Give up on Crysler

That is an awful experience you have had. Have you contacted the Chrysler Regional Office for your area? You may get some action there.

I wonder if the Lemon Law applies here? Did you contact Chrysler Zone manager or the corporate office?

Sorry to hear about the problem and good luck.

Ken.

Sounds more like the dealer you are dealing with than the car. Chryslers are good cars just to bad some dealerships dont really care.

Have a Nice Day

I agree - GIVE UP ON THE DEALER - not Chrysler

Your right. But with only 1 dealer in the county they are the same. I was disappointed when I went to the Chrysler web page in that they had no way to contact anyone to find out where to go for assistance. For this dealer problem or any other one. It seems they are set up only to sell and not support from their online view. It's a shame they don't collect fed back for corporate metrics. They might find out why their losing customers.

TomB

I have a 99 300M and 2001 Avalon. The Avalon is a piece of junk and I cannot wait to get rid of it. It is a rattle box, and has an incredible number of quirks. If you want to see detail, search for my posts using

My 300M has been extremely reliable. He should check the back of his manual under lemon laws and arbitration. The dealer may be incompetent. If he goes into arbitration the arbitrator will probably give the dealer one more shot and then he'll get a new car or his money back with a deduction for mileage.

something

sounds

Check your manual for the 800 number to call. Also the lemon laws in your state and how to start arbitration for a new car.

But ignore the advice to buy an Avalon. I own a 99 Chrysler 300M and a 2001 Toyota Avalon. The Avalon is junk.

really care.

their

Ah. Try the new models. Much better quality control.

Again, it's style and comfort and such - versus mechanical indestructability. Toyota, like it or not, rates at the very in reliability(Lexus as well, obviously). I just mentioned it because a problem-free car that he can drive until he's too old to drive anymore seems to be the goal.

If the Avalon is tinny in your opinion, there's always a Lexus or something simmilar. My uncle has one and so far he's had zero problems with it. He's shocked at how little he spends on fixing it - and that's more important to him than a squeek or fastener her or there. Those can be tightened and addressed, while the sort of mechanical hijinx the O.P. was reporting can only be solved by spending less time needing repairs.

Sorry to hear about your frustrating experience! Thank you for including the dealers name and location! I live in the Woodinville, Wa area, and from my one encounter with the Kirkland Chrysler dealer, I've concluded that the dealer's techs there know little to nothing about the transmissions. This 4-speed trans is electronically controlled and the techs are apparently mostly mechanical. The cable connections are overwhelming to mechanical-types. From the posts, this trans has also been a real money machine for rebuild or "special trans fluid" work when most of the time it's just a connection or sensor issue.

Your situation sounds like a major cable / connection issue. It's possible that the cable that runs under the front-lower area between the PCM and TCM, was damaged during transport / delivery. Or maybe it has been driven on some very muddy roads and the PCM to cable connector is heavily contaminated.

At the least, this should be declared a "lemon" and you should get a replacement. And the dealer should work on his customer relations skills and his technicians abilities or sell the dealership to someone who will. Good luck with this!

- Bill

I've given up a Toyota service. Asked them to get the continous clicks out of the dash..... their attempt was unsuccessful. Many people have the same complaint.

Other problems are design defects that cannot be noticed during a test drive and were not picked up by Consumer Reports:

1. Incredibly slow rear defroster. You'll be home before you can see out the back.
2. In hot weather the brake pedal suddenly sinks as you are almost stopped at the stop light. I guess the engine slows and vacuum pressure goes down and the hydraulics in the brakes suddenly reduces and the pedal sinks an inch or so. I'm told it is normal for this piece of junk.
3. Heated seats take forever then overheat and turn off. But light stays on so you might think they are doing something.
4. Storage bags behind front seats are so tight they won't fit anything
5. Dashboards are often mounted crooked. Mine is about a half inch off on one side
6. The ride deteriorates horribly by the time you have 10k miles on the car
7. The car feels like it stretches when you hit the accelerator and contracts when you brake. I'm told it is normal and due to the active engine mount which lags at points in holding the engine in place.
8. The car relocks itself in 30 seconds after using the remote. So expect to use it twice if loading stuff in the trunk takes more than

1. No trunk open warning light on a k plus car. How cheap can you get.

There are other annoyances but that is all I can come up with right now.

Odd - though my 240DL is just as bad. OTOH, my dad's Buick is like a minute and poof-clear. Go figure. Not mechanical relaibility, in any case.

I'd suspect that this is a defect and they are lying to you.

Both of the above are not mechanical reliability issues, though.

Same. Seems you got a bit of a lemon. Sorry to hear that. OTOH, I've seen 2003 Grand Cherokees with this sort of assembly problem and other interesting quirks.

