Man idles at Dollar General in new GMC Duramax with 11,000 miles. Then he has to call the tow truck

When buying a new car, you would think no major issues would arise early on. Well for this GMC Duramax driver, it turns out to be the opposite. 

In a TikTok, with more than 783,900 views, Seth (@sethbarker03) expresses his frustration of his new GMC Duramax and how he has already called a tow truck for it twice. What’s been the issue with these cars?

What happened with this GMC Duramax?

In the TikTok, Seth shares how annoyed he is with his new GMC Duramax. His GMC Duramax only has 11,000 miles and he has already called the tow truck twice.

Standing outside the Dollar General, Scott was in disbelief to discover his car wouldn’t start up after shopping. He left his truck idle while shopping and couldn’t believe the truck went offline. It just wouldn’t restart, showing an error message on the dashboard.

Being stranded in the Dollar General parking lot, Scott only had one option. Which was to call a tow truck and take the truck back to the dealership. The tow truck came to save the day while Scott is utterly disappointed with his GMC Duramax purchase. 

“These new ones are straight trash,” he claims. 

GMC has been having issues with the Duramax, a line of diesel engine trucks and SUVs, recently, such as the Sierra. They start at about $46,000.

Last year, GMC issued a recall of 463,295 full-size trucks and SUVs with diesel powertrains. According to NHTSA, the recall was for rear wheel lock up from transmission valve failure that increases the risk of a crash. 

The reasoning for this transmission valve was caused by a technology bug and the recall addresses the failure with a new software update. 

Why are new cars having so many issues now?

Gone are the days of simple and effective designs. Every year, car manufacturers have to come up with new advancements to improve sales. This constant need for updates has created more opportunities for errors. The more complex the design, the more issues that arise. 

Recalls are on the rise, especially as cars become outfitted with more technology.

“It’s all brands. They are all over-engineered.” one TikTok commenter added. 

Cars are no longer sold with just the bare basics. Every car brand will flex the new advanced technology and software all while cutting costs. With quick production turnaround times, it’s difficult to find all the potential issues during the product development phase. Practical functionality of the car is being impacted with all these new complex car models. 

“It's not the engine, it's all the electrical garbage” one TikTok commenter shared.

Car manufactures have made it clear their priority is to sell more vehicles instead of quality ones. With the mindset of if things break, they’ll come back to get repairs leading to more money out of them. There should be no reason for a new GMC Duramax with 11,000 miles needed to get the tow truck called twice.

The pride of building long-lasting cars has been switched out for complex models that break often. With more things being added, more potential issues arise and leading to more transactions.

This manufactuirng shift in strategy is known as planned obsolescence. According to Investopedia, planned obsolescence describes a strategy of deliberately ensuring that the current version of a given product will become out of date or useless within a known time period. 

This will lead to consumers seeking replacements in the future which increases demand. 

While this strategy makes sense on financial spreadsheets, it becomes costly for consumers and the environment. 

@sethbarker03 #fyp #fypシ #gmc #duramax #truck ♬ original sound - Seth

What did the viewers think about this?

“Not just GM it’s across the board” one shared. 

“If everybody would quit spending triple for subpar vehicles, the market will shift…. But as long as yall enable them this will continue” one added.

“That’s why they offer the kicker tailgate audio package, music while waiting on a tow” one joked.

This TikTok has more than 34,000 likes. 

We've contacted @sethbarker03 and GM for comment.

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