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And for even more fun and excitement, try taking 4 people and a trunk full of luggage on a trip through the mountains, and see what it does to performance!
But then again, before my Intrepid, I drove an '89 Gran Fury police pursuit. Nothing felt like it would slow that car down. Hell, you could probably tie a Neon or two to it, and it wouldn't slow it down much! ;-)
Nice to know that just like death and taxes jbbw's idiocy is predictable and consistent.
I agree, you shove a bunch of passengers and cargo into most modern cars with smaller engines that rev high to get their hp and torque, and you'll probably get the same results. It was just a new experience to me, as most of my cars in the past had been V-8's, some of them easily twice the Intrepid's displacement. Honestly, the Intrepid would smoke most of them, with just one person on board, but as you add weight, the additional torque would just give those older cars an advantage.
Now if I'd gone from a Golf Diesel to an Intrepid 2.7, I'd probably be singing the praises of it's acceleration when fully loaded! I guess it all depends on what you're coming from, and what you were used to in the past.
1. All 4 power window motors were replaced within a year of having the car--a flaw that many ofm had during that time, including the Concordes and LHSs. I think that has been resolved a long time ago. Obviously a bad supplier.
2. AC went out much too early--only at 45,000 miles and had to be replaced. I don't think that should have happened, but others tell me a similar story. I hope they have improved that a little over the years.
3. Speed sensor had to be replaced at about 45,000 miles--about $150
Now about reliability--it has started and run everytime I have needed it to, never stranded us anywhere. The engine and drivetrain have never given us problems to date (knock on wood). I have been religious about frequency of oil changes and transmission service. After 5 years, I would expect that it has been on the low side of average to maintain.
Had the dealer change the coolant today. They too, said the hoses were fine. I have had them do the maintenance on it, because they gave me discount coupons for the regular maintenance when I bought it in March, 1999. Also, I have some confidence that they will put the correct fluids, particulary the right ATF (which is so important).
Mine wouldn't just stall out at highway speeds though, it could do it anytime, in any weather, at any speed. And to make things worse, there would be some "false" symptoms. When the spark plugs quit getting juice, the engine would still get gas, and the result would be that I smelled gasoline, and would think that the car flooded out.
So I guess the first thing I'd look at is the ignition system.
I think the last Intrepid was a white SE with alloy wheels.
The mechanic basically said that if you leave that long-life stuff in too long, it'll start damaging the system much more quickly than the older green stuff would. The green stuff would basically just lose its ability to cool, and keep from freezing, but the newer pink/orange stuff will actually start damaging the cooling passages. Also, if you don't wait until the last minute, it won't be as damaging to the radiator hoses, so you might not have to replace those. When he did my coolant at 85K (which was last August, when I'd had the car for about 3 years and 9 months) he said the hoses were fine.
He told me that I should have it flushed again around 150,000 miles, and replace the hoses then. I'll have it done much sooner than that though, because my driving has diminished enough that it'll be ages before I get to 150K now.
Enjoy.
I have to go in for another test within the month. So I'll post the results when I do.
I dont think it much matters that it is no longer in production. It seems that most of the used Intrepids on the market are former rental cars, which does not help the resale value. I plan to drive mine until it dies, which hopefully will be quite some time from now. I think Emale recently traded his Trep for an Escape, maybe he can be of some help.
The second time was this past September. When my Dad and I were looking for a car for him, we went back to the dealer I bought the Intrepid from, and he found a nice '03 Regal with about 19K miles on it for about $12,900 out the door, including an extended warranty that he wanted to get. Anyway, they had this '02 Intrepid R/T with about 35K miles, black, leather, sunroof, etc, for something like $15,995. By this time, my '00 had about 86,000 miles on it so it's really getting to the point that it's probably just a wholesale piece, even though it still cleans up nice. Anyway, they initially offered me $3500 for it, but quickly came up to $4822, which is what I owed on it at the time.
I ended up deciding to hang onto my car, partly because I started missing it already, even though it hadn't been traded yet! But also, one of the headlights on this R/T was cocked at a funny angle, like someone tried to pull it out and couldn't get it back in again correctly. Or maybe it took a light hit to the front. It also didn't have floor mats. And I think it only had a single cd, but I can't remember for sure now. I have a 12-disk changer mounted in the trunk.
I also just wasn't that wowed with the car when I drove it. I mean, sure, it took off faster than my little 2.7, but it just wasn't faster enough, in my mind, to justify trading my car, which was almost paid for, and jumping back into a car payment.
