109,125 when the going gets weird, the weird are no longer professional

sahara are a brand new dealership.  so new, in fact, that they do not yet have signs identifying their business, nor built-in swagger from their employees who look down on potential customers.  i've taken the continual car here because my normal place can't take my vehicle for a fortnight and i'm hoping to have it back faster than that ... but, in this case, if wishes were horses, then beggars would be figuring out some other way to get to CA ...

this is complicated.  complicated enough that it's set me back eight months to do the update (and pre-date it), but the dance-able part goes something like this ...

i take the cruiser in.

i tell them that i've got an error code that has appeared and disappeared.  i also say, "and there's a ticking i've been hearing the last few weeks," which is true.  but, amazingly, not only am i able to get the noise to reproduce itself in the drive (it's pretty subtle ... sounds kind of like a quiet wind-up watch), but i also get the service tech (ST) to hear it.

great.

the ST is just barely at the third grade level of written literacy (he spells work, "worck" and mark, "marck"), but god bless his spirit and soul his heart's in the rite plaice (sic) and he takes down everything in detail.

two days pass.  i need to get my posterior to CA, but when the shop calls, the car's not going to be ready.

"um, okay.  can you just hold it for two weeks, then, until i get back?"

"yes."

okay, good.  not the answer i want, but my car's just as fine -if not "finer"- in their lot.

get back from CA without an update from the shop, so i call.

"oh, yes.  we've been trying to get hold of you ... [ed: that would be a lie] your camshaft position sensor is failing..."

aside from the lie (DID I MENTION THAT YET?), that would make sense.  it would explain the mild misfiring i've been experiencing, and the error code.  "...i'm sorry to tell you it's not covered by your lifetime service contract."

"uh, yes it is..."  this is just a simple case of being new and not understanding the concept of 'if it's mechanical, it's covered.'  it's become very clear to me over time that nearly no one has these service contracts, so i'm not surprised.  being a brand new dealership doesn't help.  "we won't go into that now, i'll call chrysler and they'll put the hurt on you  [ed: in fact i called chrysler immediately after this phone call and they did put the hurt on 'em.]  ... but i can tell from your pause there's something else."

and, in fact, there is more.

"... but when we fixed that, we brought the car out on the drive and it was still ticking..."  (at least they both checked it and told me.) and i'll just let the write up carry it from here, because it all feels so much more, um, "official" (caps are theirs on the shop receipt).

USING STEPHASCOPE, FOUND NOISE TO BE COMING FROM TURBO ASSEMBLY.  REMOVED INDUCTION TUBE AND INSPECTED TURBO.  NO CRACKS OR OBSTRUCTION SEEN IN HOUSING OR ON IMPELLER.  SEAMS TO BE BEARING NOISE HEARD FROM OTHER SIDE OF TURBO ASSEMBLY.   REMOVED TURBO.MINIFOLD ASSEMBLY, FOUND CRACKED EXHAUST MANIFOLD TO CYLINDER HEAD BOLT, EXTRACTED BORKEN BOLT IN HEAD, REPLACED TURB- & MANIFOLD ASSEMBLY.  REASSEMBLED ENGINE.
(sic)

now, in the event you're not fluent in the subtleties of reading bastardized shop-speak, what they did was replace my fricken turbo-charger.

but guess what ... no.  no.  it's much better than that.

after another two weeks, the ticking is still there.  so they, get this, completely replace my transmission.  
all told, they have my car for six weeks.

horror of horrors?  well, not exactly...

because i now have:

1. a new cam position sensor
2. a new turbo charger
3. a new transmission
4. two new engine mounts

and they had to change the transmission fluid, which means that i'm not due to do that in quite some time.  and hear's what's weird ... the cost of all this to me is $100, and the only reason it cost that much is the cam position sensor isn't covered by the lifetime powertrain warranty.  my new turbo and transmission are actually free.

but this means i have to do some adjustments to this blog, because i haven't had powertrain warranty work done before and this actually is a separate break-out item.


