coverage?

The problem started at 30k, it itermintently would sound like a jet engine. Of course everytime I took it to the dealer, it was working without a problem, nopt the case though at 40k miles, which is when it totaly malfunctioned.

I also agree with the adorable baby comparison. When it was new and low miles, it was the most pleasurable vehicle I have ever owned. Fully loaded LTZ, w/leather and DVD player for the kids, I was in heaven. I had options comparable to my Mom's Escalade, and I still think my TB rides better than her Caddy any day. But now here I am with 51233 miles, and luckily I opted for the extended 100k mile warranty. I have had one electrical problem after another. Mirror memory, 4 visits still not fixed. Remote unlock will not work unless 3 feet from TB, new remote, new battery and 3 visits to dealer did not fix. Passenger door switch will not light dome, or trigger alarm. And the latest, as I type my TB sits at it's home away from home, the local dealership. It is being diagnosed for unknown power problems. They say that there is an intermittent open in the positive battery cable, that sounds pretty flakey if you ask me. Yesterday my wife put the key in, turned it, and had nothing. She called me, I stated the obvious, gear in park or nuetral? She answered yes. Is there any display on the DIC or dash? She answered no, in fact after she put the key in and turned, everything went dark. I drove to her, checked all of the fuses, relays, links, etc. I finally placed jumper cables on it so that I could at least get power to the relay to release the key and lock the car up. As soon as I placed the cables on, I turned it over for the heck of it and it started. I shut it down to try and recreate the problem and it is like nothing ever happened. I decided to take it to the dealer to have it looked at anyway as I recently received yet another factory recall notice, I think this makes five recalls since I've owned this truck. I am happy for those who have had no troubles with your TB's, but be forewarned, your day will come and where might you be? It is a new vehicle design, new technology, and I am a big fan of techy stuff. Let's just hope they fix all the bugs soon, and maybe while I am still under 100k miles!