Ha. Perhaps Chrysler’s decline has to do with its inability to produce a quality car. I was told by a Chrysler service shop that my minivan with 40,000 miles was “well within parameters” after having to replace the brakes twice and having to put a quart of oil in it every 750 miles.
Meanwhile my 24 year old Toyota purrs along fine and dandy!
I will stick with my Honda Reflex. 78 miles per gallon around town and 70 mph cruise capable for a scooter. And no problems yet- well it’s only 20k miles so far.
I have a friend that works at a foundry which makes parts for all the auto companies... they all have different allowable tolerances for for their parts. Dodge tolerances were far larger than all other manufacturers.
Based on my own experience and that of my friends I would say that he was telling you the truth.
The sad part of this is that American automobile manufacturers will acknowledge this and still tell you with a straight face that they don’t understand why Toyota and Honda are kicking their asses all over the world.
My last(and I do mean last) American vehicle was a new Ford Taurus that needed a new short block (threw a rod) and two transmissions before I hit 60k miles. When the warranty people bitched about having to fix these problems I was done with American vehicles.
All of this happened when “Quality is Job 1” at Ford.
You will never find anything but Toyotas and Hondas in my driveway.
I feel your pain. My first new car was a Neon sport coupe. I loved the car’s nimble handling and overall performance, but the build quality and long-term reliability were substandard. The air-conditioning died twice in four years, and I narrowly averted warping the heads when an engine fan quit working.
Bingo! When they introduced their life-time power-train warranty, I was willing to give them a look. Until I heard about one of my colleague's wives who had a PT Cruiser: sure it was all under warranty, but it was perpetually in the shop. No thanks.
I have a 2001 Chrysler 300M with just over 140k miles. I paid $185 for a new radio at about 60k and the air conditioning went out at about 138k. I need to fix that. Oh, and the brakes are only good for about 30k. Other than that, the car is still like new in feel and look except that it needs new shocks.
The brake thing is a Chrysler weakness and, until recently, so were their automatic transmissions. I say that as someone who has owned nothing but Chryslers since the early 1990’s.
I consider Chryslers to be very well made cars when compared to equally priced competition. Heck, I had the 300M up to it’s governor speed (140 MPH) on I-94 in eastern Montana and it stuck and handled very well.
Well, except for those new convertibles. I rented one in Hawaii and it made my 300M feel like it handles like a sports car. I was not at all impressed with that car.
That's a common opinion, but only because the only thing people know about Detroit is its product. The truth is, Detroit could not produce a car of the same quality and sell it at the same price as, say, the Japanese. And that is because of enormous benefits demanded by the Unions. Where a certain measure of Detroit's benefits was $72, Toyota's was only $38. A Detroit worker had the right to retire after only 30 years of servive --- at age 48-50 with 95% of his last salary. Back in the early 1980s, I learned that Detroit conveyor belts were the slowest in the world, also by union demands. In late 1990s to early 2000s, health benefits added $1,500 to the price of each and every car Detroit sold. If you have to sell it at competitive price, something had to give. And it was quality that did give.
It was unions who destroyed Detroit. And they were further rewarded by Obama, who bankrupted the bondholders of Chrysler and formally transferred ownership to the unions.
Don't blame car-makers' management for the supposed inability to make a quality car: they could build it but, chained by the unions, could not sell it.
Incredible, I have a 15 yr old Ford F150 w/120k miles on it,, does not use a drop of oil in my 4000 mile oil change schedule. (I bumped it up from 3000 after the first 100k miles :_)
Of course, this is a cast iron engine,, not aluminum, which why I bought the truck new,, they were fazing out a great engine... 300CI six cly. (I have no idea how many coke bottles that is)
I have had a Chrysler mini van since 1986. I am on my third, a 2005 Town & Country Limited with 72,000 miles on the odo.
The 3.8L in this van takes almost two quarts of synthetic oil between my 4000 miles changes and Chrysler says this is normal and looking on the Web shows likewise.
My other two Plymouth Grand Voyagers used about one-half quart of regular oil every 3,000 miles change.
I still love my T&C and the Stow-N-Go seats are better than sliced bread!
Back in the day(1940s to 1950s)I was told by many adults that 1 quart to 1000 miles per quart was the minimum acceptable oil usage of a motor vehicle. 750 is terrible.