The Chrysler Five Year Plan (November 2009)

I wonder what will happen to us owners of earlier products. Will we still be able to get parts, or will we be left high and dry.

KM

If there are significant numbers of a particular Chrysler vehicle out there, I'm sure the parts manufacturers will supply it. I believe in Canada 10 years is the legal requirement for parts supply.

On the LH car forums, we're seeing some disappointing trends in parts from dealers - prices increased, and cheapening of certain must-have critical parts like replacement water pumps. It used to be a clear choice to go OEM on such parts, but now what is available thru dealers are as bad as the crap aftermarket parts. That's a good way to loose what loyalty there is in the present customer base.

Interesting -- I've *never* seen an advantage to genuine OEM Chrysler over NAPA (my personal gold standard for aftermarket) on anything NAPA carries.

This is, oddly, not the case for genuine Toyota vs. NAPA. I've had NAPA radiator hoses for my daughter's truck that simply Did Not Fit.

I wonder why this is even a question? Do people really not know that parts are still available for 60s engines that haven't been in production for 40 years? And that you can still get parts for your Studebaker, Packard, Nash, Hudson, etc.?

It is *NOT* an issue. If Chrysler vanished tomorrow, I wouldn't be worried about getting parts for a 2009 Chrysler vehicle for the next 10+ years at all.

For the most part, I agree and avoid dealer parts like the purple plague they are. The ONE exception was a time in the mid 90s when Chrysler was changing the water pump design on the first-gen 3.5 (bigger pulley to turn it slower and reduce both wear and cavitation, along with a longer timing belt to compensate) and the aftermarket hadn't done that yet. They caught up quickly, though.

You could very well be correct, but in todays economic climate Washington determined to make it worse, I would not base any projections on what we have seen in the past beyond say about 1 year ago, if that. Things have changed. Everybody's, including companies, behavior is different than what it used to be.