HV Battery Failure 2016 Spark - Reimbursement?

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Brent123

New member
Joined
Jun 21, 2023
Messages
2
Hi everybody,

So my 2016 Spark EV with 74,xxx miles had been acting a little funny. The GOM range was becoming less and less reliable, and I had to tow it once when I supposedly still had 4 miles left.
Anyway, it recently died pulling into my driveway and wouldn't take a charge. It displayed a few miles left on the GOM, but wouldn't move. Level 1 and 2 chargers wouldn't work. "Unable to charge" message displayed.
So I called Chevy roadside assistance and got the issue escalated and the guy explained that I would need to pay for a tow to the nearest Chevy dealer, but that if it was a repair covered by warranty that I would be reimbursed. The dealer pulled the traction battery out, tested it, and finally decided that it was covered by the 8 year/100,000 mile warranty. So I called roadside assistance back and got an e-mail address to send the information to and am hoping to be reimbursed. I'll update when I hear back.

More importantly, the dealer has stated that no battery is available, anywhere, for my 2016. They suggested I call GM and then said that they don't know how long the car can be stored at the dealership so I need to get the ball rolling. Great.
GM is apparently going through a "review" of the situation, confirming that the part isn't available and that the car can be bought back. They're going to talk to the dealer and get back to me by Monday.
I keep asking the dealer and GM about getting a loaner car, as I am stuck without transportation while this is going on, and the best answer I got was from GM today. They said that I can rent a car and hope for reimbursement once they finish the "review." They don't know how long that finishing it will take, and wouldn't guarantee that I'll be reimbursed.
So my question for you all is this: have you been through the process of getting reimbursed for your under-warranty repair, and would you trust GM to actually honor it? I don't want to pay the money for the car if I might not get reimbursed.
Thanks everybody!
Brent
 
Gm will not replace the battery . I went in for a battery ck just before the warranty would expire and was told it passed with 30 % dedgration which they raised from 20 % . There are no batteries they are out of production. They will try to do a buy back I have heard or get rid of you like they did to me. My spark is still going strong as I use it just to run around town.
 
So I just went through this process with gm. My 2016 spark traction battery failed and threw codes I had it towed to the dealership where they determined it needed a traction battery as I was within 2 months of my powertrain warranty expiring they had to honor it. I live in Northern California and I was told that they would be able to replace my battery with a remanufactured battery and that would take about 6 months...or they offered to have gm buy it back from me. I went the second option and began the process. Once the dealership determined I needed a battery then I received a rental car. The process can take awhile I had the rental for 2 months while finalizing the process. I was paid abou$13k for mine and it had about 52k miles on it. I never asked for a reimbursement of my tow however as I used aaa. Best of luck to you
 
I can back up what joebigueira said. My 2016 w/ 44k miles died 1 month before warranty ran out in Feb '24 (friggin' waaay lucky)... was told it would be about 6 months to get replacement battery in ... got rental car (ask for EV) ... rode out the process to see if they were actually going to fix it. In Oct. '24 they alerted me that they were discontinuing rental and that they'd buy my car back, or wait another 4 months to get battery (w/o rental) ... it was clear then that they really had no intention of fixing it ... $12k which was a few grand more than I paid for it used in '19. Purchase process took about 2 weeks.

Miss the car for what it was. Cheap, peppy, could park it anywhere. Great utility car to kick around town (SoCal). Appreciate GM for honoring the warranty and the process. Got to drive new Blazer EV for 3 months and a red Camaro. Was impressed w/ Blazer, just ~$8k overpriced compared to others out there (I have Model Y) ... nevermind the 4 cyl Camaro (fun for about 15min and good to find out I'm not missing out on anything). Rolled my buyout into a used '23 Mini Ev ... definitely improved creature comforts and handling. It's fun. Closest thing I could find to what we had.

Godspeed Sparky ... hope manufacturers come around to create a really small, cheap EV again ... best wishes to you all who are still able to keep it running!
 

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Sad to see it go, but I'm glad they honored the warranty and bought you out. I want to know how that Mini works for you. I've been watching the prices, because one of those might take over as my primary vehicle.
 
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