1 day old '03 not happy!

[machinemover]

Picked up my 03 4x4 yesterday and was a proud new owner 300 miles home from the dealer. Spent all day setting up my rig for the road... . xm radio, brake controler and a/c converter etc. Went to pick the wife up this afternoon and no clutch! check the resvoir and empty. Put in some dot 3 didn't help and had to get towed to the dealer. I put 300,000 on my 2000 and I traded it in so I wouldn't be stuck on the road, I am not a happy person. I was suppose to have my gooseneck installed tomorrow and I can't do that. I am scheduling 4000 miles for next week, I better not loose money because of incompitent test mechanics that can't test these vehicles correctly mind you it has an obvious pull to the right also. Even though I spent $14,000 in repairs on my 2000 I am still choosing Dodge because I believe it is the best. PLEASE PROVE ME RIGHT!

 

[WadePatton]

That's one of the signs of "newcar-itus". The justification of "my old car might break and need a repair".



Reality says, they ALL can and will break and they all wear out items like tires, clutches, brakes, etc. The sales pitch is "new car=new image" and a better/happier life.



I doubt I'll ever buy a brand-new one, even when I can pay cash for it, for two reasons. #1. Poor financial move. #2. I might be disappointed by a bad one-or just irritated like the one here.



I like the slightly experienced vehicles that come with accessories and without extreme depreciation.



GOOD LUCK with the techs! Hope they can figure it out and get the part and get it installed in a timely fashion. HO yeah, there's reason #3. Don't want to have those BOZOS under my hood. Oo.

 

[Badunit]

The clutch hydraulics should be an easy bolt on with new parts. In '01 the parts came prefilled and you just snap the lines together (no bleeding). The '03 looks to be the same. Even a bozo can get this repair right.



Sorry about the pull to the right, I hope they can get that fixed for you in short order.

 

[Steve M]

I had to replace the clutch master/slave cylinder assembly on my '98. It took less than half an hour. I suspect you'll be back on the road pretty quick.

 

[machinemover]

Dealer says he has to order the master/slave clutch cylinder. what a surprise another day down the tubes. Says it MIGHT be in by tomorrow. Funny thing is I buy a $42,000 truck and they are not willing to pay $19. to FEDEX a part. Unbelievable.

 

[Prairie Dog]

If you only have 1 defect in any new vehicle then your doing good. Statistically, we should have about 3 defects per unit during the initial quality period (90 days I think). Some will have more and some lucky folks will have less. At least thats what the data was a few years ago - hopefully it's better now. The average is slightly lower for Japanese cars and about the same for European's.

 

[DPKetchum]

New at this time isnt as big a loss as previous years. My new 03 H. O. DRW was almost 9k below window sticker. Just bought last week.

 

[machinemover]

I have to say they did give me a good price on the new truck. I traded in my 2000 with 300,000 on it and it was hurting. I put $14,000 in repairs into that old truck. I hope I do better this time round. Got $10,500 for my trade in. Wound up paying $31000 for my '03 crew cab 4x4 HO. SO I'm not complaining to much yet.

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

$10,500 for a trade on a 300,000 mile truck isn't bad. I only got $16K for my 87,000 mile 2001!



Vaughn

 

[BillGotthelf]

Just turned over 8,000 miles and the only problem was the pass side red marker light behing the dual wheels. It fell out and will not stay in-waiting 3 days for new one. Hopefully tomorrow.

 

[dnitzel]

Originally posted by machinemover

I put $14,000 in repairs into that old truck.

If you don't mind me asking, breifly, what kind of repairs were made to your old truck?

 

[robobx]

when I had my truck for all of 8 days the ps hose broke. they didn't fed ex or do anything special for mine either, dealer had the truck for 9 days...

 

[DPKetchum]

I know everyone always complains about THE service dept. But in cases like you describe its really THE parts dept who dosent get the job done. The last dealership I worked out the parts dept(parts manager)really could give a rats butt. We would tell them ASAP they would say yeah right and still would not do a VOR (vehicle off road)priority!!!Oo.

 

[jponder]

Originally posted by WadePatton

That's one of the signs of "newcar-itus". The justification of "my old car might break and need a repair".