$150 in SCR
$6000 in lifetime power train warranty return

102,284 mile service

because it involves a timing belt, from a dollar point-of-view, this is the big one.

i called prestige last month, hoping to get a free rental on my belt change before i hit 100K miles, but ran out of time ... the price they quoted then was $1350 for the timing belt alone ... but it was clear in the conversation that the price had some flexibility to it ...

so before i went in, i negotiated ... according to the manual, i was supposed to change plugs back in august, but hadn't gotten around to it yet ... my brother and i did these at 60K miles and he was appalled by how hard the job was ... so maybe i can get that thrown in as well.

for $1400 they did my timing belt, replaced the spark plugs, did a radiator flush (first one! -- only needs it every 100K miles) and did an oil change.  it's not cheap (especially considering that all my dealer services to this point have been $1750), but i feel good about the discount, remembering that i want to keep this work at a chrysler dealer and considering the alternatives.

i'm also completely caught up with my car now (and it'll be another five years before i have to hit this hard again).

my service advisor asked about the engine mounts ... when i told him they'd never been replaced, he was surprised, so he had the crew look them over as well (he wrote "CUST STATES THERE IS A VIBRATION WHEN IDLING," which i definitely did not, but they have to write something in order to look it over).  yet, when they inspected it, it was fine.

"someone must have changed 'em sometime."

maybe.  but i drive a car pretty soft.  i don't excessively speed.  i don't jackrabbit start.  i don't corner hard anyway, but especially not in a cruiser (which has way more understeer than i'm comfortable with).  i'm infamous for coasting to a stop ... so maybe it's just the way i drive.

$1413

this is by far the biggest charge i've ever had against this car ... it'd be nice to not beat that record.

(i asked for my used spark plugs back to examine the ignition characteristics on them.  the replacement boxes they were in were Champion with a two year warranty -- regardless of mileage ... i'm using this as a green light to back off changing if i get more than 30K miles in the next two years.)

car expense crossover point

i have now spent more on everything having to do with my car (maintenance, upkeep, gas, insurance, tolls, parking fees, etc.) than i originally spent on my car itself.

102,000 miles - towing begins

i've had a curt trailer hitch installed on the continual car.  it's there to tow a very small harbor freight trailer with a tongue extension.  and the reason all this stuff is there is so i can start towing a kayak (and the reason i'm getting that is my intention is to boat the length of the MS river in the medium future).

i chose this hitch because it was:

• in stock
• bearing good online reviews
• more highly recommended by the seller (then again, he had it in stock and didn't have to order a new one)
• didn't require drilling of the car frame

including installation (which also involved bringing the electrics to the back of the car), the hitch was around $400.  i'll be adding that number to my TVC since the apparatus essentially a part of the car now.

to me, the hitch feels a bit pricey, but it's evened out by the amazing deal i got on my trailer.  the sophisticated version of an erector set package was on sale for $180 and i was able to score an additional 20% discount (using a coupon from my entertainment book, of all places), for a total that's a touch more than $140.

compare that to what i paid for a tongue extension (essentially a single piece of a stop sign pole): $100.

when i asked my brother why the tongue was so expensive, he said it's about the price you'd expect -- it was the trailer that was incredibly cheap.  he also said that the trailer is surprisingly high quality ... big words from someone with several automotive patents to his name.

i will not be adding the trailer price to the TVC since it's not really part of the price of the car ... and could conceivably be towed by someone else (although i don't have plans along those lines).

starting to tow with the continual car presents some problems (and is the reason i just keep going on and on here).  the owner's manual (OM) makes a few passing references to maintenance adjustments needed due to towing as well as some different driving behaviors.

it's worth noting that i've never had a dealer even hint that they might not honor the service contract (in fact, i've had the opposite happen), but as the car gets older -- especially since it's now over 100,000 miles -- it's not inconceivable that there could be some pressure to not honor the contract (never forgetting, of course, that transmission failures would be covered under the lifetime powertrain warranty, not the service contract wrap) ... and i can't let that happen.  it runs counter to the very idea of the continual car.

according to the service contract, i have to maintain the car according to the OM.  in that vein and spirit i'm making notes here so i know how to behave in the future (and i have immediate reference material if i'm ever challenged in the future).

[do note the ironic catch: this trailer isn't really towing -- or more precisely, it's not the kind of towing they mean when they're making reference to it in the manual.  if you load a trailer correctly, between 60 and 65% of the weight should be in front of the center line on the rear wheel (OM, page 348).  loading in this manner gives a tongue weight on the vehicle is 10 to 15%.  assuming the trailer is 100 pounds, and the kayak is 100 pounds, this is an additional 20 pounds of tongue weight applied directly to the car.  considering that the maximum gross trailer weight is 1000 pounds (347), this is laughably small.]

i wasn't towing at all before, but i am (no matter how lightly) now.  my responsibilities as an owner change and i wanted to record them here for future reference.  unfortunately, the arrangement of towing information in the OM is fairly haphazard ... i'll lay it out here, then re-organize it for my practical use.

the following is the raw data as it's published in the OM.

