valhallaatya
Member
Hey guys,
I wanted to show everyone how my 2023 CT5-V Blackwing came in. Only GM is able to get you so hyped for a product then completely crush you when it comes in! (Scroll Down For Videos)
Once you watch the videos you'll see how absolutely mutilated the paint is, that's exactly how it came off the truck and the dealership didn't touch it. There was a CT4-V Blackwing on the same shipment which was significantly worse than mine, every panel had damage down to the primer and/or the metal.
Damage wise, it's hard to gauge from the video how deep the scratches, gouges and swirls are but let me tell you from 15 years experience doing intense paint correction and PPF, DEEP. On the hood you can see a foot and a half meter long pattern of scratches and each one of those ribs will catch your fingernail. It's nasty. Not every panel is as bad, but every panel has uncorrectable damage.
We do a lot of hail mary operations for a lot of dealers in the area ranging from Porsche, Audi, Mercedes to GM and Chevy -- LOTS of Corvettes as well as our private operation. In 15 years I have never personally seen a car come this bad brand new from the factory. I have seen cars come that needed a new bumper, or a panel resprayed sure but never the entire car so mutilated. We're also talking BEFORE the dealerships detailers got a crack at it.
I'm at 55 days now without a resolution, customer care is involved, lots of back and forth. Car has 3 kilometers and hasn't been moved an inch from the showroom and I'm paying for it as we speak. From personal, business experience and experience through other clients that I've worked with in the past. This issue from another higher end company, like Porsche and Mercedes for example on an administrative level, this issue would be solved within 48 hours. On the third day a no questions asked fix would be planned through head office, with the dealership and client involved. A compensation package would be sent out and given the severity of the issue a call from the President, CEO or top executives would be initialized. I'm not saying I want any of that, like all of you here I just want the car fixed the right way or a way that will make me happy.
From a customer service level GM has a HUGE problem separating their higher end Cadillac business with their lower end economical Chevrolet offerings. I'm not trying to sound like an asshole here but someone that buys a Blackwing, C8, Z06 or an Escalade on average has significantly more expectations than someone buying a Chevy Spark. There are LOTS of things someone buying a Balckwing cares about than someone buying a Spark. Man and for one you couldn't give me a Spark for free, but a Blackwing will sell itself and fly off the lot without a salesperson.
Back to the damage and a fix, through extremely heavy paint correction roughly 80% of the damage can be fixed but the problem lies with how much paint is removed, roughly 55% of the clearcoat will need to be removed which is insane. At that point you're biting into the UV inhibitor layer and in about 4-5 years you'll get clearcoat failure, delamination, permanent fading. The Bodyshop Manager at the dealership recommended repainting the whole car if they get approval from GM, I obviously said a big hell no to that -- repainting a brand new car completely is opening a massive can of worms and trust me you never, ever want go to down that road. I suggested an alternative of paint correction and PPF, we tried a PPF sample without correction and unfortunately the damage was still showing through but once a 3 stage correction was performed the PPF was hiding 99% of the damage. Dealership is 100% on board doing that, they just don't want to pay and they shouldn't have to because they did nothing wrong. There's a blame game going back and forth on who has to pay for the damages and I'm stuck in the middle which is ridiculous.
Finally a few days ago the Plant Manager at LGR contacted me and they did an investigation on what happened, the heavy damage was from improper installation of straps, apparently the car goes somewhere else to get the engine installed or something but GM has admitted fault so I did reach out to customer care and the dealership again and was told the issue is being finally escaladed and they're going to try and get the repair covered. This was about 10 days ago.
Just before the case went to executives review, I had a call from GM and the questions they were asking me absolutely brain dead. Again don't want to sound like an ass, a very nice elderly woman called me from GM, she told me she had to ask me a bunch of questions, etc, etc and one of them was "Well, why did you take the car if you knew it was damaged" what kind of question is that? For one, I waited a century for it, two it's ultra limited production BLACKWING and three because I thought it would get fixed? Tell me you're not a car guy without telling me you're not a car guy. I don't want to get into the other questions asked of me because my nose was bleeding at the end of the phone call but this is what I mean... You can't send somebodies grandmother who doesn't care about the issues being discussed and simply doesn't understand the issues. There's such a huge disconnect between what she considers an issue and what I consider an issue, it's like we were on different planets completely.
In the last 6 month's I bought two ZR2 Silverado's and an XT4, including the Blackwing. GM can give little shits about how you supported them, your previous purchase history, they're the lowest of the lows they truly do not care at all and have zero customer loyalty. I've learned this very quickly.
Regardless, from a buying experience, it's been a fucking nightmare, I don't wish this onto anyone and I hope no one's Blackwing experience goes this way. I'll update this post whenever I get new information.
Thanks for the read.
