What a horrifying experience! I went with a friend and his girlfriend so she could look at various small 4x4's. Not my kind of vehicle but then I wasn't buying one. We went to Nissan and saw the Murano, a nice looking vehicle and apparently well-made. Noisy engine under load but a "shiftless" transmission. Meanwhile, the sales people seem motivated and helpful, professional. The showroom and cars were immaculate. Next was Mitsubishi. I forgot what she looked at there, but the same thing, good showroom, very busy and the vehicles all looked clean. Then to Chrysler to see the Pacifica. Walk in. Place is a ghost town. A new (sort of) Crossfire is in the showroom. Sold sticker in the window so it's locked. I had heard the headroom was terrible in them and wanted to get in to see. The car was also dirty, as were most of the vehicles in showroom. Fingerprints on the windows, dust on them. The reception was talking on the phone to a friend. My friend's girlfriend asked one of the idle salespeople how much the Pacifica cost. You see, Chrysler had no price sheets in any of the car windows! So the salesperson ran around "looking" for the pricing. Anyway, no test drive was possible because someone had blocked in the lot Pacifica and had not returned from "lunch." Meanwhile, I admired the orange peel on the paint of the 1965 English milk delivery truck (otherwise known as the PT Cruiser) while the salesperson looked for a guide to the paint available on the Pacifica. It took the salesperson 10 minutes to find the book that would give the paints available for the 2004 model. As a side note, the interior of the Pacifica is loaded with cute features, DVD player, rear seat screen, navigation map (superimposed on the rpm and mph gauges??!). But it looks a bit cheap on the inside. Instead of an ugly silver plastic bezzle around the gear shift with black silkscreened gear numbers that will wear off in six months, why not offer something a bit better, on a $40,000 vehicle? If this is in any way an example of how Chrysler operates, I fear for their future.
-Rich