* (page 409) under schedule A, automatic transmission fluid doesn't need to be changed with a turbo.  under maintenance schedule B, tranny fluid should be changed every 60,000 miles only under the condition of,  "... trailer towing where the vehicle is driven regularly for more than 45 minutes of continuous operation."  on page 354 we have, "the automatic transmission fluid and filter should be changed if you REGULARLY tow a trailer for more than 45 minutes of continuous operation."  (their emphasis -- both cases)

*   (355) "check the automatic transmission fluid level before towing."  (abbreviated from 408) before checking the fluid, wipe the area around the dipstick clean to eliminate the possibility of dirt entering the transaxle.  wipe the dipstick and measure according to "hot" or "cold."

* (293-4) the turbocharger has to be allowed to cool down at idle:

• 0 minutes under "normal" driving conditions
• 3 minutes with "aggressive/heavy load"
• 5 minutes for "trailer tow"

* (355) in city driving while towing: "when stopped for short periods of time, put transmission in NEUTRAL."

* (abbreviated 299) "when frequent transaxle shifting occurs using the DRIVE/OVERDRIVE range, such as when operating the vehicle under heavy loading conditions (...towing trailers...), use the [3] range."  no big deal here ... i already do this when driving when i don't tow (usually when i cross the rockies).

* (347) maximum gross trailer weight is 1000 pounds.  my trailer is well under this weight.  even if loaded to the 870 pound capacity, the trailer might just barely be in that range.

consolidating all this and putting it into a collection of reasonable behavior means i'll be:

• checking the transmission fluid and all tire pressures (35psi for the car, 60 for the trailer) every time before i tow.
• changing the transmission fluid at 160K miles.
  you could argue that i'm chancing it a bit by doing this, but i have strong reasons and ways to show that i maybe/probably don't even have to do it then.  at my current mileage rate (which may go up), i'll have to do this flush in about three years (which would also be well ahead of my next powertrain inspection).  i'll have to make a decision further out about what my next change schedule would be, but i might make it 100K miles from there.
• idling in neutral when stopped while towing.
• cooling down for three minutes before every shut down.
  this is two minutes short of their OM five, BUT the trailer is very light AND the trailer tires are rated at 55mph anyway (not forgetting that CA law is 55mph for cars towing trailers).  it's not like chrysler would ever be able to know whether i was doing the cool down procedure or not anyway (not to mention that even if i did fry my turbo by not cooling, it would still be covered by the powertrain warranty).  the funny thing is that doing this will probably end up making the towing of a kayak trailer with my car actually be better than normal driving ... because i'll be driving slower on the highway AND cooling down afterward.

i'm also going to keep track of the number of miles i tow in the side bar ... more out of curiosity than anything else.

the big 1, son

100K miles...as I was rolling out of the dam short film festival in boulder city, NV.
no longer eligible for free rentals on service, nor roadside assistance, which means I've gotta get a moderately harder core AAA policy (my desert drives often take me across MANY miles of uninhabited american landscape).

from this point forward, cancellation of my service contract is worth $25.

so far, so good.

95,916 mile service and 5 year powertrain inspection

back in CA i went to normandin with another oil change coupon so i could get another pair of windshield wipers (the NV desert really chews up rubber) ... and again, not hitting against my oil change package.

i was going to ask about doing the powertrain inspection, since i was inside the 60 day window, but had to wait for awhile on the drive so i figured i'd not push the issue and instead ask on my next go 'round.  much to my pleasant surprise, the normandin folks were quick to accept their coupon on my cell phone -- even though it's supposed to be printed out.

while i was talking to king feddy on the phone during the change, they upped the pleasure meter by one, calling to suggest they do the five year inspection ... naturally, i readily agreed.  (i've read elsewhere that dealers get warnings about your time being up for the inspection, so it's not a huge surprise.)

the whole process took longer than i expected which had me wondering what might be going on (i was in the dealership for about three hours), but their poking and prodding turned up nothing (quite a bit different than those lying, cheating bastards [who looked at my car 65K miles ago] at chapman).  which means my lifetime powertrain warranty is good to go for another five years.

as part of my over-all car inspection they also noticed that i had a reverse light out ... normandin was nice enough to replace it completely free of charge ... exactly the kind of thing that can make a rabidly loyal customer out of me -- it's a pity i don't live in CA anymore.

i'm due for a timing belt change at 102K miles, BUT i no longer get free rental cars as part of my lifetime service contract at 100K miles, so i'll get that swtich done at 99K.

