I have a 2000 Dodge Stratus with about 98k miles on it. I have never had any serious problems with it up until now. It appears to have a blown head gasket that will cost about 1k to fix. I am the second owner of this car and put about 40k on it myself so can't say much about how the previous owner took care of it. My question is, how many miles do you typically get out of a Stratus and is it worth putting this much money into it? I would do it if I thought I could get another 40k miles out of it. I would appreciate any feedback from current or previous Stratus owners.

 

if for nothing other than a trade-in or resell, it's worth fixxing. as long as the rest of the car is in good shape. changing it out is not too hard a job to to, just a pain because of clearance issues. when you change the head gasket also change out the water pump, timming belt, and belt tensioner assy. you won't have to do too much more work when changing the gasket, and if your looking for 40K more you NEED to do the extra work. you can get a service manual at you local parts store for $20, it has pics and a step by step on how to do it. any big tools can be rented from the parts store, you save LOTS of money. all the parts should run about $175-220 depending on where you live. good luck.

 

I have 195,786 miles on my 2000 stratus. Granted my tranny crapped out on me yesterday but with less than a 100k miles. you could definately fix it and drive it for several more years.

 

Not sure it the factory campaign covered '00 models, but the
dealer replaced the head gasket on my '98 for no charge.
Something about a hidden recall with the 2.4L. They may work
ya on it... call 'em..google it. At 98k miles it's got plenty of life
left, if it's an auto tranny, change the fluid and filter, and you should
get many, many more miles out of it. Tranny will go first if not
maintained.
Doug

 

I have a 2000 Strat, bought it with 67k miles on it now it's at 134k mile. Since I've had it I've changed the timing belt,And had a crankshaft sensor put on it. I figure out of 5yrs thats pretty good, not to mention I've drove it back and forth to work for that long and I work 15 miles from where I live.

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cant say much for the Stratus but we got our Neons hg replaced at 150,000 and its now at 241,000 with hardly any problems...