About GM Service Guy
Run by Allen McCormick — two decades on the GM side of the counter.
I've spent nearly twenty years working for GM dealerships. I've sold the cars, and for the last several years I've been the guy on the service drive figuring out what's actually wrong with them and what it's going to cost you. GM Service Guy is where I put that knowledge somewhere useful, for people who don't happen to have a service advisor in the family.
How I got here
I wasn't born into cars. I grew up in Alhambra, California, spent twenty-one years there, moved to Las Vegas in 1991, then to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1996, where I got married. I was selling furniture and wanted to make more money than furniture was going to pay me.
In December 2006 I applied at Sherwood Chevrolet for a sales position. The used car manager brought me back for a second interview and gave me the shot. I spent a month studying the product before I ever walked a customer around a car. That first year I sold a lot of Cobalts — the price and the option packages made them an easy car to put people in — and I found out I was good at this. Not good at chasing people down, but good at the part where somebody walks in with a problem and I solve it.
Two and a half years at Sherwood, then nine and a half years at Saskatoon Motor Products selling new and used. In December 2018 I moved back to Las Vegas and had a job at a Chevrolet store within three days. Nine months later I got my break in a service department at a VW dealership — the only stretch of my career off the GM badge, and the year and a half where I learned how the service side really works. Since then I've been a Service Advisor at a Las Vegas Chevrolet dealership, going on five years.
Why I moved from sales to service
Dealerships have pushed sales toward cold calling, and that's not what I'm good at. I'm good when the customer comes to me. Somebody arrives with a real problem, I figure out what's going on and I get it fixed. That's the job I wanted, and it more than tripled what I was earning.
It also put me in the middle of the part of car ownership nobody explains to you: the money.
What I actually know
I've dealt with more than seventy different extended warranty companies. I'm the go-between — the service department on one side, the warranty company on the other, and me on the phone for two hours getting a claim opened and approved. Over about $2,000, they'll usually send an inspector out before they'll authorize anything, and nothing gets repaired until that approval lands, because they're the ones paying.
Here's what most owners don't know: the warranty company pays book time, not the time you signed for. You authorize an hour of diagnosis on a coolant leak, we find the water pump, and the warranty pays 0.4 of that hour. You're responsible for the difference. Every one of them works this way. Knowing that going in changes how you plan for the repair.
How I handle a customer
Your 2019 Silverado throws a tire pressure light. There are four TPMS sensors in that truck, one per tire, and they fail because the batteries inside them die — usually around the six or seven year mark. A sensor runs about $170 installed. All four is $680. Most people don't have $680 sitting around, so my recommendation is to replace the one that failed and deal with the next one when it goes. You'll be back, but you'll be back on your schedule.
Or you come in with a P0420. That's a catalytic converter code, and at a dealership it can run you over $2,000. I'll tell you to take it to an exhaust shop and have an aftermarket part put on, because you'll save a thousand dollars or more. I work at a dealership and I'll still tell you that, because it's true.
I ask a lot of questions first — what happened, when it started, what it's doing now. Then I tell you what the vehicle needs. The decision is always yours.
The store
Parts pricing has gotten out of hand. Batteries have gone up three times in the past year. TPMS sensors on my site run about half of dealership pricing. That's why gmserviceguy.shop exists — GM parts and accessories at prices that make sense for the people actually paying the bill.
What I drive
A 2009 Chevrolet Avalanche. Bought it new, still have it, 260,000 miles on it.
Have a question about your GM vehicle? Email me at allen@gmserviceguy.shop — or browse the store and read the guides.
The opinions here are my own, based on my experience working with GM vehicles. GM Service Guy is not affiliated with my employer.