Problems (all) listed here plus some on new Sprinter
Well, maybe we were the lucky buyers of a real lemon - husband is ready to sacrifice it to the bad car god !!
Bought new 2007 Dodge Sprinter end of February this year when the big sale was on with the slow car sales/economy just as one of the company vans was ready to give it up after 250,000 miles of hard work. We use our vans (all heavy duty passenger) for deliveries so they have all highway miles and are maintained like religion..every 3000 miles oil change and the good once over and things changed or replaced as soon as they show signs of needing it. The 02 Ford F350 is at 250,000 now and still running hard and looks almost as good as new, the 04 Chevy 3500 despite the body issues from a tech hitting a parking garage post, is at almost the same mileage and still workiing hard too.
The sprinter came home with about 30 miles on it, mostly from me driving it home from dealer. It sat on driveway from time we got it until its first road trip in June this year.. Trip was about 600 miles round trip in fairily cool weather and easy driving loaded to the gills for a industry conference. Tech using it said it was fine other than to figure out how to use everything since it was so "foreign" to the Chevy and Ford. Upon its return it sat in the driveway until this past weekend (8/23/08) and went for its 2nd and longest trip to date - delivery trip to State of Texas (From Illinois). Husband and tech loaded up and took off. About 6 hours into trip he called and said everything was fine but he did not like the way the AC was working and the further across the Missouri they were getting the hotter it was getting. He called on the west side of Kansas city heading to Dallas saying the front AC was out.. the rear was working and he hoped it kept working since we make and restore fine handmade furniture, antiques and the same for wood musical instruments. Baking in a hot vehicle hour after hour on the road is a no no .. After Dallas stop he called to say the front AC was going on then shutting down, the rear was acting up and something funky was going on with the cruise control... start looking at dealers across Texas in the major cities they would be going through..
Husband is no flunkie when it comes to vehicle maintenace he's rebuilt enough race cars and maintain his business vehicles so they run well into the 200,000's so obviously he had a clue what he's doing and what goes on with them.
Dallas to Houston I did not hear a word..
He called as they were on the west end of Houston heading to San Antonio saying the front AC was down for good, it was 98 humid degrees and they were soaked to the skin and miserable in the heat of the day at not even 11AM yet .. the rear was acting up so he turned it off making the van unbearable.. cruise was out.. radio went out for some odd reason, the power steering was acting up now so to check on dealers along Hwy XXX between where he was and San Antonio just in case..
40 miles of ourside San Antonio he calls and says find me a dealer fast to try and get to.. this whole vehicle is going down fast.. I found one and got map from where he was to them and guided them in - it died completely on them and would not start about 3/4 mile from the dealer. They walked there and it had to be towed back in. The walked to the hotel they saw down the road with their duffle bags and got a room for the night, by now their cell phones were dead so I had to do all the calling. The service manager at the dealer it was towed to said they were not like the BIG City (Chicago) and they closed at 4PM there was no time to run diagnostics on it they would do it in the morning and hung up on me this was Monday at 2PM, they still had 2 hours but obviously they do not work like they do in Chicago and the Suburbs.
I called him Tuesday about 10:30 (they open at 9) and he said.. there are people ahead of you we will get to it when we get to it I told him it had been there since the night before it was before the others that had showed up when they opened and these guys were not going to sit around in a hotel for days on end until they decided to get around to it.. he said someone will call you and hung up on me. Few hours later I got a call and they said ..
VAN is dead, the whole electrical system is down there is nothing we can do until the regional rep gets back to us with the updates we need. So tell your guys to enjoy their vacation. WHAT updates I asked.. lady you a mechanic he said, NO I replied but I can ask people that will know here - what updates ! The updates to try and diagnosis the problem he said and hung up on me. I called back 3 times and neither him or his boss would take my call.
In meantime my husband called the closest Hertz rental office from their motel and got an SUV they had to get the large piece out of the back of the van before the heat started to destroy the lacquers and finish and hand painting on it and get it to the owner that was about 70 miles west of San Antonio.. he called me on the way to tell me what they were doing and that he just had a big fight with the managers at the dealer who told him to "enjoy his vacation from the wife for a week" and basically blew him off like they did me earlier. He told me Ihe needed to get to the client and make this delivery its going to be a few hours there and back.. see what you can find out and do and get the thing fixed and get us out of here I have no intentions of sitting here for the next week whatever they mean by that.
