After 20 yrs. must say,BYE, BYE to Chrysler

In a way it may be sad to say after owning Chrysler vehicles it's now
time for me to say goodby,i did enjoy owning them but IMO it has come
down to this:
Chrysler has been having some of the same problems over the past years
with some of the same models.
and with the problems that they have been having over the past years
they STILL continue to use the SAME parts and have not done anything
to improve them.
here's one example:
i have a 2001' T&C 3.8 and have gone through 4 rack& pinions
3 sets of front struts
2 alternators
and not to mention a good number of recalls and service bulletins

i would also like to ask your opinion on this:
would you pay an esimated cost of 4-5K if you were to purchase a new
vehicle with much more better quality and durable parts knowing that
you will NOT being having these type of reocuring problems.

Thank
You
Earl

Hello TOYOTA & HONDA

 

I would say that your experence is atypical.

Enjoy your honota.

 

Chrysler will not miss you.

I have one also. 90,000 miles. Original rack, original struts,
original alternator. Original transaxle. Sold my '96 with 172,000
miles. Same story. The '89, sad to say, did have transaxle problems
until I rebuilt it myself. I put a little over 200,000 on it. Your
problems are very most likely either imagined or self-caused.

I would like to ask why you failed to learn how to read and write
English.

You are exactly what they are looking for. Excellent matchup.

 

Well I have a 2000 Grand Caravan with over 160000k and it has cost me 1
water pump and 1 swaybar to Strut link in over 6 years so in my opinion, no
I would not spend 4-5000 more to save the $130 those parts cost me. Of
course this van has seen regular maintenace costs like oil changes, brakes,
tires, transmission fluid changes, acc belt and a new battery. I am sure
after buying your Honda or Toyota, you will be found complaining about any
issues you have with them also.

 

"Mike Bowden"

160 million miles in 7 years? Very impressive.

I had a 1988 I got about 310k miles out of, with low maintenance costs -
relatively. 1 new tranny at 132k and 2 valve jobs at 80, 125k, the second
only because my machine shop botched the first by knurling the guides rather
than using the c-clips. These guides were a known thing on the 3.0. Drove
the thing pretty hard. Other than stuff like ball joints and rotating
tires, I did ALL my own work on this van.

A few years ago I bought a 1994 with about 132k, now dead at 192k after 4
transmissions, a PS rack, pump, tons of under hood electrical problems, and
every last fluid in the thing leaking out of multiple locations - all in the
60k I owned it. Most work on this vehicle was done by others - fools,
morons, thieves, and imbeciles.

Just replaced the above with a lease return 2003. 47k miles. Appears it's
been pretty well driven and maintained. No issues yet. No plans to let
others work on the thing.

So it depends. After the above and my own experiences over the past 11
years as a ME working on and designing machines at least as complex as
autos, I have to say there's a lot going on. Small mistakes during routine
maintenance (or during rebuilding a tranny) can have the "butterfly effect"
on the rest of the car 40k miles down the road.

Bottom line for me now is that I think it's very cost effective to get top
of the line dealer parts and put the things in myself, stay on top of
maintenance, etc.

If someone says they've gone through 4 PS racks on any car, I say that's
definitely not a design problem. More likely it's buying the cheap reman
shit from Auto Zone and having joe moron install it. Nothing the factory
can do to help that.

- Nate

 

Well, Earl, sounds like you buy lousy auto parts. But I guess that's okay.

Your question about this 4 to 5k dollars is interesting. My answer is, why
not buy an entire car for that price, knowing you won't have recurring
problems? I only pay $5k for a Chrysler, because they depreciate like crazy
(that's good). Like, for instance, you could buy a 99 Concord right now with
60k miles on it for $5k. That's about what they cost. Call me crazy, but I
can drive a car like that for about 5 or 10 years and not do much repair at
all. In fact I'm looking for one right now. I've got a 94 LHS with 156k on
it that needs to go to the junkyard.

 

Hi Joe...

Can't tell from your headers where in the world you are, but if you're
anywhere near me I'd like to buy a couple of parts from you before you
ship it off... (I have a just like new 94 lhs)

I'm in Winnipeg, Canada.

Thanks, and take care.

Ken

 

wow, I bet Dr. Z is sad to lose you, I think I saw his stock go down a point
yesterday because of this newsgroup post. Hey but my 87 5th ave is still
running strong, only 74k on it though.

 

sorry to say that all these peplacement parts were installed by the
dealer.

 

If you went thru 3 sets of struts and 2 alternators you will have the same
problem with your toyota because where ever you are taking you car to get
serviced they are taking you to the cleaners or just selling you cheap
aftermarket parts. Chrysler does not have a problem with alternators or
struts or shocks. yes, there are issues with leaking power sterring racks on
the newer models
so hold on to your reciepts with your rice bucket as well.

Glenn Beasley
Chrysler Tech

 

My mistake should have typed 160000km, but then you must have talked to my
wife. She keeps telling me very impressive too, although she uses more
sarcasm...

 

must have been mopar parts instead of the life time parts

 

just so you know the cars i have been working on most lately is hondas and
toyotas then gms all for coolant leaks and timing belts

 

Hey dirty, the lifetime parts you purchase are the ones that continue to
fail. They are made cheap, and when they call them reman... all they do is
clean, paint and resell. They can afford to give you parts for life because
they are so cheap. The customer looses out when he has to pay the labor or
even do the labor himself over and over.
Something to think about

Glenn

 

why not spend $1200 more for a long service agreement

 

I just looked at the Honda CR-V.
A very interesting vehicle, a mid sized station Wagon.
Very well equipped.

 

funny u say that because half the time the parts for chryslers. i get have
factory parts tags numbers on them such as the speed sensor i just put in a
rear axle of a 98 dodge truk that even came with the revised jumper harness !
and i can assure everyone one here that repairs done at the dealer result in
more return trips for proper re repairs with even higher costs than occurs
with after market shops and parts something to think about

 

just as a side note! the parts for honda and toyota are far more money
that what i see for the big 2 and dc but dc is not behind seems they raise
their prices every 6weeks and the wait time to get them is usually 2-3
days out even with aftermarket stuff

 

Except bread and butter items on a Honda and Toyota are likely to last 100k
miles. Except for those GM alternators Toyota tried.

 

A few years ago I had my ignition switch fail, fortunately not a
complete failure as I was able to get going by lifting up on the
steering wheel. Of course mileage is not involved here, simply 10 years
of turning it on, starting and turning it off.
The dealer gave me back the old part and looking at the part numberS on
it was very interesting.
I had heard that several other car makers used the same part, my
original switch had 3 part numbers on it.

Chryslers part number was obvious, one I couldn't connect with a
manufacturer and one was obviously the part number for a well known
(European) car manufacturer.
It wouldn't surprise me if the third part number was Toyota or Honda.