Chrysler cuts powertrain warranty to 5 years

Jim Higgins · 2009-08-20T00:42:12+00:00

CUTS?????Chrysler cuts powertrain warranty to 5 years HILLS, Mich. (AP) ? Chrysler Group said Wednesday that it is dropping its lifetime powertrain warranty in favor of a 5-year, 100,000-mile guarantee.Chrysler spokesman Rick Deneau said the decision was driven by market research that showed consumers prefer warranties with a fixed time period. Powertrain warranties typically cover repair or replacement of transmission and engine parts."Basically, the assumption of a lifetime warranty just wasn't that big a deal to consumers," Deneau said.The 5-year, 100,000-mile warranties will be transferable to new owners if the vehicles are sold before they run out, he said. The previous lifetime warranties were not transferable.The new warranty program also includes the automaker's SRT and Viper models, which were excluded from the lifetime warranty. But the Sprinter van and the diesel version of the Ram pickup remain excluded, Deneau said.The change is effective with the start of the 2010 model year.

Aug 20, 2009 27 Replies

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Bill Putney 17 years ago

Reminds me of the Ford lawsuit - I'm thinking sometime in the 60's or

70's: Ford TV commercials showed their 4WD pickup trucks being briskly driven over creek beds with huge rocks in them. When consumers tried the same thing on the new trucks they bought, all kinds of serious damage occurred. Ford lost the lawsuit.

In our present day litigious society, I'm surprised they get away with some of the irresponsible car advertising they do. Seems like a shrewd lawyer could make a bundle off a couple of accidents with lifelong injuries or fatalities. It's only a matter of time.

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Pete E. Kruzer 17 years ago

Here's one, it sez here:

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Jim Higgins 17 years ago

Zippo lighters, they are still loving their warranty :-)

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who 17 years ago

It's not about product confidence, it's about reducing costs.

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Joe Pfeiffer 17 years ago

Well... I had a Sears lifetime warranty on an alternator. While it's true they eventually cancelled the warranty as it was too expensive to replace every couple of years (seems like putting in an alternator that wasn't crap would have been cheaper and avoided PR problems, but never mind), when they did they refunded the purchase (including installation) price of the alternator. It is hard to argue with that.

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Josh S 17 years ago

It's much simpler than that. Both GM & Chrysler need the products many people want to buy, neither have a car I'm interested. Nothing has changed since the bankruptcies.

A 5 year warranty is fine for me. If there's a significant weakness it will show up within 5 years.

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CountFloyd 17 years ago

As to having cars I don't want, I agree with you, but in a different way. When we were going to replace our 2005 PT Convertible, strictly to get more gas mileage, we went to the Honda store. When a salesman came over, we said we wanted to see the highest gas mileage car they had. They led us to the Fit. I was in the mood and just said, "Ok, lets do the deal, this is the goddamndest ugliest car I have ever seen, but it gets

38mpg". He was stunned that I could think a Honda was ugly! My wife and I sat in the car and basically felt we were in a clown car, she felt unsafe. She said "No Thanks". On the way out, she said no more little, tinny cars. She wanted something she felt safe in. She did like the Element, but hell, it got the same mileage as the PT! Hondas and Toyotas seats were too low to the floor, we like chair high seats, so that dictated our choice of cars to look at.

"What do you mean there's no movie?"

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