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The seven year, 70,000 mile Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep powertrain warranty, which was abandoned in 1994 in favor of a three year-36,000 mile comprehensive warranty, is back again - this time, being included in addition to that three year coverage. This decision came partly because over a fifth of buyers reportedly won't even consider a Chrysler due to reliability concerns (those numbers are similar at GM). The warranty, transferable to subsequent owners at no extra cost (Chrysler used to charge $100 for this), will be on all new Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles purchased or leased on or after July 9, 2002. We will have details later.
GM has announced 0% financing, in addition to generous rebates - Ford has matched the offer. Still no word from DCX but we expect Chrysler will get there in a week or two at most.
The Insurance Institute has once again tested a batch of vehicles - the Honda CR-V, Land Rover Freelander, Saturn Vue, and Subaru Forester. In 5 mph collisions, the Honda and Land Rover had the worst damage (over $6,000 each), and were rated poor - as was the Saturn Vue, whose damage cost half as much but was still substantial. The Subaru Forester managed a "good" with less than half as much damage as the Vue. While Honda and Land Rover both said the results were because the cars were designed for occupant safety, it's worth noting that Subaru's good results were the result of a better design which absorbed more crash energy - and therefore the car with the best rating is also more likely to protect its occupants in a crash. (Land Rover is currently owned by Ford, while Saturn is a brand of General Motors).
DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes brand is bringing its DaimlerChrysler Mercedes A-Class to the United States, according to The Car Connection's interview with a DCX board member.
Nueces County, Texas, is suing Ford to immediately make the Crown Victoria safer. Ford has, with recent legal skirmishes and publicity, been considering ways to stop the Crown Victoria from being in unnecessary accidents - and from catching fire too easily when hit. As the only American maker of rear wheel drive V8 police sedans, Ford has the lion's share of the squad car market, with General Motors' Chevrolet Impala rapidly gaining a foothold in many markets and the Dodge Intrepid squeezing into the remaining space.
Car and light truck sales fell 1.5 percent in the American market overall, June-to-June (Chrysler dropped 4 percent in that time). Both Chrysler and the overall market were down 3 percent year-to-date. More light trucks were sold than cars in this period (light trucks include minivans and the PT Cruiser).
We announced PT Cruiser pricing earlier, but if you missed it, catch it again here.
Congratulations, Bill Cawthon (former and we hope future Allpar contributor) on your new position with Just-Auto!
We've noticed Bill Ford bragging about how truck owners tell him they've put 120,000 miles on their Ford trucks. We invite him, and anyone else, to visit the Allpar 200,000 Mile Club ... 120,000 miles is just broken in!
GM sales increased by 4 percent this year over last year - again - reflecting new technologies and designs. Chrysler sales fell, partly because of the loss of Plymouth, by 4 percent from June of last year.
PT Cruiser sales rose 30 percent due to higher production, and the new Ram Pickup rose 17 percent. The Sebring convertible rose 11 percent (this may be due to both summer and the new five speed/V6 GTC).
The Dodge Neon sales rose 6 percent, but when Plymouth sales are factored in (3,570 were sold through June 2001), we overall Neon sales fell. Prowler sales rose as the model reached its end.
Chrysler Concorde sales supposedly rose, but if you add in the loss of LHS sales (since the LHS was merged into the Concorde line), there was an overall loss, June-to-June.
While the Sebring sedan rose slightly in sales (2 percent), the nearly identical Stratus sedan fell by over 20 percent. This June, 6449 Stratus and 4466 Sebring sedans were sold, so you can see that a slight rise in Chrysler is much less significant than a major fall in Dodge.
Overall, the scorecard for June-to-June is - Plymouth dead, 3,640 units down [by last June, only a few straggling Neons and Prowlers were Plymouths, and even the Voyager was gone]; Chrysler brand up, six percent, to 47,412 units; Jeep down, 11 percent (to 36,082 units); Dodge car down 9 percent, to a remarkably low 33,451 units; with Chrysler totals at 202,822 units, down four percent June-to-June or 3 percent year-to-date. Not good by any stretch of the imagination, since a number of new vehicles should have ignited some spark, and GM rose by 4 percent (which encompasses many more vehicles than Chrysler's fall).
Chrysler has set the price for the PT Turbo at a relatively reasonable level of $22,290 (list). Arriving this fall, the PT is based on the Touring Edition, with a 215 horsepower (245 lb-ft) engine that has at least 220 lb-ft of torque available from 2,300 to 5,000 rpm. The base PT is currently $16,600, with the most fully loaded model selling for $26,000.
From its launch as a production vehicle in February, 2000 through May, 2002, more than 395,000 Chrysler PT Cruiser vehicles have been sold worldwide.
The turbo model, which Chrysler has for some reason resisted calling
the GT Cruiser (it's the "Chrysler PT Turbo"), features a Getrag heavy-duty
five-speed manual (AutoStick automatic available), a tuned suspension with
four-wheel disc ABS brakes and traction control, 17" silver painted 5-spoke
cast aluminum wheels, and P205/50HR17 all-season performance tires.
Cosmetic features include:
* Body-color monotone front fascia with larger, lower openings
* Body-color monotone rear fascia with larger exhaust opening
* Large diameter chrome exhaust tip
* Body-color bodyside moldings
* "GT" badge on left liftgate, "2.4L TURBO" badge on right liftgate
* Performance front seats with unique cloth interior
* Driver seat manual lumbar adjuster
* Unique silver-faced cluster gauges with 140 mph speedometer
* Tachometer with "2.4L Turbo" badging
* Unique instrument panel accents
* "GT" embroidered front floor mats
* Silver painted shift ball
* Silver shifter bezel (automatic transaxle vehicles with AutoStick)
In an article titled "Quality control pays off at DaimlerChrysler," Detroit News noted that 2001 warranty costs per vehicle fell 20 percent, and observed that Consumer Reports ranked Chrysler tops among Detroit automakers (as, indeed, it did last year, as we recall). They noted that the revised Liberty and Ram had much higher JD Power scores than the models they replaced (originally designed at least a decade ago).
The inevitable rant. We applaud the attention to Chrysler's improved quality, an ongoing effort that began a decade ago and - despite some glitches, notably around the original Neon's introduction - has produced some impressive results. The PT Cruiser, a vehicle designed wholly under Chrysler management, was just below the Toyota Echo in Consumer Reports' ratings - nearly tops in its class. Indeed, the Daimler influence in quality is probably undetectable at this point, given that their influence hasn't had time to be reported yet, unless you count 90-day J.D. Power scores - where Chrysler has actually declined since last year, relative to the industry (last year, Plymouth led or was second best in several categories). The Five Star program, to get repairs done right the first time, is hardly new, either.
We are reasonable. We do agree with any effort to raise quality. Hiring an ex-Toyota executive makes sense. Upgrading transmissions makes sense. Replacing Chrysler automatics with anything else makes sense. But, still, what we are seeing is the result of a Chrysler effort. And we congratulate the DCX PR machine on being able to insert the Daimler name in every Chrysler victory - especially since we haven't noticed any increase in Mercedes quality.
Claiming it was overcharged on property taxes, Ford is demanding the return of $1.6 million in local taxes, much of which would come from schools. The discrepancy seems to be the result of a recent internal Ford inventory, which found much less equipment in the plants than Ford had originally thought there (over $70 million in one case). Read the full article here (Detroit News).
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