October 26, 2007
I've been to MKB several times since switching from De La Fuente and do believe that your dealership is earnestly interested in improving your service (unlike De La Fuente, to whom I will never speak again). Also, as a quality improvement consultant myself, I recognize the value of customer feedback, particularly when there are actionable items discussed. As I just completed a GM dealer survey, I thought I'd take a few minutes to share thoughts on my experiences with MKB.
I came to MKB very dissatisfied with the service I'd received at De La Fuente. It took them 5 visits to replace a defective radio, and another visit to get the radio working properly. To compensate me for my time, GM provided me with a year's worth of oil changes & tire rotations. As you may recall, I tried to book an appointment on your service website. That appointment was lost. My Dad contacted you and we met in person when I brought my CTS-V in for an oil change & tire rotation. You helped me understand the version control on the Navigation DVDs. When I got my car back from that visit, it was missing a valve stem cover. You offered to order one for me. I came in a few days later and picked it up and paid for it. I think that was a missed opportunity for your organization. Given the history, and considering it somewhat likely that the cover was lost at your dealership, I think you should have provided a valve stem cover without charge. I also think you should have shipped it to my house so I could avoid another trip to the dealer.
The next time I brought my car in for service it was for numerous issues (burning oil, ripped front air dam, creaky sunroof, worn radio buttons, failed passenger overhead hand hold (colloquially called the "oh s**t bar"), and a misaligned trim in the trunk). Your dealership fixed the air dam, the overhead hand hold, started an oil consumption test, and did a recall on the differential (turns out it was leaking and I hadn't noticed). I was informed in no certain terms that I was culpable in engine burning oil. Between oil changes, the car had gone from full (6 quarts) to 2.5 quarts in spite of my adding 2 quarts...so it burned 5 1/2 quarts in less than 5000 miles. The warning was that, should the engine fail, it would be repaired at my expense if it weren't kept full of oil. I should be checking oil every time I add gas, I was informed. I must confess I found that line of reasoning perfectly understandable, from GM's perspective, but perfectly repulsive as a customer. The engine clearly had (has?) a defect, but that defect would be my problem if I didn't follow a maintenance schedule that I'm sure less than 1% of American's follow...and I should follow that schedule on a $50k luxury car to protect me against being liable should it catastrophically fail. After the service, the car miraculously stopped burning oil, but no service was performed that would have had that affect. I find that curious. Also, my other complaints weren't addressed (sunroof, worn radio buttons, or misaligned trim in the trunk). Fortunately I had to bring the vehicle back in for service at the end of the consumption test. At that time the sunroof was adjusted, the trunk trim was fixed, and I got a new radio...the same radio that took to De La Fuente 5 times for repair.
The radio/nav systems in the CTS-V's hold significant personal information. Not only does it remember the last 50 miles you drive, but you can also remember locations (like your home, your work, kids' school, etc) and phone numbers. The new radio that I received was reconditioned...and its memory hadn't been cleared. It previously belonged to someone who lived outside San Francisco. I had to go into the maintenance screen and do a "reset to defaults" to clear it. More importantly, I called my service rep at MKB and asked him to clear the memory on the unit from my car. I don't have a strong feeling he did so. This is a significant liability issue for GM, seriously. You should run this up the chain with GM's lawyers; I hope they're sufficienly tech-savvy to be interested.
The most recent occasion for service was for a differential problem. If you search Google for Cadillac CTS differential, you'll see a whole host of information about the problems in the differential design. I fell victim to this problem. I tried to book an appointment online, but was unable to get a time without talking to a person. We played phone tag a few times before my wife just called and made an appointment. I'm not sure why our Suzuki dealership has the capability to schedule appointments on-line (I fill out a web form, get a time, and show up) but MKB doesn't...maybe it's because my service was more significant? In any case, when I showed up, a service rep came out and took my information. He informed me "we had you booked on the truck side". I'm sure he noticed that the CTS-V isn't a truck. He "went ahead and took me anyway" for my appointment. Again, I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I'm glad he did me a favor and worked me into his busy schedule (my apologies for the sarcasm). I didn't hear anything until 3pm when I called for a status update. He hadn't heard, but did call me back at 4pm. That's pretty late. I ended up keeping the rental overnight and picking up my car the next day at close of business with a new bushing in the diff. We then waited 20 minutes for our car before we asked someone to go get it...turns out the ticket got lost.
On the plus side, your rental car service is top notch. I started with a GMC SUV of some sort, which was OK, but then got an STS, and had a DTS on my most recent service. It's nice to have a comfortable car when yours is in for service.
I've owned the car since January 26, 2006, making today my 21 month anniversary. In that time, I've had it in for unscheduled service (repairs) 9 times. For reference, we've had our 2004 Suzuki XL-7 since January '04 (45 months)...it's been in for repairs once. At present on the CTS-V, the sunroof is creaking again and the radio buttons are again worn. I think I'll just batch up my problems and bring them all in when I need the oil changed again...that way I'll get a complimentary rental car...maybe an XLR!
Thanks,
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