I just received a letter from Troy Clarke, President, GM North America, wherein he asked me to contact my representatives in support of a bailout for GM. He must be kidding.

If any company deserves to fail it’s GM. Too many government dollars have already been wasted trying to help this company. Even while they pretend to be committed to manufacturing energy efficiency vehicles they are busy pushing the 556 horsepower CTS-V. What an insult to the citizens they are begging for cash. What do you think that thing gets? 10 MPG? 12 MPG?

My experience with GM may be rare, but I seriously doubt it. GM and their authorized dealer lied to me, cheated me out of thousands of dollars, and left me with a car I’m scared to drive. And that’s just half of it. It’s no wonder sales are through the floor!

It started in 2004 when GM told me (and industry rags) they were manufacturing a “Limited Edition” CTS with a Corvette engine in it, called the CTS-V. The dealer said it was the first Cadillac stick shift in 50 years, only 1,800 were going to be made, and this one was the sixth off the line. Since my wife and I don’t drive very much we got the idea to drive it just enough to get the dealer to fix any bugs, but then park the car as an investment. Usually, something like that would be rare enough that unlike normal cars, it would increase in value if you didn’t drive it much.

Of course, after the car was purchased and I tried to get documentation from GM the story changed. The first thing GM cleared up was that the car was a “Limited Production” - not a “Limited Edition”. Of course, every car has a limited production, so what did they mean?  Well they refused to give us the manufacturing sequence information (to establish that it really was the sixth one off the line), and also refused to disclose any way in which production of the car was limited.

Essentially, they - GM, their dealer and salesman - had tricked us into buying a car we would not have otherwise purchased. And oh yeah, they charged us thousands extra in the process - something they later said was a “premium” above sticker because - you guessed it - the car was a Limited Production model. It was truly a disgusting experience.

But wait, that’s not all.

After they basically admitted the car was not one of 1800, they also admitted the car was not equipped with options the dealer told us - in writing - were included. So after it’s purchased, you learn that the first Cadillac to have a stick shift in 50 years is also the only one in the model year that doesn’t have voice commands. Yes, you heard me right; these giants of innovation built a car that requires both hands and both feet to drive, and they forgot to include the voice command system.

So, unlike Cadillac owners with no clutch and no stick shift to operate, we didn’t have voice commands. The dealer said GM’s documentation was wrong and that they couldn’t honor the separate agreement they signed insuring voice commands would work.

For now we’ll just skip over the whole Lemon Law racket and the BBB AUTO LINE and say that GM did not refund our money, agreeing only to extend the warranty on the car.

Now fast-forward to just a few months ago - that’s when the entire front driver’s side wheel fell off the car while I was backing into the driveway. Yes, this GM masterpiece has 180 MPH on the speedometer and less than 20,000 miles on the odometer, and the front wheel falls completely off!

Good thing we got that extended warranty, right? Well, that wasn’t what General Motors said. As they explained it, the extended warranty agreement they made wasn’t for the “Bumper-to-Bumper Warranty” that came with the car. Instead, they said they agreed to a “Protection Plan” that didn’t have as much coverage as the “Bumper-to-Bumper Warranty” that originally came with the car.

You may be wondering what the difference is; I know we were. Well, turns out, says GM, that the “Protection Plan” covered the wheel falling off, but not any damage that was caused when the car came crashing down on the wheel that was laying on the street. And… the tow wasn’t included either. Great, huh? An overpriced, not-so-rare car with 20,000 miles, a crushed fender and a chipped wheel and GM says all they’ll do is put the wheel back on.

We immediately moved to have the original Lemon Law agreement annulled as a misrepresentation - only then did GM fix the fender and they never did replace the wheel or tire that was damaged in the incident. Of course, the wheel fell off in the first place because the “lower control arm ball stud nut/washer assemblies” is messed up. Ours had already been recalled and inspected by GM before it snapped in front of the house. And how scary is that? Every time you hit a bump you brace yourself for the car to flip in case the wheel falls off again.

So, am I for a bailout of GM? Not if they were the last car company on earth. And if you don’t trust me - ask your friends and family if they’ve ever been lied to by a GM dealer, Salesman or Service Manager. And since GM has hidden any trace of the “Limited Production” marketing from the car - which they are still selling 5 years later - it looks like the car was never limited in any way besides the number of people they could trick into buying one. (Just try searching “Limited Production” on the Cadillac website and see what you can’t find.)

So if you’re a lawyer and you need somebody for some kind of class action consumer fraud case or something like that, let’s do lunch.  Otherwise, if you’re a GM fan, why not make an offer on my 2004 CTS-V?  It’s supposed to be really rare and it only has about 20K miles on it. I paid more than $58K for it, but I need to move and my house is worth less than I paid for it 8 years ago so I can really use the cash.