Driving the Silverado 1500 RST in AWD mode up the hills near my house resulted in a strong smell of a burned clutch when parking in the driveway afterward. (On an open driveway with nothing within 15 feet of the vehicle, the smell was not noticed in a garage or other closed/semi-closed environment). The drive that caused the smell is 3 miles from my house to pickup the kids at pre-school and back.
The local dealership has repeatedly stated that they need to observe the problem in order to do anything about it. So I took it in.
The service rep came out and confirmed that it smelled of burning clutch. I asked them to pull a tech from the service bay to smell it as well in case the manager dismissed the word of a service bay rep. A tech was procured and he confirmed the smell of burning clutch. They state that they are busy but set up an appointment for the following week.
I drop the truck off the following week. It sits for a week. Eventually the manager contacts me to say that they need to have an approved transmission technician from the service bay smell the burning smell, as the tech that came out wasn't authorized to affirm the smell of a burning clutch. I point out the absurdity of an individual needing certification as a transmission tech in order to go on the record that the truck has a burning smell. But the service manager is adamant about not being able to do anything. I pick the truck up and drive home.
When I pull into the driveway, there's that burning clutch smell again.
I drive right back to the dealership and learn that the manager is unavailable and there are no transmission service techs around to confirm the smell. I schedule a time the next morning to drive the manager and a transmission tech and demonstrate the smell.
Next morning, I drive the manager and transmission tech along the route to and from school. When we stop in a parking lot, the transmission tech and the manager confirm that they can smell burning, but they attribute it to the engine burning off the undercoating. Having driven manual cars up until getting this 2019 Silverado automatic I know the smell of a burning clutch and ask them to look into it a bit more. The truck also has over 20,000 miles and any burn off should have occurred long ago. They agree to look into it and I drop off the truck when we get back to the dealership.
Another week goes by, I get a call from the manager saying that there are no codes being thrown and they tested the transmission fluid and it came back normal. They also state that they cannot recreate the problem. When I go in to pick the truck up, I notice that they test drove the vehicle in 2 rear-wheel drive, not in AWD. I ask that they drive it in AWD to recreate the problem that the service rep, tech rep, transmission rep, and manager have already confirmed personally. They say they’ll do so and get back to me.
Three weeks pass. I get a phone call the first week from the manager saying that they’re doing their best. The phone call on the second week reiterates they can’t find or recreate the problem. The manager openly states that the problem must have been caused by my reving the engine too hard during the test drive. I point out that I did the speed limit on every drive and the transmission was doing the shifting, not me, and that the truck is rated to pull a hell of a lot more than two pre-schoolers, their dad and an empty bed. The phone call on the third week states that they’re escalating it to the local Chevy representative but it’ll take time for him to come to that specific dealership.
Another two weeks go by. I collect the truck because I need to haul stuff to the dump. There are new nicks on edges of all the doors where the dealership guys opened the doors and bumped obstructions.
The Chevy rep finally comes in a week later. We take a drive together and I notice that the truck is once again in 2WD. I switch it to AWD and go for a ride. There’s the smell again. The Chevy rep is very nice and says that he’ll get to the bottom of it. I drop the truck off when we get back to the dealership.
Two weeks go by and my calls to the manager go unanswered. I have to drive to the dealership and sit in his office before he tells me the Chevy tech thinks it might be the shroud around the transmission that’s causing the burning smell. I’m skeptical but what other option do I have but to let them swap it out?
Another two weeks go by and the parts still haven’t come in. I pick the truck up to go camping. When I pick the truck up, it has several new scrapes and dings in the side panels.
If you’ve kept track, the dealership had the truck for two and a half months and did sweet jack all to fix it. They slow walked everything, refused to acknowledge the truck makes a burning smell, played dumb, changed the settings of the vehicle to avoid recreating the problem and tried to gaslight me, making it out that I was the problem. They overlooked evidence that the vehicle emits a burning smell and plead that corporate policy stated they couldn’t do anything unless the computer gave them a code. When you stick to your guns, and the problem continues to persist, they start not taking care of the vehicle, allowing aesthetic damage to occur and accumulate.
Ten plus weeks of sitting on their thumbs and damaging the truck did it. I took the truck back and refuse to go back to the Chevy dealership. I am looking to trade it in and get something else. This problem is bigger than just a Chevrolet railroading a guy who has a legitimate problem with their product because it could open the door to recalls or legal action.
The problem is that companies have become too large and wield too much power over the marketplace. Cars – Four to six companies make 90% of the cars we can buy. Food – Four conglomerates have purchased multiple brands and own 85% of what you see in the supermarket. Technology – Three or four software companies make the operating systems of every computer, phone, and peripheral device that can connect to the internet. Insurance - hospitals have been bought up by heath insurance companies, there are only two or three major health insurance providers in each state.
It's time to revisit Anti-Trust law again.
The greatest danger to freedom is the concentration of power over the market, whether it be from the government or corporations. What America needs more than ever is competition. There must be a reduction in the barriers to entry so that new manufacturers can provide alternatives to challenge and improve the status quo and allow products and companies to fail if they can’t make products that consumers want to buy. Otherwise we’re going to see more and more of this kind of story happening everywhere.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
Driving the Silverado 1500 RST in AWD mode up the hills near my house resulted in a strong smell of a burned clutch when parking in the driveway afterward. (On an open driveway with nothing within 15 feet of the vehicle, the smell was not noticed in a garage or other closed/semi-closed environment). The drive that caused the smell is 3 miles from my house to pickup the kids at pre-school and back.
