MOPARForever

MOPAR1

sirwoj

MOPAR1

sirwoj

MOPARForever

MOPARForever

sirwoj

MOPARForever

If the problem is so insignificant and absurd, why didn't the dealers fix it before I sent a letter to the CEO?

sirwoj

Rather absurd to throw out emails to executives on an issue that can affect any type of vehicle.

cookan4

ekasbury

Heftyjo

sirwoj

Ben Popken

Because Ben, even comsumerist readers have a right to know. Doesn't it go against what you preach here to A.) censor a user because he states your blog is biased B.) ask that this be handled in private C.) tell a fellow consumer and reader that his statement is a "ridiculous and off-topic conspiracy theory"?

I'll leave this here. Sometime ago several readers wrote in to explain they were having major issues with their Honda Civic. This was the same week that Consumerist posted an article regarding GM and their $39 billion loss (which was really a write off) that had no affect on any consumer anywhere. The honda issue which has since been picked up by several local news organizations was ignored by consumerist.

Conspiracy? Well, consumerist can spin it any way they want.

coaster.n3rd

Also, whoever thinks Jeeps are an electronic test bed has another thing coming

MOPARForever

"You may want to let this guy know that calling the Chrysler customer service number actually does some good! I didn't know these people existed, and was about to pull off emailing the corporate folks. I got some very nice individuals based out of Tennessee who were sympathetic to my cause, and managed to cover $1800 of work out of warranty. My PT Cruiser died in a big rainstorm 2 weeks after I got it (wiring had to be replaced), key thingie wouldnt let my key turn (had to be replaced), got sold the car with bad breaks, AND a bad battery. I just told them how badly the company's dealers had been treating me and the myriad of issues i've had and they helped me out a ton!"

Ben Popken

Ben Popken

But Toyotas are perfect, they shouldn't break in the first place according to some commenters here.

Bob9 won't be returning here. He contacted me last night and told him Consumerist has blocked him. Seems hypocritical doesn't it?

coaster.n3rd

Buran

Dilbert1

MYarms

I had a Pontiac with all sorts of gremlins, including complete engine shutdown, while driving.

I had the alternator and a fuel injector replaced. The problems came back.

I replaced the battery and thoroughly cleaned the terminals. The problem was "solved" for about a day and a half.

I ran down the the battery cables to their connections at the starter and engine block, disassembled, cleaned and re-assemled them and the car had no juice to the starter.

Then, I noticed that my underhood light would flicker whenever I wiggled the positive battery cable. Turns out that the solder in the connection beneath that perfectly-sealed, like-new cable connection to the starter, was broken.

Has the dealer run continuity checks on the Charger's battery cables, both at rest AND while the ends are being wiggled? If you happened to have my Pontiac's cable in just the right position, it checked out beautifully.

zenith333

sabrinad

LUV2CattleCall

I also wouldn't knock American cars too much either. Often when something on an American car goes bad it's usually a something that costs under $100 to replace...but can eat the better part of a day's labor if you aren't a DIY type of person.

One of my Employees en route to a customer had the DBW throttle pedal die on his '05 Camry, cost $1000 to replace the pedal assembly (The part alone cost $800 dealer only). Same part for my F250 runs $250 and can be swapped in minutes with a few tools. I've not let him live it down since he was giving me hell about my Explorer and later making fun of my ex police Crown Vic. ONE repair on his car cost almost as much as I paid for the Crown Vic at auction. And anything I used to spend on my Explorer in repairs wouldn't amount to a year's worth of car payments.

MrEvil

greycobalt

Buran

ninjatales

wildness

BTW, why doesn't karma ever work? Nardelli should be bankrupt and getting prison raped for the job he did at Home Depot... instead he's raking in millions again. :(

rellog

In this case this car has what is called a CANbus which is connected to everthing like steering, brakes, radio, electronics, the dashboard, and many more. Imagine that it is like a older daisy chained network- when 1 thing goes wrong it has the ability to drag down alot more.

There are 2 main wires in your car a CAN Bus high and a CAN Bus low. They can get messed up by putting a screw in the wrong place, or by 1 loose connection. The reason it is so touchy is that it is digital so any variance in voltage in the wires can create a ton of issues.

There many cars that have issues on the road, you are for sure not the only one having this issue, try a web forum devoted to the charger/300/magnum.

sommacero

shor0814

I recently had the opportunity to get a new Hummer H3 for free (it's a complicated story), but refused outright. Never mind the gas mileage. I've heard the reliability nightmares already. It didn't even get a second thought.

