Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/25 for details.
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/25 for details.
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Now, to me, that was a nice car, but with that kind of mileage, it was almost worthless. Insurance company gave me something like $2100 for it (would've been more, but I held onto the car). Plus $500 for pain and suffering. I ended up selling the thing for parts for about $800.
Now I wouldn't have paid $2100 for an '86 Monte with that kind of mileage back then, even if it were pristine! Unless it had a newly rebuilt 350 dropped in, or something!
Maybe I just got lucky, though. Also, things were a lot different back then, and insurance companies weren't hurting as bad back then.
As far as stolen cars, in that story about the most frequent vehicles, one source complained that Chyrysler was lax in adding anti-theft deterrence to their cars. Is this true? I looked at it another way, that after an Escalade, a Stratus was the next most desirable car. Anybody believe that?
ES
Thanks
ES '99
I certainly appreciate that you commented to Mike372--but you posted a visible message about an issue that I was also discussing. It seems to me that you were trying to present a factual statement about decontenting and Chrysler apparently leading the field. You are correct that I have a great interest in automotive issues. That's why I responded; as you apparently had discovered some information of which I wasn't aware. Of course you would agree that it's important that information have a basis in fact or it might be considered by some to be just so much bluster.. As far as the superior attitude accusations, I'm not quite sure I understand where that comes from.....but, perhaps, it comes from the same place as your "data" on Chrysler's decontenting.... Be well..
My point--maybe "decontenting" is good as long as one looks closely at the options list and chooses wisely. That way you get exactly what you want. With a website like Edmunds, it is so easy. I ordered my 'Trep just the way I wanted it and it was in in 4 weeks.
Anybody have any advice about my dome light question above? Just a simple question.
Thanks,
ES '99
Thanks.
Now comes our future , the LX. Production should start sometime in Jan 04. I will keep you posted !!
Andre , I have seen the wheels and without actually trying one LX wheel on the LH it does look like the same pattern . Thats just a guess
the new durango advertising starts around the end of october....so some should be on dealer lots by then...
yep!
Probably the best thing to do is to get it jacked up and pull a wheel off, and look at the brakes. If you're doing mostly highway miles, they should last a long time.
One of my supervisors has a '92 or '93 Honda Civic that went about 150-160K miles on its first set of brake pads! He does almost pure highway driving, and comes in early and leaves early enough to miss most of the rush hour traffic. He's still on his original drums. Now I'm sure there's a certain crowd that would just chant "oooohhhhm....Honda....Oooooohhhhhmmmmm....Honda" but I think just about any car should get some serious life out of the brake pads if it's mainly driven on the highway. Provided you don't ride the brakes or regularly nail them!
I have a 2002 Intrepid SE (only 4,100 miles) and have been thinking of adding a few mods. Has anyone added new features to their cars?
ES
Brake repairs (km's are approx)
Front 15, 35, 55, 75.
Rear 35, 75. Pads and rotors replaced each time , first replacement under warranty, front calipers also replaced at that time, Chrysler parts. All other replacements were done with aftermarket parts cheap rotors and ceramic pads. Tests were done on other fleet vehicles using better quality rotors w/ metallic pads (noisy) or lower quality pads (fast wear). Higher quality rotors were also tested but the best combination was found to be the good pads with import rotors and change as a set.
The local Chrysler dealer suggested using aftermarket parts to obtain better results than original equipment. With a labor rate of 60. per hr it is not cost effective to have the rotors turned.
Unfortunately, brakes don't always wear evenly. When I changed my front pads (can't remember if it was the first time or the second) one of the pads had actually worn at an angle. There was almost no "meat" at one edge, but where the little metal clip was, it wasn't worn down enough yet to make contact.
Probably a good idea to do a visual check on the brakes every time you rotate the tires. Which reminds me, that time's coming up again soon for me...
And what, pray tell, and I being tempted by? This evil-looking, black '02 Intrepid R/T that we saw sitting on a used car lot! Thankfully, we spent enough time getting my Dad a car that it started getting late, so I have time to think about it, but come noon tomorrow, when that dealership opens, I have a feeling I'm going to be there as they open the gate!! I'm almost tempted to keep my '00 around, but I still owe 14 months on it, and don't want to keep two car payments going on it. Plus, they're willing to give me what I owe on my '00 (which is about $1300 more than it's worth, with the miles I have on it), so I can probably actually get into this thing for a lower monthly payment, and on a 4-year term.
For some reason, that old song by Squeeze, "Tempted by the fruit of another" is running through my mind right now...
Anyway, when I drove the car, I was underwhelmed. Not that it was a bad car, but I guess I was just expecting more. It was kinda like expecting a '68 Coronet R/T, maybe, but then getting handed a '78 Aspen R/T! I really thought this car would be faster, but honestly, it didn't seem all that much quicker than my tiny 2.7! I'm sure if I put a stopwatch to it, it would've been much more noticeable, but just going by the "seat of your pants" feeling, it just didn't come off as that impressive. At least not enough to make me sink all that money into it.
Then I started thinking about how my car is paid off by next November, but if I traded, that would bump it out to 4 years, and it just didn't seem worth it. Plus, I know how my car's been maintained, and as a result I trust it. I know what it's had done to it, and I know what it's going to need soon. I didn't want to make the jump from that, back to a used car whose reliability could be a crap shoot.
I also started missing my car, even though I hadn't gotten rid of it yet! I mean, this was the first car I ever bought brand-new, and suddenly, I started feeling like an overprotective father! So, I'll probably end up sticking with my original plan, to drive this thing until it drops.
That said, when the 2.7 is "on the cam" and taking advantage of the lighter weight of the SE, it's a great ride. I have the same trepidation (no pun intended) about buying used--one never knows. Keep us informed..... And a note to the group...anyone seen a 2004 Durango on a lot??
There are times too when I wish I had a bigger motor, but then overall, I think my car's pretty well-balanced out. This R/T definitely was faster than my car, but I guess I just expected more. Like years ago when I totaled my '69 Dart 225 slant six, and a few days later found a '68 with a 318...that was like a difference of night and day! Or comparing my old 1980 Malibu 229 V-6 or my '82 Cutlass Supreme 231 to my Mom's '86 Monte 305 when she gave it to me. That thing would've utterly blown the doors off those other two cars, and it wasn't even an SS!
I'm sure I would've been happy with the R/T if I bought it. The main factor though, was going into that much debt again! It was still a nice car, but just not nice enough to make me forget about the price!
Within the next couple of weeks, I will become the user of an '04 Intrepid ES as a company car and I'm really looking forward to it.
Smart move on your part. Monthly payments sure are great when they are paid off and there are none. That is really something to strive for. I am always concerned about looking down the road at 36 to 60 months of car payments. Don't do it unless you have to. Nothing like driving a car that you are happy with that has no payments associated with it.
The big advantage of buying new as opposed to used is that you know the maintenance that has been done and can feel better about driving it for many years and miles after all the payments are made. That said, I have had good luck with a couple of used vehicles, but bought the 'Trep new in '99 and have records of all the maintenance and know exactly what needs to be done and when.
Have a good one,
ES
http://bz.homenetinc.com/sheehy/vehicles/A230576A.jpg
That's a nice car, but you should stop looking at the picture. It's like some of those magazines with the girls in them--gets you all excited and doing things you shouldn't.
ES