February 9, 2000 BBB Auto Line 4200 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 800 Arlington, VA 22203-1838 Dear Sir or Madam, I appreciate your assistance in the matter of the disposal of my 1999 Chevrolet S-10 pickup. As per your written instructions, enclosed are copies of the following requested documents: 1. The sales agreement for this vehicle. 2. The vehicle's current registration. 3. All of the vehcile's repair records. Unfortunately, Courtesy Chevrolet uses light grey ink which does not copy well, therefore, I have written invoice numbers on these poor copies. 4. Your customer claim form's two pages (with additions and corrections), plus an attached page. While the above documents shed some light on the volume of problems, they do little to show the total lack of assistance that I have received from Chevrolet's customer assistance personnel regarding these matters. After opening a file with them several months ago, both simple and serious matters remain unaddressed. To add insult to injury, one of their personnel stated that I "have an unrealistic expectation of quality" in response to my comments about having to push start the truck on more than one occasion in the rain. Another employee asserted that vehicles with anti-lock brakes are designed to have the rear wheels lock up under heavy braking, a patently false and even dangerous statement. It should be known that I have found the efforts of Courtesy Chevrolet to be generally acceptable with the exception of their handling of the intermittent nature of the multitudinous electrical problems. They have been unable to duplicate the starting problem, something that has on average left me stranded a couple of times a month. Fortunately, on most occasions, I could push start the truck. This particular problem was only recently witnessed by one of their service advisors on a recent test drive, and the problem corrected itself on the third starting attempt. It was just luck that day as the problem hadn't occured in three weeks. A similar frustration has been present with the anti-lock brakes which have occasionally failed me (the rear wheels lock up) and only at freeway speeds on smooth roads; the terrain around the dealership are mostly smooth city streets, something that also made it difficult for them to duplicate and/or isolate the various rattles, two of which are still present within the vehicle. My most significant unhappiness with the dealer was when I was told that they would be driving the vehicle a great deal over a period of nine days, but when I returned to the dealer after that lengthy period without the truck (GM refused to pay for all but one day of a rental car), I noticed that only three miles had been added to the odometer. I was then told that their insurance regulations prohibited them from executing the previously mentioned promises. It is clear that this vehicle has worn out the dealer's welcome as they have spent many hours chasing problems for which they are not re-imbursed by GM (General Motors) until they are able to observe and correct a hard failure. The dealer's service advisor now tells me that they have been instructed not to spend any more time trying to find these most serious problems! This vehicle has caused me a great deal of trouble due to its unreliability. I have had to rent cars on several occasions, including twice when it was at the dealer for these warranty related issues. My woman will not use the vehicle due to the intermittently faulty brakes. Having the rear wheels lock up just once at sixty miles an hour was enough of a fright for her. Her own car is a GM product that is fourteen years old, has had its odometer 'turn over,' and has required little but regular maintainence, some ignition components, and a heater core in the last five years, something for which I had hoped in vain with this vehicle. I have been instructed to cooperate with GM (a.k.a. Chevrolet) in this matter through the conclusion of the Better Business Bureau's involvement. Should this process fail to produce an acceptible result, I shall then seek assistance from my legal council. Perhaps that may seem to be strong language, but it is not when compared to the abysmal and even hostile 'help' received from GM's customer assistance personnel. In any event, I would prefer to have this resolved in a timely manner so that I can purchase a reliable vehicle by the middle of next month (March 2000) when my mother is scheduled to undergo a major surgery. I believe that my demand is simply common sense, and that is for GM to repurchase the vehicle from me without delay. While I am told that GM has a policy of simply re-purchasing 'lemon' or 'loser' vehicles for said vehicle's original purchase price including collateral charges, I also expect to be re-imbursed for the improvements that I have reasonably made to the vehicle which are as follows: 1. Tonneau cover and bedliner: $844. 2. Rear bumper, fender moulding, and carpet: $590. 3. Alpine CD player and Boston Acoustics speakers: $568. In kind, I am willing to pay the vehicle's reasonable depreciation costs, and will forfeit any re-imbursement for rental car expenses and lost opportunity (occupational and otherwise) costs. I have not engaged in the less favorable (to GM) suggestions made by others such as placing a "Don't buy an S-10 lemon" sign in the vehcile's windows and parking it on the street near the dealership, or making use of my website and the USENET as a podium from which to air my displeasure to all. To date, I have resisted the use of such tactics, but my legendary patience has finally been tested to its limit. Please see to it that this sad state of affairs is resolved as expeditiously as possible. Thank you. Sincerely, Mark Walsh