Ready to make the switch...

[5.9 R/T]

So the other night my dad was driving the intrepid home from work when just has he came to a stop at a light the was a loud thunk and the steering wheel went limp. Flat tire you say? Nope. Broken tie rod? Guess again. The fucking bolts that hold the steering rack to the firewall snapped! For no reason at all they broke and off course the rack came off the firewall, disconnected from the steering wheel and hung limp behind the motor. There was nothing to steer the car with, both tires went at about a 50 degree angle outwards, left tire going left, right tire going right. It's lucky that this didn't happen while the car was moving or there would have been major carnage. There is absolutly no reason for this to occur, those bolts have never been touched, and besides the usual allignment and fluid top-off the steering system is all OE. Fucking POS chrysler, that car was an accident waiting to happen. The other thing is that my dad planned on taking it to edmonton with him the next day. Can you imagine not having any control over your car at 110+kmh? The thought scares the shit out of me. So, well I'd never thought I'd say this but, it looks as if my dad may be going honduh for his next car, or possibly even euro. Goddamn don't buy domestic, it could kill you!

[Dope Dealer]

Tell him to look at a Lexus IS 300, or a Infiniti G35. Really nice cars

[jonny]

oh crappy domestics.

[4wheeldrift]

Ahh, that chrysler quality will get ya every time : Glad to hear your dad was ok. At least if it had to fall apart, it did it during a slow speed manuever. Like you said, could have been a hell of a lot worse at 110kph or so.

[T5_X]

I know the dodge trucks had lots of steering problems. The steering column comes loose very frequently on them causing the trucks to be very unresponsive and wobble all over the place at high speeds, but that's quite weird what happened to your intrepid! With domestics a lot of the time its hit or miss, though that's a very general statement. Everyone on my mom's side of the family drives chryslers, they all have intrepids and they've been great cars. Consumer reports rates them as average reliability I beilieve, but I'll double check when i get a chance. This is just one experience though. I'm sure what happened in the interpid is just as likely to happen in any other type of car. What year is it? Is it still under warrenty? Since it was such a dangerous malfunction, you should have someone at chrysler to bitch to.

[speedracer]

The same problem occur on imports as well. It's no different from any other car manufacturer.

Talk to the dealership and see if they will talk to DC for you. If they don't just call up the local Rep in town (I forgot his name) and get him to look into it.

[kenny]

Originally posted by 4wheeldrift
Ahh, that chrysler quality will get ya every time :

I hear ya!

[T5_X]

Originally posted by kenny


I hear ya!

LOL

AMG LeBaron

[jaylo]

Glad that your dad is okay, it could have been more dangerous if he was going faster.

I always wondered if every vehicle has a recall and sometimes they don't do it b/c they would lose crapload of money.

When I was watching "Fight Club" I remember him saying if the amount of the recall would be more than the lawsuits or something, they would never do one.

[shadowz]

Thats pretty nuts dude lucky no one got hurt, man Ive seen you blow by me in that car, fuck lucky nothing happened before

[DSM Power]

That's nuts.... what year was that P.O.S. ??

[5.9 R/T]

Originally posted by speedracer
The same problem occur on imports as well. It's no different from any other car manufacturer.

Talk to the dealership and see if they will talk to DC for you. If they don't just call up the local Rep in town (I forgot his name) and get him to look into it.

No worries, DC will definitly be hearing about this one. The regional DC rep is supposed to be in this week sometime and he will see it first hand. This particular car has had a few problems, but they have all been major, like a spun bearing at 160 000k. Things like this just should not happen on a car with less then 300 000K, it's stupid. Perhaps it is a lemon, but the weird thing is that the weakspot on these cars is their tranny and we haven't had a single problem with ours. Either way something that major should not have happened because of the huge safety risk involved.

DSM P: it's a 96.

[LaserRS]

My car is really an import, it just says plymouth on it. I could share some of its quirks and bad workmanship with the board and then finish up my post with a {fuckin imports comment} as well.
As with every case, there is probably another dimension to the story that you or we will never know about, like maybe your dad rammed it over a parking block and was too proud to say anything, or like my brother in law, who at this moment is sworn off GM's because his truck broke halfway through a long weekend. He took it 4x4'ing every weekend all summer long, and not once ever looked under it, or even took it for service, a ripped cv boot and a seized cv joint has put a damper on his plans and we have to figure out how to get a 30 foot holdiay trailer home without a truck tomorrow, and its all GM's fault for building a shitty truck.
God only knows what people subject cars and trucks to, and after awhile manfacturers and dealers realize this and turn into hard asses.
Your car has more than 160,000 Km's on it? Thats over a 100,000 miles, which to me is pretty damn good, if it was a build defect, it would have happened in the first 5000 km.

[5.9 R/T]

I also own a DSM. I know what it's like...

As for my dad fucking it up, do you know where the steering rack sits on the 'trep? It sits behind the motor up high on the firewall, unlike the DSM's where it sits underneath the crossmember on the bottom of the car. There is nothing that he or anyone else could have done to cause the bolts to litteraly snap. You really think that 100 000 miles on a 1996 unmodified motor before it needs a rebuild is pretty good? Damn man that sucks ass! But I see what your trying to say, i was just pissed off when i wrote that post. Not all domestics suck, but most of them are not built as good as most imports.

[LaserRS]

Yah, back in the day, when cars were considered real cars(rwd), even 100,000 miles was considered to be alot, most people ditched a car at 50,000 miles(about 80,000 km's) to avoid part fatigue, in fact thats why leases are usually sold off at 60k km's these days, just to avoid repair costs that start adding up at that point, my friend works for Budget rent a car and they ditch everything at precisely 60k km's, no matter how well its been treated.