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But overall, it's been pretty good. Here's a list of what's happened to it so far...
30,000 miles: new tires, tranny service
35,000 miles: power lock actuator in driver's door fixed under warranty
39,000 miles: new front brake pads (installed by myself)
45,000 miles: passenger side mirror broken, rubber seal on rear door came loose.
As for fuel mileage, I've gotten anywhere from 20 mpg (wintertime, delivering pizzas, oxygenated gas) to just over 30 (highway, not pushing it too hard).
There are a few things that I don't like about the car though, mainly that legroom is a bit tight up front (but I'm 6'3") with the non-power seat, and if you load up the car and take it on a vacation through the mountains, you might be in for a surprise! The 2.7 is fine with 1-2 people on board, but if you frequently travel with more, I'd suggest test-driving one with the entire family on board to make sure it's got enough power for you.
I've had numerous issues over the 2.5 years I owned it including (but not limited to): Transmsission Control Sensor, Body Control Module replaced twice, replaced all window motors, replaced all door seals (came unglued), air conditioner worked on, blown fuses for the horn/speakers, one day the alarm went off and would NOT shut off, a door lock replaced, actuator replaced, and a very sneaky electrical issue that my dealer couldn't seem to find or fix. I had almost 20 service visits by the time I sold it at 41,000 miles. Some days it would be in a few hours (usually because parts weren't in stock), sometimes a week. It was one thing after another and no lemon rules applied. So I took my problems to the corporate level.
It would've been one thing if they were responsive to my needs and seemed genuinely concerned. Instead all they ever did was call the dealer who told them it was resolved. Corporate said they were still working on it and were assigning it to an "area manager" who finally called me 2 weeks after I told corporate I sold the car. None of them have returned my calls over the last week and a half about recouping the cost of a replacement part that didn't solve any of the problems.
The car didn't hold it's value worth a darn, and when you combine that with a 6 year finance and trying to trade it in I ended up not getting what I owed on it. I got a deal that was good enough for me.
I understand that not all Dodge products should be driven off a cliff and that things like this happen from time to time. But the dealers ineptitude, and corporate customer services' laid back approach turned me off to Dodge. No offers to cover the costs incurred by me, the time I wasted missing work, to pay off the car or at least get a good deal on another one, and I got ONE rental the last time I took it in- a Neon. They know how I feel from the constant contact and they didn't have the decency to at least pretend to take me seriously. I always thought the adage about catching more flies with honey was true and maybe I was too nice to them. Maybe I should've whined and complained more and could've caught more flies with shi*.
For those that still own them, good luck to you. My mom liked mine so much she went and bought one. She's getting the window motors replaced as I write this. Despite my problems, I loved the car. It did everything my family needed it to do except the one thing that I demanded- reliability. It was roomy, great looking body style, drove and handled superbly, but it was too much of a pain in the [non-permissible content removed] to keep and worry about constantly.
My roommate has a '98 Tracker. Diffrerent company, but still an excellent example. Today, after work, I'm meeting him at the Chevy dealership because he has to drop his Tracker off to get it fixed. It was just in last week, because of the transmission acting up, but now the problem is coming back. That thing has needed serious transmission work around 25K, 50K, and 75K miles. Now it's around the 80K mark, and still acting up.
A few months ago, it had to go in for repairs because of a fuel leak. He got it back, and it proceeded to leak fuel all over the place! He bought it at a dealership that I'd always believed to be unreputable. If I'd known him before he bought it, I would've warned him!
Thewaldo, I agree with you. I think if I had the problems that you've had, that it would turn me off to Dodge forever! The main reason I bought a new car was because of the reliability and peace-of-mind that supposedly comes with owning a newer car. But if it's going to break down all the time, what's the point? You'd think that when they DO break, the dealership would at least try to make the ordeal as painless as possible. After all, if you're not happy, you're not going to be dealing with them for long. I guess, though, that for every person they burn, someone else will come along.
Just curious, what did you trade your Intrepid in on?
We spent a lot of time looking at Mini-vans and the one category we were obviously concerned about was reliability given our experiences with the Intrepid. Toyota gets great ratings and has great word of mouth. Needless to say we didn't bother looking at the Caravans.
