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Im using the drop in K&N filter...
Here is link to plans: http://www.dodgeintrepid.net/lintake/lintake.html
I do think that a lot of times when people are disappointed in something it's because they failed to do the digging before purchase. By not understanding the nature of the item they end up with unrealistic expections for the it. When the product doesn't meet those expectations the buyer ends up disappointed and unhappy with the purchase. I believe that's especially true of vehicles.
As I understand it, a sunroof comes standard on every "M". You can order one without it, but there's no reduction in price.
FWIW, sunroofs (sunrooves)? are quite reliable for no leaks these days. If any water gets past the roof seal, there's a ½" rubber tube draining from each of the 4 corners of a plastic tray and routed down the A and C pillars.
And I would really rather not buy. Even with a car at $24K, over 6 years that is $4k/year or about $350/month not counting on profit for the lender (downpayments let you adjust the monthly fee, of course) or tax. No warranty for the second set of 3 years, and I know for sure I'll have to buy new tires and probably do brakes and such during years 4-6. At the end of 6 years the car will be worth how much? $4K, maybe? Instead I'll lease for 36-39 months now for not much more/month (dealer quoted me $371 with tax for 39 months, $400 with tax) with $2500 down.
The dealer's rates convinced me that there was no way that made sense to buy my 2000; residual is about $16.5K which is what the loan company says I will owe if I buy it. No way that makes sense compared to $400/month for a new vehicle...
I stand corrected. In my post I was repeating what the dealer told me when I bought my '01 new. Perhaps it's changed since then. I'll be asking around.
Goodyear has lots of radio ads on around here in which the spokesman points out to a supposedly unobservant female that all the cruisers in the donut shop parking lot have Goodyears. The drift is; the police protect us, the Goodyears protect the police, something like that.
"In my post I was repeating what the dealer told me when I bought my '01 new."
That was your first mistake! LOL....
fastdriver
I find the noise unacceptable, and the side tread wears too quickly despite inflation to 34 psi and numerous alignment checks.
I am leaning toward the Yoko YK420's for my next set.
Hope this helps.
Arrived at 8:00am and was promptly waited on at the service desk. I was also scheduled for my first LOF and asked about Mobil 1. Service writer advised to do this one with dino oil and then switch over to give the rings time to properly seat, etc...I said OK. Service writer asked about the shake problem and if it was still a concern. He wrote up my exact description of how the car behaves and at what speeds. I then go sit in the waiting area. About 15 minutes later, one of the service guys comes in to talk to me. He does a QC audit on all the cars before they're given back to the customer to ensure the service visit corrected the problem. He hands me the keys to another Special and asks me to go for a drive. He explains that they've had numerous complaints from other Special owners about vibrations and a stiff ride. He wants to make sure I understand that the Special has a more aggressive suspension tuning and will ride noticeably harder than even the PHG equipped cars. I take the car out and decribe for him how this Special compares to mine. This car had no up-down bounce in the steering wheel like mine did, but was much worse in the SOTP. They pulled my car in, and road-force balanced all 4 tires. They took the car back out and then told me that it rode better but still wasn't right, so they were going to replace all 4 wheels and tires. Since they didn't have any in stock, they pulled one of the new Specials fresh off the truck and put its wheels and tires on my car. They took it up the road again and came to get me to say it was better. They were going to let me go, but I asked instead to road test the car myself. I opened my driver's door and found a huge smear of grease all over my pristine Taupe seats and door sills. The QC guy apologized up and down and 25 ways to Sunday for the stains and had the tech clean up the car immediately. We then went up the road. The up/down bounce was gone, but the overall ride quality was much worse than when I brought it in and I informed him of such. When we got back to the dealership, he told me he wanted to talk to his boss and see what could be done to fix it. He acknowledged that I wasn't happy and said they wouldn't give me the car back like this. This was BTW almost 4 hours into my visit. They gave me a rental (POS Neon) and said they were going to have one of their master techs go completely through the car.
