Haven't been on the forums in a while. Work and life has been a bit crazy. In addition to my law office, I opened a title insurance company a little over a year ago. Covid has actually caused my work to become busier for which I am grateful, but haven't had much time for anything these days between both companies increasing in volume. But figured I'd check in with at least one of my car happenings.
First thing's first, I bought my first non-GM car or myself (my wife has a Jeep, and I did own a Saab which was after the GM sale but definitely developed under GM). It's a CPO 2019 Volvo S60 T6. It has the R design package, the advanced package with the self driving, and the Polestar tune. It had 12k miles but Volvo offers unlimited mileage warranties for their CPO cars up to 5 years from original delivery date which is why I chose to go with Volvo. The car drives great and I'm definitely happy with it. I've had it for two months now and it's still a blast to drive. Much more sport biased than I expected.
The reason for the new car is below. The Buick has an issue that no one can seem to trace. I hired a lemon law attorney to negotiate a buyback from GM. Here's how it went down:
The first time the car went wrong, I was driving along uphill going about 30-40mph and the car downshifted on its own into first gear out of nowhere. The dash lit up and the car slowed to 10mph or so. I tried upshifting in manual mode, nothing. I coasted into a parking lot, called roadside and they took the car to Mahwah Buick. Car insisted I wasn't in park and wouldn't turn the ignition off (although the engine stopped). Dealership replaced the battery, said the transmission control module was failing but they ordered a new one and would replace it when it comes in, but to take it because it was working. Here's a video of the first incident:
https://youtu.be/g3URm9YI1p8
That same day I picked it up, took it to work, when I went to go home, same lights on the dash. This time, I turned it off and on but it wouldn't restart. Called roadside and they took the car to Mahwah Buick. Dealership indicated this time it was going to be in for a long time while they wait for the master mechanic to put eyes on it. After a week, they had replaced a transmission valve body and reflashed the transmission control module (not replaced it, part still wasn't in) but said this was definitely it and they were certain of it. Here's another video:
https://youtu.be/93JABLdRe9k
Car seemed to be working fine and drove the car for another two weeks or so thereafter. But then, it happened again but this time while I was on the New Jersey turnpike. I was lucky because you can see in this clip, it turned back on while I was driving and I was able to steer and maneuver for a few seconds into the shoulder and then coast the car into a rest area. Mind you, this with no engine and no power brakes. I was very fortunate it happened exactly where it did. I called roadside again. They took the car to Bellavia Chevrolet. This dealership was leaps and bounds better and the service manager there really took this on his shoulders to get the car right. He seemed confident at first but once he came up short, he contacted GM corporate who also tried to diagnose the car. Like the other incidents, disconnecting the battery for a long period of time got the issue to resolve itself, but then they couldn't diagnose it from there. The service manager gave up and told me to come get it. He was apologetic and told me he even drove the car himself for a week or so to try an replicate the issue. A video of the issue happening in process is here:
https://youtu.be/8SM8_hRxrbg
Loaners are hard to come by at these dealers so I was using my cousin's Mazda during the time but eventually he needed it back so I bought the Volvo. My job has me driving a lot so I needed a car. The Buick is sitting for now until the car can be bought back. We're outside lemon law because of the mileage but the attorney has had success in similar circumstances. We'll see.