$22.

another (not-quite-bad) break

gotta (another) star in my windshield driving back from CO.  need to have it taken care of before my next big run.

67,500 miles

true end of an era

after several threats in the past from chrysler, the *true* last of the
PT cruisers rolled off the line in mexico today.

57,065 service & first service contract work

went back to michael stead chrysler for this service ... they have a coupon right now that honors any other local dealer's coupon, so i clipped a $20 oil change at antioch and took it to michael stead instead -- saving me $20 and another 20 miles of driving.

the change went fine, with no inspection problems found again ... but what's more interesting is my first "true" service contract claim.  the air conditioning had stopped working and up until this point everything i'd had done on the continual car was bumper-to-bumper warranty work ... my air conditioning complaint would be the first time i was asking to have something done that hit purely against the service contract.

my service advisor (who i would best describe as having a "brusque" demeanor) told me that it would be $165 merely to inspect and diagnose the AC problem; the fix could mean added additional charges.  he noted, "if it's covered by your service contract, you'll just pay the $100 deductible, we'll bill chrysler for the rest."  the implication, of course, being that if it wasn't covered i'd be on the hook for that ... and maybe a whole lot more.

"okay," i said, "i read through the service contract and i don't see anything about the AC that would not be covered.  would there be anything that wasn't covered?"

he shrugged in that just-sign-this-damn-thing manner and said, "i don't know, sign here."

doesn't exactly leave you with a happy feeling in your stomach.

and yet, when i woke up this morning, i had a phone call that my car was finished.  the freon level was low so they did a pressure check -- found no leaks -- and re-filled the system with freon and dye.  when i called back to ask if the repair was going to be covered by the service contract, my advisor's response was "yes" in an of-course-why-haven't-you-already-hung-up kind-of-voice.

so even if my blood pressure may have been artificially elevated for 16 hours, i did get what i wanted -- no questions or hassles over the work that was done.  no matter what my paranoia says, i can't honestly ask for more than that.  for the record here i probed a bit on how much the repair would have been had i not had a max care wrap and it looks to be the $165 plus "20 to 30 dollars for the dye."  i'll just call that a bill that would have been $200 -- and knowing this is a dealer, it wouldn't have surprised me if it somehow would have become more than that.

oddly, i wasn't charged tax on either service.  that might be a mistake, but the $0.00 tax is clear as day on the invoice.

for the records here i'm going to keep separate accounting on the service contract work from the normal work.  i will be using the deductible dollars spent in my TVC, but will not be counting it against "standard service" -- that will give me a better feel for what the normal dealer service price is.

for the record, the AC works now, but everyone everywhere is suspicious -- it could well go again at any time.

$20 standard service
$100 service contract deductible

now things heat up

the air conditioning on the continual car has stopped working. this
will be the first *true* test of the lifetime service contract because
air conditioning is fully covered (assuming i'm reading the entirety of
the contract right) and i'm well-beyond the 3/36 original
bumper-to-bumper of the car.

what are the odds?

driving 65mph down US 95 in NV, *with no traffic to be seen anywhere*, i
got a stone chip in the windshield. i assume it was a meteorite.
note for god: use a bigger rock.
55,285 miles

54957 mile service

chrysler still has not fixed their 3-for-1 coupon, so i head up to stoneride chrysler jeep of dublin who were running a coupon on their website.

in, out, (no inspection problems, again).  $31.

the only hitch?  i get a speeding ticket for the first time in my life on the way home.  so much for saving money.

new tires, goddammit

at 52,264 miles i'm pulling into a gas station to top off the car for a run to las vegas.  just as i do, the tire light flickers comes on.

in most ways the timing couldn't be better, so i pull on in and as i'm filling, check the tires.  on first inspection, they seem fine.  the passenger rear is two pounds low, but that's not enough to raise an alarm -- or at least it shouldn't be.  i've had a false tire alarm on this car before, but still, something seems not quite right.  and the fact that that one tire is noticeably lower is interesting ...

i mull it over as i wash my windows and check my oil then go back and look more closely at the tire ... and right there, i see it ... there's a pin nail in the outside tread.

goddammit.  tire people will do damn near anything to sell you a tire, including things like tell you that sidewalls can't be repaired and "anything on the outside of the outer or inner third of the tread is a sidewall."

as i'm heading to pick up an accomplice, i get a TXT of a good tire store that i'm just passing.  i pull in and after 15 minutes or so, they call me into the service bay.

"well, it turns out the best tire you had is the one with the nail in it."

they've circled all the problems on the various tires with yellow wax pencil and you don't have to be the world's best mechanical engineer to figure out there's problems here.  the belt is clearly pulling from the sidewall on one tire, there's burbles on the other two.

i was planning on heading to vegas 30 minutes ago, but now i'm looking at a new set of tires.  i'm in no rush -- i try to live my life such a way that i rarely am -- but it's still not the kind of thing that will push your mood up.

fortunately i'd read several reviews of the place on yelp as i was waiting (i'd link to it here, but i can't pull that website up right now for some reason), and it was clear to me that this isn't a clip joint.

i tell the manager he should go ahead and put tires on ... i tell him the car has two unusual traits: one, it has extreme curb weight for a vehicle of this size, so i need something with minimal rolling resistance; and two, it often does desert runs, so i need something with a high temperature rating.

he thumbs through his tire selection and comes up with a set that he's clearly happy with.  he'd had an idea for me originally, but his tires were more expensive and not as well temperature rated, as the tires my needs pointed him toward.

an hour later i have a road worthy car for $458, less a $40 rebate (that i have to mail in).

it occurs to me later that 52k probably means i could probably get some kind of a rebate on the original dying tires, had i been a little more aware.  with some additional legwork i could still probably get a few bucks back, but i probably won't pursue it ... my life's madness right now.

$418

... and now it's for reals

crossed over an important, but otherwise unnoticed milestone today.  driving back late down 101 i crossed 48,000 miles on the continual car.  this is the point where i would no longer have been able to buy a lifetime warranty wrap ... if i had waited until yesterday to buy it, i would have paid $336 more and would not have been given $376 worth of rental cars while the cruiser was in the shop.

i'm still happy with my purchase of the maximum care wrap and am glad that the car made it this far for the warranty to come into play ... if it'd be totaled by now, i'd simply be out the $1542 i'd paid for the policy, with essentially nothing to show for it.

now one of two things has to happen for me to be happy.  either:

* i never have a problem with the car (in which case both chrysler and i are joyous)

= or =

* when i do have a claim, it actually gets paid off by chrysler

time will tell.  oh yes.

ta da

six hours after the post office showed my letter being delivered to chrysler, i got a phone call from a detroit area code ... it is, in fact, a rep. calling from the CEO's office ... this in itself is interesting, not only because the response is so fast, but also because i never put a phone number on my letter -- it means that they've gone through their owners' logs and pulled it out.

the conversation is long, winding and strange (as conversations with me tend to be on the phone -- the robot has suggested that i start publishing all my phone conversations), but i can summarize it succinctly: if i follow what's in the owner's manual, i'm covered for warranty's sake.

some interesting pieces of side trivia:

* chrysler has a record of all my visits to all my dealerships, but they do not have a record of what the results of individual inspections are.

* my chrysler rep. also has a max care service contract on her jeep (and she hasn't read her owner's manual).

* i now have a name and a direct line into chrysler.

i was traveling at the time and forgot to ask for a quick note in the mail stating the same, just for my record purposes, but i will.

we also had a brief conversation about chapman that i will not repeat here, but i will say i am satisfied.

i consider this an early xmas present from chrysler, and given the current circumstance, could not be happier.

(19184486)

letter to Sergio Marchionne

{note: original document was sent via certified US post -- hypertext links are for background information, the formatting is not part of the original letter and is a side-effect of the way html appears on a browser screen.}

December 16, 2009


Sergio Marchionne
CEO
Chrysler Group LLC
PO Box 21-8004
Auburn Hills, MI 48321-8004

Dear Mr. Marchionne,

RE: INSPECTIONS, WARRANTY AND SERVICE CONTRACT #ZZZ OF VIN XXX

I’m writing to you due to recent inspections on my 2008 PT Cruiser by Chapman Chrysler Jeep in Henderson, NV, which I believe are not correctly reflecting the state of my vehicle. This letter is an effort to ensure that my lifetime powertrain warranty and the associated “Lifetime Maximum Care Wrap” Service Contract (LMCW) will remain valid and intact.

