Anyone have expirence with newer Chrysler cars???

[Mark B]

Hey everyone,
Im in the market for a new daily driver. I looked at a 2000 Chrysler 300M last night that seemed in pretty good shape. I was just scared of the name brand. I know they have had a horrible reputation for there cars breaking down alot. Have they turned that around in recent years? Or should I stay clear of them?

Other possibilites are:

01-02 Buick Regal LS
00-02 Grand Prix GT

[Jeff_in_Atl]

Hey everyone,
Im in the market for a new daily driver. I looked at a 2000 Chrysler 300M last night that seemed in pretty good shape. I was just scared of the name brand. I know they have had a horrible reputation for there cars breaking down alot. Have they turned that around in recent years? Or should I stay clear of them?

Other possibilites are:

01-02 Buick Regal LS
00-02 Grand Prix GT

I am a little miffed at why people say this. We have a 2001 PT Cruiser and a 2001 Grand Caravan and they both have been flawless. To be honest they have been a lot more reliable than my Camaro however they are newer. Chrysler was notorious for having automatic transmission problems but they were solved when they went to the computer controlled version somewhere around 97. I wish I could afford a Challenger when they come out. I wouldn't hesitate to buy one.

[fastTa]

In my opinion, once the Daimler-Benz/Chrysler merger in 1998, Daimler Chrysler vehicle quality has been excellent. Since 1998 they have continuously won all kinds of awards namely various JD Power and Associates quality awards.

Like Jeff touched on, their were some problems with the non-electronic Chrysler auto transmissions especially Jeeps, but after the 1998 merger, DC quality seems to be top notch.

One of my neighbors is a Daimer Chrysler consultant. He travels around the country keeping tabs on the stealership warranty programs. He tells me that nationwide, the DC service departments are actually hurting right now since the 1998 merger. Supposedly they just don't get much abnormal warranty work anymore.

[wolfdogs]

we have a fleet of over 200,000 vehicles (gsa). 1/3 of these are sedans. this 1/3 is split up about even, ford, chevy, and daimler.........

we have over twice the maint issues with daimler vehicles than we do the other two combined..... thats been ongoing for years...and still is.

i think things are getting better, but they are not there yet, as far as im concerned...

[FroSSty]

My mom has a 2001 Stratus with around 60k miles on it and I have already had to replace front bearings, outer tie rod ends and brakes... The shifter sticks sometimes, tranny shifts weird and the key gets stuck in the ignition...All in all it is a great car.....

[Joshu]

We have a 03 Stratus R/T, and a newer Grand Caravan. The R/T runs strong with virtually no problems, shifting with autostick is strange though. No problems with the van either. My dad has come to trust this automaker more than anyone else.

[Mark B]

So far you either love it or hate it. Anymore thoughts?

[Nightrage]

Just throwing this out there. Take it for what it's worth

I work with Enterprise which is an auto rental company. We have a little bit of everything. Our PT Cruisers and Chargers run and drive great, as does the Grand Caravan. I was pretty pretty impressed with the Caravan. I'm not too sure about the Stratus though. That's been at the mechanic before and it's only 2 years old. It wasn't for routine maintenence either. Soemthing is wrong with that thing. The Chrysler Pacifica is a beautiful piece of machinery. I drive the Pacifica all the time. Any time I have to go somewhere to pick up or drop off a customer, handle something at another branch, anything, I take the Pacifica. The only Chrysler product that seems to give problems is the Stratus.

In all honesty, our worst vehicles are the Fords. The Taurus is a massive pile of crap, the Freestyle is a joke, even their cargo van is an atrocity. They feel like they're going to fall apart as you drive them. I know that our Explorer has gone in for service twice and it only has 12,000 miles on it. The only Ford product that seems to have anything going for it is the Focus. That seems to run fairly well. The worst car we have there is a Landrover, which is partially owned by Ford. Just about everything is broken in this car. In fact, this thing is so messed up that the passenger side power window and lock controls are switched. If you want the windows down, you have to hold the button that unlocks the doors! I don't see any coincidence in any of this.

Not to play favorites but the GM vehicles seem to stand out over the rest of the American made vehicles. The Lucern has decent power and you can turn the steering wheel with a finger. The new Grand Prix is pretty cool, but I've fallen madly in love with the Cadillac CTS . They told me to swap cars with another branch. I had no idea ahead of time that I'd be driving a Caddy back. I didn't want to get out of that thing. The only GM products that I dislike are the Malibu and the Aveo. The Malibu is from '05, so I'm not sure if they've improved on it or not. It lacks any form of power. I hate that car. It's been reliable however. The absolute ugliest car I've ever had the misfortune of laying eyes upon is our sea green Aveo. They offered it to a customer as a rental. That was funny He looks at the guy and goes, "You want to give me that!? That wouldn't even make a good station car!". I accidentally floored that thing one time and couldn't even tell. It probably has the same amount of power as the 3 cylinder Geo Metro. Horrible. Unfortunately however, it's been reliable I keep my fingers crossed that it will burst into flames one day though.

