A Letter from GM

[Patrick]

An interesting piece of mail arrived today. See what you all make of it:

Dear Mr. (used my full name, including middle initial),

General Motors Corporation employs Automotive Testing and Development Services, Inc (ATDS) to help carry out an on-going program to measure the emission performance of privately owned vehicles in Eastern Colorado. You have received this letter because your vehicle (cited VIN) was randomly selected as a candidate for this program. ATDS would like to determine if your vehicle meets the program's eligibility criteria and, even more importantly, whether you care to participate.

Your participation does require making your vehicle available for testing at the General Motors Vehicle Emission Laboratory in Denver, CO. Please note that we strive make participation as easy as possible by providing a comparable loan vehicle, delivered to your location, clean, with a full tank of gas, and no limit as to the number of miles that you may drive it. Additionally, you will recieve a check for $150.00 and your own vehicle is returned clean and with a full tank of gas, upon completion of testing.

The vehicle test procedure involving driving simulated city and highway trips, on an indoor chassis dynomometer, while the exhaust gas is collected and analyzed for the various pollutants regulated by the federal Clean Air Act. Your vehicle will not be subjected to any unusual stress, as the speed and load characteristics of the test are typical of everyday driving. You may expect that about 80 miles, plus transit distance to and from the lab, will be accumulated on your vehicle during this testing. The length of the time we keep your vehicle should be about 10 days but can vary due to test laboratory workload.

Test results sometimes indicate that vehicle repair is necessary. Accordingly, GM may remove and replace worn vehicle parts, and the work is performed at no cost to you.

Thank you, for taking the time to look over this information. Please take just a few additional minutes to complet the enclosed response form and return it to ATDS, in the supplied postage-paid envelope. Regardless of whether you are interested or not, every reply is appreciated. Any you may have may be directed to ATDS (toll free number is provided, along with hours for contact and names of people to contact.)

Sincerely,
Robert J. Batchelor
Senior Contact Engineer

There's a detachable questionaire at the bottom of the letter. Am I interested (Yes or No), Original owner (Yes or No), Odometer reading, Year, Make and Model, and owner contact information.

So, I'm considering my response. Any thoughts?

 

[Mac]

So, I'm considering my response. Any thoughts?

Unless you're worried about mileage (and since you actually drive your Vettes, that's not a concern) I would say go for it!!

-Mac

 

[Red G]

My friend did this with Land Rover. She got $500---and about $1500 in free repairs. They put on about 25 miles.

 

[Red Vette]

Patrick - check to make sure it is a legitimate offer and not a scam whereby they give you a car and take the vette. Probably is okay, but there are a lot of scams going on today.

Barrett

 

[Patrick]

Patrick - check to make sure it is a legitimate offer and not a scam whereby they give you a car and take the vette. Probably is okay, but there are a lot of scams going on today.

Barrett

I haven't had a chance to call the toll free number yet (business hours are 8:00 am to 5:00 PM), but I did a quick Google search and found THIS SITE. They appear to be headquartered in Ontario, California, but have divisions all over the country.

 

[c4c5specialist]

HI there,
DO IT!!!!
When they find something, no matter how slight, they fix it.
It will never be a negative on the longevity of your car.
Only a positive.
Allthebest, c4c5

 

[LT4man]

Patrick, that is so cool!

Now, if they only did something like that in Chicago, I would really be thrilled!

SAVE THE

 

[67HEAVEN]

Test results sometimes indicate that vehicle repair is necessary. Accordingly, GM may remove and replace worn vehicle parts, and the work is performed at no cost to you.

There goes numbers-matching, Patrick.

 

[rascal_rascal_99]

Make sure it's not a scam, that it's legit. (Paranoia only has to pay off once to be worth it! lol)

The way it was worded about replacing parts, are the parts free of charge too, or just the replacement/labor cost of them free?

Make sure they pick it up with the gas gauge towards "E" to get the most out of it!

Do they give you results for how your car performed?

