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Comments
Number one is the road noise. It sounds like I'm driving a truck!
Number two is how many times I have scraped the bottom of the car. I don't know if its too low or if the suspension is bad but I scrape the bottom about once a week. I scraped my 98 Taurus about 3 times in two years. I literally have to crawl out of the parking lot of the local Mini-Mall.
qm2k
To start with you may want to browse at http://www.tirerack.com and do a search for tires for your Intrepid. When you select the vehicle it should give you a tire size of 225/60/16. You can then narrow the search by selecting boxes below. I'd suggest selecting Touring, Grand Touring, All Season & Performance All Season. You can then view a whole selection. Also when you are looking at specific tires clicking on specs will give you a table showing specifications. The 1st 3 numbers under the heading UTQG have to do with relative tire wear or how many miles they would normally last. A higher number is better meaning they will last longer.
There are a number of tires in or slightly above your price range for example the Bridgstone Potenza RE910 at $67 looks decent. Anyway once you decide on a tire or two that look good and meet your budget needs write down the manufacturer, model and size and call some local tire places to get their best price. It should be fairly close.
Hope this is of some help.
For tires, I would also check out Sam's Club. They tend to have very good prices on tires, and the mounting, balancing, stems, etc. are pretty reasonable. If you are looking for inexpensive tires, they sell General's, which are good basic tires. They also sell BF Goodrich and Michelin's.
Good luck.
I had a '69 Bonneville that ate starters on a regular basis, too! Must have been something with that year, because I also have a '67 Catalina that has been trouble free in that respect. My main problem was the solenoid...the thing would try to start, but if it didn't catch, it would keep grinding until I either got it to start or yanked off a battery cable! There was most likely some other problem causing it to kill the starters, but I didn't have time to fool with it and got rid of it, because I already had too many cars. The starter on the 400 was easy to get to, though, so that was a small consolation!
As for my experience with starters on Chrysler products, I've replaced two starters on my '68 Dart, one on my '79 Newport, and two on my '89 Gran Fury, all of them 318's. The Dart's was 133, and when it failed the second time was still under warranty, so I only had to pay the $50.00 labor to put it on. That was May 1996 when it failed, and it's been fine since.
I think my Newport's starter was about $188 installed. I got ripped with my Gran Fury, though. I took it to Precision Tune or some place like that, and they said that because it was police spec, it would be very expensive. I forget the exact total, but it was over $300! It failed about 3 months later, and I would have taken it back, but the guy that had put it on killed himself that night, so I felt really weird about ever dealing with them again. So I took it to my regular shop (should have gone there in the first place) and they charged about $213. They also said it was a heavy duty police spec starter, but $213 installed seemed like a bargain. Plus, I trusted them enough to know they'd do it right.
All things considered, I guess $353 isn't TOO ridiculous for a dealer-installed starter. I don't know how much harder they are to install than older starters. Considering that's about what I got ripped for for my Gran Fury's first starter, from a chain-store. I bought the extended warranty with my Intrepid so at least it's covered to 100K miles. After that, if it goes, I'm taking it to my mechanic! I trust him a lot more than my dealership (and obviously, a lot more than that chain-store!!)
-Andre
-Andre
When I first got my '98 ES, I too would hear the front plastic air dam scrape the ground when I was going up and down my driveway. I had the Dodge dealership clip off about an inch of it, from side to side. That has solved the problem I was experiencing. You can't take too much of it off, otherwise it defeats the purpose of the part, which is to force air up into the engine compartment.
Happy Driving,
Lee
28,000 miles without a single significant problem.
qm2k
It's not just the Intrepid that does this though. I've experienced it first-hand with the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Saturn L-series. I've heard the Stratus will do it, too.
-Andre
Guess this is the price we pay for very aerodynamic cars these days....put the windows down and all the air comes INSIDE, not going around the car like it is supposed to....
In the summer I drive around with both fronts down and a rear down about 1". No buffeting....ahhhhh...
