Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
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How many miles could I expect to get out of a average 2.7 liter Intrepid before the engine gives?
I might just be over reacting, but there are a lot of posts about engine sludge, burning oil, engines that stopped after low miles... Basically is the exception or the rule?
Thanks in advance.
I'll keep you guys posted as to what the problem ends up being. And if it ends up being so major that I come home with a different car, I'll still drop in from time to time to see how y'all are doing! ;-)
It is disappointing for me to hear sludge issue. Even tough I have Ford Taurus, the Intrepid is (now was) my dream car. For some reason, I couldn't get one and I was doing some research lately to purchase one used.
Syn. oil is also a good cleaner. I believe switching back to 0W-30 and replacing every 1K for a while may save other owners.
In this case, finding used one for me is a big risk, at the same time, I don't want to dump 21K+
onto new one.
Shoot, I think I missed my chance...
Anyway, Chrysler acquired Dodge in 1928. In the event that they didn't get Dodge, they had a backup plan ready. They had another division in the works, DeSoto, which would be aimed right at Dodge, but undercut it in price. Well, they got Dodge, but introduced DeSoto anyway, for 1929. For the first few years, DeSoto was a step below Dodge, but then for 1934, it was moved upscale, between Dodge and Chrysler.
As for leather interiors, well unless you get something like a Rolls Royce, or a car that came out before vinyl was invented, chances are only the seating surfaces are going to be leather, with the side bolsters, seatbacks, etc just clad in vinyl. Of course, there are also different grades of vinyl, and the color can also make a difference. Some colors just look better in vinyl than others.
It should be ready to pick up this afternoon.
I'm sure it'll give you years of faithful service. I have about 88,000 miles on my '00, and haven't had anything major go wrong with it. About the scariest thing was when my oil pressure light came on, but that was just a switch. Gawd, I miss real gauges!
Well, naturally it waited until I was almost home, and then came on at a traffic light. So, a quick U-turn I made, and back to the dealer I went! Hopefully they'll figure out tomorrow what the real problem is.
Dammit, I just knew this was gonna be too easy! And then, to make things worse, I broke the power window switch in my pickup truck! It would roll down, but when I'd try to get it to roll back up, nothing. And of course, every time I rolled it down just a bit, to see if I could then help jiggle it back up, it just flat-out refused to go! Finally, I was able to jiggle the switch j-u-s-t right, and got it up.
I tell ya, it hasn't been a good day for dealing with cars! I just hope it snows like crazy tomorrow, so I don't have to go to work!
Currently have 45,000 miles on the car, and I hope the original equipment Michelin's will make it through to spring. Funny thing is gas mileage is still slowly improving over time (from 21 mpg when new to 23 mpg now), maybe the tires are less grippy as they wear down. I'm hoping to find a quieter tire than the Pilots once I do replace them.
Anyway, good to hear your R/T is still serving you well. About 2 months ago, I almost tempted myself into trading in on a used '02 R/T!
I'm only guessing I don't use my brakes much - I tend to do a lot of coasting when I drive, so maybe that is why brakes, tires, and mileage seem to do okay. I do drive fast, though.
Speaking of new cars, maybe it's my advancing age, but I find the 2004 Mustang GT 5 speed with the 40th anniversary package to be quite striking. Now that I'm married, I can get the wife a minivan when a kid arrives, and keep her Corolla for a winter car......
Also, ditched the OEM tires and put on Firestone LH 30's. Seems like a very competent tire in the dry and wet, waiting for the first snow to try 'em there. Anyone looking for a good, moderately priced all-season tire should consider LH 30's.
Jay-I had very good wear out of the OEM Goodyear Eagle LS's on my M. Got 60,000+ out of both sets. This time around decided to try the new Michelin HydroEdge. It actually has an 85,000 warranty. Hope they work in the snow!
But then, to make it even more fun, the girl told me that their phone system was down (she had called me from her cell) and that if I needed to get ahold of them to either fax or email them. So basically I figured screw it. The weather's starting to turn nasty, and I'd rather be driving my pickup than the 'Trep in this mess.
But at this point, I don't know what to do. I mean, it'd be dumb for me to just go pick up the car, because they should know damn well that the second that light comes back on, it's going right back in. Maybe this is just some subversive way to attempt to get me into a brand-new car?
Well, I'll just show them...before I get a brand-new car, maybe I'll go see if my cousin wants to sell his '75 Valiant... ;-)
Last trip to the dealer ran me $500 to replace the door seals, get two new mudflaps, check my thermostat and have my non-functional trunk release diagnosed and fixed. Turns out it was not the solenoid or the remote or fuse, but a problem with the wire running to the release. Today it goes in to replace the buzzing Infinity speaker and one of the door seals which the service manager wasn't happy with (free of charge). Just turned 76,000 and going strong. Incidentally, that's the most significant service to date on my 2000 ES.
As for door seals, I replaced my rear left-side seal by myself. The part was something like $45.00. The front door seal hadn't shrunk up as badly, so I was able to just adjust it. And that was back around April or May or so, and it's held good, so far!
Got it home, and let it sit running for awhile, too, nothing. So, if nothing else, it's okay for the time being, but I have a feeling this isn't going to be the end of it.
In a little while, my roommate is going to ride down with me to pick up my truck from down there, so if it's going to, maybe it'll come on then! Although with my luck, it'll come on just as soon as we pull back into the driveway at home!
Oh yeah, the dealership had a nice looking white '03 Concorde LXi on the lot, with about 17K miles, for $15,995. Leather interior (which I guess is standard on the LXi), but no sunroof. Still, kinda tempting, though. And at least something like that should have the remainder of the 7/70K powertrain warranty, wouldn't it? Only problem though, is that I swore I'd never get another white car!
So basically, I guess in the meantime about all I can do is wait and see if it comes back on again, and then bring it back in!
Naturally, the dealership was closed by this time, so I parked out in front, unloaded the groceries into the truck, and slipped the key into the nite drop box.
I'm trying not to catastrophize here, but in the back of my mind, I'm already starting to think about what my next car might be!
it seemed nobody was interested so i decided to go to vegas instead!! actually the vegas trip has been planned since last summer. when i initially mentioned about detroit...i didn't realize both fell on the same dates! RATS!
i really want to go one of these years...never been! therefore how bout' next year...any takers??