I am writing this to inform other consumers in the Jacksonville market of the poor Quality of Dodge vehicles as well as the poor service after the sale.
In Early 2000 my family was growing so my wife and I decided to buy a bigger vehicle. After driving a few different option we decided to buy the Dodge Durango. It was big powerful and had lots of room and the price was not outrageous. It was a brand new 99 that I bought in I had held out for the end of year deal. I bought it from a dodge dealership on Atalantic (Atlantic doge Jeep Dealership is the name) Buying the vehicle was not bad it was the usual deal making, but upon taking ownership of this vehicle that is when My idea of dodges and there dealerships went downhill.
As I said my wife drives the truck she does not work so she does not put a lot of miles on the truck. Two months in to owning the vehicle The transmition broke. It would only allow you to drive it in first gear. I ended up having to drive it across town in 1 st gear because the dealership would not tow it since it was still drivable.
Once I got there I found out that they would have to change the transmition. Of course this was under warrantly though I found out the loaner car was not. After asking about this I was told enterprise is down the road give them a call to pick you up we do not give out loaners and we will not pay for it. When hearing this I could not believe it. Needless to say I got pretty pissed. I got a little irate and told them I could not beleive I bought a vehicle for 26,000 dollars that now has a terminale transmition failure with 600 miles on it and they would not give me a loaner.
Finally after about an hour they agreed, but they first had to get an okay from corp. (whatever that means) The loaner I was given was a two door geo metro. I had to pay my own money to upgrade to something my family could fit in. When the truck was complete I was given a card to fill out and send to Dodge to rate my experience in their service department since Atlantic Dodge is supposedly a 5 star dealership. Needless to say I sent a two page letter and have never received a response from Dodge or the dealership. At that point I decided to take my buisness elsewhere.
And that is how I ended up going to Orange park Dodge. (they are not a 5 star dealership so I guess I should have expected less).
After the transmition broke it has been one thing after another. I have had two electric windows stop working. Service center told me to have my wife hold the switch in a down position on the driver side and slam the door as hard as I could and it should fix it. It did not work.
The glove box handle to open the glove box broke. They wanted to keep the truck for two days. I ended up just ordering the piece myself so I could install it, but I wanted them to pay for it since it was still under warranty. It took them three hours to determine what piece I needed and get it ordered.
The rear hatch will not lock while activating the remote on the key ring. You have to manually lock it every time you get out of the truck. Same advice from the service department to fix as with the door windows.
I then had a problem where I went through three batteries in less than two years. I took it to Orange park Dodge where they kept it for three days and were unable to find what the problem was even though they could see that there was a draw from somewhere in the wiring harness. I was told since they could not find it to just bring it in the next time it happens that they would keep replacing the batteries since it would be to expensive to replace the wiring harness.
I had to replace an overflow hose because it was leaking antifreeze. Now I know you are thinking this is not bad, but the hose is behind the waterpump and comes out of a little hole underneath. For a six dollar part it cost me almost 400 dollars to fix due to great engineering and labor cost.
While on vacation the truck started sputtering and the check engine light came on. When I returned to town I had to have the injectors replaced.
I know that some people may think that this truck has alot of miles and is abused. As I said before my wife drives it, as of right now I have less than 38,000 miles on it and have spent almost 5 thousand dollars getting things repaired if you include the tranny. Sadly since I have not had the same thing break three times I can not use the lemon law because if I could I would. All this is documented in the bills in the glove box of the truck and can be provided to any Dodge representative that would like to look at them.
I do like a Dodge but I cannot afford the up keep of buying another. I would suggest to all consumers looking for a new car to really think long and hard before they buy a dodge.
Bob
Jacksonville, Florida
U.S.A.
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