It is the stuff horror stories are made of, at least for motorheads. In a viral YouTube video, Marco Garcia detailed how on December 23 he got himself a black-over-red Corvette Z06 1LZ from Covina Hills Chevrolet in Covina, California, and with just 52 miles on the odometer, the engine died as he was on his way home.
It should be noted that Garcia is not a Corvette newbie as he owns two Stingrays, and he even drove to the dealer to pick up his Z06 in his Stingray. He paid the cash price of $182,457.38 and was a happy new owner of the new Corvette Z06 1LZ, at least for a few hours. After the sale was completed, one of the salesmen offered to drive the Stingray and follow him home. Garcia happily accepted the offer and drove the salesman back to the dealer.
Even before he left the dealer for the second time, Garcia claimed that hey heard a soft rattling sound, but since neither he nor the salesman has had any experience with an LT6 V-8 engine, they both assumed that it was a typical sound of the engine.
After dropping the salesman off at the dealer and he was on his way back home that disaster struck. The rattling sound suddenly became much louder, the check engine light turned on, and the car started to lose power. He then pulled the car to the shoulder of the highway, and luckily, it was then that the car ‘died’ on him.
This is when his nightmare started.
Since he just purchased the car mere hours ago, OnStar didn’t have any information about his car in the system. They initially tried to charge him for a tow to bring the car back to the dealer. After resisting, he finally got approval from the supervisor to waive the charges and tow his car.
And the next issue started. Unfortunately, he can’t tow the car back to the dealership as it was closed, and no one will receive the car. Garcia was forced to have the Z06 towed to his construction yard. To get it in the truck bed, the towing crew even asked him if he could drive his car towards the bed. Garcia shared that he told the crew he was afraid to try since not only were there weird rattling noise, the car is also starting to smoke whenever he turns the engine on. He did turn the engine on for the crew and as soon as they heard the sound and saw the smoke, they also advised him not to try driving the car.
He was eventually able to get his car in his construction yard where his mechanic also tried to check the issues though they were hesitant to touch the car due to their lack of experience in the said new model.
In another YouTube update, he detailed the rest of the fiasco that happened the day after.
OnStar did send a truck to tow his new – and newly dead – Z06 to bring it back to the dealer – a different dealer. OnStar driver claimed that they were only authorized to send the car back to this specific dealer and not to the selling dealer. His plans and schedule for December 24 pretty much ruined. The first towing crew left, and he had to call again to schedule another service to tow his car to the right dealership.
At this point, Garcia understandably does not want anything to do with the car anymore and just wants to get rid of it.
When it eventually got to the proper dealership to have it worked on, he then received some pretty interesting emails. The first one showed that there was nothing wrong with his car, and Garcia claimed that the app also showed everything was okay in the car despite all the engine issues he was having. Further emails sent also detailed some of the issues in his new car which includes problems with the emissions system and engine and transmission system.
Hopefully, Garcia’s experience is a rare lemon car, but his frustration with the whole experience is very understandable as he just spent more than $180,000 to have two days of his life ruined. See the video below to see Garcia’s very admirable patience as he deals with the whole thing.
