Boy, did Chrysler go downhill after the K-car.

Re: Boy, did Chrysler go downhill after the K-car.

Postby 85TurboAries » Thu Oct 07, 2010 2:39 am

that 2.7 knock isnt an actual knock and is fixable....and the water in oil is caused by water pump failure...the motor isnt AS BAD as people say..ive had a 2002 intrepid before...ran it untill 190k and then sold it for 3k
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Re: Boy, did Chrysler go downhill after the K-car.

Postby gtrdave » Sun Nov 21, 2010 4:51 am

dodgeariesguy wrote:I think I'd like to have like a 300M or something like that some time, I would probably get tired of changing inner-tierods and bushings though lol.


I won't buy another LH car because of the issues with the tie rods and the loose racks. Nice cars...we loved our '94 Eagle Vision ESi...but not made for the long haul, imho.
My '01 Neon, though, is another story; 135k miles and the only thing I've replaced that has broken was a shifter bushing. Neons get a lot of bashing and some rightfully deserve it, but I've owned 4 of them ('95 sedan, '97 coupe, 03 SXT and my current '01 ES) and logged over 250,000 total miles on them with very few issues and nothing majorly mechanical or drivetrain related.
I've never before experienced an over-100K mile American-built car that has no interior squeaks and rattles, still has the original clutch and has a suspension as tight and secure as my '01 Neon.
My new/used '88 K-car with less than half the mileage doesn't feel as well-built, that's for sure, but Chrysler was still trying to find their way in the fwd world during the '80s.

btw: our '97 Caravan has not been "trouble free"...it's had a trans rebuild, a head gasket replaced and a rear window motor replaced in 155,000 miles...but it has required less from us than the pair of Honda Civics I owned back in the '90s and delivered way more comfort and practicality.

As for me, my vote goes to the newer cars: better room, better comfort, better performance, better mileage, better handling, better ergonomics...and the 3.3l/3.8l V6 is, imho, one of the BEST engines Chrysler ever made in the modern era. It's the 318 of the '90s and '00s.
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Re: Boy, did Chrysler go downhill after the K-car.

Postby Baron » Sun Nov 21, 2010 6:15 am

I have mixed feelings as I had one of those Intrepids with the 2.7 engine. Don't know about the sludge problem, never came up, although I always kept it serviced religiously. But it did blow a head gasket somewhere after the 80,000 mile mark and I definitely wasn't happy about that. The dealer gave me $2,000 for it the way it was, fixed it and resold it. A few months later I saw it being towed into a garage where I knew the owner, so I stopped and asked him what the problem was. Said the tranny had gone. In all fairness, though, I have to be honest- I drove that car hard. That 2.7 engine was really to small for a car the size of an Intrepid and I had to wring every little bit of power it had out of it to get the performance I wanted and expected. I swore I would never get another car with that engine again. Nothing against the engine, it was just too small.

Besides, let's face it- Chrysler suffered mightily under Daimler-Benz ownership and it showed in the product. Now that Mercedes is out of the picture and Fiat is in, I think Chrysler is finally being given the chance to build the cars its capable of. Its just going to take a few years for the company to get rid of the reputation the last few years has given it. And Chrysler isn't alone in that regard, every other American car company was right down there on the bottom with Chrysler, keeping it company. Even at that, unlike just about every other car company out there, domestic or foreign, Chrysler was the only company that was still putting out interesting and fun cars throughout all that time. Overall, I have had good success with Chrysler cars in spite of everything the company has had to go through the last few years and I see no reason to switch to some other car brand that leaves me with a bad case of the Ho-hums.
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Re: Boy, did Chrysler go downhill after the K-car.

Postby nszotovich » Sun Nov 21, 2010 2:41 pm

It's the cars that make a brand not the other way around. There can be interesting cars from any company.Chrysler was pushing the envelope during the this period and have many products worth saving for posterity. no matter the reliability factor. The XK-E is one of the most reveared car and it breaks down constantly,always did. Its a emotional thing.
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Re: Boy, did Chrysler go downhill after the K-car.

Postby Chief » Sun Nov 21, 2010 6:50 pm

My sister's 1999 Intripid is coming up on 110K miles and with just regular maintenance and upkeep, she has never had any major problems with it.
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Re: Boy, did Chrysler go downhill after the K-car.

Postby Baron » Sun Nov 21, 2010 10:37 pm

I forgot to mention, I had some friends that owned a sister car to mine- I mean it was a virtual twin- strictly by coincidence- but everything was exactly the same right down to the paint color. They put over 300,000 miles on their Intrepid and 2.7L engine with nary a problem- zero zilch nada nothing.
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Re: Boy, did Chrysler go downhill after the K-car.

Postby RichG » Sat Nov 27, 2010 1:04 pm

I bought a Cirrus new in 95 (Car of the Tear) with the six cylinder, and boy did my wife love that car. Comfortable, smooth, right sized, and stylish. The only problem I had was value retention...I paid $17,900 and maintained the car meticulously for four years. When I traded it in in 99 with 71,000 highway (freeway, for you guys in CA.) miles, the dealer would only pony up $5,500! Boy, was I ticked! I swore then and there I'd never buy a new vechcle again, regardless of brand or perceived residual value. Now I'll only buy off lease, or private seller. My wife's now driving a 04 Mazda 3 5 speed manual I got with 44,000 on the odo, a real little rocketship with excellent handling, and she's having as much fun as if it were new.
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Re: Boy, did Chrysler go downhill after the K-car.

Postby nszotovich » Sat Nov 27, 2010 3:53 pm

I agree about car values. Brand new cars loose thousands of dollars the instant you drive them off the lot. Better to let someone else pay for that and get them young and depreciated.
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