I called the dealership back and asked for the dealership manager and told him the whole thing and that I needed to know what was going on and get something done - we had a business to run and my husband the boss/owner was not going to sit there in some hotel for a week watching TV when he needed to be at the factory back home doing what he does. Man gave me a hard time but said that they needed to be patient and so did I and wait for the corporate office to get the info to them they needed. I was angry and said what is so hard about this.. can't they just fax or email it to you or send it by fedex ?? There are 8 dealers in San Antonio proper can't you work with one of them ? He hung up on me..
I called the dealer here we bought it from and demanded to talk to the sales manager.. he was out would be back in hour or so they took my name and the problem and phone number. I called Dodge Corporate.. went through all the various departmetns and sat on hold for a total of a few hours while dealing with them.. finally I got to some woman manager after being transfered over and over and over.. She asked me to start at the beginning so I did.. obviously you have a major problem there (really !).. I don't know what you expect us to do. I said to her, its simple give me to the person that is suppose to be sending these guys at this dealership in Texas whatever it is they need so I can get this moving, she refused and blew me o
Bought new 2007 Dodge Sprinter end of February this year when the big sale was on with the slow car sales/economy just as one of the company vans was ready to give it up after 250,000 miles of hard work. We use our vans (all heavy duty passenger) for deliveries so they have all highway miles and are maintained like religion..every 3000 miles oil change and the good once over and things changed or replaced as soon as they show signs of needing it. The 02 Ford F350 is at 250,000 now and still running hard and looks almost as good as new, the 04 Chevy 3500 despite the body issues from a tech hitting a parking garage post, is at almost the same mileage and still workiing hard too.
The sprinter came home with about 30 miles on it, mostly from me driving it home from dealer. It sat on driveway from time we got it until its first road trip in June this year.. Trip was about 600 miles round trip in fairily cool weather and easy driving loaded to the gills for a industry conference. Tech using it said it was fine other than to figure out how to use everything since it was so "foreign" to the Chevy and Ford. Upon its return it sat in the driveway until this past weekend (8/23/08) and went for its 2nd and longest trip to date - delivery trip to State of Texas (From Illinois). Husband and tech loaded up and took off. About 6 hours into trip he called and said everything was fine but he did not like the way the AC was working and the further across the Missouri they were getting the hotter it was getting. He called on the west side of Kansas city heading to Dallas saying the front AC was out.. the rear was working and he hoped it kept working since we make and restore fine handmade furniture, antiques and the same for wood musical instruments. Baking in a hot vehicle hour after hour on the road is a no no .. After Dallas stop he called to say the front AC was going on then shutting down, the rear was acting up and something funky was going on with the cruise control... start looking at dealers across Texas in the major cities they would be going through..
Husband is no flunkie when it comes to vehicle maintenace he's rebuilt enough race cars and maintain his business vehicles so they run well into the 200,000's so obviously he had a clue what he's doing and what goes on with them.
Dallas to Houston I did not hear a word..
He called as they were on the west end of Houston heading to San Antonio saying the front AC was down for good, it was 98 humid degrees and they were soaked to the skin and miserable in the heat of the day at not even 11AM yet .. the rear was acting up so he turned it off making the van unbearable.. cruise was out.. radio went out for some odd reason, the power steering was acting up now so to check on dealers along Hwy XXX between where he was and San Antonio just in case..
40 miles of ourside San Antonio he calls and says find me a dealer fast to try and get to.. this whole vehicle is going down fast.. I found one and got map from where he was to them and guided them in - it died completely on them and would not start about 3/4 mile from the dealer. They walked there and it had to be towed back in. The walked to the hotel they saw down the road with their duffle bags and got a room for the night, by now their cell phones were dead so I had to do all the calling. The service manager at the dealer it was towed to said they were not like the BIG City (Chicago) and they closed at 4PM there was no time to run diagnostics on it they would do it in the morning and hung up on me this was Monday at 2PM, they still had 2 hours but obviously they do not work like they do in Chicago and the Suburbs.
