Here’s why we should not have bought a Chevy; they do not provide any customer service – even when they have sold you a car that has been recalled.
That’s right, thirteen months ago we leased a 2021 Bolt EV Hatchback. As committed environmentalists, we have been driving all-electric vehicles for 5 years and drove hybrids for 10 years before that and we have never had a problem.
Back in August, General Motors issued a recall on our model because the lithium batteries (made by LG) spontaneously caught fire while charging in several instances. Since most people charge their cars in their garage using an outlet, it is a serious problem. An entire house burned to the ground in Florida because their Bolt spontaneously combusted while charging.
While we were made aware of the situation we have to live with this potentially life-threatening vehicle because of Chevy’s poor customer service.
The only thing the dealer has offered was to adjust the software so that the vehicle cannot be fully charged to 250 miles. That’s when the fires seem to happen.
On the recall website, they advise Bolt owners to charge only to 75% of capacity, park it outside and do not leave the vehicle charging indoors overnight. That’s it. There’s nothing about offering a buy-back program or a timeframe for when the new batteries will be available for installation etc.
I called our dealer for an update today and was told they don’t have a date when the new batteries will be ready and had no idea how much longer it will be. They explained, that because of the pandemic and the backlog in manufacturing – it could be months or even years before they can be replaced.
So because we can no longer charge our car in our garage, we are forced to charge at public charging stations. But, Chevy doesn’t have many public charging stations in our area of New Jersey. You would think as a service to its customers they would install new stations so we wouldn’t have to go so far away from our home to charge. But they haven’t added any in our area of New Jersey.
The one closest to us is in the parking lot of a mall 20 minutes away. Charging takes approximately 40 minutes, which was no problem when we plugged in at home. But now it’s a huge inconvenience to drive to the mall, charge, and drive back. It takes almost an hour and a half roundtrip.
According to The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration GM (which owns Chevy) has 3 choices in an auto recall: fix it, replace it, or take it back. But they are not offering any of these options. Who else could get away with this other than a car company? We should never have bought a Chevy. At least they discontinued making the Bolt so new consumers will not have to live with this aggravating situation.
We lease our cars typically for 36-months. So, we have owned a lot of cars over the years and have always found American-made cars do not offer the same high-quality customer service that foreign-made cars do. We should never have bought a Chevy.
Lesson learned? Don’t buy a Chevy!
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Amy Harris
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