AshleyFeucht

I drive a 2004 Chevrolet Aveo and my timing belt snapped at 47,500 miles. The belt failure caused 14 of the 16 valves in my engine to bend, costing me a whopping $2,175 for a replacement cylinder head and timing belt.

For the record, GM issued a technical service bulletin recommending drivers replace their timing belts at 60K miles (TSB 06-06-01-021B: EI06005, which you can see in entirety here: http://aveosfail.com/technical-servi...1-021b-ei06005). According to the bulletin, timing belt failures before 60K miles and 5 years may be considered under warranty if the issue is submitted as a Field Product Report (whatever that is). My Aveo is one year too old to be covered and I took it to a mechanic to be fixed, so I'm basically screwed. Still, a timing belt blowout at 47,500 miles is completely unacceptable and certainly should warrant at least partial compensation from GM.

I called GM to see what they could do as far as compensation, but they were no help. The customer service representative was unable to pull up the TSB and could only tell me that, based on my vehicle's VIN number, there are no "recalls." She advised me to take my car to GM for a diagnosis, after which I may or may not be compensated. Considering the innumerable complaints I've read about GM dealing with this issue, I'd probably be wasting my time and money if I took the car in for diagnosis (Besides, I had 2 mechanics give me a diagnosis already... and the car is fixed!)

At this point, the only thing I can do is take GM to small claims court, file complaints with the Better Business Bureau and Congress, and hope to find some kind of class action lawsuit.

If anyone is interested in joining me for a class action lawsuit, or if anyone has advice about what I can do for restitution, please e-mail me at ashley.feucht@gmail.com

John Feucht

We unfortunately have two 2004 Aveos in our household. My daughter's self destructed with a broken timing belt just recently at 47,000 miles and it cost her over $2000 to get fixed. Mine has about 40,000 miles so I called a dealer to hopefully avoid the same calamity only to have them tell me tough luck, the "warranty" expired last September and I could have it replaced if I'd fork over 500+. It's interesting to note that the dealer, who kept sending me notices for oil changes and such, didn't bother to notify me in advance about widespread timing belt failure or warranty expiration. Must have been a secret.
While I've owned several GM cars in the past and been very pleased with them I'm now finished with the "Too Big to Fail So Let's Give Them Billions of Taxpayer's Money" company. I will now buy my cars from a "Too Well Built to Fail, But If It Does, We actually Back Up Our Product" manufacturer. GM stands to lose a lot more money from me by not fixing my problem and sending me to a different car company especially when people ask "What ever happened to your cute Aveo". Maybe this is why they almost went into bankruptcy. Maybe I'd be better off if we hadn't bailed them out. I'd certainly be wealthier.
My daughter is now looking into a class action lawsuit and I guess so will I. Let the Buyer Beware, a GM economy car can easily turn into a very expensive nightmare.

capucine

according to all the complaints with this engine I would change it at 50,000 kilometers. I had a vauxhall firenza that was using similar belt system and sometimes the milleage and the time the belt has been installed count a lot. As it age the belt develops cracks in the rubber and can fail before its recommended milleage replacement.