Main complaint: GM is aware that their GM hydra-matic 4T65-E transmission has a defective part, yet they leave it to consumers to cover the cost of handling the problem. Specifically, my 2000 Grand Prix GT (with only 64,000 miles on it) started upshifting hard a few days ago from 1st to 2nd gear and I hear metallic grinding noises from underneath the car when shifting from 1st to 2nd while the car is still warming up. Having performed all of the necessary maintenance over the years, I am angered to learn that I will have to fork over approximately $600 to repair a manufacturer's defect on a car that I am still paying for. I've read of other people having to pay significantly more to fix this problem on their cars. Recently, GM repaired a coolant leak at no cost to consumers because it was deemed a defect. I had already experienced "low engine coolant" warnings from my car and was relieved to receive the recall letter offering to fix the problem for free. Of course, that repair took 15 minutes - GM didn't mind picking up the cost for that defect. My current problem will require several hours of transaxle work and GM has conveniently stuck me with the cost of this work. I also wonder why consumers are not being alerted to this problem. Some people may not notice or may choose to ignore the symptoms that I noticed until the other day until they have a catastrophic problem and have to pay thousands to repair their transaxle. It seems irresponsible to me that GM only issued this information as a service bulletin to mechanics. Other minor complaints: My car intermittently had trouble starting around 45000 miles. Two mechanics checked it and found nothing wrong. My kid brother found a loose wire coming from the battery and quickly fixed the problem. Currently, I have lost levels 1-3 of 5 for my heating/cooling fan, my windshield wiper fluid pump has stopped working and the lock on my trunk is inoperable. I'm not careless - these materials should have lasted much longer.

- Chicago, IL, USA