A final followup. The extra parts needed to repair the emission system arrived on Monday morning (24th) and we picked up our truck the same day at 2:00 p.m.. From an original estimate of $500 the repair cost lept to nearly $2,000. Although our bumper-to-bumper 3-yr/36K mile had run out, the 5-yr/50K mile emission coverage for Duramax played a key role...even if some of the emission system wasn't covered. The description in our warranty manual didn't mention that "some parts" would not be covered but GMC, to their credit, stepped up to the plate.
Throughout the entire ordeal, it was the dealer that created the bulk of the frustration. Poor communication, a rush to tell us we were not covered by warranty (when in fact we were), and a general malaise when it came to service in general didn't help. Even when we picked up our truck we had to point out dirt stains on the driver's seat cloth (the second time such dirt was pointed out) and had not been cleaned. The truck was very dirty on the outside. Even after a simple oil change/tire rotation when we had our Toyota Tundra, the Tundra was always delivered after being washed no matter what dealer we had used. That's only happened at one other GMC dealer.
Unless there is an issue with the work done (12-month/12K warranty) we won't be using their services again. At no time did the service rep directly apologize to us (while the GMC rep did so frequently). There are lots of GMC/GM trucks in our RV park where we will spread the word to use the dealer at their own risk. There are a few other GM dealers in the area to try so this dealer isn't the only game in town.
But where the dealer fell down, GMC shone. Without GMC's near daily intervention we feel we would not have been treated fairly by the dealer. Again, cudos to GMC for standing behind their products and to their customer service. It's a shame that a relatively straight forward service incident had to be dealt with in such a fashion.