Reality says, they ALL can and will break and they all wear out items like tires, clutches, brakes, etc. The sales pitch is "new car=new image" and a better/happier life.



I doubt I'll ever buy a brand-new one, even when I can pay cash for it, for two reasons. #1. Poor financial move. #2. I might be disappointed by a bad one-or just irritated like the one here.



I like the slightly experienced vehicles that come with accessories and without extreme depreciation.



GOOD LUCK with the techs! Hope they can figure it out and get the part and get it installed in a timely fashion. HO yeah, there's reason #3. Don't want to have those BOZOS under my hood. Oo.

I am inclined to agree with you. It would be more efficient I think to keep a couple old extras. That way when one went down you could fix it at your leisure and drive the other one. I bought new and I'll tell ya that 525$ a note is getting old and I still have 2 more years. I doubt I buy new any more either.

 

[machinemover]

Truck back/parts replaced in old truck

I( did get my truck back and the clutch is working well. I asked the dealer to check the alignment at the same time as it has been pulling to the right. Guess what IT STILL PULLS TO THE RIGHT. This really gets my goat that they can not have qualifyed technicians to eliminate the down time and re-check of these vehicles. In the long run this cosats us money on the bottom end price we have to pay. After all these so called factory trained techinicans have to be paid. Can't change the world I guess. Question on my old truck was repairs done for $14000. 3-fith gear replacments, then I coverted to a 5600, best move I made. 3 rearends second one was done wrong and I am still tryng to collect on it, I am still owed $1000 from 18 months ago. 4 lift pumps and 1 injection pump. Power steering pump loosed up off the Vaccuum pump and broke the brackets causing a power steering pump and a vaccuum pump. A year later the power steering pump went out again and this time it wore the center shaft to the vaccuum pump causing both units to be replaced again. A/C compressor, lower A-frame both sides worn bad, connecting rods pitman arm,center shaft. This is all no prevetable repairs, I did go through 2 sets of front rorors which I feel I could have saved if I watched them more carfully, along with back drums the same thing once. I am not including them,brakes or tires in my repairs. Or my extras,as AFE filter,pwr max3, dif. cover,rancho 9000, Amsoil by-pass, 4" exhaust . Thought I did everything right. Oh well try again!!

 

[WadePatton]

one way to fix it--stealerism that is

I wouldn't mind paying list price and dealer rates for DEPENDABLE, PRECISE, COMPETENT, and the big one, TIMELY! repairs. (No matter where you live or what part you need, it's 2 days away--they tell you, right after the 50-point checklist performed to determine that the tire is flat or battery is dead. )



Here's a fix.



Make their labor rates and parts profit margins directly proportional to the customer satisfaction rate. 95% and above gets FULL RETAIL. Anything less is a discount. And below, say 60% -SHUT IT DOWN. Please circulate this memo to all DC service depts!



MM, glad you got if fixed. Maybe that's all you'll have to have done to it.

 

[Jeff Clark]

A couple of years ago while at May Madness my truck decided it wanted to stay a little longer than I did. I took it to the local dealer on a Tuesday. They diagnosed the problem and said it would be next Monday before the part would be in (I was supposed to leave on Sat). I offered them my Fed Ex number from work to overnight it and I'd pay the shipping. They said no can do. All I could do was wait. Part ended up coming in Friday afternoon and they installed it Sat morning, but I spent the whole week wondering about getting home.

 

[bmoeller]

So far, any parts that I have needed from my local Dodge dealer, they have only needed to order 2 of them. Can usually get them the next business day.



With exception of one, I wish I could say that about ANY of the Ford dealers around here. Even the one that services big trucks is horrible getting parts. Sometimes up to a week for something minor. Took me 5 weeks to do a simple head gasket job on my 6. 9L because of waiting for the right parts to come in. They either forgot to order it or got the wrong ones. I had to order almost EVERYTHING for it. What a pain. My other truck was also down ('82 F-250 at the time), so I had to get a ride from somebody.



I haven't had any service work done at my Dodge dealer, but if the parts dept. is any indication, I think (hope) they are competent and do it right the first time.

 

[DPKetchum]

Been told repeatedly that Ford is MUCH worse at the parts game then D. C. I never have had but a 24 hour wait on some D. C. parts even on my o;d 1993.