I called him Tuesday about 10:30 (they open at 9) and he said.. there are people ahead of you we will get to it when we get to it I told him it had been there since the night before it was before the others that had showed up when they opened and these guys were not going to sit around in a hotel for days on end until they decided to get around to it.. he said someone will call you and hung up on me. Few hours later I got a call and they said ..
VAN is dead, the whole electrical system is down there is nothing we can do until the regional rep gets back to us with the updates we need. So tell your guys to enjoy their vacation. WHAT updates I asked.. lady you a mechanic he said, NO I replied but I can ask people that will know here - what updates ! The updates to try and diagnosis the problem he said and hung up on me. I called back 3 times and neither him or his boss would take my call.
In meantime my husband called the closest Hertz rental office from their motel and got an SUV they had to get the large piece out of the back of the van before the heat started to destroy the lacquers and finish and hand painting on it and get it to the owner that was about 70 miles west of San Antonio.. he called me on the way to tell me what they were doing and that he just had a big fight with the managers at the dealer who told him to "enjoy his vacation from the wife for a week" and basically blew him off like they did me earlier. He told me Ihe needed to get to the client and make this delivery its going to be a few hours there and back.. see what you can find out and do and get the thing fixed and get us out of here I have no intentions of sitting here for the next week whatever they mean by that.
I called the dealership back and asked for the dealership manager and told him the whole thing and that I needed to know what was going on and get something done - we had a business to run and my husband the boss/owner was not going to sit there in some hotel for a week watching TV when he needed to be at the factory back home doing what he does. Man gave me a hard time but said that they needed to be patient and so did I and wait for the corporate office to get the info to them they needed. I was angry and said what is so hard about this.. can't they just fax or email it to you or send it by fedex ?? There are 8 dealers in San Antonio proper can't you work with one of them ? He hung up on me..
I called the dealer here we bought it from and demanded to talk to the sales manager.. he was out would be back in hour or so they took my name and the problem and phone number. I called Dodge Corporate.. went through all the various departmetns and sat on hold for a total of a few hours while dealing with them.. finally I got to some woman manager after being transfered over and over and over.. She asked me to start at the beginning so I did.. obviously you have a major problem there (really !).. I don't know what you expect us to do. I said to her, its simple give me to the person that is suppose to be sending these guys at this dealership in Texas whatever it is they need so I can get this moving, she refused and blew me o
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After hours of calling between the dealer we bought from and he got to the Regional field rep for the midwest which was backup to the guy covering texas, who was on vacation for another week.. the field rep called and talked to dealer and touble shot with them.. He said it was the master module and some other my husband was right in his assumption that the whole electrical system was going down one by one until the main module went. Problem is getting the replacements they are hard to get, ship in from europe and they only send a few at a time and the demand for them as replacements is much higher than what's shipped. Been going around with him most of yesterday and today as he tried to help along with sales manager here where we bought it.. husband is furious at the waste of time and expense for a brand new van that has proved to be useless for what it was purchased for.. they finally found a module and its suppose to ship out
yesterday but it wsa bumped to another state another dealer and client so we had nothing today as expected.. hours later the rep found another and is supose to ship out tonight next day to the dealer in TX to be installed tomorrow .. if not, we already have a rental at Hertz for the guys to get home and husband said they can keep the van there and hopes it and this TX dealership blow up and got to hell he's so disgusted with the product and the service outside of home and the selling dealer.
Personally I found dealing with the Texas dealer and corporate Dodge about as outrageous, insulting and arrogant as corporate america can get. We would never think of treating our clients like this - how do these companies get away with it after reading what other there are going through as well. We are the proud owners of a 44,000 dollar piece of crap and the manufacturer does not give a rat's butt either.
His comment and I agree.. get it fixed get rid of it and go back to the ford's we've used for 20 years that have been dependable. Chrysler/Dodge can go to hell and I hope they go fast ! :mad: