Welcome back to the never ending saga of my Cruze. First we almost died of inhalation of coolant/anti-freeze. Next came the morning my husband called me to say the car was almost dying his entire way to work, jerking and acting like a bag of s**t. Seriously? Another issue. This was to be the second of many. He managed to drive another hour home that night with it... but yet again.. it was out of commission. I googled what other drivers had done when they came across a problem like this and found that the valve cover gasket could be at fault. Sure enough that is where a engine oil leak was coming from.

Come weekend we replace the valve cover gasket. From what I remember it was a finicky job. The gasket flopped this way and that. But finally we got it in. It sure did fix the running problem, but have had engine oil leaks... well ever since. Just a terrible car. More issues to come.. don't worry. Its a never ending saga!! Car is not yet paid off and it is just blown the turbo!! Yep.. more to come

Problem started over a year ago but dealers were not able to resolve. While driving the service stabiltrac / Traction control warning light came on.. and a little while later a warning about "brakes overheating" came on. After stopping the car and shutting it off the code was gone. It did this numerous times until October 3rd 2016 when the check engine light came on and engine was surging. I didn't shut off the car but drove directly to the dealer as I had been asked if that ever happened. After diagnosing it they said that the PCV valve had failed, which required changing the whole valve cover. The dealership confirmed that the PCV valve failing could cause the warning lights for stabiltrac and traction control to come on.

The estimate to repair was $320 which would be covered under the Drive train warranty.. HOWEVER !! The dealer checked the in-service date and found that the drive line warranty had expired on September 30th !. I was not a happy camper and said that this wasn't fair as it was only 4 days earlier and two days were weekend days. I was told that GM was clamping down on making exceptions to the rules... The two month old GM policy which was set up to automatically apply an established allowance said that $50 would be allowed. Stiil quite unhappy... The dealership rep said that he would approach the District GM manager, which he did quickly. The DM said that he didn't have the authority to override the system anymore. The Dealership "stepped up to the plate" with some allowances of their own, and the final bill was $106.

I have to say that my dealership Tom Nacquin of Elkhart In was really trying to make me happy and I was treated very well there. I had purchased this car from another dealership which was located 50 miles away so I switched to Nacquins for convenience. The original dealership, Tim Martin of Plymouth In was also very excellent to work with. I consider the GM approach to be very "cheesy" however. When I bought this Cruze I had been a die hard Ford fan for a lifetime and while I liked the Cruze even with its defects ( see my other posts ) I had NEVER had such a negative experience with Ford over all the years ( I am 70 ).

I don't consider my Cruze to be a lemon, but if you research the posts on this car you will see similar problems as I experienced. I am happy that my final bill was lower, but am not happy that GM was being so chinzy in not paying the whole thing under the driveline warranty. These types of things are as important as choosing the right car and dealership when making a choice... I will not forget !