orphaned mercedes technology in Chrysler/Dodge?

Car manufacturers are legally responsible to supply you with parts for

10 years after the car is made. So you should still be able to find pasrts for the sprinter for at least ten years. the reality of it is, Dodge isn't just going to stop stocking those parts in 10 years. There is a market for them, so they will sell them, even if they do have to buy them from mercedes, mark them up, and sell them. I wonder if freightliner will still be selling the sprinters. I'm sure that Freightliner dealers will still service and sell parts for them too.

Bill

Do you have a cite for that, other than emissions-related parts?

Your wrong on that count. Manufactures are not legally required to stock parts for ten years. They are legally required to repair defects pertaining to warranty problems for the life of the warranty claimed by the manufacturer. And the manufacturer can obtain parts from any means, including USED to repair those defects. I worked for DaimlerChrysler for 13 years and there is no LAW stating your bullshit!

I worked for DaimlerChrysler for 13

Before you get all huffy puffy and start cursing for no reason, calm down. I admit that I could be mistaken, but I am not intentionally feeding anyone BS. I was looking into buying an Oldsmobile years ago when it was known that they were dissapearing, and the dealer told me that GM was required to maintain parts for the cars for 10 years by law, and could not just abandon their customers. Unless the law has changed, or this guy was feeding me BS, I seriously think that there is some basis to what I said.

And before you start attacking people. Think about what your credentials say. So what, you worked for DaimlerChrysler. A company that at the time had never shut down production. Does that mean that you know the law for this scenario? Are you a lwayer for them? In charge of distribution of spare parts? I'm an engineer with lots of experience in cars and submarines. That doesn't mean that I can tell you how everything on a car or submarine works, or the laws regarding them. And I don't claim to, or tell people that they are full of bull for saying anythign about them. So tone it down.

I just realized that I did say supply. That was not as specific as I probably needed to be. I didn't mean that they need to stock them for your use, but they have to have made enough to last for that long. They could all sit in a warehouse and take three weeks to get ahold of, and they woudl still be fine. At least that is what I had been told. So take this with a grain of salt.

Uh.... they sold some?

GM promised continued parts and service for Oldsmobiles. I don't recall the time period.

I recently was involved in repair of a car that was less than ten years old and needed driver and passenger seatbelts. The manufacturer could only furnish the driver's seat belt in one color, the passenger's seat belt in another, and neither color matched the car interior.

If you're really an engineer, the first thing you'd have asked yourself is "why would I believe this without any evidence?" Are you really going repeat and then defend something told to you by a car salesman? No further inquiry?

You put those higher thinking skills to work on this and think about it.

But they still supplied both seat belts.

And now they don't have any. I didn't make that clear in the first post.

I saw one on the road two days ago. This was the only one I ever recall seeing.

He was either mistaken himself, or was feeding you a line. There is no such law (it is, obviously, impossible to cite a non-law -- which is why, in my original response, I asked you if you had a cite). A company is required to support their warranty, and there is a required warranty on emissions equipment. Beyond that, they've got no obligation to ever sell parts. And they sell them for exactly as long as they think they're making money by doing it.

I'm not a lawyer, and don't work for any car companies. My claim is based on many people making the same statement I did over the years, a general belief that the auto industry really ought to work the same as all the others in the world, and nobody ever coming up with a cite showing me where the "must sell parts for X years" law exists.

Also (to follow up my earlier claim that there is no law requiring a company to sell parts for some lenght of time), that a company making a pledge to do so would be a completely different matter.

With a Merc there should not be this problem.

But with Chrysler, if it's sold...?...

DAS

Still friggin' cross posting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then I stand corrected! I now see that there is not an actual law, and I am not going to try to defend it since it obviously doesn't exist. I wasn't trying to pedal crap, I honestly believed that the law existed. I was not put under the impression by a salesman. I know better than to believe a salesman. I was put under the impression by the owner of the dealership, who was a friend's brother. My friend is an honest person, so I extended the belief of honesty to his brother. Oops. I guess in reality he is the head salesman, but I would hold him a little more accountable, thus hope more honest. As Edward Ohare stated on here a few hours ago, he believes that GM did promise parts for the oldsmobile. So apparently around the time that Olds was dissolving, they were making some promises, which I can see how the owner may have embelished by adding some legal claims to it.

I really don't want to argue about this any more. I've already said that I was mistaken twice. If this is really supposed to be a forum about helping people, why don't we get to that...

As I stated in my first posting, freightliner also sells the Sprinter. I am not sure if that is gong to change after DC divorces, but I think it would be a viable idea to check with a freightliner dealer to see what they have as far as plans for parts. Even though the Sprinter hasn't been a huge success on a small business or personal use level, both UPS and DHL use them. Even though it is possible that these large companies might have their own supliers, I would imagine that if one tried hard enough, they could find a supplier for the parts well into the future. Car companies stop making models all the time, and continue to have parts for them.

I really don't think that finding parts is something worth worrying about. If it does become a problem, I would imagine that some little company would pop up to feed the market created by the shortage- importing parts from Europe where Sprinters abound. It's the American way.

Have a good day, Bill

You're not looking closely. They've done decent business in fleet sales, which is what the Sprinter is intended for. Its not really a replacement for the B-series van- you won't see any luxury van conversions or mini-RVs based on the Sprinter.

I thnk their sales in prior years were constrained by their old assembly plant in North carolina - they could only bring in about

30000 per year. Their new assembly plant can do more and can be expanded so the numbers should increase. Hopefully the supply will increase to the point that an extra long wheelbase cargo will go for much less than the 38K MSRP. .

You're showing an 'unhealthy' interest. What happened to the Unimog plan?

DAS

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