Plus, there was an issue with the warranty on the car. Some '02's had the 3/36K bumper to bumper, but some '02's had a 7/70K or something like that, and they wouldn't tell me which warranty this car had. I didn't want to go through the hassle of getting another extended warranty, if the factory was about to run out. And I figure, if nothing else, I know how my Trep has been cared for. At 35K, this car might be close to needing brakes, if it didn't have them already. I replaced my front pads at 39K. They also didn't have service records, and I was going to make them service the tranny, if I decided to buy the car. But in the end, I figured I'd just hold onto what I got.
Oddly enough though, a few days after I decided to hold onto my baby, that's when I had that little problem with my oil pressure light!
I think you all know that I genuinely like my 2000 ES and appreciate it's 86,000 miles and almost 5 years of loyal service. I suspect I'll just keep her when the time comes. Believe it or not--a new Grand Caravan SXT is the top point-getter right now. Though I'm considering pickups, SUVs and sedans (Magnum included). While it may not be the more passionate choice--it thus far is the most pragmatic. And surprisingly it drives well, rides well, carries my daughter and her friends, carries me and my similarly sized (read big ol' boys) friends, and all the stuff I seem to be routinely moving in the "post-divorce" era. I'll keep you informed.....
My roommate likes my car, because it's faster, roomier, more comfortable, rides better, gets better fuel economy, and has a better stereo than his Tracker. But the only thing I'd worry about, is if I sold it to him and then it broke! While it's been a good car for me, it is pushing 92,000 miles, so it's not exactly a young 'un anymore!
I'll probably hold onto it awhile longer though, because I'm just not ready to pay $35K for a new car yet! So I'll probably be waiting either for the 300C's to hit the used car market, or wait for some phat rebates!
restarting worked for several weeks...until I got stranded in a parking lot and had it towed. An inexpensive fix. Good luck!
That's why I'm going with my original game plan on the Intrepid--drive it until the wheels fall off, then put the wheels back on. Plus it is still a great ride and so far dependable. At 5 years it is worth a lot more to me than to a dealer. No thought of trading.
You've also raised an interesting, and often missed, point. Most of the "foamy mouthed" detractors who post against Chrysler often chant the mantra of "resale value" endlessly. Unfortunately, they seldom compare apples to apples and acknowledge that all domestics-and some imports-lose value to a greater extent.
I've had liability-only insurance on old clunkers that I only paid a few hundred bucks for, or cars that were given to me by relatives, but in this case, if the car were totaled in an accident, the insurance company might pay out a pretty decent amount.
Sure, Intrepids, as well as other cars, depreciate like crazy, if you're going to trade them in or try selling them yourself. But when your car gets totaled, the insurance company is required, whether they'll admit it or not, to "make you whole" again. That is, put you in the financial situation you were before the accident. So if your car is worth $3000 in trade and maybe a $5000 private party value, but has a KBB retail of $7000, then in this case, the $7K is what you should get.
I went up to look at it. It was a deep reddish-orange (Inferno red?) 2003 SXT. 16,000 miles. Kind of a beigish/brownish interior. No sunroof, but it had alloys and the spoiler, and a cd player. I don't know if it was a single cd, or an in-dash changer.
Anyway, looked like a nice car. The price on it was $14995, with the obligatory KBB value of around $15995 posted as well, just to let you know how much you were "saving".
Still, it didn't seem like a bad deal to me. If I needed a new car, and wasn't trying to hold out for an LX, I'd be tempted!
BTW, my old boss has a '92 or so Honda Civic, with a 5-speed. I think he actually got about 150,000 miles out of his first set of front brake pads! And the rear shoes are still original! He does mostly highway driving though, and would come into work and leave at times that he'd miss the stop-and-go of rush hour.
I ended up getting about 39,000 miles out of my first set of front pads, and was actually impressed! Especially considering all the stop-and-go, pizza delivery driving I did back then.
And, by the way ,the trans cooler lines are once again leaking. I guess the dealer in NY state was right, the owner said they were defective in design and supposedly there is a TSB out on them.
you thinking what i'm thinking...?
Were the rotors covered under your warranty?
When you say that the transmission cooler lines have hose clamps, you mean they're just hooked up like a radiator hose? I've honestly never paid that close attention to mine, apart from looking at the car when it's parked on asphalt, to see if anything's leaking.