After the experience with the rear window vibration/sunroof vibration in your Intrepid, do you notice that you can suddenly pick it up in other cars, as well? When I first got my Intrepid in November 1999 was the first time I had experienced it in ANY car, and it drives me crazy sometimes! I like to drive around sometimes with just the back windows cracked and the front ones up. But now, even in older cars, like my grandmother's '85 LeSabre, and my '89 Gran Fury, I notice it too! The LeSabre's windows only open half-way, and the Gran Fury's go down all but about an inch or two, but I can still sense it! And I never even noticed before I got the Intrepid!
I had thought the vibration was due to the fact that the window glass on the Intrepid (and most modern cars) is so thin that it will flex and vibrate if it's not fully up and secure. It's not that big of a deal though...I just learn to crack a front window a bit to neutralize it.
How is your Intrepid R/T doing? I'm kind of tempted to go for an R/T the next time around instead of another base model.
-Andre
Talking about vibrations, I get the brain-beater vibes even in my ford truck. I'm guessing alot of new vehicles have bad vibes as even a friends VW passat suffers from this. Guess they don't runn'em through a wind-tunnel with the windows down huh? Must be some new EPA thing.....
Have fun drivin'.........
engine so it would not start. I tried to set and unset the alarm as you normally
would but had no luck.
Will I have to tow it to a dealer?
Thanks if you can help.
Anyway, I picked-up a 0% 2000 leftover. Got a grand total of 1,700 miles on it so far. I love the car, but I've got my first problem. There is a "rattle" that sounds like it's coming from near the glove box (nothing in it), maybe the right vent area. Had a friend in the car today but couldn't pin-point it.
I kind of remember seeing, but not reading, something on the net, a few months ago when I first started looking at the car, something like "what's that rattle". But I can't find it now for the life of me.
Not a big deal since I plan to take the car in for regular maint. Just wondering if anyone has had this "problem" of if ya have seen the mysterious document...
Turn the dial down slightly.
Thanks!!
I've only had 2 rebuilt trannies in my lifetime...one at 61K on an '82 Cutlass Supreme, and one at 230K on a '79 Newport. Just before the 12mo/12K mile warranty was up on the Cutlass, it quit engaging and had to be towed back to the shop. Turns out the bolts came loose and the whole tranny actually separated from the engine!!
When you mentioned staying at 65-70 on your trip, you reminded me of something I'd said I'd do a few years back when I took a trip. I drove from DC to Oklahoma in a '68 Dart with about 285K miles on it. I remember saying to myself "it's an old car, so I'm going to keep 'er around 60-65, and take plenty of rest stops. Well, before I knew it, I was doing close to 90 at times on those highways, and made the 1300 mile trip in about 28 hours (About 7 hours for sleep, plus had to stop for gas every 250-275 miles, and a couple of food/pit stops)
BTW, my '00 Intrepid is up to almost 42,000 miles, with no major problems so far. Serviced the tranny at 30K, and needed new tires. Those soft 300-rated tires that came with it just didn't hold up. Power lock actuator replaced under warranty at 35K miles, and new front brakes at 39K.
stdg, I'm catchin' up to ya! ;-)
-Andre
Between the other two, they are both good buys, so it comes to personal choice if money is not the deciding factor. The Intrepid will be somewhat bigger, smoother styled, and with rebates and special financing, a good deal. The Gran Prix is a nice, but a little too flashy inside for my tastes. I actually prefer the Impala with the 3.8 to the Gran Prix, but all 3 are good choices.
Now if it is actually only 2-3 k miles a year, buy a used car.
It's already time to replace at least two tires. In my line of business, I simply haven't had the time to go and get the tires rotated every 5000 miles. I'd like to expand on Marsha7's original recent question about tires and ask the general fund of knowledge here about replacements. What have been your experiences regarding various brands. What I'm looking for is the appropriate mix of all-season roadholding, reasonable performance (I drive this car HARD!), and longevity. My inclincation is to simply buy another set of the stock tires and take better care of them this time, but if there's something better out there, please tip me to it.
Cheers,
neuronbob
ps--glad to see marsha7, emale, and a few other oldsters (in terms of longevity in this forum) here still!
I ended up getting tires from Discount tire online (www.tire.com, I think), and they had a treadwear rating of 560. I forget exactly which ones I got; I remember they were made by General. They're a little harder than the original Goodyear Eagle GA's, but I'm now at 42,000 (rotated at 39K), and there isn't the slightest hint of wear on them. If the 300 rated tires lasted to 30K, I'm hoping the 560 rated will last me to 86K.
