Fowler GMC — Local services in Ukiah

I regret ever coming to Ken Fowler.

My husband and I just had a baby, so we were in the market for a bigger vehicle. Online I found a Chevy Tahoe we were interested in so we went to check it out. Upon arrival, we met Alberto, one of the sales representatives at the dealership. I told him I wanted to check out the Chevy Tahoe they just got in and he told me he can't sell that to me because it smelled like cigarette smoke but that we could take a look at the other vehicles on the lot that were similar. Now that I look back - I appreciate the thought, but it is weird he didn't even bring out the car for us to make our own judgment. After looking at the other cars they had - we decided on a 2017 Chevy Tahoe Z71. We purchased the vehicle on 7/1/24.

Within one week, I noticed that the transmission was slipping! Transmission issues on a vehicle you just bought is the LAST thing you want to find out after you just made a big purchase of over 30k. I reached out Alberto on 7/10/24 to discuss bringing the Tahoe back, in hopes that they would make this right.

On 7/12/24 The Chevy Tahoe was brought into the service department. We explained our concerns and they ran their diagnostics. They concluded that the Tahoe was in Auto 4WD and that's the reason it was driving weird. We picked up the car and later that night we still had the same unresolved issue. Nothing was fixed!

On 7/16/2024 We came back to Ken Fowler. This time the service representative asked if I wanted to take a drive with the mechanic since the car wasn't throwing any "codes". On this drive, the mechanic confirmed that the transmission seemed to be slipping around third and fourth gear. Ken Fowler was going to keep the Tahoe and reach out to the manufacture to see if this was something that was covered under warranty. They didn't have any rental cars available for us. I explained that I needed to commute to work in the morning - so the service representative suggested I take the Tahoe back until GM Motors replied?! I found this extremely unprofessional and unsafe. Did I mention my husband and I just had a baby?

7/18/2024 The service department called to tell me that they weren't going to replace the transmission, but were going to replace the valve body and that it would be ready in a week. 7/19/2024 Received a call the next day that the car was ready for pickup and that they didn't end up replacing the valve body. They replaced bolts within the valve body that were missing. Uhh...where did they go and how long were they missing? Basically, they slapped a small band-aid on a much bigger problem.

We picked up our Tahoe and surprise surprise...STILL SLIPPING. I called Ken Fowler and asked if I could speak to the owner, but was redirected to the sales manager Vern. I explained how upset I was about the entire situation and that I felt they should either replace the transmission or take the car back. Vern told me to come in the next day and he would "see what he could do". When I requested to speak to the owner, he told me it was unnecessary because if they decided to take the car back - that would be his call. The next day I came to meet Vern, but he wasn't there and had left early for the day. Are you kidding me? We agreed that I would bring the car in the next morning for another drive with a mechanic, and so I could speak to Vern.

I had another ride with the mechanic, and during the ride the transmission slipped. We sit down to have a conversation with Vern who tells me that the mechanic said THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE CAR. I couldn't believe it! I asked to speak to the owner again but was told he wasn't available and there was nothing they could do because the car was perfectly fine. I was completely flabbergasted and upset that I left the conversation in tears. My husband sent videos to Vern of the transmission slipping, to which he never replied to us. So there we were stuck with a car that had a faulty transmission.

Fast-forward to December 2024: TRANSMISSION FAILED AND NEEDED TO BE REPLACED. RUN! DON’T WALK FROM...

Edit: 2 years later, I'm still trying to deal with my registration that they messed up so bad that the DMV doesn't even know how to fix it. I've also spent hundreds in DMV fees trying to fix their mistakes...

My wife left a review, but after the issues I have had here, I felt they needed to be shared.

Shame on me for being so trusting, I have heard such good things about fowler. Well here we go, after reviewing all of my documents later than i should have after being denied coverage on my dent defence that I placed i looked through all my paperwork.

They pulled a switcheroo on me at the last minute and increased the agreed upon purchase price by $470.

They flat out lied about the terms of the extended bumper-bumper warranty i bought, I was told 10 years, 125k miles... Yea no its 6 years 125k, which doesn't even make any sense.

The car comes with cheap yokohama tires that popped and became unfixable with less than 2k miles on the car. I was told i was SOL, and had to buy 4 new tires....

I was told my first oil change was free, yea service told me it wouldn't be.

Have left at least 4 messages with the service department, no call back.

My infotainment system has to be factory reset almost weekly. Sure this is subarus fault, but the only way to fix it is to drive over an hour to fowler, and after all this i never want to step foot in that service department again.

I don't know if they used to be good, and now they suck or what the deal is, but i was told to go here, and i really wish i hadn't.

Lesson learned I guess, there are no "good" or "honest"...

I set up an appointment for my wife's truck to get an oil change. She drops it off and Drew tells her it is due for a transmission filter/oil change based off the mileage as well. We had the torque converter and transmission serviced 2 years ago under warranty due to water getting into the transmission system. Mileage was 42,311. We are currently at 73,000. Transmission service is recommended every 45,000 miles under severe conditions. So we had about 31,000 miles since last service. When my wife told me what they were doing, I called and talked to Ally and explained the situation. She said that they just pulled the truck in and she would tell them not to do the transmission service. Drew called me back about 5 minutes later and told me that it was already done. Again he said he just goes off the mileage. 3 hours later when they let me know that the truck is done I go and pick it up. I talked to Wes and told him the problem I had with the situation. He said at least I am ahead of the curve. I couldn't believe it. If they talk every one into doing transmission service at 30,000 miles instead of the recommended 45,000, they get to charge an extra service in the recommended mileage. I asked if I would be getting a 1/3 off of my bill since they did it 15,000 miles to soon and he said he had to talk to a manager. Ended up only getting $60 off of a $510 bill. I feel that this was just a money grab. I won't be taking any of my vehicles...