My EB Z was built 8/17, and has been on a hobo infested train for about 14 days to make its way to Seattle from the factory. I've been tracking it, and found out it had arrived at the United Pacific RR drop lot near Kent, WA last night. The dealer told me it was scheduled to arrive at the dealership sometime this afternoon, so I went down there to talk about some details on the deal, hoping it would show up while I was there.
Sure enough, about 45 minutes after I get there, the transportaion truck pulls up with the Z on the rear
. It looked mighty awesome, and the involentary grin was going strong. Me and the salesman went out to watch the truck driver unload my Z, and within 2 minutes I realized this guy was a full fledged member of the Micky Mouse Club :roll:. The ramps where short, and at a very steep angle to the ground -- I'm seeing visions of scraped up Z already :flaming:. The guy then rounds up a bunch of wood blocks and proceeds to prop up the ends of the ramps about a foot, then puts a pair of short 2x6 by only 3 ft long as secondary 'ramps' to the road. I'm thinking "OK, I guess that might work if he doesn't drive off the sides of the wood planks". So he jumps in the Z and starts backing it off the truck slowly. When the rear wheels contact the leading edge of the 2x6 wood planks, they both jump up off the road end and hit the underside of the rear facia ! :flaming: -- WTF kind of a Rube Goldberg setup is this!. I jump over and put my foot on the one that seems the worse and force it too the ground until the rear tire has enough weight on it to make it come back down to earth. Same thing happens with the front wheels, except this time the wood wants to smack the underside of the rocker panels. I don't think it did much damage, but hell, this is utter :bs: IMO. Totally uncalled for!
So, the Z is off the transportation truck, and is driven into the dealers lot and parked. I walk up to start inspecting it, knowing something will be wrong -- I can feel this stuff. Sure enough! As soon as I look at the drivers door I notice a nice goudge about 1/4 inch long on the edge lip of the rear of the door. It's on the rounded lip edge of the door, but can still be seen with the door closed. There was some white tape on it, and a dot on the tape, maybe signifying damage there -- don't know for sure, could have been factory damage? The tape was peeled back from the edge, and not stuck down when I saw it. Also, the foam door bumper was stuck to the rear window, NOT on the door -- what the hell's going on here? Based on this, I'm thinking the door was bumped inside the boxcar. So, I'm thinking "fine, I guess that can be touched up with a brush and some touchup paint and if done right should be hard to see". So then the truck driver pulls a piece of paper off the dash and says "Oh ya, there's some damage on the nose" -- WTF!! Sure enough, bottom edge of the nose had some nice scrapes in it on both sides, and the air dam underneath has some visable damage too, with scratchs at least 2 inchs above its bottom edge. The truck driver says it was noted by United Pacific RR :flaming: -- not a normal boxcar unload I'm thinking! Now I have to talk to the body shop tomarrow when I pick up the car to see the best way to take care of the nose scuffs . Oh, well -- hopefully this is the worst of the things to come.
So, that's how the first 15 minutes of my delivery started out. I guess it could have been worse, but IMO it should have been better. I've decided that I'm going to write a formal letter to GM and CC a copy of it to United Pacific RR about this whole trasportation issue. IMO, there is no excuse why we should put up with this :bs:. It would be in GMs best interest and the customers to have cars deliverd without transportation damage. If I was someone in GM that had any say in it, I would have an audit of the procedures used by UPRR in the transportation process. Certainly it can't be rocket science to figure out a way to do it correctly. I'm sure I could spend 1/2 day with them and tell them a better way to do it. Hell, I'd only charge GM one new Z06 for my consaltant sevices. The reality is that these are not the railroad employee's cars, and if they get scraped up, who gives a ....
Is there anyone on the forum that could recommend a name and address of someone in GM who would give a rat's ass about the transportation issue? If so, could you please let me know who that is? The keyboard will be smokin'.
BTW -- the EB color is absolutely awesome! Everything I expected. Also, I heard the car run, and checked under the hood while it was running. It sounded very quiet and idled smooth. Another thing I noticed right off the bat was that there was alot of clearance between the coolant reservior hose and the radiator plastic shroud (about 1/4+ inch) -- I know on alot of 2001 Vetts, this hose would touch the sharp edge of the shroud and potentially cut the hose, causing high pressure coolant to geiser all over the place. Kind of like my spewing of rants on my experience so far.
Sure enough, about 45 minutes after I get there, the transportaion truck pulls up with the Z on the rear
. It looked mighty awesome, and the involentary grin was going strong. Me and the salesman went out to watch the truck driver unload my Z, and within 2 minutes I realized this guy was a full fledged member of the Micky Mouse Club :roll:. The ramps where short, and at a very steep angle to the ground -- I'm seeing visions of scraped up Z already :flaming:. The guy then rounds up a bunch of wood blocks and proceeds to prop up the ends of the ramps about a foot, then puts a pair of short 2x6 by only 3 ft long as secondary 'ramps' to the road. I'm thinking "OK, I guess that might work if he doesn't drive off the sides of the wood planks". So he jumps in the Z and starts backing it off the truck slowly. When the rear wheels contact the leading edge of the 2x6 wood planks, they both jump up off the road end and hit the underside of the rear facia ! :flaming: -- WTF kind of a Rube Goldberg setup is this!. I jump over and put my foot on the one that seems the worse and force it too the ground until the rear tire has enough weight on it to make it come back down to earth. Same thing happens with the front wheels, except this time the wood wants to smack the underside of the rocker panels. I don't think it did much damage, but hell, this is utter :bs: IMO. Totally uncalled for!So, the Z is off the transportation truck, and is driven into the dealers lot and parked. I walk up to start inspecting it, knowing something will be wrong -- I can feel this stuff
. Sure enough! As soon as I look at the drivers door I notice a nice goudge about 1/4 inch long on the edge lip of the rear of the door. It's on the rounded lip edge of the door, but can still be seen with the door closed. There was some white tape on it, and a dot on the tape, maybe signifying damage there -- don't know for sure, could have been factory damage? The tape was peeled back from the edge, and not stuck down when I saw it. Also, the foam door bumper was stuck to the rear window, NOT on the door -- what the hell's going on here? Based on this, I'm thinking the door was bumped inside the boxcar. So, I'm thinking "fine, I guess that can be touched up with a brush and some touchup paint and if done right should be hard to see". So then the truck driver pulls a piece of paper off the dash and says "Oh ya, there's some damage on the nose" -- WTF!! Sure enough, bottom edge of the nose had some nice scrapes in it on both sides, and the air dam underneath has some visable damage too, with scratchs at least 2 inchs above its bottom edge. The truck driver says it was noted by United Pacific RR :flaming: -- not a normal boxcar unload I'm thinking! Now I have to talk to the body shop tomarrow when I pick up the car to see the best way to take care of the nose scuffs . Oh, well -- hopefully this is the worst of the things to come.So, that's how the first 15 minutes of my delivery started out. I guess it could have been worse, but IMO it should have been better. I've decided that I'm going to write a formal letter to GM and CC a copy of it to United Pacific RR about this whole trasportation issue. IMO, there is no excuse why we should put up with this :bs:. It would be in GMs best interest and the customers to have cars deliverd without transportation damage. If I was someone in GM that had any say in it, I would have an audit of the procedures used by UPRR in the transportation process. Certainly it can't be rocket science to figure out a way to do it correctly. I'm sure I could spend 1/2 day with them and tell them a better way to do it. Hell, I'd only charge GM one new Z06 for my consaltant sevices
. The reality is that these are not the railroad employee's cars, and if they get scraped up, who gives a ....Is there anyone on the forum that could recommend a name and address of someone in GM who would give a rat's ass about the transportation issue? If so, could you please let me know who that is? The keyboard will be smokin'.
BTW -- the EB color is absolutely awesome! Everything I expected. Also, I heard the car run, and checked under the hood while it was running. It sounded very quiet and idled smooth. Another thing I noticed right off the bat was that there was alot of clearance between the coolant reservior hose and the radiator plastic shroud (about 1/4+ inch) -- I know on alot of 2001 Vetts, this hose would touch the sharp edge of the shroud and potentially cut the hose, causing high pressure coolant to geiser all over the place. Kind of like my spewing of rants on my experience so far
.
