[CzarNicky]

I would have thought that standard feature would have been a hit with the ladies.

[narby]

Sounds like the Isusu Rodeo my wife used to have. The rear tires had to be balanced to perfect tolerances, or it vibrated all the way down the highway. Had to be balanced so well that it took special equipment to do the job.

And of course, those perfectly balanced tired wouldn't STAY balanced once they got a little wear on them.

[WSGilcrest]

Hey Nathan. Did the truck vibrate when you test drove it? His ol' lady probably hit a curb and doesn't want to admit it.

[Hodar]

And then these American car companies stand in utter bafflement when people like me absolultely REFUSE to even consider buying another of their products. First I got screwed by Chevy, then Saturn. Fool me once, shame on me. I as fooled twice. Never again.

For the record, I will not even bother getting a quote for any American car company. I don't care if the new American vehicle is $10, not interested.

I have Toyotas now, a Lexus with 165,000 miles without a problem, and a pickup with 162,000; again both are problem free. Why would I ever consider buying American again?

American cars didn't lose a customer, they threw sticks and stones at them, and drove them to their competition. Then they wonder why we aren't coming back to get screwed over again.

[quantim]

Losing the constipated sound of Bob Seger ad nauseum 'like a rock' would be a great place to start on the Chevy pickup platform. So sick of that puke sound bite.

[King Prout]

my Mazda B2200 developed a rattle from hell once.
the front left tire was wearing asymmetrically, possibly from a brake caliper malfunction
new tires and new brakes ended the trouble permanently

[tubebender]

He doesn't say where the problem comes from. Is it in the drive train, engine or brakes and has he had two or three independents look at it.

[datura]

Constantly
Having
Every
Vehicle
Recalled
Over
Lousy
Engineering
Teams

If they're the "Heartbeat of America", then why is the name itself French? Chevy hasn't built a real SS since 1970.

[ZOOKER]

Sounds like you got the new-model curse.

Dad was a Service Manager for a Chevy Dealership and his advice to buyers was:

"Never buy a vehicle the first year it comes out! New models are frequently recalled for defects. It takes a year of complaints to work out the last of the bugs and correct the tooling. The second or third model year is a much better vehicle."

It is a pretty truck, though.

Perhaps you can isolate the trouble --- does it vibrate when it's sitting still, in park? Got to be a rough engine. If it only vibrates when in motion, try shifting into neutral (while it's rolling) and see if it still vibrates. Tell the dealer the results of your experiments, and he might get a clue.

As an alternative, call an alighnment and frame shop and ask if they have a machine which will spin your wheels up to highway speeds while it's on the rack. They can then inspect it and probably find the trouble.

[stylin19a]

I wonder if it's an '03 or '04 ? There are 72 Technical Service Bulletins on the '03 and 54 for the '04.

It's still gotta be under warranty (unless they've already blew the miles).

I'd ask for a test drive in another one, have a friend and a dealer rep ride along and have the dealer rep point out the standard vibration in it.

When it ain't there...you have 2 witnesses...of which one who wont lie.

[Petronski]

A broken belt in one of the tires...just one, front or back...can cause this. And it might not even be visible.

[GeronL]

former and banned (I think) freeper Nathan Tabor has finally found his true calling

[InvisibleChurch]

Excuse me? Regina with GM told me that the shaking and rattling in my brand new SS was normal. But, but Regina, GM and my local Chevrolet dealership? Why would you sell me a brand new SS that vibrates and then refuse to fix it?

well, duh! since the vibration is 'normal' then it seems like it is meant to be there, thus nothing that requires fixing ... he had the answer in his own statement ... he should proofread more often

ps. buy a subaru

[Kirkwood]

How bad is this vibration? Varies with speed or rpm or both? Lot's of possible causes. Drive shaft or harmonic damper gone out of balance or a rough running engine due to misfiring or a pollution control sensor that's gone bad. I've had all of these happen. But my bet would be on a bad tire or a wheel that has thrown a large wheel weight if it happened suddenly.

[narby]

I won't buy ford again after my experience with a Ford Ranger pickup. It's not like it was just one bad vehicle. The problem was that it was obvious that they deliberatly engineered what I would consider a defective truck.

It had a 2.3 liter engine that started life in the Pinto sometime around 1972. They merely upgraded the carb to digital injection.

After about 20k miles, it began to ping. After arguing with the service people who claimed that this was "normal", they finally admitted that they had a fix. There was a jumper plug in the wiring harness under the hood, that when removed retarded the timing and made the ping go away. The problem was that this also made what little performance it had go away too, as well as gas mileage.

The fact that they had installed a jumper at the factory to do this told me that they knew from the beginning that it was going to carbon up and ping. They were just too lazy to reengineer the head design to fix the problem correctly.

Since the truck could not perform as sold and advertized on the window sticker for more than 20k miles, as far as I'm concerned their performance claims were fraud.

I might tolerate a simple "mistake" in a design. But when a Ford truck is designed with a factory "work around" to a problem, rather than fix the cause of the problem, I'm not trusting anything they engineer again.

[RichardW]

A competent dealer would be able to fix this problem. This is not rocket science and has nothing to do where it is manufactured. Most likely cause is bad tires. Those square tires are known to cause vibration. Get some round ones.

[budwiesest]

This being a super-sport, by chance could it have been operated a little 'squirrely'. Friends of mine in high school used to twist axles in two.

I'd be looking a what excess power applications might have done to powertrain components given the higher torque and horsepower of newer engines.

Chevy SS Silverado puts out 345-hp with a H.O. Vortec 6000 V8. Yeah, I'd say you could bend things with this.

[Flying Circus]

I remember reading the car reviews a couple years ago when these were just coming to market. Reading between the lines if the gushing praise that always comes from the automotive press when a "cool" new vehicle gets released I could see they were slow, handled poorly, and suffered poor quality materials assembly. The Chevy SS truck is about looks (and they do look good!) with performance, utility and quality as vanishingly small considerations in yet another over priced and under-engineered GM.

[goldstategop]

For a moment there I thought it was the creaking of the back seats during a make out. Oh well - I'll spare you the details. A pickup truck shouldn't have a bone-jarring ride. At least not one in which making out in the back seats is an optional feature.

(Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News.")

[WayneM]

I think if this vehicle had a good set of train horns, nobody would notice a little bit of vibration.

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