I'm pretty rough on my car, too. I hit 30K miles in 11 months, and now, at 16 months and a couple days, I'm at 42K. I just couldn't justify replacing my tires every year, so that's why I went with the higher treadwear rating. I think they were only about $250.00 for all 4, too, and a local shop put them on for $50.00.
-Andre
I had the factory set of Michelin's last 82,000 miles on my 92 Taurus. Michelin's have excellent reputations, but Generals are good basic tires. Both are carried by Sam's Club.
No, I don't work for them, just lucky that the closest tire retailer to me is them.
The original Goodyear GA's did fine, remounted and used the full size spare, and bought 3 new ones to 130,000 miles. Recently bought 2 new Michelin I radial plus. They resemble the GA in appearance, but are speed rated (118MPH), the GA's are rated (112MPH). Additionally, the Michelin's have a wear factor of 620, twice the GA's, and for less money. The Michelins are quitter and make the car handle like it is on rails. You might want to take a look at them.
regards, ramron
-Andre
I've been doing a little checking, and I've narrowed the list down to a few:
(OEM) Eagle GA. These had decent snow traction when new, but suck now. Then again, the drive tires have only 3/32 tread left. They tend to whine and squeal on aggressive cornering. Otherwise, they were competent, unexciting tires.
Pirelli 400P Touring Less expensive, but a good reputation, and decent wet and snow traction according to reports.
Michelin X-One A little more expensive, but the Michelin Roadhandlers (I replaced the OEMs) on my wife's Stratus have held up well, lasting so far about 40000 miles with minimal wear on the drive wheels. I also like what ramron said about the X-One. This one is winning so far....tirerack.com here I come!
I don't know much about Generals, but I'll certainly take a look. My local Sam's Club is literally right around the corner, jsylvester, so this'll be easy.
http://slate.msn.com/shopping/01-03-08/shopping.asp
Most reliable domestic with 11 defects per 100 vehicles is the 2000 'trep!
Note that's domestic. Don't plan to start any religious wars!
For the record, my 2000 ES has 16K+ on it with no problems. Big whoo-hoo for Dodge!
It proves the Chrysler Group can improve its quality.
Whether the Intrepid (a product of a largely French engineering team inherited from Renault-AMC, built in a plant designed by and built for Renault, in Ontario, Canada, by a now German company) is a domestic product is wide open to question.
The badge has a domestic history, but that's about it.
"U.S./Canadian parts content: 86%
Country of origin:
Engine: United States
Transmission: United States
Sounds pretty "American" to me...
If you look at the engineering of the LH cars, you find a longitudinally mounted engine (the only one in a FWD Chrysler Group product), just like the Premier and other Renault cars. You also find similarities in the suspension design, the cab-forward design, and in other areas as well.
The LH cars are far more European in their engineering than anything Chrysler has sold under the Chrysler name since the French/British designed Omni and Horizon.
The cars are North American by assembly, but certainly not by design.
Bob
1. Opionion 2. Conjecture 3. Flawed logic ?????
As for the roominess of the Chrysler LH cars, that's nothing new. Chrysler has traditionally built the roomiest cars in their class. For example, compare a 1957 Plymouth to a 1957 Chevy. My '68 Dart is roomier than any other compact from 1968. My old '79 Newport was roomier than an equivalent Ford or GM car (like a Grand Marquis, Bonneville, or LeSabre). I figured the roominess aspect was more Chrysler's heritage than any French influence.
As for the longitudinal engine, I've always wondered why they did that. Would a longitudinal arrangement help to reduce torque steer? One thing I never liked about FWD cars is their tendency to shoot off to one side when you stomp on the pedal, but the Intrepid's pretty good in that respect.
As for reliability issues...42K miles so far and only one problem (power lock actuator at 35K). And considering how many times I flick those locks on an average night of delivering pizzas, I guess it's no shock that someting like that would fail!
-Andre
without looking back. I think the value of this car is outstanding. I'm astounded by the quality.
I want to live in the backseat and sleep in the trunk. Dealership experience was first class all the way through at TriState Toyota Dodge in Dudley MA.