I ended up going to the Fair Oaks chrysler dealer down rt. 50 near rt. 28. I dealt with a woman named Lynn and she was a pleasure to deal with. I explained the problem to them over the phone and brought the car in for them to take a look. They couldnt replicate the first gear popping issue but recognized it was a known issue and scheduled a fix.

Coincidentally, on my way to my appointment to replace the syncros, my gear fork broke and the car was stuck in first gear permenantly. Chrysler covered towing and ended up replacing the gear fork, first gear, and the 1st, 2nd, and reverse syncros, all for the $100 deductable.

Reason I decided not to go with DarCars is because the service guy was a little too quick to say it wasnt a covered issue and had even denied the fact that the first gear issue existed.

Also, Fair Oaks Chrysler's service department is open until midnight M-F and until 6 or 8 on weekends. That makes it pretty convenient whenever i want/need to get work done.

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As for the first gear 'popping' issue, a lot of early production model cars have issues with the transmission where under normal acceleration in first gear the gear 'pops' out of the slot and out of the gear back to neutral with a huge bang and clunk. First few times it happens i thought i was getting rear ended.