They called me at home about 2 1/2 hours later to say the car was done and that it was riding as smooth as glass. When I asked what they had to do, he told me that basically with my Special, they had a total of 6 Specials on the lot and that they pulled all the wheels and tires off of all 6 cars and gave me the best 4 sets of the 24 they had to work with. They road-force balanced all of them, including my full size spare, washed and reconned the car for free, and then asked me to drive it to make sure it was fixed. They weren't BS'ing me, the car rides as smooth as glass at ALL speeds. I thanked them for the time they spent on it and suggested that they elevate this to DC since it took 24 sets to get 4 good ones. This problem was solved through brute force and nothing else. They told me that they will elevate through Michelin as they think the tires are the culprit.
In my case, I got my car fixed, but I feel sorry for the next guy because I got all the good tires now. In all, they worked very hard to fix my car. They threw some parts at it, but it was the right parts I guess. They just had to get good ones. My first experience with this 5-Star was an overall favorable one. I had to more or less stay on top of them, but they worked hard to satisfy me and they DID fix it properly on the first service visit. On the downside, they need to take more care handling customers' property. I did not appreciate that grease stain, AND I had to re-train my tire pressure sensors myself. They forgot to do it.
Whatcha think ??
gary_berg - don't be fooled that you have to pay the remaining payments on your car if you turn in a lease early. That's a common misconception. What happens is this - you bring the car in and get a bid on trade-in value the dealer will give you. You compare it to the buyout. If it's equal to or more than the buyout, you can get out of the car, no prob. If it's more, you actually make money (many people miss this possibility when they turn in leases). If they don't offer you as much as the buyout, you just wait till the end of the lease.
If you have a 99 or 00, then I bet your buyout is less than trade-in. I had an 01 which I bought out myself (leased, changed jobs, too many miles and actually saved a fortune in the end since they buyout on my M (01) was far less than actual value (I was 18 mo into 48 mo lease).
You don't have to trade it if the deal isn't in your favor, but if you don't ask, you won't know. Good luck
oh - on a side note - the difference in money you spend to buy is basically the buyout you won't have in the car if you lease. Pay more up front, own it... pay less up front, don't own it. And leasing on the chryslers recently sucks. They've dropped the residual substantially, so the payments are much higher.
Better service than I ever received from my "5-STAR". Is this time spent really acceptable to you for a $32-34,000 brand new car? If so, then you're willing to accept more then me. I did all this crap too, but felt it totally uncalled for on a "flagship" brand new car.
Glad it is as smooth as glass now. Hope it lasts. Could it be that now the Michelins are defective like the Goodyears? What will they tell the other customers who buy the other Specials and experience this shaking? Guess that's their problem now.
Good luck. Thanks for the update.
fastdriver
Yes and no. The unfortunate end effect of this (and other) lucrative contracts is to feed an inflationary spiral. Pyramiding 3,3,and 2% plus signing bonus etc. works out to close to 9% increase.
Obviously that's a labor cost increase so new car prices will have to rise by a portion of that amount.
So now fewer people can afford (or are unwilling)to buy new cars at that price and we have layoffs to "adjust inventory". At this moment the entire Brampton 3rd shift is on indefinite layoff, and shifts 1 and 2 are on a 2 week layoff with more to come.
Now as an auto industry employee I'm not complaining about getting more money, and I commend Mr. Hargrove and his crew for negotiating the gains for CAW members.
I do feel that wage and benefit demands have to reflect current economic conditions.
OK, I'm off my soap box now...
But at least in the case the dealer ran, at my request, he came up with a 36 month lease which was less than I got 3 years ago. Part of that is Chrysler incentives on the lease, part is a customer loyalty incentive, and part of it is lower interest rates. I figure Chrysler has bumped incentives on the lease _because_ the residual is lower than it used to be.
The dealer didn't express any interest in buying out my 300M lease. I didn't really talk to him about this issue, but he didn't bring it up even though he would have been very happy to get me in one of the 2002s he had on the lot.
The lease people, of course, want to compare the residual to the price I could buy the car from a dealer. I, of course, would rather compare it to the price I could get from the dealer if I sold it to him/traded it. Guess who holds most of the cards in this deal? Not me, since I don't own the car, they do.
I'm not sure I really want to buy the car out anyway unless I could get a major deal off of the residual. It would cost more to buy it than to lease a new car for the next 3 years. Repair costs over the next 3 years might well come close to equalling the value of the car at the end of 3 more years. Especially if I can earn anything from the money I don't pay out if I pay cash or take into account the loan interest if I borrowed.