I just got a used BMW instead for both a fraction of the dollar price and for less expected lifetime cost. Otherwise almost any other non-US car is likely better (Toyota/Honda are good choices for the budget-minded).

I find this sad but the US auto industry got their one-and-only "free pass" back in the 70s and utterly blew their chance to make good on that gift. Quite frankly no one deserves a second freebie, not even for "nationalistic" reasons. I just hope they all go bankrupt and get dissolved sooner than later; they give the US a bad name.

TickedOff

hossfly

SierraSurfer

elyama

Orv

Why do the British drink warm beer. Because Lucas also makes refrigerators

Baronzemo

snoop-blog

That car also had the entire dashboard go out, and the transmission controller die - both right after the warranty expired.

I was a big mopar fan, but I ended up trading it in for a Ford Ranger.

madanthony

jonworld

@EDogII:
Chrysler needs to die, ASAP. They're dragging Ford and GM down with them.

@mytdawg:
That's right, and anybody can make a good car. Poor quality control doesn't mean that every car is a pile of crap...there are still Yugos out there, with perfectly happy owners. And good quality control doesn't mean Honda doesn't ship out a few lemons now and then.
The best you can do is stack the odds in your favor.

TechnoDestructo

BlkCav: its not the culprit, water's causing problems with a ground, the guages and lights popping on/off are exactly that.

gotta agree with ya something happened and the tech isn't going to look at all these connections for the problem. theres no hours in it. warentee work pays terribly.

nevergod

[biz.yahoo.com]

coaster.n3rd

karmaghost

Agreed. They posted an article about GM not long ago and their 39 billion dollar write off that has no affect on a consumer. Yet it was about a nasty American Automobile manufacturer so they had to post that.

I've heard about the Honda Civic Si and it not being able to stay in 3rd gear. I heard honda won't agknowledge the issue. Consumerist is too buys with their agenda to care.

coaster.n3rd

skyln95

danio3834

Uhm, you do know that some Daewoo models are sold in the U.S. as Chevrolets, right? The concept of what is and isn't an "import" is pretty hazy nowadays.

Chery and the other Chinese makes are jokes now, but watch out. Japanese cars were a joke at first, too. China is gearing up to do to the Koreans what the Koreans have done to the Japanese, and what the Japanese did to the U.S. carmakers.

Orv

SierraSurfer

danio3834

Viva La Volvo

[www.autopedia.com]

(1) the same nonconformity has been subject to repair four or more times by the manufacturer or its agents or authorized dealers during the period of two years following the date of original delivery of the motor vehicle to a consumer or during the period of the first twenty-four thousand miles of operation, whichever period ends first, but such nonconformity continues to exist

He *may* have a lemon law case, depends on what the mileage was at the fourth incident. Even if that isn't the case, he does have a compelling case as repairs have been attempted four times in less than two years and the problem persists.

Where to report a Lemon Law case:

[www.carlemon.com]

Pixel

elislider

GM is another car company that's still trying to figure out the whole "electricity" thing. Don't have much experience with Chrysler, personally, though.

Brian needs to find out what the lemon laws are like in his state. In many states the dealer has to take the car back if they try and fail to fix a problem too many times. He needs to document his problems and his attempts to get them fixed, in writing, with that in mind.

Orv

See, what Brian has probably done is gone and bought himself a Leyland P76 and confused it for a new Dodge Charger, honest mistake as P76s are rare and the cars do look very similar, but it would go a long way toward explaining the shitty electrics. The real proof will be if it starts rusting before 30k miles.

ranwhenparked

LatherRinseRepeat

Spray shaving cream around the windshield seal on the outside of the car. Run a hair dryer along the seal on the inside of the car. When you see shaving cream flying off, you've pinpointed your leak.

MattS

OsiUmenyiora

My advise? Take it to a smaller Chrysler/Dodge dealership within the state.... a couple come to mind.
Pamby in Ridgefield, Bradshaw in Oakville, or Brewster Jeep, in Brewster, NY. They are all small enough to get you the service you need, while being a bit more personable.

UDMan

Seriously, though, that's what they get for slapping the Charger name on a four-door. What would have been wrong with Polara?!

