Well, this is more of an after-action review than anything for my truck, and a recommendation for a place of service if you happen to be in Alaska and for some ungodly reason need service.

It's a 3 day weekend, and per military regulations you do vehicle inspections prior to any extended weekend. I had just completed my vehicle inspections on my troops, and had one of my fellow nco's inspect my rig.

I fired her up, and noticed immediately that I now had strongarm steering and the brake pedal felt wierd, really hard. I killed the engine and popped the hood, checking both brake and steering fluids. Both normal. I didn't hear anything odd so I started her back up again. Lo and behold, still there, no power steering and brakes. I call up the wife and tell her to figure out which chevy place in town to go to, gave her symptoms, told her that all the diesel guys here at work are saying vacumn pump so that's something she should hear mumbled in thought.

Alaska sales and service: Retorted to my wife "You should recheck the fluids, this truck doesn't have a vacumn pump"

Tony Chevrolet of Anchorage: Service guy on the phone didn't know alot about diesels. He hollered out the symptoms into the shop bay and my wife heard about 8 people holler VACUMN PUMP IF ITS OLD, STEERING PUMP IF IT"S NEW... Needless to say we went with them.

Strip out the banks, drive over there with my buddy tailing me and the wife. Pull into their service bay and shut her down. "Any aftermarket stuff?" Yep, banks exhaust. Anything under the hood? Nope! They bring it back, and once they can get it actually on a lift, (it's 1200 when it got dropped off) by 1600 they had found that it was the power steering pump becuase of the hydroboost, they had the part and just didn't have enough time today to get it done. THey gave us a 1500 crew cab for a rental for free and at 1100 the next day they called up saying our truck was good to go, come get this beast it's making our customers wonder why the trucks on the lot sound wimpy.

Tony chevy here in anchorage has my business any day of the week.

All right a success story. Nice when things work out good..

Nice when dealers treat you like a customer they want and want to return!

Good deal,makes you feel good!


Mac :)

Yeah... 23 hours from dropoff to repaired, keys in my hand... Not too shabby. My truck hasn't had a perfect time, there have been broken things... but you know what, every time so far GM hasn't hesitated to fix 'er!

Nice to hear a good story and outcome.At least you had a vehicle to use while yours was down.I have heard a few stories of outright refusals for a loaner vehicle.

All I have to say about that is that if you stay there vs dropping it off, they'll probably give you a loaner. While I ran helter-skelter to various military things I had to do, and visited her to check on her and how the truck work was coming, my wife stayed there the whole time. When it became apparent at 4 pm that they wouldn't have it done by the 6pm closing time, they asked if we wanted a rental supplied by GM. But of course!

And they made sure it was a GM vehicle! Thank GOD... my first service we had on the truck for a faulty oil level sensor they put us in a dodge 1500 and I was reminded of every reason I didn't buy a dodge.. lol

I take it you have a Chevrolet. It would be nice to know if Tony would take a GMC since we are limited up here for choices.
Glad to here they took care of you.
Little words of mouth like this can go a long way.

In all honesty, I think Tony's would take it. Give them a ring.

AK Sales and Service charges YOU, THE CUSTOMER, 6.66 a day for alaskan rental tax if they "give" you a rental because YOUR truck, under GM Warranty, requires work. Yet another &$@#'ing reason not to go there. The wife told me this yesterday.

We need to get all the Anchorage locals together and go do something sometime. Perhaps tomorrow, if I pass my promotion board! Drinking will be in order if the powers that be decide to promote me to SGT! Probably should invite all the lower enlisted fro my platoon because they'll be the ones feeling the pain... LOL

Hmmm. Playing devil's advocate here, wonder what would have happened if you answered the "Anything under the hood?" question differently, like Banks Otto Mind & Big Head wastegate? In any case glad it worked out.

JP

Nice to know you were treated like a customer and a person instead of a guy who did not buy your truck from them...

In all honesty, from the vibe I was catching from the guy behind the desk, as long as the **** you put on didn't cause the problem ie you put on a HJ and all of a sudden your hitch fell off while parked in your garage... you'd be good.. now if you put on a Banks big head and your turbo grenaded because you used a power drill to screw it as much as you could because you were trying to see how much boost you could make... I think they'd call bull****.

Usually, from what I have seen, the guys at the desk worry about aftermarket ****. The guys that get greasy and actually WORK could give a damn.

Yes it would be nice if Tonys, well its not Tonys anymore, would take GMC but they will not I've tried and they say sorry but you have to goto AS&S and they give you the run around. The first question is did you buy this from us. Then I have to say no you only get 2 DMAXs a year.

Oddly enough, while I was waiting to find out what was going on, I saw one of the guys who works at Alaska 4x4 working in the service department. He heard the truck fire up and his head whipped around.):h

Very nice people, and it was refershing to not be treated like an idiot when it comes to the truck. I helped pick out what went on it, I sure as heck know about it.:rolleyes: