Terrible Tom wrote:
>
> There have been some recent posts detailing problems with Daks and
> Durangos that are only a few years old... which I find alarming. Josh's
> heater core, fuel economy issues, fuel gauge issues, electrical stuff
> etc...
>
> the heater cores on my abused 14 year old Gen I trucks have never gone
> out... neither have the fuel gauges.. and up until I took Christine for
> a swim - the fuel pumps were both original.
>
> It really bothers me to think that problems of that nature would start
> happening in trucks only a few years old. It makes me worry about my
> new (used) Ram... I haved noticed some quality issues with it already.
> Primmarily cosmetic and superficial - but the drivers side door panel
> feels flimsy and lose... the drivers side window rattles as it rolls
> down.. and the drivers side power door lock switch is a little lose.
> Everything functions... but I think quality and craftsmanship has suffered.
One thing to keep in mind is that you're hearing from relatively
educated owners. People on the DML are a lot more likely to be checking
for and finding small things or even large things (in short - we're
picky!). Soccer moms aren't going to be taking their Durangos to the
dealer because the balljoints are shot.
My '99 was pretty good. I had the infamous ping, the bumper paint peel
& rust, 2 balljoints, and the steering shaft give me problems. Plus one
recall, the rear brake line routing. I don't think I had any other
problems *that I didn't create myself*. I had that truck 4 years.
My '03's interior definitely feels like it's made from cheaper materials
than the '99s and seems less "solid." In 7 months, I've had 2 dealer
visits for warranty work, and have another next Friday (follow-up to
today's visit). The first problem was a piece of door trim coming
loose. The visit today was for the driver's side wiper arm hitting the
edge of the hood (discovered at the BBQ, I finally got around to taking
it in). Next Friday they'll have the part to install and then will
touch up the paint. My CD player seems to forget what track the CD was
on when I shut the truck off about 50% of the time - that's more of an
annoyance than anything else. I also had a couple glitches with the
overhead computer but they haven't surfaced for a few months now, and
only happened 3 times.
Fit & finish on the 2 trucks seems to be about the same. I can't
compare the drivetrains because they're completely different.
Dodge is taking shortcuts - almost every automaker is now - just to try
to stay afloat. And it's showing in places. Materials, features being
dropped mid-year, and things not being painted fully for a while (some
2001 Durangos only have primer in the engine bay, doesn't match the body
color). Dodge is posting something like $1 Billion in losses this year
- they were supposed to post $2 Billion profit. Now imagine if they
weren't trying to cut costs.
-- -andyhttp://home.twcny.rr.com/andylevy/dakota - andy-dml@levyclan.us -------------------------------------------- "Whatever Adam does, do the opposite and you'll be fine" -Bob Tom --------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Feb 06 2004 - 11:47:00 EST