2002 Express 3500 diesel

[omnivore]

A short intro to my new van:

'02 Chev Express, stretch, 3500 EXT, 15 passenger 6.5 turbo diesel. 80,000
kms, ex- military van, fully loaded. Very well documented maintainance record.

Seems to have had a few pwr steering leaks, and many tire punctures.
one set of brakes, 2 sets of rear tires, and one set of fronts. A
new battery last week on the moring of my purchase. So here's the
problem:

Ever since I picked it up a week ago, I noticed it didn't seem to be
charging very well. The next morning after picking it up, I called
the dealer to notify them, and got their answering service, and put
a bug in their ear. I told them I would have it checked and let them
know. It took the dealer 5 days to call me back. Durting that time,
the van was having intermittent charing issues, sometimes causing it
to be hard to start. The van has 2 batteries, and one was replaced
with a new one from Sears the very day I picked it up. Upon hearing
this, I asked if they ever checked into why the old battery went
dead, and was told they never bothered to check the charging system,
and assumed it was okay. So fast forward to today. I drive to work,
adn back up to the warehouse. Shut van off so as not to stink up the
warehouse. I load up my materials for the job today, and the van
will not start. It barely turned over at all. I boosted it with
another van at work, and was able to get to my job. I did notice
that the charging gauge was reading 14 volts while driving, but
would dropp to 11 or so when at a stop or idling. I luckily had a
battry charger with me, so I charged it while I was at work for 5
hrs. On the permission of the dealer, I drove 45 minutes to the city
I bought the van in, and took it to their mechanic, and of course,
the van made a liar out of me-sort of. It showed to be charging at
12.8 volts, but that was with the front and rear heaters or AC off,
and nopthing running but the headlights. Their mechainc said it
looked okay to him, but I know that if the van is equipped with all
of these options, I should be able to run them all at the same time
and still have no fear of killing batteries if all is working
properly. How or what can I say to better my stand to have the
dealer pay to replace the alternator that so obviously is going bad.
I know the mechanic is intentionally trying to help out his long
term client (the dealer) by sending me off and saying it is working
okay.


Also, the dealer sold it to me with remainder of 5 yr 160,000 km
engine warranty written right on my bill of sale. I called GM today,
and found that there is no remaining warranty on the va, except for
the emissions one. DO I have any recourse on the dealer for
misrepresenting that I still had factroy GM warranty left till next
Nov?