Haven't seen that one yet. Most guys honestly try to fix them right the 1st time but sometimes you get that one car that just removes to be fixed. We have all had one at some point.

Runs poor with no faults and no indicators is tough, could be one of 2500 things or so.

 

My air bag light has been going off from time to time this past week. I will be driving and the 'bing' sounds, the dash light comes on and the passgenger bag light comes on briefly. Then the air bag light stays on for 3 minutes maybe? Sometimes a minor bump causes the light to come on - thinking it is a pressure switch in the passengers seat.

Yesterday, the light came on and stayed on. 60 miles, one restart, no change.

Then, on the way home it went out again.. I hate it when that happens. Dealer said they need to spend some time looking at it. Ok, fine, give me a rental. Oh, wait, Chrysler doesn't provide a rental car when your brand new car is in the shop for warranty work (Unlike ALL other manufacturers) - I know, I am sounding bitter and I am sorry but geeze! Spend this much and you get the popping in the winshield / dash (mine is doing it) air bag warning light, and you have to pay to get a rental car so you can leave yours at the dealer for a couple of days so they can look at it.

Otherwise, a great car I think, not unhappy that I bought it. I wish it was nicer weather here and I could ride the Harley and not need a rental tho.

<Rant off>

 

Perpendicular,

My Air Bag Light also went on while on a recent trip to Vegas. About half way there it came on as you described and stayed on until I got to Vegas and shut the car off, which reset the computer, I assume. Was there anyone in the Passanger Seat when the Air Bag Light came on? My wife was in the Passenger Seat when my Light came on. Freaked her out...

Oh wait, you said Dodge did not offer a loaner? I have had mine in the shop and I always get a loaner from Enterprise, free of charge. They even brought me to and fro.

Perpendicular, you did get the EXTENDED WARRANTY, didn't you? I have already paid for the cost of the Warranty and saved $500.00 at this point. And it's still good for another 6.5 years! (I think the loaner car may be a part of the $900.00 Warranty)

I have always paid for the Extra Warranty, even though this is the first time I had to use it. It's protection from Murphy. If I didn't get it, I would surely need it.

[IMG]local://upfiles/10346/6395CB3DF5D74655AE367BF3005B243B.jpg[/IMG]

 

DCX does not cover loaner unless you buy the extended warranty plan. BTW, Ford nor Chevy do either.

 

The air bag light came on with no one in the seat. It also will come on with my fiance there.

No, I did not get the warrnaty. I usually buy a new car every year or two so it is under warranty when I sell it. I did know that a rental comes with the extended warranty tho - you are right. My last RT had the extended warranty - used it more than I paid for it. But why pay the $900 plus for it if I will most likely never need it I figured.

Uhh, sorry to argue but that is wrong. Chevy, Ford, Mercedes, Isuzu, GMC, Toyota, Honda, even HYUNDAI all offer free rental / loaner cars when your car is in for service and they have to keep it over night - but not for the same day service type stuff (I.E. alignment, oil change, brakes, etc). Chrysler is the only American manufacturer that does not offer this.

 

Uhhhh, OK but your wrong. I have worked at dealerships for about a decade and know the policies very well, we have to go to classes anually to learn new policies. I have been at a DCX/Ford/Lincoln store for 5 years now and we DO NOT give loaners automatically. It depends on the customer, the car, what it is being held over for, how long it has been there, and if we have any, We DO NOT rent cars for just anybody with a car in for service. I was previously at a VW, Nissan, DCX, GMC store....same policy for all lines. Some dealers will eat the cost of the rental but most do not. Many high line companies like Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Rover, Jaguar etc.. make it policy to have a loaner availbale. This is not an arguable topic as I actually work for the company and you are going off of word of mouth and very little personal experience.

If you are that bitter about a loaner I can tell you we would rather you traded it in and bought a different line. I would hate to see how upset you got with a legit problem.

 

Ok, not interested in arguing with you and making things worse. Waste of time for anyone reading this. But beleive me, I am not speaking just out of thin air.

As for you (and whomever we is), ok. I appreciate your comments. Not trying to step on any toes here, just speaking my mind which apaprently causes issues. Will keep my mouth shut on this board and just listen if there is anything that I can use.

 

The way I look at the whole deal is that each and every dealer is an independant operation.

If the owner of the place has his ducks-in-a-row and actually cares about more than just the bottom line, the he/she may actually
go the extra mile and do things that a little backwoods never-gonna-be-a-big-dealer like Troncalli in Cumming wouldn't do. Like install parts the customer wants installed, or hire from other than the shallow end of the gene pool.

If you want to succeed in business, you need happy customers giving good word of mouth advirtising. I'll buy my parts from Troncalli as Clifford who works the parts desk knows his stuff and is a friendly happy kinda guy. He went out of his way to get me the battery cable I needed for the Intrepid yesterday, even offered to have his parts courier drop it off at the house - THAT is what keeps me one of his customers. Buy a car there though? Not on your life...

dodgemech actually WORKS at a dealership (when did they become stores?) and I value his input, he's the dude tasked with fixing a problem, unless it's one of those 'don't think about what you are doing, just change this part' places (again, like Troncalli) the mechs are supposed to only do what the 'service writers' tell them to do, with no other input from the mech required or asked for.

I'd rather that smart guys like dodgemech be on the front desk when customers come in with a problem, so that someone with a brain is talking to the customer, not some high school reject relative filling in a form on a pc. And then take that problem to resolution, replace/fix/ajust whatever - ONE person per problem start-to-finish.

The parallels with the computer business are very much the same - and I'm NOT talking pc's here, they should stay on the desktop where they belong and NOT in a real computer room. I've been fixing computers since they started pretty much, and I've seen good ways to do service and bad ways. Currently I'm working for a company who has lost their clue on how to do it, I'm sure hoping they invent something to fix it...

Enough raving, bottom line, I value dodgemech's expertise, please try to not annoy him, ok?

Mike

 

I'm sorry, but who's annoying who? I have very little tolerance for condescending attitudes. I have as much respect for a fellow forum member's opinion as that of one who works on Fords this week and VWs the next. (I've seen the same guy at the Chevy dealer that was at the Honda dealer the month before). They're parts-changers. No one has 'fixed' one of my cars in the last 10 years. And "Don't argue with me because I know everything" doesn't cut it. If I wanted that kind of stuff, I'd be waiting in the Service line at my Dodge dealer tomorrow morning. And YES, by gawd! my Chevy dealer does give me, and everyone else who darkens the door and has to leave their car that is under factory warranty, a loaner if the car has to be kept more than a day to fix a warranty problem. By the way, I'm usually nice to my mechanic at the Chevy dealership because I figure they'll be working on my Dodge next week.

 

I guess you know that because you just hang out there everyday and are involved in every customers visit.

We make every attempt to make loaner cars available but we only have so many cars so there many factors that determine who gets a car. For instance, out of towners typically do not get a car; if we have to choose between 2 customers the one who bought from us vs. the dealer in the next town gets the car. If we run low, whining customers don't get a car. We always try to give cars to customers with less than 15K miles (CSI survey customers).

Yes, we have an Enterprise on sight but the dealer principle isn't going to pay for a car until the customer is jumping up and down in his office. It's simple economics, warranty work does not pay very well, in fact in some cases in actually costs us money to fix your car. Why is going to lose more money renting a car unless he has to.

Parts changers huh? I'll bet you a months salary you couldn't have fixed one of the cars I have worked on so far this week. It's real easy to say "parts changers" when you don't have to spend the time to figure out which part to change.