The Chrysler lifetime warranty

Out of nowhere, Chrysler has suddenly established a lifetime powertrain warranty, the likes of which has never been seen before in the industry. This will almost certainly boost sales among those who like what Chrysler makes, but have been afraid of its transmissions and, perhaps, its four cylinder or 2.7 liter engines. The aftermarket may not be as happy, as repair parts will become mostly the province of the dealer (or Mopar, at the supplier level), and go-fast parts may not be as popular when people realize it will void their warranty. Of course none of this applies to those who drive used cars, and since the average car appears to be sold within five or six years anyway, chances are that the lifetime warranty will end up simply matching just about everyone else’s seven-year warranties.

Chrysler might just get a reputation boost from this - what company would start up a lifetime warranty, if they didn’t have darned good quality to begin with?

Here are some details from Chrysler:

At the expiration of the 3 year/36,000 mile Basic Limited Warranty, the original purchaser or retail lessee of each 2006 model year, 2007 model year and 2008 model year Chrysler, Dodge, or Jeep vehicle sold and delivered on or after July 26, 2007 will get a limited powertrain warranty for the lifetime of that original purchaser or retail lessee. Subsequent owners or lessees, even if they are within the same family or business, are not covered. Successor business entities or persons to whom the vehicle is transferred by operation of law are also not covered.

The Lifetime Powertrain Limited Warranty covers the cost of all parts and labor needed to repair a covered powertrain component that is defective in workmanship and materials. There is no coverage for towing.

SRT vehicles, Sprinters, diesel vehicles, Ram Cab/Chassis trucks, rental vehicles, and government vehicles are not covered. Vehicles used as a police vehicle, taxi, limousine, postal delivery vehicle or ambulance are not covered.

To maintain the Lifetime Powertrain Limited Warranty, the person or entity covered by this Powertrain Limited Warranty must have a powertrain inspection performed by an authorized dealer once every 5 years. This inspection will be performed at no charge. The inspection must be made within sixty days of each 5 year anniversary of the in-service date of the vehicle.

Covered parts include:

(Gas engine) cylinder block and all internal parts; cylinder head assemblies; timing case, timing chain, timing belt, gears and sprockets; vibration damper; oil pump; water pump and housing; intake and exhaust manifolds; flywheel with starter ring gear; core plugs; valve covers; oil pan; turbocharger housing and internal parts; turbocharger wastegate actuator; supercharger; serpentine belt tensioner; seals and gaskets for listed components only.

Transmission: transmission case and all internal parts; torque converter; drive/flex plate; transmission range switch; transmission control module; bell housing; oil pan; seals and gaskets for listed components only. Manual transmission clutch parts are NEVER covered.

Front Wheel Drive: transaxle case and all internal parts; axle shaft assemblies; constant velocity joints and boots; differential cover; oil pan; transaxle speed sensors; transaxle solenoid assembly; PRNDL position switch; transaxle electronic controller; torque converter; seals and gaskets for listed components only. Again, manual transmission clutch parts are NOT covered.

All Wheel Drive (AWD): power transfer unit and all internal parts; viscous coupler; axle housing and all internal parts; constant velocity joints and boots; driveshaft and axle shaft assemblies; differential carrier assembly and all internal parts; output ball bearing; output flange; end cover; overrunning clutch; vacuum motor; torque tube; pinion spacer and shim, seals and gaskets for listed components only.

Rear Wheel Drive: rear axle housing and all internal parts; axle shafts; axle shaft bearings; drive shaft assemblies; drive shaft center bearings; universal joints and yokes; seals and gaskets for listed components only.

Four-Wheel Drive (4X4): transfer case and all internal parts; transfer case control module and shift mode motor assembly; axle housing and all internal parts; axle shafts; axle shaft bearings; drive shafts assemblies (front and rear); drive shaft center bearings; universal joints and yokes; disconnect housing assembly; seals and gaskets for the listed components only.

Canada is not covered due to laws in some provinces, according to Chrysler. Mexico is covered but may have different terms.

Little things lead to big things

Earlier this week, my wife complained that her 300M transmission was shifting badly, and sticking in second gear. Sure enough, it was in limp mode. (By the way, I discovered through this that the limp mode extends to the manumatic - that is, you can’t manually shift when it’s in limp mode.) I ran the codes and got code P0700, universally known as “there’s something wrong with the transmission, but I’m not going to tell YOU what it is.”

Being close by, I took the car to the Aamco to use their computer, which has the terribly expensive proprietary modules to diagnose computer codes more sensibly. (As to WHY it costs so much to get the “real” code scanners, don’t ask.) They refused to scan it, saying they would, for free, give it a three hour test starting with a test drive and ending with a scan. “The scan is the LAST thing we do,” said the manager, as if this was something to be proud of.

Having done a little research in Google and Allpar, I had discovered that code P0700 is very common across brands, and usually corresponds to a fairly inexpensive sensor. I took the car down to Ray at Teterboro Chrysler, and he quickly came back with an estimate of $155 including labor to change the output sensor. They didn’t recommend any other work. I mentioned that the car was under the 8/80 Certified Used Car warranty, and the price fell to the $50 deductible. Remember, Ray didn’t know I had the warranty when he gave me that first price… the car has about 74,000 miles on it… he was being honest - $155 is a relatively small profit (at a $90/hour dealer, in an area where indie garages charge $75-85/hour) compared with a new $3,500 transmission or a big rebuild charge. He didn’t even try to upsell me into a fluid replacement (though I asked for one anyway).

