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Allpar reports that Chrysler is dropping its lifetime warranty offer in favor of a five year, 100k-mile powertrain warranty (in addition to the standard three year, 36k mile bumper-to-bumper warranty). Unlike the lifetime offer, the new warranty will be transferable. Will it be enough to rescue ChryCo’s plummeting resale values? It couldn’t hurt, although the lifetime offer also helped Chrysler sell a deal (and who buys a Chrysler for the car?). Another change is that SRT vehicles now qualify for the new warranty. All of which is a bit strange considering that under the lifetime deal, Chrysler actually reduced its warranty cost projections.
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The change may have been spurred by the costs of paperwork and tracking of older vehicles with the lifetime warranty, and by customers’ cynicism about the lifetime plan.
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lol, I didn’t realize a line-item entry in some corporate mainframe database cost so much.
How will it work in reality?
Someone who bought a 2008 Sebring gets to the point the rings are so worn the engine can’t maintain enough compression to start – they get an engine rebuild?
I mean there is a standard distribution of miles driven per year – but, out to the right of the chart you can have 3 or 4 year old cars with nearly 200k miles on them.
jmo: Actually, if you think about it, the “lifetime warranty” probably only applies to manufacturing defects, not normal wear and tear on the vehicle.
So a car with 200,000 miles on the same engine and tranny (prove you had all the recommended service done at the proper intervals) will not get anything replaced for free unless there is a TSB on the issue.
I haven’t read the “contract” either, but it may be the type of warranty where YOU pay out of pocket, then are reimbursed an indeterminate amount of time later.
A warranty on a vehicle (or any product) is nothing more than a pre-paid service agreement. Any car warranty, whether it’s 90 days or lifetime is built into the purchase cost. If it was up to me, I’d have warranties priced as options — 1 year, 5 years, lifetime, etc. with appropriate prices. The new car buyer gets to pick, choose and pay for whatever warranty they wanted (or none at all). “Extended” and “aftermarket” warranties (read “pre-paid service contracts”) are much the same.
Twotone
Well here in Canada this didn’t apply, Canadians buy Chrysler products because they are cheap and lots of Cash on the Hood to purchase one, especially Work Trucks, people who buy this crap of vehicle don’t think about over all quality or how long there Transmissions will last etc.etc.
Any reason to ever buy a current Chrysler product has just been pissed out the window.
@jmo:
The way it was explained to me by a Dodge service manager is that the non-transferable warranty covers the engine block, all the internal parts of the engine, the transmission case, and all the internal parts of the engine. IMO, it’s really not a bad deal. Especially on the transmission side of things. Although who knows how hard it will be to get a dealer to replace your Liberty’s transmission 15 years from now.
However, the biggest catch is that to keep the warranty you have to keep up with the recommended maintenance of the vehicle. If you miss a scheduled spark plug change or transmission flush by enough time/mileage, dealers have the right to refuse coverage.
If the owner completes any of this required maintenance at an independent non-Mopar location, then the owner has to keep records and satisfactorily prove it to your dealer service center before they’ll do lifetime warranty work. This favors just taking your vehicle to a Mopar center for the servicing, which of course helps the dealer’s and manufacturer’s bottom line.
Another catch is that you also have to take the vehicle to a Mopar center at least once every 5 years for a “free” powertrain inspection. So even if you keep meticulous records of completing required maintenance at non-Mopar shops, you have to visit the dealer’s service center at some point.
I wouldn’t say Chrysler resale values are “plummeting”, since they’ve been poor for as long as I can remember.
Which is one reason I’ve bought 4 Chryslers over the years. Plus I do as much of my own repair work as possible, which can be a lot on Mopars.
I can drive 40K miles a year. So at one point, I considered a new Chrysler minivan (partially because of the warranty). But then I looked at our Grand Caravan, and how it was rusting out from under us, and decided against it.
Even if they stand by the powertrain, their product’s proclivity to rust pretty much nullifies any potential long-term benefit.
Over the long run, I would say that in most cases the warranty is actually outweighed by the substandard materials and fuel economy.
For all practical purposes, you really can’t get a Chrysler car that offers 30 mpg combined on the highway. Their trucks also tend to be the thirstiest ones out there as well.
If you have to buy new, the Accent and Versa will more than likely offer a far lower ownership cost over the long run than any Chrysler model. I’d also toss in the Elantra, Optima, and Corolla into that mix of cars.
As for trucks and SUV’s… anything with Ford or Chevy somewhere on the sheetmetal should do just fine.
joeveto3, did the chrome plastic emblems delaminate yet? They’re known for that too. Probably save 20 cents on each one from the supplier they squeezed.
I bought my Dodge a couple months before they started offering the lifetime warranty. Now the standard 36k mile version is about to run out. Anyone have advise as to whether I should look into extending the warranty, and if so how much should I expect to pay for say another 3 years/36k?
“All of which is a bit strange considering that under the lifetime deal, Chrysler actually reduced its warranty cost projections”.
They also projected that they would be selling 3M cars a year by now, not 950K….
It I were selling Chryslers, I would not offer a Lifetime warranty either.
“Yea, it’s got a Lifetime Warranty … just don’t live too long”
Given that Chrysler has a reputation for transmission problems, and that my mother-in-law’s minivan has had at least one transmission swap, I’m not buying it. I’m not sure if I mean the warranty or the car, but I’m pretty sure I mean a Chrysler vehicle.
My wife’s Prius is almost 5 years old, and my Ranger (which I bought in 2003) is 11 years old. The idea that a car has a reputation for drivetrain problems and has only a 5-year warranty for the expensive parts of the drivetrain pretty much means that a Chrysler isn’t even on the list for me.
P.S. I drove a Dodge Avenger rental for some of my holiday travel last year. I drove the car for about 700 miles (13+ hours). It felt like it was supposed to be a modern front wheel drive car in muscle-car clothing, and the engineers did a nice job of delivering it. It’s just not what I want out of a car, especially in an era of volatile gasoline prices. I’m after utility, gas mileage, and reliability — the Avenger appears to be average-at-best in all of these categories — it would have been a downgrade from the well-worn vehicles already in our driveway. That said, the Avenger was comfortable and easy to drive, even after 12 hours in the saddle!
Good. Nobody paid any attention to it. I don’t think the public fully understood the gravity of that sort of warranty, and therefore dismissed it. I think it would have made more of an impact if they said “50 years” or something like that.
This new plan seems better.
Warranties are tricky. They can refuse warranty service for any reason, really, or simply provide subpar service.
Always buy a product that is reliable to begin with, don’t count on that someone somewhere will honor the warranty.
joe_thousandaire :
August 20th, 2009 at 2:39 am
I bought my Dodge a couple months before they started offering the lifetime warranty. Now the standard 36k mile version is about to run out. Anyone have advise as to whether I should look into extending the warranty, and if so how much should I expect to pay for say another 3 years/36k?
More then likely any problems will happen after another three years. Instead, take that money and put it in savings for breakdowns. If you don’t use it, then it’s yours not theirs. :)
@joe_thousandaire
A warranty is only as good as the company behind it. This is Chrysler we are talking about.
I was mis-sold an extended Chrysler ‘Bumper to Bumper’ warranty from the Chrysler dealer. Chrysler subsequently would not honor it.
It was my fault, this was my first (and last) Chrysler product. I had only dealt with reputable auto dealers and manufacturers in the past.
As people above said, those kind of long time warranties are a bit of a scam.
The reason is that you have to do all the scheduled maintance (paid for by the owner) described in the manual, and only in shops the automaker approves. Otherwise, the automaker has the right to refuse to honor the warranty anytime.
So, in the long run, all those money you spent on “regular maintance” at the expensive certified shops is eventually many times the cost of what the warranty might cover (ex repair of a premature failure in some part).
If you are not in warranty, you don’t have to always honor the scheduled maintance. You can do the same maintance in cheaper shops (non approved), put in used parts or skip maintances of insignificant parts (ex air condition) and parts that haven’t worn out yet.
If you ask me, good warranties are the 5-7 year ones. Experience as shown that any manufacturing defect that’s going to cause failure, it will happen in less that 5 years time. So, yes, you will get ripped of for 5 years by honoring the scheduled maintance, but you will end up with a flawless car, as warranty will take care of all defects. But I wouldn’t go for any longer warranty.