[Black97]

Interesting, just received a Recall Notice for my 04 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

The front seat electric heating elements might overheat and could cause a fire.

We use ours a lot in the winter and don't even think twice that something like that could happen.

I guess to the dealer it goes for repairs / replacement.

[Craig 94 TA GT]

To be honest, I wouldn't touch it. I never had, nor will I probably ever purchase one. There have been stories where they cover up recalls and/or blame consumers for faulty equipment...thus not honoring the warranty. (2.7 liter engine seizing, transmissions failing while they simply rename the next tranny model, fire/safetey hazards, etc). There are dozens and dozens of web sites devoted to exposing them, with "internal" documents regarding how their acceptable engines burn a quart of oil every 1k.

Now you might just get a really good car with 0 problems, or you might get something you'll regret. I have no idea how "credible" these sources are, but there are so many that it makes you think twice. Of course, all manufacturers have these types of sites, so these links are don't imply that Chrysler is the only one with problems.

http://www.daimlerchryslervehicleproblems.com/
http://www.mychryslersucks.com/
http://www.donotbuydodge.ca/othersites.htm

[Lappin]

Worked at a Chrysler dealership for 6 months in the shop, to be honest the only 300M's we ever got in where for sale or routine maintance, drive smooth, quick, comfertable, I like them

[fastTa]

Worked at a Chrysler dealership for 6 months in the shop, to be honest the only 300M's we ever got in where for sale or routine maintance, drive smooth, quick, comfertable, I like them

Yeah, like I mentioned earlier I listen to the people that actually service and work on these cars very closely because if anybody knows......it's them. Every mechanic and/or service guy at a dealership I have talked to has told me that there are few DC vehicles that come in for unusual repairs warranty or no warranty.

DC gets awards of all sorts every year for their outstanding quality. They by far have the largest commercial fleet of vehicles in US. They didn't get to that status with commercial vehicles that break down I can assure you.

The Dodge Ram truck has been named truck of the year by numerous mags over tha last 4-5 years, the minivans are always getting JD Power awards for quality, the Jeep Commander was named top SUV 2 years in a row now by a few mags, the Charger and Magnum just received the #1 total quality awards, the 300 has been getting all kinds of awards for quality, etc., etc.

The stories about DC are just that......stories.

[Wild Willy]

Do a search on the internet about their transmissions. There is almost a scandal about them, with dealers pushing the extended warranty insurance to cover the several thousand dollar replacement costs at just-out-of-warranty time. One of my co-owners had this problem and made sure the whole world knew about it. He is driving a GM truck, and his wife has a Honda pilot. No more Caravan-

They must have built a few good ones, though, because I see plenty old ones, beat to snot, still chugging around. I have a friend that drives beater vans, just got rid of an old Ford Aerostar a couple years ago for a caravan- hasn't been able to kill it yet. I think the 3.0 and 3.3 engines are pretty durable, but have my doubts about the transmissions.

[Jeff_in_Atl]

Do a search on the internet about their transmissions. There is almost a scandal about them, with dealers pushing the extended warranty insurance to cover the several thousand dollar replacement costs at just-out-of-warranty time. One of my co-owners had this problem and made sure the whole world knew about it. He is driving a GM truck, and his wife has a Honda pilot. No more Caravan-

They must have built a few good ones, though, because I see plenty old ones, beat to snot, still chugging around. I have a friend that drives beater vans, just got rid of an old Ford Aerostar a couple years ago for a caravan- hasn't been able to kill it yet. I think the 3.0 and 3.3 engines are pretty durable, but have my doubts about the transmissions.

A friend of mine works at a Chrysler dealership. They laid off their transmission guy because they couldn't keep him busy. They hardly ever have any transmission problems come in there anymore since they went to the computer controlled transmissions.

['STANGETR]

Hey everyone,
Im in the market for a new daily driver. I looked at a 2000 Chrysler 300M last night that seemed in pretty good shape. I was just scared of the name brand. I know they have had a horrible reputation for there cars breaking down alot. Have they turned that around in recent years? Or should I stay clear of them?

Other possibilites are:

01-02 Buick Regal LS
00-02 Grand Prix GT

What a wonderful coincidence!! After a long vacation and coming back on the message board and going through threads, well, my husband and I needed something a little bigger ourselves and a few days ago we just purchased a 2000 300M. Absolutely gorgeous car. Can't really say anything horrible about it, yet of course! It was a 1 owner, bought it off of a private couple who took extremely good care of it. It's got 96K which was mostly highway because the wife drove it an hour away to work and back. The only thing is that they've never had to replace anything major on it, only did routine maintenance, so it's probably due for something to go wrong! The major thing with them is every 100K the timing belt has to be replaced, so we're not looking forward to that one. Other than that, it is a super daily driver, and well, better on gas than our f-bodies