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So yeah, kill the car that finally put them back on the map in family cars, and replace it with a station wagon! Smooth move, Daimler!! I just hope there's a sedan version of the Magnum coming out, as the rumors suggest, because I think only offering a station wagon is going to hurt them, sales wise.
The next generation Stratus will still be FWD and cab forward, and most likely bigger. So Intrepid fans can get those. If it's a "downgrade" in your mind, then get another brand.
http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosinsider/0403/09/a01-86172.htm
Only other thing I can think of is that when I pick up my Intrepid, I'm dropping off my '79 NYer, and after that, my Granddad's '85 Silverado for servicing. So maybe they're giving me a group rate?
Then again, transmissions are the only thing this shop does, so maybe they can just do it cheaper? The Amoco (just changed to a Citgo) station where I normally have work done estimated that it would've been around $125-150. They serviced the tranny in my roommate's Tracker about a month ago, and I think that came out to around $100. I wish we'd though to bring it to the tranny shop at the time. If nothing else though, the service station is a lot quicker. I think they only had his Tracker for 1-2 nights, and that was because they were doing other work on it. With my Intrepid, I had to call Monday of last week, only to have them tell me to call back this past Monday, and then they finally said they could take it. And dropping it off Monday, I didn't get it back until yesterday. And my '79 NYer, which I dropped off when I picked up the Intrepid, probably won't be ready till next Monday or Tues.
I guess that's one nice thing about having a spare car to fall back on...I don't have to be as pressed for time when one of the cars needs servicing.
You're not supposed to drive as much with historic tags, but I don't drive this car much anyway. I bought it in October '01, and have only put maybe 3500 miles on it since then.
I have my Dart, DeSoto, and Catalina with Hagerty, and all three of those have historic tags. I would look into insuring the NYer with Hagerty (It would save me about $300 a year) but one stipulation with Hagerty is that the car be garaged, and I've run out of garage space!
NJ may be different than Maryland, but here, once a car hits 25 calendar years of age (not model years...I had to wait until Jan 1 of this year before I could put historic plates on the NYer), it's no big thing to just apply for historic plates. Just mail in the form, or go to the DMV (in MD they call it MVA) and fill it out, make sure your title # and insurance info is on it, and voila! If you walk in you get your tags right there. If you mail it in, you get your tags in 4-6 weeks or so.
My insurance went up a bit this time around. I remember my total bill for my Intrepid and 2 liability-only vehicles last year was $1111. This year it's gone up to $1260. And it's about to go up again, by about $180 because I recently moved to a higher-risk area.
i'm paying $538 every six months for an '02 4x4 supercrew and '03 honda accord coupe. but i live in hicksville so that does work out to my advantage...that and a clean driving record
Keep us posted on your cooler lines, and let us know how much they end up costing.
Oh yeah, I saw my great-aunt on Sunday. She has a 2001 Intrepid SE, in kind of a burgundy/purplish color. She doesn't even have 9,000 miles on it! She wants to trade it for an Impala, though. I hate seeing a Mopar giving way to a Chevy, but I can kind of understand her reasoning. She's 80, and the Impala is easier to get into and out of. I can understand where she's coming from...I spent the whole weekend splitting firewood and stacking it, and as a result every joint and muscle in my body is still aching! I had a helluva time getting into my 'Trep on Monday morning! And even today, it was still a bit of a hassle!
She also has an upright hairdo...the best way I can describe it is to think of Betty White when she played Ellen on "Mama's Family" Anyway, she says her head hits the ceiling, and her knee hits the steering wheel. I think it's a little odd, considering I'm 6'3" and, except for wishing for a bit more legroom (in power seat LH cars, I'm fine), it fits me well. But I guess when you're older, you're going to sit closer to the wheel, with the seat in a much more upright position!
When it stalls out does it do it as you're slowing down for the light, or does it do it while you're just sitting there at the light, already stopped? Sometimes, if you can "feel" the stall coming on, you can keep it from stalling out by shifting into neutral.
I guess the best thing to check is the fuel delivery system (lines and such), and maybe whatever the modern equivalent is to a choke (sometimes I miss carburetors!)
The plastic lenses on the headlights are getting cloudy, sort of like going blind from getting cataracts with aging. I have read about what people have done to clear the lenses, but haven't done anything about them yet. Does anybody have any secrets about how to remove that fogging, which seems to be little surface cracks in my 'Treps' case?
I wonder how much new headlight assemblies are? Unfortunately, I think used is pretty much out, because every Intrepid I've seen in the junkyard is in there because of a hard hit to the front!
As far as the headlights go, they tend to fog up on the inside. But a dealer says thats normal, as the fog burns off when the lights are on. However, the lenses have a life expectancy and will not look new forever. I have the discoloration problem with my 89 TBird for awhile now and I have noticed it on other TBirds. The nice thing aboutthe older cars with the replaceable lights, like my Firebird, was that the lenses were made of glass and could not discolor.
Well, maybe from now on I will be careful about which junkyards I visit.In the local paper, the owner of Briggs junkyard in rural PA shot and killed TWO sheriffs officers yesterday while being served a warrant at the premises. Hmmmmmmm, I always wondered about some owners in the past. Sometimes I wonder if its worth the small savings in most cases.
Also, the 'Trep has reached 5 years on its long life coolant and I am going to have it flushed and replaced next week. Is there anything special I need to know about this? Like the necessity for specific trans fluid?
About the only bad thing I've heard about the long-life stuff is that you really do need to change it at 5 years, or even a bit before, because once it starts to go downhill, it goes fast, and gums up the engine. With the older, green stuff that you flush every 2-3 years, if you go beyond that, it starts to lose its cooling benefit and resistance to freezing, but otherwise isn't nearly as damaging to the system.
When they did my coolant, they said my hoses were fine, which surprised me a bit. I figured they must've been telling the truth though, because if the hoses really were bad, that would've just been more profit for them!
The mechanic did say, though, that at 150,000 miles, I should have the coolant done again, and have the hoses replaced as well. At the rate I'm driving though (I've only put about 6,000 miles on the car since then...up to 91,000 now), I'm sure I'll be back in before then! Either that, or behind the wheel of a Hemi! ;-)
After doing a little research online, it appears that the Intrepid is not the most reliable vehicle in the world.
Do you, my fellow Intrepid owners, feel that this is an unreliable car?
If it's any consolation, most people I've talked to out in the real world (i.e., not internet chat forums, or people who have a vendetta against Chrysler and are blowing things out of proportion), have had good luck with this engine. The mechanics I've talked to have all said it's a good engine. About the only flaw I know of, right off-hand, is the thermostat housings leak from time to time. I've also heard that the transmission cooling lines that run to the base of the radiator are prone to leakage.
Overall though, I'm at 91,000 miles with my '00 2.7, and it's been pretty good so far. The one time the oil light did come on, it was a problem with the wiring and not a real problem with the oil.
Basically, I'd say if you can get access to the maintenance records and see that the oil has been changed about every 3,000 miles, and the car seems to run good, and doesn't make any nasty noises, then it sounds like a good deal to me.