We also have a 94 Honda with almost 100K on it, and we've certainly gotten our money's worth out of that car. I just hope our luck holds up with it. With a Toyota and a Honda in the garage, I would like to think we'll be ok in the car department for awhile.
Don't blame you based upon your bad history with the car. I've got a 00 R/T, and had a tranny repair at about 2,400 miles, looking back I recall it shifted funny during the test drive. Now has almost 11,000 miles, no other problems (unless you count the urge to go 80-90 mph everywhere to get the engine in it's "sweet" range) My sister in law had a 94 that other than the air conditioner condenser replacment and a few cosmetic issues that never needed repair, served well, she sold it last month for $4,800.
It is one of the few family cars out there with any individual styling - most the rest are cookie-cutters. Complements my Miata well, though thinking of getting a collector big American convertible or sedan to replace that, I love those tail fins and a big v-8!
I was tempted, but decided to drive my old car a while longer, and then finally bought my '00 a few months later. As for my co-worker, his mom never really liked the '99. Even though the base engine went from 161 to 200 hp, torque, which is what you feel at the low-end, actually went down. And you had to stomp it to really get the advantage of the added hp. This woman is in her 70's, so it would be pretty hard to change her driving habits after all these years! She ended up selling it about a month ago (only had about 11,000 miles on it), and bought a new, fully-loaded 300M.
Do yourself a favor. Get a Honda, Toyota, Subaru or maybe a Mazda. A manual transmission might be a good idea. You will save money in the beginning buying a used Intrepid. Before you know it you will be spending hundreds to thousands replacing failing components. Read the posts.
Good Luck with whatever decision you make.
Mmeola, which engine does this Intrepid have? I've heard that the 3.3 is a more reliable engine than the 3.5, and I think the tranny behind the 3.3 tends to be more reliable than the one behind the 3.5. If you're interested in this car, have a mechanic that you trust check it out thoroughly. Most of the people I've known have had pretty good luck with first-gen LH cars, but, as I'm sure you know, transmission failures are a fairly common problem. I think water pump failure and a/c problems are known culprits, as well.
The main thing I would worry about, though, is how this car was maintained. Buying a used car is always a risky proposition, and that tranny, water pump, and compressor could just be waiting for you to sign the paperwork before failing. You might want to check into a newer-model LH. The quality was drastically improved with the 1998 redesign. If you looked around, you could probably find a '98 with around the same miles for about $10,000. Heck, you could probably get a 2000 with around 20K miles for $13-14K.
the tranny is the same unit whether mated to the 3.3l or 3.5l. water pump problems were limited to the 3.5l engine. the significant a/c condensor problems were virtually eliminated sometime around 1997 or 1998. cars previous to this were given a special extended warranty for 6 years or 100k miles...
Do you know what year they went to metal, versus plastic, front fenders? I've seen a few earlier models running around, and the fenders actually look warped or melted! Of course, I've seen GM cars like this too, so it's not a Chrysler-only trait!
i don't think it mattered what engine the tranny was hooked up to, the failure rates were probably the same. of course the 3.5l produces more torque and horsepower and therefore would put more strain on the unit. a couple months ago a chrysler tech told me that the 42le (intrepid tranny) is now pretty good. upgrades over the years have really benefitted it. probably the biggest upgrade was to the seals around 1996. also, tranny fluid upgrades and better torque management software were very helpful too. he said now that most problems have to do with electronic things like speed/range sensors and the like. certainly not tranny rebuilds at 50k which seemed fairly common on the early units!
i'm not sure about the fenders...i beleave my 96 still had the composite ones...of course the 98 had steel ones...
Oh, by the way the Coopers have a thin white wall. I didn't know which way to have them mounted, so I decided to go for a different look and had the whites mounted visible. I like it, my son didn't. He didn't pay for the car, so tough noogies to him.
The transmission speed sensor did go out in June, and it had to be towed to the dealer. Took them about 15 minutes to fix it. Luckily, all under warranty.
