Admittedly, for some consumers, even GMSi's 1200 bucks annually is still pretty steep, but look at it another way. Plus the GM service has a three-day option which neither Alldata nor Mitchell have. ACDelco spokesperson, Rita Kass-Shamoun told the ZR2Zone, 'There are three service information subscriptions based on the length of time of access: 3 days for $20, 1 month for $150 and 1 year for $1200.' Do the math and twenty bucks for three days works out to $6.67 a day, the one month 'sub' comes in at $5.00 a day and the annual subscription, $3.29 a day.įor people doing regular service work on ZR2s or other GM vehicles exclusively, GMSi represents a hell of a deal when you consider competitors, Alldata and Mitchell charge $169.00 a month, which for a year, would come to $2068. Not widely known outside of the service community is that GMSi subscriptions are, also, available to third-party users, including consumers, though ACDelco's 'Tech Connect' program. All GM dealers and many independents subscribe to it. Today its known as 'GMSi' or just 'SI', it's on the cloud and you look at it with a web browser. In its early days, it was known as 'ESi' and came on a CD-ROM. It has full coverage of GM vehicles back to 1998 and engine and transmission coverage back to 1996. Ouch!Įnter 'GM Electronic Service Information', the on-line version of a GM Factory Service Manual. With just 'standard' shipping, handing and sales tax, the total came to almost 500 bucks. Recently, I priced the newly-available, '18 Colorado manual set. The cost of these manuals has become ridiculous.

Imagine getting a stack of three-hole pages, eight inches high. An average Service Manual for a Chevy truck is four or five volumes–thousands of pages about eight-inches thick. Users are responsible for finding a binder to hold said digital copies. Of late, Helm advises those purchasing manuals that what they buy will be 'digital copies' or 'a reproduction' of factory service information and will be in 'loose leaf' form. That has already changed the way Helm delivers its product. With the service business no longer using physical manuals, the market for them is slowly dying. Paper service manuals for GM vehicles are still available though publisher, Helm, Inc., but their days may be numbered. This information is supplied by a car company or aftermarket publishers of electronic service data. The service information is on their computer hard drive or is accessed on-line by a web browser.

When working on any late model vehicle, dealers and independent service shops don't use service manuals in book form. If you're one of those folks, know that the times–they are a changin'. The proverbial 'Factory Service Manual'.many in the DIY community think of it as a book you flop down on your work bench and thumb though looking for service instructions.

Gm service information