You don't actually buy it out - the dealer you trade it to buys it directly from the leasing company. If they would buy for $16.5k, and that is your buyout, instead of them giving you the money, they give it to the leasing company. The leasing company could care less who gives them the money (unless it's a closed end lease - didn't think about that. Closed-end lease means there is no buyout since you can't. But that is rare). The leasing company doesn't want the car, they want the cash (if they got it back, they'd just sell it anyway and hope to recoup).
My concerns exactly. I started out getting pretty PO'd about how long it was taking to fix the car until I understood WHAT they were doing. Then it made a little more sense. Like I said, they resolved MY concern by brute force, which is not often the right way to go about it, and I truly feel sorry for the next Special owner who goes there with a shake problem like mine. I got all the good wheel/tire sets, so what're they gonna do next time? They said something about integrating with the sales team on this issue. Likely, they'll come up with SOMEthing to tell the customers about this problem. They truly believe the tires are the culprit. They were even talking about implementing a weekly rotation schedule of the Specials on the lot to mitigate any potential flat-spotting. And yes, they do acknowledge that these particular tires DO flat-spot.
The only thing that really "saved" this service visit for me was their willingness to keep the car until it was right. Honestly, most other dealers would have taken their best shot at it and then fixed or not, they would have given the car back with the excuse that they did everything they could and I'll have to live with it, OR, "that's normal" for this car. I set the expectation level with them that a $34k luxury car should not shake when you drive it down the road. Put that way, it's a pretty hard position to argue with. They found a solution for me, albeit not an elegant one...
Right now, buyout would be about $18K on this car (taking into account remaining payments and residual). I've seen similar cars advertised in that range, so I doubt the dealer would want to buy it out. I'm not sure the dealer would even want it in 3 months for the residual - $16.5K; I don't think he can mark it up enough to make it worthwhile for him.
The service visit started to go bad from my perspective as soon as they started down the path of having me drive another Special, building the case that this shaking problem is normal for this car. When I drove the other Special and pointed out how this car differed from mine and what was "normal" feedback, what was suspension related, and what was IMO tire related, they quickly changed tacks and went all out to resolve the issue. That's where I started feeling better. I'm delighted they stuck it through because this is an inherited problem as far as I'm concerned and many other places would have thrown in the towel long before this place did. It's tough when the OEM parts are bad to begin with. Their only other option would have been to offer a different manufacturer of tire to try and even then, they wouldn't have been obligated to go that far. I'm pretty happy with them for the effort they put in on this.
This is the way they come standard, and I recall about a month ago, otto saying that they built a bunch of Specials this way, and it just didn't "look" right. Now, the 18's come with a no-cost option package.
I'll have to go get a new 2003 brochure myself, I collect them from dealers and auto shows every year.
With work and school everyday, we always would take the car over either the night before or early in the morning of the appointment, and get a ride, always being sure to leave a detailed list on bright colored paper in the car, in addition to calling during the day to check-in. About the only time we have proof that they actually were in the car was when one service guy once drove us over to Wal*Mart, and when the service desk lady ran it over to pick us up. Other than that, it was as if they did absolutely nothing, and to this date, we never got a single receipt for any of the visits (over 10). We would always ask for them, and even threatened one time, but they still never gave us a single document for proof. The dealer we took our Voyager to in PA was great, and there was always a detailed service receipt and personal concern of the service department that we were satisfied before leaving.
This dealer in question has also had the same fully loaded blue 02' Special just sitting there for more than 6 months, I wonder if it's tires have flat-spotted too. I can't tell you how tempted I was to stop by yesterday in the Av after school and got for a drive....
I did that a month ago. They told me it would end up being full price because the black book rate was higher than the residual. I thought I'd made that clear, but of course I experienced it, not just read about it here. Sorry I wasn't clear.
I'd been hopeful because my boss had gotten a good deal on his Ford Explorer from the same leasing company, but apparantly his black book value was significantly less than his residual and he got the benefit. I got told there was no deal on my car; basically the 2000 M's were holding their value right about at the residual.