Hood
Fenders
Miscellaneous
Rear Bumper:
I wanted to show everyone how my 2023 CT5-V Blackwing came in. Only GM is able to get you so hyped for a product then completely crush you when it comes in! (Scroll Down For Videos)
Once you watch the videos you'll see how absolutely mutilated the paint is, that's exactly how it came off the truck and the dealership didn't touch it. There was a CT4-V Blackwing on the same shipment which was significantly worse than mine, every panel had damage down to the primer and/or the metal.
Damage wise, it's hard to gauge from the video how deep the scratches, gouges and swirls are but let me tell you from 15 years experience doing intense paint correction and PPF, DEEP. On the hood you can see a foot and a half meter long pattern of scratches and each one of those ribs will catch your fingernail. It's nasty. Not every panel is as bad, but every panel has uncorrectable damage.
We do a lot of hail mary operations for a lot of dealers in the area ranging from Porsche, Audi, Mercedes to GM and Chevy -- LOTS of Corvettes as well as our private operation. In 15 years I have never personally seen a car come this bad brand new from the factory. I have seen cars come that needed a new bumper, or a panel resprayed sure but never the entire car so mutilated. We're also talking BEFORE the dealerships detailers got a crack at it.
I'm at 55 days now without a resolution, customer care is involved, lots of back and forth. Car has 3 kilometers and hasn't been moved an inch from the showroom and I'm paying for it as we speak. From personal, business experience and experience through other clients that I've worked with in the past. This issue from another higher end company, like Porsche and Mercedes for example on an administrative level, this issue would be solved within 48 hours. On the third day a no questions asked fix would be planned through head office, with the dealership and client involved. A compensation package would be sent out and given the severity of the issue a call from the President, CEO or top executives would be initialized. I'm not saying I want any of that, like all of you here I just want the car fixed the right way or a way that will make me happy.
From a customer service level GM has a HUGE problem separating their higher end Cadillac business with their lower end economical Chevrolet offerings. I'm not trying to sound like an asshole here but someone that buys a Blackwing, C8, Z06 or an Escalade on average has significantly more expectations than someone buying a Chevy Spark. There are LOTS of things someone buying a Balckwing cares about than someone buying a Spark. Man and for one you couldn't give me a Spark for free, but a Blackwing will sell itself and fly off the lot without a salesperson.
Back to the damage and a fix, through extremely heavy paint correction roughly 80% of the damage can be fixed but the problem lies with how much paint is removed, roughly 55% of the clearcoat will need to be removed which is insane. At that point you're biting into the UV inhibitor layer and in about 4-5 years you'll get clearcoat failure, delamination, permanent fading. The Bodyshop Manager at the dealership recommended repainting the whole car if they get approval from GM, I obviously said a big hell no to that -- repainting a brand new car completely is opening a massive can of worms and trust me you never, ever want go to down that road. I suggested an alternative of paint correction and PPF, we tried a PPF sample without correction and unfortunately the damage was still showing through but once a 3 stage correction was performed the PPF was hiding 99% of the damage. Dealership is 100% on board doing that, they just don't want to pay and they shouldn't have to because they did nothing wrong. There's a blame game going back and forth on who has to pay for the damages and I'm stuck in the middle which is ridiculous.
Finally a few days ago the Plant Manager at LGR contacted me and they did an investigation on what happened, the heavy damage was from improper installation of straps, apparently the car goes somewhere else to get the engine installed or something but GM has admitted fault so I did reach out to customer care and the dealership again and was told the issue is being finally escaladed and they're going to try and get the repair covered. This was about 10 days ago.
Just before the case went to executives review, I had a call from GM and the questions they were asking me absolutely brain dead. Again don't want to sound like an ass, a very nice elderly woman called me from GM, she told me she had to ask me a bunch of questions, etc, etc and one of them was "Well, why did you take the car if you knew it was damaged" what kind of question is that? For one, I waited a century for it, two it's ultra limited production BLACKWING and three because I thought it would get fixed? Tell me you're not a car guy without telling me you're not a car guy. I don't want to get into the other questions asked of me because my nose was bleeding at the end of the phone call but this is what I mean... You can't send somebodies grandmother who doesn't care about the issues being discussed and simply doesn't understand the issues. There's such a huge disconnect between what she considers an issue and what I consider an issue, it's like we were on different planets completely.
In the last 6 month's I bought two ZR2 Silverado's and an XT4, including the Blackwing. GM can give little shits about how you supported them, your previous purchase history, they're the lowest of the lows they truly do not care at all and have zero customer loyalty. I've learned this very quickly.
Regardless, from a buying experience, it's been a fucking nightmare, I don't wish this onto anyone and I hope no one's Blackwing experience goes this way. I'll update this post whenever I get new information.
Thanks for the read.
Hood
Fenders
Miscellaneous
Rear Bumper:
Attachments
Last edited:
