Chrysler needs learn a bit about customer service!
I really think if Daimler divests itself of Chrysler it is making a stupid mistake. In the last 20 years it has become more and more apparent that the continuing consolidation of automobile companies has lead to a situation where any major company needs to have a full line up to be truly competitive . . . witness Toyota sending millions to create Lexus, and Ford buying Jaguar. Daimler is in the opposite situation from Toyota and Ford, in that they have a nice chunk of the high-end and mid-level market but without Chrysler have no real low-end market. There is of course Smart, but so far they are a very marginal company, albeit with a cool product. The only larger Smart, the now discontinued ForFour, was a badge-engineered Mitsubishi and no indication of any ability on Daimler’s part to design and market a cheaper car. And, even if Daimler were to produce a line of competitive lower end cars, there is still the issue of badging. To call them Mercedes-Benzes would cheapen that brand, not something Daimler should aspire to.
For Chrysler to be competitive on a long-term basis they have to learn to both make a quality product and support it. From my family’s experience, they have a lot to learn. In late ‘91 my mother ordered a top of the line ‘92 Eagle, which at the time would have ranked above any Dodge and just below a New Yorker in the Chrysler line up. It came with the seven year/70,000 mile warranty, and was intended to replace a tough old ‘83 Peugeot 505 with a lot of miles on it. What a joke the Eagle was! The Delco alternator failed at 17,000 miles and was replaced one additional time under warranty. The anti-lock brakes (which were an expensive option at the time) started to turn themselves off at highway speeds at about 45,000 miles, and in the remaining three years of the warranty two dealers failed to ever diagnose the problem. At one point the car spent NINE MONTHS with the brake-alert light on, because the part was on national back order. According to the owner’s manual, the car should never be driven with the light on, but both dealers just shrugged their shoulders and said they couldn’t do anything about getting the part until Chrysler decided to make some more. This was on a three year old car! There were two windshield wiper switches as well under warranty. Eventually the fuel gauge quit working too, becoming erratic, but the low fuel light still worked so it was ignored as it wasn’t covered under the long-term warranty. Another item not covered was peeling paint. The car was never wrecked, but the white paint started peeling off the roof after about five years. Even a bodyshop man said it was due to manufacturing issues, but Mom had no choice but to have the roof repainted at her expense.
At 65,000 miles, just after the warranty timed out, the automatic transmission quit. Chrysler wanted $5,000 for a rebuild, and $7,000 for a new one (yes you read that right!). We had an independent shop fix it, and at that point Mom ordered a new Camry. My sister ended out with the Eagle, since it was essentially worthless as a trade in even though it was in great cosmetic condition and ran well aside from the ABS turning off on the highway. At that point I began to maintain it, figuring the dealers were just incompetent. Number three alternator quit shortly after this, and then the fuel pump as well. I viewed the latter issue as a blessing in disguise, as the fuel gauge sending unit is part of the assembly (made by Carter). The new fuel pump lasted, but within 30,000 miles the gauge had quit again. The starter (by Mitsubishi) went as well, and was replaced with a more powerful rebuilt one by a shop who said they did that all the time since the factory one was undersized. The front suspension bushings were replaced at 83,000 miles because they had rotted out to the point that there was literally no bushing left and the car was clunking over bumps and dangerous to drive. At the same time the driveshafts were replaced as preventative maintenance because the alignment shop found significant wear in them.
At 100,000 miles the water pump started leaking, which I didn’t feel was unreasonable, and the dealer had one in stock for $125.000, also reasonable. However, he didn’t have the three O-rings required to install a new pump. Those took two dealers THREE WEEKS to get, and neither dealer would agree to order them by second-day air (from a Chrysler warehouse in Minneapolis) even if I paid the fee! Both dealers make it clear that I couldn’t expect better service for a nine-year old car and neither seemed to have much idea of how to read their own parts books, which is why it took two of them to get three correct O-rings. I still have the incorrect parts they ordered, as they wouldn’t refund my money. Other cooling system failures included one of the two radiator fans and a plastic radiator tank fracturing, which required anew radiator. Eventually I gave my sister an ultimatum: I would no longer maintain the car. She bought a new Mazda in 2004, and the Eagle, with 125,000 miles on it, was donated to Aids Project LA. It still looked pretty good from the right side, but by then the paint was starting to peel on the driver’s door too . . .
The one part of the Eagle which was pretty much faultless aside from maintenance was the engine. It was made in France by Renault, and it never used oil, overheated (except when the plastic radiator fractured), or failed to start (except for the starter failure). If only the rest of the car had been made by Renault, my mother would probably still be driving it today, as she really liked the car when it ran. As it is, nobody in my family would even THINK of buying a Chrysler anything, since not only was the product shoddily made, but the service back-up was even worse. And the Camry which replaced it? That is now seven years old, with maybe 80,000 miles on it. It has had exactly one failure, a sticky seat belt retractor replaced under warranty. I should add that this Camry is the top of the line XLE model, with virtually every option, including digital climate control, sunroof, V-6, ABS brakes, etc., etc., so there is a lot to go wrong but it just doesn’t. You can be sure when it does get replaced it will be with another Toyota. I should also add that I don’t even like Toyotas much, but it sure is nice to not have to spend hours on the phone to my mother 1300 miles away trying to give advise as to how to deal with a broken car.
Until Chrysler quits viewing their products as cheap disposable cars which aren’t worth providing parts for in a timely manner they aren’t going to be competitive with other manufacturers. I would hope that Daimler would see this, and the value to them in owning a successful Chrysler, and take steps to improve matters. I know it is a long time since my mother’s Eagle was made, but it was only three years ago that I was trying to source parts for it and certainly the attitude was anything but “customer first”. If Daimler cuts Chrysler loose, I predict they will sink within ten years, and deservedly so. It is sad, because they could be so much more.