Tomsk

I think what bob9 meant was Consumerist bashing American companies and not giving fair 'bad publicity' to a well known Honda issue (Japanese company)...there by perpuating the (entirely true) view that American products cost more and are lower in quality. Disregard my comment if your comment to bob9 was sarcastic in any way.

ConsumerAdvocacy1010

this guy i bet also didnt mention that he was probably in an accident, and caused damage to one of the grounds, then it wouldnt be the car/dealership's fault, but his own and his insurance company.

BlkCav

carterbeauford

HDC

HDC

Meg Marco

mytdawg

www.donotbuyadodge.ca

andrewe

They are pretty good cars, once you take the Chrysler service department out of the equation.

danio3834

EDogII

bohemian

Optimistic Prime

To me, it sounds like a weak battery connection, or a bad ground in the system. Those issues can often be augmented by the presence of moisture. I dont know how mechanically inclined you are, but you might want to check it out yourself.

Those problems arent hard to fix, although mechanics at dealers typically wont try random fixes as theyre often paid flat rate.

danio3834

The Great Aussie Evil

pferde_schwanz

Check for Technical Service Bulletins (TSB) and/or recalls and maybe it will turn up something. Recently we replaced the blower motor in my '02 Taurus- there was a TSB for it, so Ford knew there was an issue, and there was a recall for the original cause- the windshield has a leak because they were improperly mounted. Fun.

Recalls & TSB info- [www.safercar.gov]

silentluciditi

Ash78

mytdawg

badgeman46

crazygutgut

JohnMc

Yeah, Japanese cars forever! Especially since Honda is not having a similar incident with their Element line, and possibly other models. I mean, they have not had several owners complain of symptoms such as the blower turning on full whenever they are in the rain or go through a carwash.

BugMeNot2

Every time I change any of the environmental controls in my car, the A/C turns on. Just sharin', no point. It doesn't really bother me, I'm used to turning it off, but it drives my husband CRAZY and after 20 explanations, he still thinks I do it on purpose. "Why do you have the A/C on when it's 5* out?" "I don't, YOU just turned the heat control hotter, that triggers the A/C." "I don't understand why you always turn the A/C on when it's cold out." "How about we take your car next time?"

Eyebrows McGee

BuddyHinton

Audi all the way!!!

Said Not

Some of us forwarded a story that even the media got involved in regarding the Honda Civic Si and its problems with the transmission.

Good Job Consumerist.

bob9

BlueModred

APFPilot

BlkCav

abgwin

skyln95

Underpants Gnome

yesteryear

Lucas - the reason why Brits drink warm beer...

rbb

B

Ash78

Mr_D

enine

loquaciousmusic

DoctorNine

EDogII

nickelrinny

trillium

Japanese Cars Forever!

VladyLama

Lucas. The prince or darkness.

/Former MG owner.

andrewe

Lucas. The prince of darkness.

/Former multiple MG owner

andrewe

-=[ArcSine]=-

Ray Wert

IF THE SAME SUBSTANTIAL DEFECT PERSISTS WITH YOUR NEW MOTOR VEHICLE AFTER
4 ATTEMPTS TO RESOLVE IT, OR IF YOU ARE WITHOUT THE USE OF YOUR MOTOR
VEHICLE FOR A TOTAL OF 30 DAYS OR MORE BY REASON OF REPAIR, DURING THE
FIRST 2 YEARS OR 24,000 MILES, YOU MAY BE ELIGIBLE FOR RECOURSE UNDER
CONNECTICUT LAW.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER PROTECTION
MOTOR VEHICLE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT PROGRAM
165 CAPITOL AVENUE
HARTFORD, CT 06106
PHONE: 1-800-538-CARS

Excert taken from [www.ct.gov]

CTXSi

You'd have thought they'd have learned from British Leyland not to do that...

Spasticteapot

bsalamon

It's an electrical short, since it happens in wet/damp/etc conditions. My suggestion? Take it to the dealer with the video, take the car to the dealership car wash onsite and have it just sit in the running car wash till it shorts.

PolishDon

The morons at your Chrysler/Dodge dealer can install a device called a co-pilot. You press a button when the problem occurs, and the co-pilot reads all the engine codes. The dealer or engineers in Detroit can interpret and decide what is going on.

My Dodge had a current spike, but they couldn't figure out what was causing it. They bought back the vehicle and I was free to pick out another Chrysler product, which I then dumped shortly thereafter.

catchthefever

punkrawka

ADismalScience

POLAЯ