The local dealership has repeatedly stated that they need to observe the problem in order to do anything about it. So I took it in.
The service rep came out and confirmed that it smelled of burning clutch. I asked them to pull a tech from the service bay to smell it as well in case the manager dismissed the word of a service bay rep. A tech was procured and he confirmed the smell of burning clutch. They state that they are busy but set up an appointment for the following week.
I drop the truck off the following week. It sits for a week. Eventually the manager contacts me to say that they need to have an approved transmission technician from the service bay smell the burning smell, as the tech that came out wasn't authorized to affirm the smell of a burning clutch. I point out the absurdity of an individual needing certification as a transmission tech in order to go on the record that the truck has a burning smell. But the service manager is adamant about not being able to do anything. I pick the truck up and drive home.
When I pull into the driveway, there's that burning clutch smell again.
I drive right back to the dealership and learn that the manager is unavailable and there are no transmission service techs around to confirm the smell. I schedule a time the next morning to drive the manager and a transmission tech and demonstrate the smell.
Next morning, I drive the manager and transmission tech along the route to and from school. When we stop in a parking lot, the transmission tech and the manager confirm that they can smell burning, but they attribute it to the engine burning off the undercoating. Having driven manual cars up until getting this 2019 Silverado automatic I know the smell of a burning clutch and ask them to look into it a bit more. The truck also has over 20,000 miles and any burn off should have occurred long ago. They agree to look into it and I drop off the truck when we get back to the dealership.
Another week goes by, I get a call from the manager saying that there are no codes being thrown and they tested the transmission fluid and it came back normal. They also state that they cannot recreate the problem. When I go in to pick the truck up, I notice that they test drove the vehicle in 2 rear-wheel drive, not in AWD. I ask that they drive it in AWD to recreate the problem that the service rep, tech rep, transmission rep, and manager have already confirmed personally. They say they’ll do so and get back to me.
Three weeks pass. I get a phone call the first week from the manager saying that they’re doing their best. The phone call on the second week reiterates they can’t find or recreate the problem. The manager openly states that the problem must have been caused by my reving the engine too hard during the test drive. I point out that I did the speed limit on every drive and the transmission was doing the shifting, not me, and that the truck is rated to pull a hell of a lot more than two pre-schoolers, their dad and an empty bed. The phone call on the third week states that they’re escalating it to the local Chevy representative but it’ll take time for him to come to that specific dealership.
Another two weeks go by. I collect the truck because I need to haul stuff to the dump. There are new nicks on edges of all the doors where the dealership guys opened the doors and bumped obstructions.
The Chevy rep finally comes in a week later. We take a drive together and I notice that the truck is once again in 2WD. I switch it to AWD and go for a ride. There’s the smell again. The Chevy rep is very nice and says that he’ll get to the bottom of it. I drop the truck off when we get back to the dealership.
Two weeks go by and my calls to the manager go unanswered. I have to drive to the dealership and sit in his office before he tells me the Chevy tech thinks it might be the shroud around the transmission that’s causing the burning smell. I’m skeptical but what other option do I have but to let them swap it out?
Another two weeks go by and the parts still haven’t come in. I pick the truck up to go camping. When I pick the truck up, it has several new scrapes and dings in the side panels.
If you’ve kept track, the dealership had the truck for two and a half months and did sweet jack all to fix it. They slow walked everything, refused to acknowledge the truck makes a burning smell, played dumb, changed the settings of the vehicle to avoid recreating the problem and tried to gaslight me, making it out that I was the problem. They overlooked evidence that the vehicle emits a burning smell and plead that corporate policy stated they couldn’t do anything unless the computer gave them a code. When you stick to your guns, and the problem continues to persist, they start not taking care of the vehicle, allowing aesthetic damage to occur and accumulate.
Ten plus weeks of sitting on their thumbs and damaging the truck did it. I took the truck back and refuse to go back to the Chevy dealership. I am looking to trade it in and get something else. This problem is bigger than just a Chevrolet railroading a guy who has a legitimate problem with their product because it could open the door to recalls or legal action.
The problem is that companies have become too large and wield too much power over the marketplace. Cars – Four to six companies make 90% of the cars we can buy. Food – Four conglomerates have purchased multiple brands and own 85% of what you see in the supermarket. Technology – Three or four software companies make the operating systems of every computer, phone, and peripheral device that can connect to the internet. Insurance - hospitals have been bought up by heath insurance companies, there are only two or three major health insurance providers in each state.
It's time to revisit Anti-Trust law again.
The greatest danger to freedom is the concentration of power over the market, whether it be from the government or corporations. What America needs more than ever is competition. There must be a reduction in the barriers to entry so that new manufacturers can provide alternatives to challenge and improve the status quo and allow products and companies to fail if they can’t make products that consumers want to buy. Otherwise we’re going to see more and more of this kind of story happening everywhere.
- Al F., Salt Lake City, US