Rob's Dodge Intrepid Woes

I loved my 1996 Intrepid ES when I got it. It had a great appearance, it was comfortable, and it drove well. I was quite the evangelist for Chrysler.

Over the last year, and especially the last few months, that I had the car, my attitude changed drastically.

My three-year lease has now expired. I'm glad I leased it, and that I'm not stuck with it. I won't be leasing another one.

Here's what's gone wrong in just under three years:

• Right dashboard speakers blown, replaced.
• Left dashboard speakers blown, replaced.
• Driver's door speaker buzzes, replaced. Problem never fully fixed.
• Compact disc player has difficulty ejecting some CDs that have slick top surfaces. Problem never reported to dealership due to horror stories about Chrysler audio system repairs on newsgroups. Workaround: make sure that there's plenty of fingerprints on top surfaces of discs, or use upward pressure on the disc insertion opening fascia to assist with ejection.
• Left rear door interior trim loose, fixed.
• Trunk lid pours water into trunk when it rains, not fixed -- said to be "OK."
• Brake rotors severely warped, replaced at owner expense with less than 15,000 miles on the car. Research indicates that this is a design flaw in the car: the traction-control system operates by modulating the brakes to slow down the spinning wheel, but the brakes were not designed with this in mind, causing them to overheat and warp. Workaround: in winter, use AutoStick to start the car in second or third gear, reducing torque and wheelspin, but increasing stress on the transmission.
• Left front turn signal lamp has condensation. Dealer replaces with pre-redesign lens assembly and tries to pass it off as new.
• Sticky cup holder replaced with redesigned model that requires revamping of center console.
• Factory tires bald within a year and a half.
• Oil seeps into spark plug access tubes, requiring replacement of valve gaskets and access tubes.
• Rattling noise over bumps; sway bar links replaced.
• C-pillar plastic mouldings crack at either end, flake paint -- twice! Replaced.
• Passenger B-pillar plastic moulding sheds paint, replaced.
• Transmission shifts roughly, doesn't release clutch; transmission fluid cooler tube leaky and replaced.
• Car doesn't start on cold morning; dealership replaces factory battery with inferior third-party battery under warranty. Chrysler Customer One is very surprised to hear this.
• Cruise control stops working after battery replacement; cruise control relay in fuse block mysteriously missing.
• Cruise control servo corroded, replaced. Vacuum leak corrected.
• Transmission leaks and shifts roughly. Transmission pan gasket replaced.
• A/C makes loud hissing noise. Dealership doesn't hear it on first trip, but adds dye. A week later, when air only comes from one vent, the evaporator is found to be faulty (dye everywhere). Evaporator replaced, and then air only comes from panel vents. Self-test reveals that mixer door is inoperative because dealership reassembled the airbox incorrectly. Repaired.
• Left outer CV boot torn, replaced.
• Steering groans loudly in cold weather. Steering rack requires replacement. Also, power steering pump has large fluid leak, needs replacement. Both parts required a special order.
• Water pump leaks. Parts require special order.
• Dealership refuses to replace fuel rail because they don't have any recall information for it, tells me to wait until I get a recall card. Defect in the fuel rail had been widely reported on TV at this time, and was known to cause the engine to catch fire. (The recall card finally arrived in my mailbox just after I turned in the car at the end of the lease.)
• Burgundy paint is deeply sworled, despite special care to avoid it.
• On cold morning, car will not start. Towed to dealership, where battery tests OK. Spark plugs fouled, dealership suggests tune up at $65. Instead, they keep it overnight. In the morning, the Powertrain Control Module fails self-tests. PCM replaced. The next day, the Check Engine light comes on. Strong gas/sulfur odor. Dealership tells me to keep driving it until Monday, and they don't have any "loaners." Upon Monday, no one remembers this. Finally, they grudgingly agree to rent me a car from Enterprise Rent-A-Car, despite the fact that the dealership has its own rental agency. I was given a Pontiac Sunfire, stripped, after a protracted wait. This entire exchange happened at a dealership within walking distance of my home, within two weeks of the end of my lease, even after I made it clear that my lease was ending and that I was shopping for a new vehicle.

Four dealerships for repairs, all of which have given me grounds to have the opinion that they are incompetent or pulling a fast one:

• Dick Ide's Panorama Dodge, who took two hours to replace a door speaker because the mechanic pulled the wrong one off the shelf, and couldn't figure out how to make the wrong speaker fit.
• John Gabriele's Marina Dodge, where they tried to pass off an old turn signal lens that was discontinued as a "redesigned" lens.
• Patrick Pontiac Jeep-Eagle, where they replaced a factory maintenance-free battery with a third-party maintenance battery.
• Cortese Dodge, a Five Star dealership where they've performed incomplete or faulty repairs twice, and treated me rather shabbily considering that I was in the market to buy another car.

Another Chrysler annoyance: A "Customer Care" center that isn't open weekends.

With all this, I won't buy another DaimlerChrysler product, nor would I recommend that anyone else purchase one, either. While Mercedes-Benz may not have the shoddy reputation that Chrysler has, they are now in the same boat as far as I am concerned -- being parts of the same company. I wouldn't consider a Mercedes until the conglomerate bring Chrysler up to a reasonable level of quality and service. After all, the chance exists that Mercedes-Benz will decline, rather than Chrysler improve.

macwhiz.com • Photos • Granby Drummer • Bio • Articles • Links • Contacts