Allow me to back up...In November of 2007, Chrysler announced the discontinuation of one of the most fun cars I’d ever driven: the PT Cruiser convertible. I had one made to order once I discovered that I could get a LMCW. To be very clear, my LMCW -- combined with the lifetime powertrain warranty -- is the reason I sold both of my Hondas and became a Chrysler customer for the first time in my life.

In anticipation, I read the 2008 Owner’s Manual (OM) online before my car had even been built. Since my Cruiser would be the most expensive single item I would own, I knew that I would conform to the much more rigid Maintenance Schedule B (OM pg. 434), irrespective of how I actually drove the car. I figured that that way if anything ever happened to the car mechanically I could never be challenged as to whether or not I had chosen the right service schedule, and somehow void my LMCW coverage as a result. Even though there’s no mention of this possible objection in the contract itself, I didn’t ever want to broach the possibility of breach of contract in this way with anyone at Chrysler.

I’ve been driving a lot -- my car has more than 46,000 miles in less than two years. Thanks your distributed dealership network, I’ve had the 15 requisite services needed to this point performed by nine different Chrysler dealers in three different states.
On the whole the car has been doing very well, and my experience with your dealer network has been quite good. There is one notable exception...
On May 28, 2009, I took my car to Chapman Chrysler in Henderson, NV for my 33,000 mile inspection. Using a coupon from the Chrysler Web site I received an oil change, an air filter and an inspection for the (much appreciated) bargain price of $22.

The service components were exchanged without a hitch, but the inspection came back shocking. My car “failed” (their term) an automatic transmission fluid check, a power steering fluid check and a fuel line check. In all cases the fluids or components were found to be “dirty.” I was also “cautioned” on the brake fluid level/condition “due to mileage,” and I was told that my tires should be rotated and balanced. Combined, the price of these services would come to more than $800. This on a car that was less than a year-and-a-half old, and at 33,000 miles, still under full warranty.
I was surprised since the (far more extensive) 30,000 mile service at Las Vegas’ United Chrysler (they were still a dealer at this time, they are not any more) showed none of these problems.

I pressed my service advisor a bit. I told him I knew I was responsible for standard maintenance (LMCW pg. 4) but these items were far from standard. The brake service isn’t due until 48,000 miles and even then only if the car is used for towing (OM pg. 441), which it definitely is not. The transmission fluid is due for a change at 60,000 miles only if my car is used for police, taxi, limousine or trailer (OM pgs. 442, 447), which again, it definitely is not. And the fuel injector service? It doesn’t even appear in the OM.

I said, “Listen, if all this stuff is bad, it should still be covered under warranty. There’s no way this is ‘standard service.’ It’s definitely not required as part of Schedule B in the Owner’s Manual at this mileage. None of it’s even close.”

My advisor shrugged and suggested that desert driving can put excessive wear on a car. I said, “Not that it matters, but the vast majority of my miles are not in the deserts. I don’t even live here.” I declined the services.

That same day, I called my brother, b1-67er. He’s a licensed Professional Engineer with several automotive patents to his name (I encourage you to do a Google search -- he’ll show up when you do a search for the phrase “world’s best mechanical engineer”) and is a specialist in failure analysis. He was immediately extremely suspicious of the diagnosis.

This gave me a quandary, what happens if an inspection shows a “failed” component and then subsequently that piece develops a fault and I need warranty work done?
On or about June 2, I called the DaimlerChrysler Service Contracts hotline (800-521-9922) essentially asking, “if Chrysler does an inspection on my vehicle and you find something's wrong (like dirty automatic transmission fluid), and I don't change it, and it subsequently fails, am I still covered by the lifetime powertrain warranty (or the wrap)?”

Mr. Marchionne, you just can’t believe how difficult it was to get a simple answer to that question. It took nearly 20 minutes of back-and-forth conversation, but the service representative essentially said, “no, you would be liable” -- in the most non-committal way you’ve ever heard in your life.