The morals of the story:
1) Check the computer first
2) Sometimes a good, honest dealer should be your first stop, if you can find one
3) Don’t believe the first person you talk to if you get a big price tag - had Ray been dishonest, and had I been a good “mark,” he might have been able to sell me a new transmission or, just as profitable, a new used car while he made a massive profit on the trade. (In fact I often AM a good mark.)

Good luck out there…

The Dealer Question - Results

- The original question:

“This survey is going to be the basis of a Blog entry, so I hope the response is strong

The idea is this: We know the quality of CG vehicles is markedly improved. The dealer network has long been an Achilles’ heel. Is it still? What say you?

It’s my contention that the level of service at the dealer (who for most people ‘is’ the automaker) plays a large role in vehicle satisfaction and overall perception of reliability.

Comments & stories welcome!”

The original thread

28 votes

Excellent overall; both sales and service - 9 (32.14%)
Had a good sales experience, but service has been lacking - 5 (17.86%)
Service is great; gotta watch that sales staff! - 5 (17.86%)
Sales/service about the same: average - 4 (14.29%)
Neither are any good, the bums! - 5 (17.86%)

While it’s hard to be definitive with a small sample, the results are interesting. While saying that 32% of repsondents think their dealership experience has been good all around may not cause jumps for joy, it’s still significantly higher than any other category.

Intriguing that the 2nd and third questions equalled each other - and “average” garnered the fewest responses!

Some general impressions on the comments put forward:

- It didn’t surprise me at all that service was viewed as a bigger ‘deal’ than the sales area; simply because it’s visited more often.

- Some good points were made about support being lacking at the corporate level and them being held out to dry in front of an angry customer.

- An important point was made on the initial attitude of the customer; essentially don’t walk in with a chip on your shoulder with no reason.

- An obvious point maybe, but independent shops can be as lousy as any dealer (four transmission jobs on a 90 Acclaim attests to that..once was delivered with no coolant in the motor1)

So those are some of the highlights; some great stories in the original thread, linked above.

Thanks to all!
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What Is It, Then And Now, The Dealer Question

- What is it?

All the talk about the upcoming Caliber and comments about what it actually is sparked further thought regarding modern vehicles.

It’s almost a rhetorical question, but I sometimes wonder what to call some of these ‘five door hatch’ vehicles. Some people call anything that has a high ride height and isn’t a minivan an SUV. To me the SUV grew out of what we used to call 4 x 4’s. Based on that, an SUV not only needs some four wheel drive capability, but also the beefier underpinnings to tackle at least moderate off road work.

So then what’s a Nissan Murano? One look at those wheels tells you it’s not an offroader. Is it a car? Can’t be a truck. Hmm.

It used to be easy when I was a kid; it was a sedan, a station wagon, a coupe. You had roadsters, and trucks. Of course ‘coupes’ and ‘two door sedans’ confused me a bit back then.

I’ve always thought of the PT as a ‘mini-minivan’ but don’t minivans have sliding doors? Well, the old Mazda MPV didn’t. But all the others have. So maybe the PT is a tall station wagon a-la the Pacifica or Freestar. Back in the days from which it drew inspiration, it was common for vehicles to be ‘tall’. The Caliber? I’m sticking with five door hatch as applied to the old Horizon, the most direct Mopar descendent. Who knows what the government will call it; when the ‘it’s SO a station wagon’ Magnum is classified as a truck…something is just askew.

Then and Now

It’s fascinating to look back at my old brochures and see how times have changed. I mean, every model line had a two four doors (pillared and hardtop), two foor doors (again, pillared and hardtop), a station wagon, and often a convertible. Never mind the color palette inside and out.

Fast forward a couple decades and that’s all a distant memory, with short exterior color lists, and even shorter body style and interior color lists. Of course the hardtop went away because of safety concerns, the convertible died and was reborn, and the station wagon melded with the cargo van and came out the minivan. Two doors are almost gone compared to what was available. It certainly shows how a competitive market forces changes, huh?.

Of course, no comment on ‘then and now’ can really be complete without mentioning the strides in overall reliability of today’s vehicles, and the level of content included or available in them. There’s no question they’re worlds ahead in those departments. Routine maintainence requirements (aside from oil and filter) and intervals are greatly extended for the most part; which is good because much of it isn’t very ‘routine’ anymore. After all, I just recently figured out where the battery is on my PT Cruiser

The Dealer question

For an upcoming entry I’m going to talk about dealer experiences people have had and try to get a handle on how Allpar folks think Chrysler is doing with their dealer network. It’s been an achilles heel in the past from all accounts; something that I’ve always found interesting since my experience has always been good. There’s a poll in the Chrysler Chat forum regarding this topic. There are some great comments there already; if you haven’t done so check it out and add yours! There’s no real deadline on it, when replies start dying off I’ll begin work on the entry. � ]]>
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