 

[Patrick]

Make sure it's not a scam, that it's legit. (Paranoia only has to pay off once to be worth it! lol)

The way it was worded about replacing parts, are the parts free of charge too, or just the replacement/labor cost of them free?

Make sure they pick it up with the gas gauge towards "E" to get the most out of it!

Do they give you results for how your car performed?

These are definately good questions that I shall ask them. As for the results, the purpose of the test is to see emissions results, not to see rwhp. They did comment that the point is to see how it performs under normal highway and city driving conditions.

-Patrick

 

[rascal_rascal_99]

I think I'd also double check to make sure what they're calling a "comparable vehicle" but I would certainly be leaning towards letting them use the car if it were me, especially if they cover the cost of parts they decide to swap out and not just labor.

 

[NORTY]

Hi, I'm from GM (not really!)
I would like to use your car for the SilverState Challenge. I promise to flog the crap out of your car, return it with fried tires,brakes & clutch! I'll even leave some gas in it for you. I'll let you drive my 1974 Vega Kammback while I have your car. (Beware, it uses oil and heats up on short drives!) LOL!

 

[rascal_rascal_99]

Hi, I'm from GM (not really!)
I would like to use your car for the SilverState Challenge. I promise to flog the crap out of your car, return it with fried tires,brakes & clutch! I'll even leave some gas in it for you. I'll let you drive my 1974 Vega Kammback while I have your car. (Beware, it uses oil and heats up on short drives!) LOL!

Take this one Patrick Take IT!!!!

 

[ScottNoxid]

Patrick me boy,,,,"AYE"

 

[Mac]

HI there,
DO IT!!!!
When they find something, no matter how slight, they fix it.
It will never be a negative on the longevity of your car.
Only a positive.
Allthebest, c4c5

Now this sounds like excellent advice to me!

-Mac

 

[Patrick]

Well, I called them yesterday. I wanted clarification on some things, and with my first question, the whole plan was dashed. I said, "I have a 2006 Corvette. What would you consider 'equal value'?"

The lady at the other end of the line said, "An excellent car, but we were interested in testing your 2003 Corvette."

I said, "Oh. Well, In that case, I have some bad news: I recently sold it."

She said, "Congratulations on your purchase. Perhaps in 3 years, your 2006 will be randomly selected to be tested."

It seems they want cars that have been on the road for a few years.

-Patrick

 

[Red Vette]

Sorry to hear that the deal was dashed. I looked forward to hearing what the verdict of their test was going to be. If anyone inthe CAC with a 2003 is contacted, maybe we can get a follow up.

 

[rascal_rascal_99]

I think we can all pitch in together and help here, they might still let you in! All we need to do is make a list of us that are willing to drive the wheels off of your C6, then just pass around the keys and a credit card for gas and we'll have 100k miles on her in no time! Think postive Patrick, TeamWork! We can do this!

Oh, you'll need to find out for us when they want the car so we'll know how many miles per day we're going to have to rack up, and also get in touch with whoever you want putting new tires on it for you, I'm sure we'll need to change them atleast once, maybe twice...maybe more than that if we can get Rowdy and Andre to help!

 

[NORTY]

I'm still chuckling about the "vega kammback!"

 

[Patrick]

I think we can all pitch in together and help here, they might still let you in! All we need to do is make a list of us that are willing to drive the wheels off of your C6, then just pass around the keys and a credit card for gas and we'll have 100k miles on her in no time! Think postive Patrick, TeamWork! We can do this!

Oh, you'll need to find out for us when they want the car so we'll know how many miles per day we're going to have to rack up, and also get in touch with whoever you want putting new tires on it for you, I'm sure we'll need to change them atleast once, maybe twice...maybe more than that if we can get Rowdy and Andre to help!

While I do appreciate the offer of assistance... :ugh ...I get the sense that it isn't the mileage or wear they're principally focused on. They want a privately owned car that's been on the road for a few years for testing. Time is the critical element for them, not usage in a short span of time.

Please, put all thoughts of driving the wheels off my Corvette out of your mind.