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Extremely disappointed with cadillac customer service

2K views 16 replies 10 participants last post by  Hibar 
#1 ·
I have owned several luxury cars before but none of them come even close to the disappointing customer service expected for a luxury brand. I bought an 2013 ATS certified pre owned in 2014 and have been maintaining carefully putting very low miles. It has 16700 miles to date. Lately the car started to develop annoying squeaking noise while coming to a stop as if it was a 20 year old 200k+ mile car. I called up customer service and they scheduled me for dealer inspection on 7/19 for that and some recalls. I got a very old cadillac as a loaner which drove like a boat. First 2 days dealer couldnt complete recalls as they had no tech availability (why would you take an appointment then?) and on the 3rd day they call up and said they found the issue for the squeaking noise to be result of driver side front and back tires. They said they would order new tires but I would be responsible for 200$ for 800$ bill (for 2 tires yes....). I got suspicious and asked them how they came to that conclusion to make sure they are not trying to rip off. They sent me TSB issued by GM for this model and this problem that clearly laid down the issue and troubleshooting steps to confirm that it is the same failure mode. The TSB clearly screams "Quality issue" (sidewall contact with wheel). I called up cadillac and asked for explanation. They refuted that it is a "wear and tear" item and will only cover prorated warranty and that tires are not GM responsibility. I told the agent that I would be responsible for tires if they are worn out or the tire tread indicator is on and my car being low miles has plenty of tread left. She continued to deny its a quality issue and I should pay prorated or not go with the replacement. I got frustrated and told her that I will not pay a single dollar amount for a quality issue and she simply stated that they respect my decision and hung up. I told the dealers not to install the tires and picked it up after 4 days being at the dealership and no resolution

I am extremely disappointed for not listening to my family and friends to not buy a GM car (I had a lexus and still have a bmw). Now I think I paid the price for it. I am left with a 16k miles so called "luxury" branded car that squeaks while coming to a stop like a junk old car and a customer service meant for nissan sentra. This is my first and last post in the forum as I will sell this for a loss and never look back at cadillac or gm again :(
 
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#2 ·
Half the people that come to forums are there out of frustration and the need to ventilate. I feel your pain, but if your primary issue is that you want a CPO warranty to cover tires, you're being completely unreasonable (just my opinion). Warranties AFAIK don't get any better than CPO, and I'm unaware of any warranty (no matter how comprehensive) that covers tires. Best of luck
 
#3 ·
Hopefully you stay in the forum long enough to read responses.
There are a number of topics about runflat tire problems, mainly from hitting potholes. Guys have talked about bubbles in the tires.
Maybe that can cause a squeak, but they haven't mentioned that.

When new, we can buy a wheel+tire insurance from dealer for around $600. I don't know if that can be added to a used car.

I have noticed that cust service isn't much help before or after the sale. All they do is refer to the dealer. It doesn't seem like they have
a level 2 Cust Serv. I work in IT. When level 1 doesn't find a problem as a known problem, they queue for level 2 experts to call me back to
discuss deeper.

FWIW, other luxury brands also use run flats and RF or not, tires are not part of the standard warranty. It might be smart if BMW, GM, etc,
bought the warranty or added some to the base cost, and fixed tires under the standard warranty.
 
#4 ·
I totally agree I came here because of frustration.I dont expect warranty on tires that have worn tread. I will definitely call it unreasonable. I also expect higher cost of ownership for luxury cars but I am comparing apples to apples. Had a Jaguar that i had to change tires in 15k miles due to no reason of mine, run flat. Jaguar replaced at no cost. But if you design a car with tires that last 15k miles but publish something different in owners manual, and not cover it, I would call it deception and cheap. The fact there is a TSB issued tells us that this is a high failure rate per hundred sold to contain losses charged by dealership troubleshooting.
 
#8 ·
Run flats are no more than a band aid and cheap way for the auto manufacturers to not have to put a spare in the car and get the consumer to pay the bill. Run flats are noisy, rough riding, expensive and generally not repairable especially if you run them flat. I 86 them and never looked back. I tires just completed a 2,500 trip with my no run flats and couldn't be happier.

My advice is get rid of them, take the hit and move on.
 
#12 ·
That's because, just like every other part they sell, there is a 'list price' and then there are all the other prices they can charge (like wholesale account, jobber, etc.). You (or GM) got charged 'list'. If you paid $200 and the best price you saw online was $350 (175x2), you still saved $150 and all the mounting and balancing costs, I think you made out OK. We could argue that they should have just covered the whole thing but they didn't.
 
#16 ·
Dealers can be hit or miss. My first two services were at the closest dealer to me. They were also a GMC dealership and looked more like a barn than a Cadillac dealership. The last straw with them was they promised to do a recall in a half hour (promised!). After an hour and a half they came out and told me that I would have to come back some other day because they ordered the wrong color part for my car. I then switched a different dealer that is about twenty minutes further away from my house, but they're right next to Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, ect. dealerships so they look like I'm in some super villain's exotic lair! They have definitely gone above and beyond on all my minor quibbles (and one actual significant issue) and couldn't be happier.

That being said, if I went to them with your issue, I would feel that I might get them to fix it on their dime, that's just the kind of people they are, but I can understand how dealerships and GM would jump and the wear item loophole.

oemtech is right though. Ride and handling improve with non-runflats. If you're going to have to pay for tires, they might as well be good ones.
 
#17 ·
I bought from and use a Cadillac only dealership and my experience over nearly 6 years [2 cars] has been fine. I would agree the combo dealerships are probably not going to give you the same level of repair service, techs jump between both brands plus different used vehicle trade ins. I use a local to me GMC dealer [Buick-GMC] for my 2011 SRX so far just routine service, interesting they offered to do my 2015 ATS warranty and maintenance work also, I declined as my Caddy dealer is only 17 mi away and my one experience was great with a 4 day weekend loaner on a new ATS when my SRX was in for work. I only buy base models but I can see where all this Hi tech electronics can be a service night mare if you have issues. JMO but based on depreciation and resale values the loaded up ATS models are just not worth it,so no surprise to see constant decline in sales this model will be out in 2 years .[ I buy only] On the plus side the new replacement for the SRX the XT5 looks great and the base price is up only 4K from 6 years ago.
 
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