And yeah, as for mileage, I agree completely that any decent car should be able to go 150K miles or more before it needs any major engine/tranny work. I know I'm only at 92,0000 miles, but give me time! I've only had the car 4 1/2 years, and now I only live 3 1/2 miles from work! I'm sure if I were still delivering pizzas, I'd be up near 150,000 miles by now. I hit the 30K mark on my car when it was around 11 months old. And by that time, I was starting to reduce my hours at that part time job. In fact, I quit (for the first time) about a month later.
At my worst, I was driving enough that I put 13,000 miles on the '86 Monte Carlo that my Mom had given me, in the course of 3 months! That car had 179,000 miles on it when she gave it to me, and got t-boned in the parking lot at 192K. It was on its original engine and tranny, although it was leaking oil, and burning a bit too. It had things like the radiator, water pump, alternator, distributor, and those metal lines that inject air into the combustion chamber replaced. I really liked that car though, and when it got totaled, I strongly considered trying to put it back together.
Of all the cars I've had, 3 of them had engines blow before 150,000 miles. The first was an '82 Cutlass Supreme, that was crap by about 73,000 miles. It lost all oil pressure one day, and we changed the gears in the pump, and got it running again, but it never ran right after that. Plenty of little metal shavings in the oil, too. It also started leaking from every place that COULD leak oil, and wasn't worth fixing, so I sold it for $400. Only paid $800 for it, though.
The next was an '88 LeBaron turbo coupe. My uncle bought it when it was about 2 years old, and sold it to me when I got married. When we split up, I gave it to her. Around the 110-120K mile mark (I'm forgetting where, exactly now), EVERYTHING went bad on that car! The head gasket blew, so she found a guy to put on a new gasket and a used head, but it still wasn't running right. I took it to a shop that I trusted, and they checked it out. Got it running, more or less, for about $75.00. A lot of the wiring and vacuum hoses on top of the engine weren't put back together correctly. They told me though, that 2 cylinders were shot, and compression was bad on the other 2, and the turbo was shot, and don't put another dime into it!
The last was my '89 Gran Fury police cruiser. Evidently, Chrysler 318's in 1989 had a run of bad camshafts, where the #8 would fail between 70-90,000 miles. I don't know about other V-8's, but on the 318, the #8 gets the hottest. Well, when it failed at 73,000 miles, the city of Richmond, VA sold the car, and a dealership in VA that specializes in police cruisers bought it, and dropped in a 318 out of a wrecked '88 Diplomat with 75,000 miles. I currently have about 118,000 miles on it, but it doesn't run anymore. The water pump went bad, and the emissions test came due (somehow I'd missed it for 4 years), so I just took it off the road. Then I discovered just how many things are swappable between it and my '79 NYer, so I've been pulling parts off here and there. I tried to start it a couple months ago...it would turn over but wouldn't catch. I'll get rid of it...eventually!
We will start with my only new vehicle, the 2002 Intrepid. With less than 12K miles, the inside surface of the drivers side rotor had several deep score marks on it. Deep enuf so that the dealer could not use the argument that semi metallic brake pads inherently cause some marks. And you cant really replace only one side because the car may pull when the brakes are applied. I suspectthere was something wrong with the pads in the first place, and I agree with you,this s/h NEVER happened on a car with less than 12K legitimate miles. As I said before, there was no chance the mileage was turned back because the car was purchased brand new!
Now the trans cooler lines. I saw many Treps with the exact same problem. The plastic/rubber lines are attached to the connection that comes out of the radiator with screw type hose clamps. The type anyone famaliar with if you have worked on cars. In my opinion, its pretty [non-permissible content removed] engineering when so many Treps leak from the same place. Not tolerated by todays quality standards for most manufacturers.
There is a reason the Dodge Intrepid came in almost dead last, next to the Dodge Neon, as far as resale values are concerned. People must not want them because of all the trouble they are to own. I know you are a Mopar fan but Chryslers vehicles do not have a good reputation. This is my first Chrysler vehicle and may well be my last. You get what you pay for in todays world, there are almost NO exceptions. Its a beautiful looking car, but thats about where the good points end.
The 'five star' dealer would not even split the cost with me and denied all responsibility. I got really upset when I could see that I was not getting anywhere and told the GM where he could go!
I knew something would eventually happen to the car but not so soon. It had less than 12K miles. My problem is that I like cars too much.