GM won't cover fire truck repairs
Published Friday November 28th, 2008
Woodstock's brand new fire truck cost taxpayers more than $2,000 in repairs even before it was put to work.
During approval of bills at Monday's council meeting, Coun. Peter Kennedy, who chairs the town's finance committee, pointed out a paid bill of $2,246 made out to Robert's Chevrolet of Grand Falls. Kennedy explained that expenditure covered the cost to repair Woodstock Fire Department's new rescue van.
He said the GM van broke down while returning to Woodstock from Edmundston where the box was installed. Chief administrative officer Ken Harding said the new truck stalled near Grand Falls and couldn't be restarted. The driver called GM's roadside assistance and was told to have the vehicle towed to Robert's Chevrolet in Grand Falls.
A couple of days later, Harding explained, the Grand Falls dealer confirmed its mechanics found and repaired the problem, "a kinked fuel line."
The surprise came when town officials were told the repair cost for the new truck would not be covered by warranty. GM officials claim the problem was caused by the company putting the box on the truck and refused to honour the warranty.
Harding told council he contacted the Edmundston company about the problem. Not only did company officials deny responsibility, he said, they produced photo evidence which showed similar fuel line problems in other GM trucks.
Harding said the Grand Falls dealer would not release the truck to the town until the bill was paid.
Both Harding and Woodstock Fire Chief Rick Nicholson appealed for help from officials at L.G. Wilson Chev Olds in Woodstock, the dealer from which the town purchased the truck. Harding said the company refused to argue on their behalf with GM.
Harding, Kennedy and Chief Nicholson all expressed disappointment with the Woodstock dealer's attitude. Harding noted Woodstock taxpayers are left holding the bag because none of four companies involved will take responsiblity.
When contacted about the issue by the Bugle-Observer, L.G. Wilson spokesperson Wayne Wilson said he "didn't really want to comment on it."'
He noted, however, that his company is not directly involved in the issue.
"It's up to the body builder, the company that did the (repair) work, and GM," said Wilson.
Harding noted, however, that the problems with the new truck did not begin on the trip back from Edmundston.
"It stopped before leaving Woodstock," he said.
The CAO said Wilson Chev Olds service staff repaired what they said was a minor problem. While town officials can't prove the problems were related, they believe it is more than a coincidence.
Some members of council questioned the amount of the repair bill and the amount of time it took to fix a kinked fuel line. Harding said Robert's Chevrolet officials told him they weren't a truck dealer and its service staff didn't often deal with trucks.
That raised the question, noted some members of council, of why GM roadside assistance operators recommended the rescue van be taken there for repairs.
Harding, Kennedy and Chief Nicholson say they will continue to try to get reimbursment from GM.
Calls left with GM Canada media relations were not returned by press time.
More News
Search Articles
More CE Network Sites & Partners:
Comments (5)
All comments are subject to the site Terms of Use. For a full commenting tutorial click here.
Our editorial team relies on filtering technology and our visitor community to identify inappropriate comments. In the event that a site user has submitted offensive content that has evaded our filter, please select the option to Flag As Inappropriate presented within the comment. Thank you for helping to keep this site clean.
The photo evidence which showed similar fuel line problems should have been enough for Mr. Wilson to act on behalf of a customer.
I believe the dealership became "directly involved" when they sold the vehicle to the Town.
L.G. Wilson's can't un-do what Robert Chevrolet did... Wilson's are not to blame. They are not that type of dealership, IF the truck was put into their hands instead of R. Chevrolet's maybe the outcome would be different BUT it wasn't.
If it was a matter of "warranty", It was R. Chevrolet's job to check into it before performing work on the vehicle so that the town would have known.
Please read the whole story before making a comment.
The truck stopped before it left Woodstock on its way to Edmunston and was put into L.G. Wilson’s hands at that time.
I stand by my comments. Was it too much to ask for a dealership where you purchased a new vehicle from to contact GM to see if the fuel lines were defective?
Who is at fault? I don't know. But what I do know is, your friends are the ones who are walking in when everyone else is walking out. I expected L.G. Wilson's to be the one walking in.