Farewell Nitro (Maybe Not?)

[rickaren]

Originally Posted by Snowdog

Now I am really confused. Yesterday I talked with a girl who opened a case and sent it to their claims person. I just got a call from him and he said he can't do anything for me since the truck is under warranty and he deals with things that are out of the warranty period. He said he would call the dealer and open an unresolved case once he talks with the service manager. I wonder who you have to talk to to get some help with warranty things? Oh well, we shall see what happens on the 9th.

You should not have to wait till the 9th! You need to contact Chrysler again. Something is not right with all of this.

The existing customer-care line (800-992-1997) will also remain in operation.

[Snowdog]

You are correct, I could get an earlier appointment at another dealer or raise a fuss at this one and maybe make them move the people around who made appointments for next week. Their transmission mechanic is off this week. It wouldn't be fair to the other people who would be put out over this. I am playing it low keyed and polite for a couple reasons. If I was to take it to another dealer for them to try and fix it and it doesn't get fixed I think this dealer would give me a bigger hassle when it was time to lemon law it. My wife likes the truck so we may wind up with another one so I am thinking it is better to keep a good relationship with this dealer and I may get something out of it. I can always just walk away when the do buy it back and look at other things or other dealers if we have to.

[rickaren]

Thanks for the update. I do feel Chrysler should have been more responsive to your call and concerns, but I never have felt compelled to call the Factory on any service on 13 new cars/trucks I have had issues with in the past. The Dealers have always supplied me (us) with a free loaner car even for two weeks or more and since these repairs were always covered under Factory or Extended Warranty at no out-of-pocket cost (unless there was a deductible) it is really hard to complain.

Again good luck and let us know how it all works out!

Rick

[Snowdog]

Well this week has been interesting and it is only Tuesday. I dropped it off Monday morning and wasn't going to call them until at least Wednesday. I got a call from the service writer stating that they can't reproduce the noise. I asked him to take it home and see what he heard as it was squealing on my way there that morning. I called this morning and he asked if I could take the transmission guy for a ride because it didn't make a sound for him. They put about 50 miles total on it between the test ride and him taking it home. I went in and we put about 8 miles on it and not a sound so I started to doubt myself. I took it home and as I started to back in the drive it started again, it was an additional 8 miles. I took it right back up and we went for another ride. This time it was squealing away, we spent about 30 minutes trying different things. We found that it will make the noise when sitting still, hold the brakes very hard so there is no movement and shift from N to R and from N to D. It makes noise going up a hill also. He was laying under the truck trying to find where it is coming from and can't. He suspects it is in the front portion of the transmission but is stumped, he said he was going to have to call STAR (their engineers) to get help on this because he has no idea where to start. He feels it has something to do with the valves or torque converter. When I left in a filthy Grand Cherokee loaner we all have the understanding that when I get it back it will be fixed or they will be getting us a new one. I talked to my salesman and I may wind up with a Wrangler Unlimited, we shall see.

[rickaren]

Good Luck and thanks for the Up-DATE! At least you now have their attention. Interesting and keep us informed.

[Snowdog]

I talked to the dealer a little while ago and guess what... Dodge is sending a new complete transmission. They aren't sure when it will get here so I am taking the loaner back and using our truck till it comes in. Once it comes in I will make sure I don't have to wait 2 weeks for the appointment before I give the loaner back. I really hope this fixes it, I may try and calculate the time I have spent dealing with this but I think I would get angry or depressed.

[Snowdog]

The saga continues.
Took it in Monday and got a call at 7:50 this morning that it was done. Fortunately I had taken today off as I was expecting it to take longer than they had said. I notice that they had put about 20 miles on it which is good. I left the dealer and pulled into Home Depot to get some stuff and I thought I heard the noise but wrote it off that I was heading things. This is about 7 miles from the dealer. When I left I got about 1 more mile down the road and guess what has returned... $$%&^$%#$%#@ noise! I called the dealer back and took it right back up there. Had the service manager with me and he heard the noises, he said he had driven it about 5 miles this morning to make sure it was ok.
He said he had to get his district engineer to look at this. I explained that I was tired of having to deal with this and that I wanted to proceed with the lemon law. He said that he would have to get the DE involved in that also. Now I am waiting his call to let me know what the next step will be. I also talked to my salesman and he is going to talk with the dealership owner tomorrow as he is off today and get him involved.

I think this may make me even more angry but I am going to figure out how much time I have spent taking this thing back and forth, working with the technicians and dealing with this problem so I have more ammunition for when he calls.

[rickaren]

I have never had this much problem with any new vehicle. They (13) have always been addressed by the Dealership before I was called to pick up my vehicle that sometimes was in for repairs for two weeks or more! Doesn't appear Dealership is giving you a run-a-round, just can't find the issue until YOU drive it! With all that has taken place in your life (dog) in the last month or so you sure don't need more aggravation. Hope things finally get resolved one way or the other. Thanks for the update, sorry there is still no resolution! My Wife says maybe your Wife's Nitro doesn't like YOU!

[Snowdog]

We just got back from talking to the owner of the dealership. He said he has to talk to the guy at Dodge they have been dealing with that authorized the repairs but he doesn't see any problem with taking it back. We had a good talk and decided to have them get us the exact same Nitro and simply do a swap. He said he has done this before so our payments won't change just the VIN number of the vehicle for the loan. We are suspecting that the guy took a long weekend so probably won't be hearing anything till next week. The salesman called to make sure of the color we want so hopefully this will be a seamless transaction.

[rickaren]

Originally Posted by Snowdog

We just got back from talking to the owner of the dealership. He said he has to talk to the guy at Dodge they have been dealing with that authorized the repairs but he doesn't see any problem with taking it back. We had a good talk and decided to have them get us the exact same Nitro and simply do a swap. He said he has done this before so our payments won't change just the VIN number of the vehicle for the loan. We are suspecting that the guy took a long weekend so probably won't be hearing anything till next week. The salesman called to make sure of the color we want so hopefully this will be a seamless transaction.

Sounds great! If you end up receiving or ordering a 2011 I believe that I read or posted here that "Stone White" is not being offered (same as my 2007) in 2011 on the Nitro, and has been replaced with another White.

I found it:

NEW Paint Options for 2011 Nitro

Code Color Available to order date

PW7 Bright White 8/23

PVB Blackberry Pearl 8/30

PVG Toxic Orange 1/4/11