This puts me in an awkward catch-22, because essentially what Chrysler is saying is “no, once we spot a problem, if it’s not fixed, you are not covered under warranty,” but if those components subsequently fail, the warranty is no longer valid. It doesn’t make any legal sense because it’s not “prescribed” in the OM (LMCW pg. 4).

On July 16, my 36,000 mile service is done at AutoWest Chrysler in Fremont, CA. As part of the coupon for an oil change, they too do an inspection of my car. They find nothing wrong.

The 39,000 and 42,000 mile services are both done a Chapman in Henderson. Once again on both of these they claim the same problems from the 33,000 mile service (I don’t know for certain that they actually re-tested at these times -- it’s possible they were just re-publishing their previous tests).
For the 45,000 mile service I go to My Chrysler in Salinas, CA. They do the general inspection as part of my oil change coupon and find nothing wrong.

I’m not going to say if Chapman is correct in their belief that my car has several problems -- as a consumer, I don’t think I should have to. For certain there are three other Chrysler dealers who have not found the problems reported by Chapman during the same rough period of time. Instead I’m going to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
One of three things has to be true (possibly in combination):

•  Chapman is incorrect about what’s wrong with my vehicle.
•  Chapman’s tests are far more precise than the other Chrysler dealers I have gone to. That’s why they are showing problems that others do not.
•  The other Chrysler dealers I have been going to are not actually performing the inspections, or are simply failing to spot what’s “wrong” with my vehicle.

Of these three -- especially given the expert advice of my brother -- I think one of the first two must be correct. My bet is on the first one.

I studiously avoid being confrontational as a consumer of a company’s products. I’d much rather get along with my service provider than try to fight them (and, quite honestly, I want to see Chrysler, in all forms, do well). To this end, this is what I’d like to see you provide to me as a consumer of your product:

• Authorize a San Francisco Bay Chrysler dealer (e.g. someone like Stevens Creek) to do an inspection on my vehicle -- looking specifically for the problems reported by Chapman. This ensures that the inspection would be done well-away from any influence that Chapman might exert giving a better chance for a “true” inspection. It’s also closer to where I live.
• If the inspecting dealer finds any of the problems that Chapman have reported, give authorization to have that repair done under warranty. Clearly these problems should not be appearing at this mileage (they are not prescribed by the OM at this mileage) and need to be fixed. They were all originally spotted well within the original 3 year/36,000 mile time period.
• If the inspecting dealer finds no problem, then have them provide that information in writing -- this would give me coverage for any problems that may arise in the future.
• Alternatively, you could simply send a letter saying that as long as I follow the service recommendations in my OM, I am covered by my plans (the powertrain warranty and/or the LMCW), and I do not have to comply with inspection results.

If you are not able, or unwilling, to provide this to me as a service, there are a few things that I want to make clear for the record:

1. By both Federal law and your LMCW (pg. 4) I am not required to have my car serviced at a Chrysler dealership to maintain the validity of my warranty. Being able to prove that the car was serviced is good enough for fulfillment. I use your dealerships because I never want to have a non-Chrysler service on my car called into question. However, if the inspections are creating difficulties themselves, it’s senseless for me to accept them and I should move outside the dealer chain of reference to minimize my expense and hassle.
2. I do not consider Chapman’s assessment of my vehicle to be accurate. There are eight other unique Chrysler dealers who have never found a problem with my vehicle -- three of them immediately surrounding Chapman reviews.
3. Chrysler’s unwillingness to help would make me a vocal advocate against your corporation. I am not saying this as some quasi-form of psychological blackmail (nor do I think I have much clout), it’s merely that I cannot, in good conscience, support a corporation who supports what I believe are predatory business practices. (I do not believe this is true at the present time.)
4. Nowhere in the LMCW, nor in the OM, does it say that I am responsible for correcting problems found by Chrysler inspections. In fact, due to #1 above, Chrysler inspections are not required. I stand by the sentence on page 4 of the LMCW fully, “your responsibility is to properly operate, care for and maintain the vehicle as prescribed in the OM supplied by the manufacturer” (my emphasis added). That is precisely what I do, and to the letter. There is nothing I have agreed to in principal, nor in print, that says I have to abide by a recommendation resulting from an inspection. (Especially one that equals 4% of the original price of my car in less than two years of use.)

