My 2020 Chevrolet Bolt EV was part of an August 2021 recall by General Motors to address battery fires. I waited patiently for my new battery only for GM to announce in June 2023 they were ending the battery replacements and would instead be installing enhanced monitoring software in vehicles that hadn’t yet had the replacement completed.

I’d heard George Iny from the Automobile Protection Association on the local CBC Radio noontime show many times, so I wrote to the APA after hearing about the change in recall and was surprised to have a response from Iny himself, who asked if he could use my email as part of an article on the subject, which I said would be fine. I sort of forgot about that part of our exchange until I did a search tonight for the latest information on the recall and found the email (attributed to T.B., cough cough) as the basis of a MoneySense article.

One thing I thought of after I emailed the APA was the potential hit in resale value I could incur. There seems to have been no rhyme or reason as to which cars did or didn’t get the battery replacement, so other 2020 Bolt EV owners did get the new battery and the 8-year warranty that came with it, while I get nothing but software. When it comes time to sell or trade my car, I would expect it to be worth less than a 2020 that had the new battery and warranty, and there will be no compensation from GM for that loss.

I’ve gone from being impressed by GM promising to look after all their Bolt EV customers to being pretty sour. I had only owned one other GM product in my life: an ancient quarter ton pickup I bought from my car-dealer cousin, Warren, to use while our house was being built, handy to pick up supplies for the carpenters and keep construction moving forward, but in constant need of repair so a short-lived possession. Unless GM have a change of heart (which would mean they would have to first acquire a heart), I can’t imagine I will ever buy a General Motors product again. I’m sure Mary Barra won’t be losing sleep over that, though, because I’m old and like to keep cars for a long time, so probably another couple of cars will see me out.

I still like the Bolt EV, think it is well built and have enjoyed driving it, but GM’s absolute disregard for customers stinks like the tailpipe of their stupid Hummers.