After almost going bankrupt just a few short years ago it is fair to say that the recovery that GM has made has been nothing short of miraculous.
It hasn’t all happened by chance either, after getting their government bailout they certainly didn’t sit on their hands, they set to work and produced some incredible cars that have all played an important part in saving the company. Chevrolet have led the charge with an incredible range of vehicles, from small, economical global cars to fire-breathing supercars that capture the imagination. Sadly, Chevy ownership is not without its pitfalls.
10 After Sales Service
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Some dealers are better than others, this much is true for every brand under the sun, but for anyone who has owned one of their cars the plain reality is that the service is below par.
Today we expect better service than ever with other budget brands offering incredible customer service, the only thing Chevrolet dealerships are currently offering is a free recall for affected customers.
9 Cheap Interiors
Frankly, the whole automotive industry is guilty of this one, with manufacturers struggling to find more suitable, sustainable replacements for old materials. This much is forgivable, but the inexcusable part of this is the unnecessarily awful plastic used in certain models.
Plastic is not ideal, but it has been the chosen resource for decades, in that time the quality and durability of certain plastics has improved exponentially, so when you come across plastic that feels hollow and thin in a car, you can’t help but feel cheated.
8 Poor Build Quality
On the smaller, global cars they have produced, it is fair to say the overall product quality has not been a priority. As much as these cars may have saved the company from inevitable doom, they have also cost the company in terms of reputation.
As we see more investment into pickups of all shapes and sizes, these smaller cars will slowly disappear altogether, but it seems like their electric replacements may yet inherit some of their bits that tend to fall apart.
7 Mechanical Reliability
Modern cars are more reliable than ever, or so most would have you think. Automakers are at least more transparent than ever before, with recalls coming in thick and fast for everyone these days. Most failures in the modern context relate to electricals, but there still are a few mechanical failures, most especially in the most complex mechanical device in any car; the transmission.
Manual cars are to a degree less susceptible to transmission failure thanks mostly to their relative simplicity, but the tradeoff there is the clutch is a serviceable item. Small automatic transmissions have been an issue for Chevy, something that can make your small car a big problem.
6 Safety Concerns
In the mid-00s Takata were pretty much selling airbags to everyone, GM, and by extension Chevrolet, are no exception. A lot of small families will actually pay serious attention to a vehicle’s safety rating before purchase, airbags play a big part in that safety score.
So airbags that fail to work as they should are a huge concern and anyone who has bought any car in the past 10 years needs to double-check if they are part of a campaign or recall involving Takata airbags.
5 Emissions Cheating
After VW did the world a favor and single-handedly opened all diesel vehicles up to more scrutiny, many manufacturers have followed them into the abyss of the larger emissions related scandal.
It would be easier to say which car-maker hasn’t been affected by this in some way than who has, and for Chevy it is their diesel pickups that have thrust them into the spotlight. It now seems certain that they have been producing more harmful NOx gasses in the real world than in their emissions tests.
4 Electrical Gremlins
The biggest issue Chevy have with all their vehicles is wiring related failures, many are fairly innocuous and are more of an annoyance as sensors fail with some regularity.
Other issues are more serious, losing power assisted steering (or EPS) is a pretty serious failure if it happens at the wrong moment, although the car can be steered this kind of thing might lead to the driver overcompensating and causing an accident.
3 Corporate Apathy
Sadly, GM has a long history of ignoring known problems. Their unholy alliance with DuPont is a glaring example of this, where they were, for decades, aware of the problems caused by lead in fuel and the possible alternative additives that could have been used in its place.
Since the 90s they have been trying to right this wrong, after DuPont was ordered to divest from GM they quickly had a go at making an electric car in the form of the EV-1 only to try and kill their very own creation in one of the strangest corporate decisions of all time.
2 Fire
More recently they have made a very big push in the now obvious EV direction, with most manufacturers ahead of them thanks to their reluctance to continue their pioneering EV-1 experiment.
Today their affordable EV, the Bolt, is making headlines for all the wrong reasons, and although they are recalling all the cars it will make an already expensive project all the more expensive.
1 Killing The Electric Car All Over Again
After the EV-1 debacle in the early 00s, they are once again doing their part to try to kill the EV. After all the battery related fires, many owners and prospective buyers alike have been put off of EVs for some time to come.
At present, the negative publicity has cost every EV manufacturer in the world sales as people are all seeing first hand how dangerous a faulty battery pack can be.