I agree as well Altair. I've only owned 2 Mopars in my life (15 years behind the wheel), but both were above average for reliability. Both Dakotas ('88 4 cyl/5-speed & '89 Shelby) were fun & were nowhere near boring. But, I was young when I had the first Dak, so stories were born & the Dakota just went along for the ride. Now the Shelby, it made a few stories up & I went along for the ride.

 

Heres some great quotes from the new CR relibilty rankings....

Chrysler trails the pack. Almost two-thirds of its products rate below average for reliability. The redesigned 2008 Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans earned low scores, as did the Chrysler Sebring V6 and Dodge Avenger sedans and the Jeep Liberty SUV. The Sebring Convertible has the worst score: 283 percent worse than average. The only above-average models are the Dodge Caliber hatchback and Jeep Patriot SUV.

Toyota seems to have rectified some of the problems-all 42 of the Toyota, Lexus, and Scion models in our survey scored average or better. While the three models noted above scored merely average, most models got above-average Ratings.

 

Axe, I was a Toyota technician at Golden Rule AutoMall in Caldwell, Idaho (now Larry Miller AutoMall). I cannot attack your intelligence personally, due to forum rules, so I will try to reason with you. Do you think I made any money, working flat rate, on Toyotas? Flat rate means, no work-no pay-no hourly pay. You are a cool aid drinker, let me give you an example(totally true): (1)In 1996 a man brought a 1995 Ford Taurus in to our shop. The transmission was slipping. I took it for a test drive and when I came back I advised that we needed to tear the tranny down, as it wasn't low on fluid and it wouldn't shift out of third. I advised it was covered under warranty. The man (late 50's) started cursing and said he never should have bought another American car-it was a POS-he would never buy another American car-etc, etc. (2) THE NEXT DAY, a man brought in his 1995 Toyota Camry. The transmission was slipping and smoking. I, though I didn't need to, test drove it and advised that (SURPRISE) the tranny was shot and would need R&R. The man (a little younger early 50-ish) said, "You know this is the best quality car I have ever owned. This is a perfect car, except that transmission problem. This is too bad, but I love the car and know Toyota will take care of it". He believed the advertising hype. You see, Toyota sales started slipping in the early 80's as gas prices fell. They said that Americans are suckers for slogans and advertising. So, here came "OH WHAT YOU DO FOR ME". The anti-American Consumer Reports tester have bought into the myth and it taints all they touch. They are more honest than clergy, though, right? They would never take money from some company under the table to give a good review, right? Keep drinking the cool aid Axe, Toyota is laughing all the way to the bank. And I challenge you, again (look at my fleet in the sig) and tell me what vehicle I have that has quality issues. Before you make yourself a bigger fool, consider what I have owned: 1978 Dodge D200, 1981 Chrysler New Yorker 5th Ave, 1984 Plymouth Horizon, 1986 Chrysler LeBaron GTS, 1990 Dodge Shadow, 1998 Dodge 1500 QC, 2003 Dodge Neon, 2007 Chrsler PT Cruiser. Which of these do you think had quality issues? Mind you, I put well over 100k on all, but the current cars.

 

p.s. Axe have you heard about the 89-93 Camry power d/l-power window relay recall? If not, please ask. Burning elderly Americans to death couldn't dissuade the cool aid drinkers. It was rated by CR as the top quality sedan, 2 years in a row, after the relay swith recall was ordered and people were dying-hmmmmmmmmm.

 

Wow, that's intelligence. You want the Japanese companies to fail, eh? Well, more Americans would lose their jobs if the Japanese companies failed than would if the American companies failed. Toyota, Honda, and the like all employ many thousands of workers in AMERICAN ASSEMBLY PLANTS, which are supported by SUPPLIERS and local businesses.

Unlike the American companies, the Japanese haven't been run inefficiently.

 

last month sales of the larger Tundra were down a bit over 70%

but to their credit
Toyota has temporarily transfered workers from the
Princeton IN plant over to the
Georgetown KY plant to the extent possible

Honda's past ten years of work
to make their factories highly flexible
and able to quickly switch to building other vehicles
is paying off for them right now,
whereas Toyota has lagged behind Honda in this ability

 

You guys can rip Toyota all you want, bottom line, overall, light years ahead of Chrysler in terms of reliabilty. Whos got a better shot of being here in 10 yrs?

Do I think Chrysler makes great looking vehicles? Absolutely! I love the new Charger, 300c, Challenger, 09 Ram, even the Magnum. But its crap, and everybody knows its crap. Decade after decade of garbage, reliabilty wise. And god help me, even though I know this, (and have been burned with 3 C/D vehicles, and family members w/ additional C/D vehicles) I might add a 4th vehicle to the stable, either a used 300c or a used Vette. Vette is more fun, but Ive always loved the 300's.

That being said,

The recent news that Chrysler may merge with General Motors didn't come as a surprise to many, as Chrysler has been struggling for years. It can't negotiate a deal with GM fast enough to save it from going under, in large part because its poor-performing vehicles are a drag on overall sales.



It therefore shouldn't come as any surprise that when the performance of cars is examined according to their predicted reliability, recalls and rate of depreciation, Chrysler vehicles dominate the list of the poorest performers, with seven of the 10 models on our list. All the vehicles have multiple recalls, ranging from airbags to door latches, along with mediocre resale values and bottom-level reliability scores for market-research groups.

It's an entirely different story, however, for the two Japanese auto giants, Toyota and Honda. The best-performing cars, according to our rankings, are all made by these two carmakers, with Toyota claiming six spots and Honda four in the top 10.

Just as Chrysler dominates the bottom of the list, Toyota reigns at the top, with six vehicles that have among the highest resale values and best reliability scores. And all of the top 10 are among the most fuel-efficient cars and SUVs on the road.

http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/auto...2NGdhMnFiBF9TA