Despite that I am still glad we purchased the 1999 ES. It was great on the trip. We have grown to a family of 4 adults and a 12 year old. We had plenty of room. The giant trunk gulps up our
I think there is a general feeling among us owners that Chrysler does not exist anymore, and that these LH cars are among the last true Mopars. That may have something to do with the board drying up.
i was kinda bored so went in and built/priced an '02 intrepid se and es on the dodge web site. they just updated this info in the last couple days. guess what, i couldn't specify the 3.2l motor! the es for '02 now comes standard with the 3.5l engine and the se with the 2.7l. what is up with that? did chrysler quit making the 3.2l, or is it headed to other vehicles ( i can't think of any)? thought you guys might find this interesting!
cool to see that everyone's still around! So now for 2002, doe the Intrepid ES come standard with the depowered 3.5, or is that 2.7 with the 1 extra hp still the standard engine? I always thought it was kind of silly having 3 V-6 engines around with not that much of a difference in displacement. Another thing that got me is that the 2.7, lowliest of the 3, is DOHC, while the 3.2 and 3.5 are only SOHC. Couldn't they have made a DOHC 3.2 and 3.5 as well, to tweak more out of those engines? I mean, I know all that costs money, but they're already doing it with the engine that goes in the cheapest models!
As for HP, how much does the R/T have nowadays? Isn't it still something like 242? Is that really worth it, only having 8 hp more than the ES engine? Still, I guess a lot of it depends on the hp/torque curves, as well as gearing. Even 234 hp is still pretty respectable. After all, the Olds 3.5 OHC only puts out 215 hp, and the Buick 231, even supercharged, only puts out 240.
Smithed, you did a bit better than I did with my first tires. I had my Eagle GA's replaced last October, with just a little over 30,000 miles on them. They were pretty far gone, too. Now I'm running General tires. Forget what series, but they've got a 560 treadwear rating, and have held up fine so far!
As for dual exhausts... would they do any good for the 2.7? Or would that just be a waste of money?
i think dodge could easily get more hp out of the larger v/6s. however, it would require premium fuel and probably a new tranny. i think the 42le is about at its limit in the amount of additional torque it can take...at least that is what i've read somewhere.
I'm kinda intrigued by it. I'm sure that they'll have something totally different by the time I'm ready to trade in my '00 Intrepid, but still, I'm curious!
It was posted the R/T has chrome wheels and a rear wing this year to differentiate it, but performance wise, what will be different?
Keep Dodging
I'm happy with the 2.7 l engine, it's quite responsive even at low RPMs. I know, not as responsive as the 3.2 was at low RPMs, but quite satisfactory overall.
Acura vs Dodge. Now that's an interesting comparison. I bought my daughter a used 1991 Legend sedan with 105,000 miles on it about a year ago. It has been good so far, only requiring a transmission speed sensor. Would I buy a Dodge with that many miles? I guess I did. I bought a 1990 Spirit with 101,000 miles and now it has I don't know how many miles on it because the odometer broke at 117,000 about 3 years ago. The 2.5 liter 4 still seems strong.
My '00 Intrepid now has about 51,000 miles on it, and has only had one warranty repair: the power lock actuator in the driver's door was replaced at 35,200 miles. Powertrain-wise, I've had no problems whatsoever. I don't think it would cost them much more to make the powertrain warranty good through 5yr/60K miles, or even something longer. It might create some losses for the dealer however. For example, if my '00 had a better warranty than the 3/36 bumper-to-bumper, I might have been less inclined to spring for my extended warranty, which boosted thatt to 5/100K.
The only thing I can think of, for the Neon's extended warranty, is maybe they're still having enough problems with the 4-speed automatics to not want to cover them for that long. I've heard that the Neon's 3-speed is the least trouble-prone tranny they build nowadays. But still, I haven't heard anybody complain about a Chrysler tranny for a long time, now.
the neon for '02 sports the infamous 41te (4 speed automatic). the old three speed has been ditched, finally!
another interesting note is that chrysler of canada offers as standard a 5yr/60k powertrain warranty on all cars and minivans. don't know for sure about trucks.