Chrysler 5 Star Service
(A Short Story)

Once upon a time, way back in 2004, there was this average Joe who laid out $34,000 for a brand new Chrysler Crossfire. Yes, that's right... $34,000. This was the most $$$ he ever spent for a car and it will probably be the most expensive car he could ever afford to own.

Anyway, our short story begins on the way home from the dealer, after Joe just took possession of his brand new Crossfire.

It being a nice evening, Joe tries to open a window, but had trouble at first. He quickly discovered the power window switches did not work properly, they were reversed. Up was down and down was up. Hmmm… he thought, no problem, he’ll just swing by the dealership the next morning and have them reinstall the switches, no big deal.

The First Encounter:

Joe: Hello Mr Service Advisor.

Service Advisor: Well hello Average Joe who just signed away $34,000 for a new Crossfire. How may I help you?

Joe: My power window switches are installed wrong. Would you take a look and then have them installed properly?

Service Advisor: Gee, the windows open and close just fine, I see no problem.

Joe: Yes, the windows work fine, it’s just that the switches are reversed. When you push down, the window goes up and when you push up, the window goes down.

Service Advisor Nope, there’s nothing I can do. It’s a German car and they are all that way, sorry.

Joe: Oh, one more thing… the radio display is way too dark and it’s hard to read, would you look at that?

Service Advisor: Nope, that’s normal too. We had a lady come in last week with the same thing. Our “highly” trained Crossfire technician looked in the repair manual and there is no brightness control for the radio. Sorry, it’s a German thing.

Joe shakes his head and walks off in disgust thinking, “so this is a $34,000 car and the service that goes with it?” When he gets home, Joe takes 10 minutes and reinstalls the switches himself… it’s an American thing, the switches now work like every other car Joe has ever driven.

As for the radio, a few days later Joe stumbles upon a cool Crossfire forum where he learns there is a TSB out for the dark radio display. Joe goes back to the dealer armed with the TSB number and tells Mr Service Advisor to order and replace the radio.

Second, Third and Fourth Encounters:

* The transmission begins to pop out of 1st gear - 3 visits to the dealer before they even acknowledge there may be a problem and 1 trip to have the transmission replaced.

* Wind noise from drivers window - 4 trips to the dealership and one broken part they tried to hide before the issue is fixed.

* Spoiler squeals when deploying - 2 trips before they acknowledge the problem and fix it.

Fifth and Sixth Encounters:

(By now Mr Service Advisor AND Mr Service Manager try to run the other way whenever Joe pulls into the dealership... Joe knows more about the Crossfire than they do and god forbid, he "expects" quality work for his car).

Joe: I’d like an oil change. BTW the car takes 8.5 quarts of oil and not 6 as the owner’s manual states (Joe also learned that from the cool Crossfire forum).

Service Advisor: Okay, it will be 30-40 minutes. Have a seat and we’ll call you when it’d done.

(Like all car guys, Joe wanders around the lot for a while checking out all the new cars and goes back in wondering why an oil change is taking so long).

Joe: Why did it take almost two hours for an oil change and why wasn’t the FSS reset?

Service Advisor: Uh, sorry about the wait, it’s the first oil change we’ve done… and what is a FSS?

Joe: The FSS and how to reset it is described in the owner’s manual and should be in the shop manual too.

Service Advisor: Oh, would you show me?

Joe: NO!!! Have your tech look it up and reset it.

(Joe learns that oil changes are done by a young kid hired only to change oil and clean up the shop, he had no clue what a FSS was. The car is finally returned with the FSS reset 45 minutes later).

Joe had to take the Crossfire back to the shop a week later after he discovered (using the in-car oil quantity check system, that the engine had been over serviced...

Okay, okay. I get the hint, this was supposed to be a “short” story, so we’ll end it here, (but by no means is this the real end to Joe‘s experiences with his 5 Star Chrysler Dealership).

The End

Epilogue: There has been much written within this forum about Chrysler 5 Star Service, a few lucky people have a good dealership that takes care of them while most others have found service seriously lacking. If you have a good dealership, good for you and consider yourself lucky!!!

(HDDP… would you be interested in getting a crew together and making a documentary on 5 Stars? There may even be the possibility of an Oscar in it for you. No, it's not cost effective? Okay then, I understand...)