Mr. Marchionne, I don’t delude myself for a second. I know the chances are essentially zero that you will read this letter -- it undoubtedly will be batted from department to department for awhile before it ends on the desk of someone who’d rather not deal with it. But that doesn’t lessen the fact that I believe in my cause, nor does it take away from the fact that I am (at least for the moment) a fan of Chrysler’s. I bought my car when everyone I knew or talked to thought it was an act of folly. Essentially my pals asked, “What good is lifetime if the company has no life?”

But I know a thing or two about business and the law. And I admire what it took to for a major corporation to come out with a lifetime warranty. I was enthralled enough that I decided to come along for the ride. I have a ‘blog dedicated to my car (in fact, this letter appears there, as will any response you send) -- I encourage anyone who sees reads letter to give it a look at http://www.continualcar.com/.

I realize that I’m the smallest conceivable mite on a planet of the much bigger problems you deal with, but before you completely wave me off, consider this: if even one percent of current Honda owners had done the same as I, Chrysler would have no monetary troubles (and, ironically, you wouldn’t have to read this letter right now, because you wouldn’t be running the corporation).

The entire purpose of this letter is to put a stake in the ground now to help stave off any possible problems in the future. This missive isn’t a warning; it’s a request for official help. I bought my PT Cruiser for enjoyment of a fun car and to be a participant in a grand experiment conducted by a company that had its back against the wall.

So far the experience has been great. My car is extremely solid and reliable. On the whole my experience with your dealers has been extremely good (especially Chapman, if you ignore the inspection “problems”) -- better than my old Honda dealers. I don’t want to give you the impression that I’m upset with Chrysler, because I’m not. I’m just doing everything I can to never buy another car again, including writing this letter.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

b1

Enclosures: 6

cc: Mark Akbar, General Manager, AutoWest Dodge Chrysler Jeep

Nick Banker, General Manager, Chapman Chrysler Jeep
Sylvia Campbell, CEO, Southern Nevada Better Business Bureau
Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury, United States Department of Treasury
Tom Maher, Owner, My Jeep Chrysler Dodge
Ann Tomlanovich, President, DaimlerChrysler Service Contracts, Inc.
ecc: b1-67er, Professional Engineer
J. Scott Maberry, Esq

the continual car window is closing

i just read that last summer chrysler announced the 2010s would no longer have lifetime powertrain warranties.  this also means that it will no longer be possible to get lifetime bumper-to-bumper wraps.  (oh, and just to blow my own horn, i predicted this happening two years ago.)

so ... if any of the three of you who read this 'blog want a continual car of your own, you better go out and snag a 2009 chrysler, jeep or dodge.  otherwise you'll be driving a boring old industry standard warranty.

and seriously, who wants to do that?

(3/1/13 note: at least as of now you can still get a lifetime wrap on all chrysler vehicles as well as FIAT ... so chrysler has stuck by the lifetime idea ... they must be making money on it.)

milestone for my old car

'93 honda civic del sol, now owned by radioactive dave. 200k miles.
think of it as a dry run for the continual car.

a call to chrysler

i call the service contract people with a question that is this:

if you do an inspection on my vehicle and find something's wrong, like automatic transmission fluid is dirty, and i don't change it, and it fails, am i still covered?

you'd think this is a simple question. i certainly do.

but try asking this to a politically correct corporate spudnut that may be being recorded for quality assurance purposes. the guy hems and haws and spews wild different forms of gibberish that are all essentially non-answers.

during the conversation (which takes more than 20 minutes), i point out that the inspection isn't required, that i could have a vehicle serviced anywhere (which means i may or may not change the transmission fluid and they wouldn't know) and that if my car did have bad transmission fluid it would be so early that it should be covered by warranty repair.

after beating him like a rabid dog for an extended period of time he finally said something close to yes, i would be liable.

i'm not happy and this is far from over.

pre-emptive letters are going to go out to the heads of all the operations here. you'll see.

i told you so ...

got a letter in the mail from chrysler.

the short version of seven paragraphs:

* chrysler is filing bankruptcy and merging with fiat
(a wrinkle in what my bother and i talked about a year and a half ago)

* "the new company will seamlessly honor all warranty claims and service contracts."
(both what i had predicted and what i'd been told by the service people)

which means the continual car concept lives on.

(this written 12/10/09 as i found the letter in a stack of old stuff.  pre-dated to match the date of the letter "may 2009.")