I was planning to order in the first half of December, which sounds like it ought to slot right in to the schedule you are on. I'd assume they'd build it in the first part of February, or the very end of January. That should get it to Dayton, OH by the end of February, I would think.
The dealer told me that they only scheduled customer cars in the first week or so of the month. Not sure if he meant build them then or go through the scheduling process? Obviously if you folks are laid off the first part of January you won't be building them then. Tough for you guys; you have my sympathy.
If wire2 is right about the 14 day backlog, I can see why they'd be reducing capacity. It may work to my benefit, getting the car in a good timeframe at a good price, but it's sure tough on the guys working the line. I gather from what I'd read here that they will be switching over to producing 2004 models to ship in the spring?
Glad you're "safe" for the next three years, but with the sorry DC dealers out there, your sales will never improve. Like I told ottowrkr, WHY can't the CAW and the UAW MAKE these dealers improve their service? They can dictate to the dealers about remodeling and square footage of sales and service areas etc. SO, why can they enforce those "5-STAR" rules??
Can't your union complain that the dealers' lack of concern, effort, ability etc. is AFFECTING YOUR job security! Makes NO sense to me. I think that unless you force this issue, you're screwed! I hope not, but I see it coming. There is only so much people can put up with, especially with all the nice choices out there today that don't need regular dealer visits!
300mspecial1-
I agree with you now. You really can't bad mouth them at this time. They did really try to solve the problem as opposed to just giving the car back and telling you that "they're all like that"! You are INDEED lucky in that sense!
"They said something about integrating with the sales team on this issue."
LOL... THAT will really help. They just want to get their story straight for the next 300M Special that they sell that shakes/vibrates! I just DON'T believe that all those tires were bad! I still say that all these tire issues have something to do with their "cab forward" design. I think you'll see these issues disappear when the new LH designs come out.
Hope this ends your problems for a long time now. Glad it's resolved.
beach15-
Never mind driving around looking at cars with that wacko sniper lose down there. Be careful!
fastdriver
http://www.acura-cl.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83942
Maybe Chrysler will build this? ;-))))))))
fastdriver
EasyRider300M
With those wheels it looks like it would corner as if it were on rails, or should be.
I cannot agree more with fastdriver on the need for the unions to raise the dealership quality issue with DC (and the other manufacturers). Customer satisfaction or DIS-satisfaction can be the difference in their next car purchase. I know this has been the deciding factor for my wife & I on more than 1 occaision over the years. Job security in any industry is ultimately about continuing sales. Continuing sales depend upon satisfying the customer, and a car dealership network which mistreats customers is a prescription for mass unemployment. UAW and CAW members are held to job performance standards, so why are so many dealers allowed to continue treating good customers like s@#$!!
-stepping down off soapbox
Jon
300M Special looks perfect to me.
I don't know anything about 300M everyday problems. After all this board is not the one that has a special forum dedicated to transmission failures (unlike the CL board).
I know exactly what you mean about integrating with the sales team. They'll preface any test drive with a disclaimer about the ride quality.
It is possible they have a supplier quality issue with these 18-inch wheels/tires. If they are supplied pre-assembled and balanced, they should be pushing back through the supplier to get to the root cause and take the right corrective action. It was probably a little premature to blame the tires right off the bat. I know SLP had big problems with peeling chrome on their optional 10-Spoke chrome wheel for the SS Camaro in the '01 model year. Their supplier had some issues in their process and they wound up having to warranty a huge qty of chrome wheels. I had all 4 of mine on my SS replaced under warranty. SLP was very supportive and moved quickly to address all concerns.
The only concern I have now as I go forward is what will happen the next time the tires require a balance? Hopefully, with a good matched set, I may be OK. FWIW, we had our first snow up here this morning. It didn't accumulate much, but the car was fine down the road.
It's unreal to me the lengths my dealer went to fix this. It all worked out fine for me, but they couldn't possibly do that for everyone who came in that couldn't be persuaded to live with it. AND, why should you have to live with it? Noone that I know would ever buy a car with the expectation that it would shake. It would be one thing if you complained about a vibration at 100mph. You can't legally drive that fast anyway, so why should they honor a warranty claim for it? It's another matter altogether though for a car to shake at speeds that are legal on any highway and many secondary roads all over the country.