Posted by MoparNorm on Sunday, February 08, 2004 at 9:54AM :
In Reply to: Re: MoparNorm & Others posted by Chewie on Sunday, February 08, 2004 at 0:47AM :
Chrysler is trying (without getting sued by dealers) to eliminate the bad apples. You have to remember dealers are independent franchises. As much as the Manufacturers would love to have factory only stores there are legal issues. Isn't that weird when you think about it? To weed out the poor dealers, Chrysler came up with the 5 Star dealer program, I'm guessing that eventually if you are not a 5 Star dealer you will be cut by Chrysler.
If any dealer gets two negative reports in one reporting cycle, they are placed on probation. With the next poor report they are removed. Pretty harsh when you think about the number of transactions, but Chrysler had to make a point. I bought a used Grand Cherokee, that developed an axle howl (probably already had it when I bought it as you could only hear it from the rear seat). After a few months it was obvious that the Dana 44 was going to eat itself. Even though used, there was still a factory warantee left on the Jeep,...about 5 miles!!! The dealer promised to have it fixed that afternoon. I was called that it was ready but the service manager wanted to talk to me, I thought "...here we go...". He told me that it was ready but he wanted me to leave it with him another day if I could. I thought "this is a ploy to make me think that it is ready but it really isn't", Turned out it was ready, but the Service Manger was not happy with the results after changing the bearings he had also changed the axle, he didn't like the way it sounded so he had ordered a complete Dana rear end fearing that the axle housing was bent. He also noticed that the previous owner had not performed several factory recalls, including replacing the joke 50 mile pretend spare tire with a real tire and wheel. Keep in mind that Limited Grand Cherokees have Goodyear Wranglers mounted on American Racing Wheels, gold anodized spoked mags, about $600 for the tire and wheel and cover. I figured that Chrysler spend about $4,500 dollars on me that day,..on a used vehicle!!
The bottom line is that the dealer is everything, find your brand, but put a good dealer at the top of your list.
MN
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