Stock struts are only good for that long. Replace with something proper and watch the ride get better than it ever was new.

Same with tires. Stock struts and tires are like those whoknowswhatitisSonic batteries that you get with remotes. Does it say Duracell or Energizer on it? Most of us toss these and install proper batteries. Cars are really no different nowadays.

Humm - I'd not worry too much about it, though. Better than feeling the entire car flex sideways like they used to.

Annoying. OTOH, I think the trunk does stay open when raised ;)

Don't even get me started on this. So far, only VW and a few other makers seem to put quality interiors in cars anymore. Simulated (plastic) wood trim, slots and storage spaces that seem designed by an artist rather than anyone who actually tested them.(Ie - does it fit a road atlas//Thomas Guide anywhere in the interior?). Cup holders that are junk, plastic armrests(would $3 in velour or leather kill them?), and engine layouts - well - take a look at a Mustang. Electircal tape and zip-ties holding all the wiring together. Total design mess.

Here - I got one for you - $40K grand cherokee with all the options. Manual rear glass. Huh???

I bet if you owned a Concord, you'd find just as many problems with it.

My recommendation - get a 1995/96(iirc) Mercedes. The ones before the current series. They were the last old-world engineered Mercedes and were built to last thirty years or more. The new ones are a joke by comparison. I don't think anything is built as well today. Even Bentley is getting cheap and cutting corners. Sheesh.

Art,

Try an experiment for me. Sit at a stop sign or stop light with the a/c off. Hold the brake pedal down with your left foot and give the engine a little gas (up to 1000 rpm or so) with your right foot. I'm betting the pedal will sink just a tad. You should also get some extra pedal movement if you drop the car into neutral.

It's a function of the power assist brakes, which get their assistance from a vacuum created by the engine. When the engine speed increases (or a load on the engine decreases), vacuum pressure increases, adding assistance to the brake pedal. Since your left foot's pressure has not changed during this experiment, and the assistance has increased, the pressure required by your foot to depress the pedal decreases. Thus, the pedal moves a little more toward the floor. None of this should have any effect on the functionality of the brake calipers. It's just a matter of the pedal being easier to move.

I don't disagree but I've never experienced it like it is on the Avalon. Sure wakes you up when you have constant pressure on the brake pedal, are slowing to a stop, and suddenly it sinks an inch or

1. According to Toyota techies it is the way it is. The car has anti lock brakes and fancy stability control. Perhaps that has something to do with it. Too many computers in 1 mediocre car.

I can't believe what Consumer Reports comes up with these days. Their top rated SUV this month (a Nissan, I think) loses power assist in the steering under extreme driving conditions. They still rated it great and said that they thought the manufacturer should do something about it but it would not effect people in normal driving and most extreme maneuvers. Do you think they would have given Chrysler, Ford or GM a walk on that?

betting

pedal

assistance

increases

adding

Thus,

Art, I read that too and couldn't believe it. Those idiots are so biased that it's just stupid ! I bet they get a few letters to the editors about it too.

Steve m..

Tom,

I can feel your pain, I just finished gettin a complete engine rebuild as a result of getting my timing belt changed at the recommended interval! I went to the Chrysler dealership that I bought my stratus from. It's taken them 2 seperate sessions of having the car for a week at each time to get it right! I should have listened to my father. In his words... I wouldn't trust a dealership service to do anything but change fluids, and I'd watch them at that!

A bit of back ground on my situation. I took the car in a 166K km to get the timing belt, oil pan, and the head gasket (warranty item, they replaced the headgasket when I bought the car as a recall item). It took them 3 days to do this work. WhenI finally got the car back, I drove it for 2 days , then the oil pressure light came on and the engine stopped shortly there after ( in the amount of time it took me to pull over, the engine died) So I had it towed back to the dealer, They spent a week "diagnosing" and reparing. (on their bill) At the end of the week, I got my car back and it seemed fine. 4 days later, I went on a driving trip (300 km) to visit a friend, 200km into the trip, the engine started making a clacking noise. This time I had the car towed to the family mechanic. His diagnosis was a ruined conencting rod and a rebuild was in order. So I tow it back to the dealership for them to look at a again. They called me up and anounced that they were going to replace the engine for me. ( does this sound a bit fishy yet!)

I Picked the car up yesterday and drove it 10km and stopped at a McD's and the hood was smoking, Back to the dealership (again) this time to find out that the mechanic just spilled a bit of powersteering fluid on the back of the engine and didn't get it all cleaned up. (Wheh!

Despite all this I have to give them credit for swallowing they pride and fixing things without a fight!