I purchased a new SXT 2.7 V6 in September 2004, I was looking for a good value (i.e. cheap) V6 sedan with good features (power everything, auto, AC, cruise etc), and I was desperate as I had a trade in that barely made it to the dealership.

They gave me a grand for my junker and with tax, tags and delivery the SXT was $16,250 out the door. With most everything other similarly sized/equipped sedan in the same class hitting $20K plus (a well equipped V6 Accord was something like 8 grand more), I was happy to take a chance and buy American, in spite of all the dire warnings.

Two and a half years later I only have 24,000 miles on the odo, and this morning the faint sound of grinding appears to indicate a need for new front brake pads - in fact that's where I'm off to as soon as I finish typing this, hence me visiting the forum to found out any useful brake related posts.

The car hasn't exactly been perfect. It needed new track rod ends at just 12,000 miles (they must make those things out of chocolate), and new rear swinging arms at 21,000 miles - again not good. I also had the steering TSB fixed (grinding noise) and a new bushing was also fitted to the steering column about 6,000 miles later as the mechanics found it had a half inch of vertical movement. Now the steering shaft cracks occasionally as it trys to spin around in its new, very tight, bushing - especially during colder weather when I guess everything contracts that little bit.

I would like to know how fast the V6 can go, I have had it up to 110mph and it seemed to have an awful lot more in reserve, I would guess 125-130 is easily achievable.

I change the oil roughly every 4,000 miles and only use Mobil 1 5W-30, so hopefully the dreaded sludge monster will be held at bay, and I intend to keep the car until either it, or I, expire.

I never did fully get used to the whining sound the engine makes under acceleration. I originally thought it was the transmission, but I'm fairly certain it's the engine pretending that it really belongs on a 747.

It may not be the best car out there, but it's mine, so I try to take care of it - speaking of which, it's brake time.

Thanks for reading


Newton

 

I bought an 06' in October with 18,000 miles on it. My wife and I shopped around for two - three months and finally decided that we could not beat the price of the Stratus. I live in the St. Louis area and you can find a Stratus, V6 with nice options for around $12,500 - $14,000. I payed $13,500 for ours and it was spotless inside and out and we got an 80,000 bumper to bumper warranty for $1,000 more. We wanted a Toyota or Mazda, but they would not even try to match the price's of the Stratus and they would not budge anymore than $500 on any of there cars.

Right off the bat the car would buck and jerk for about 5-10 miles after you filled it up with gas. After about a month of back and forth with the dealer, they finally figured out what was wrong with it (I hope, after all its only been a couple of weeks since they "fixed it"). The transmission also seems to slip or something on take off occasionally, which I am hoping is not a bad sign.

I also want to add that while my car was in the shop, they gave me several different Stratus rentals and one Sebring. I truelly thought the Sebring was a better car from top to bottom. It drove better andmade less engine noise.

I like the cars get up and go, but would rather have the gas mileage of a Chevy orSaturn. No matter where I drive my car, the best I can get is 25 mpg and that was on an interstate trip with the cruise control set. We have an Impala here at work and it gets 30 on the interestate!!! Not necessarily saying this is a bad car, just a bad car for me!

 

Just got back the brake shop and the front pads looked to have almost zero wear on them, so no issues there - I was even complimented on my "easy on the brakes" driving style !

I let them do a brake service - drain, flush and refill brake fluid (which has never been touched since September 2004), adjust rear drums and clean out brake dust, all for $40 bucks.

The SXT is good to go.