I am a fairly new owner of a crossfire limited coupe with 15k miles. I discovered a few problems with the vehicle so I scheduled an appointment with my local Chrysler dealer to bring the car in for warranty repairs. The 2 concerns I had were:

1. Both headlights have become cloudy from the sun
2. Center console paint is flaking off

My car is in very good condition and is pampered. First of all, the Chrysler dealership seems like it is 100 years behind any other car dealership i've ever seen. The facility looks like it is from the 1960's. The service advisor that wrote up the car stated that the headlights and center console both looked defective. The service manager looked at the car and agreed that they would be replaced under warranty. I dropped the car off at 7:30 am and called at 12:00 noon to check on it. The service advisor informed me that they called chrysler who denied to warranty either repair. I came to pick up the car and asked to speak with the service manager. The manager came out and before I could say 2 words, he replied harshly with "CALL CHRYSLER!" Very rude! Upon getting home, I called Chrysler, (after waiting 26 minutes on hold) and spoke with a lady who stated "That's the final decision, there's nothing anyone can do."

I will never purchase another Chrysler vehicle if they want to treat their valued customers like garbage. I have owned many different vehicles and have never been treated so badly by a dealership and customer care line. I hope others have better luck!

 

I would find out who the DSM for Chrysler in the area is and contact him, also always write down the name of who you are speaking to at Chrysler because DC will do something about rudeness. Don't give up brother, just go on the hunt and make them eat their words. When you find an ear to listen be kind to them and you will get results, I know it's hard not to vent but be factual and let them know you are very unhappy. Also go on a letter writing binge, go to the DC web site and find names ect. DO NOT EXCEPT NO !!! Never quit until you get satisfaction.

 

Chrysler WILL NOT back up a customer. When you call the 800 customer service number, they contact the dealership and report back to you with what the dealer has already told you. I would contact the owner of the dealership and show him your issues. If he doesn't help ask for an appointment with the area service manager, but keep in mind his opinion is final.

If you have a bad dealer, your out of luck. You may try another dealership "before" you talk with the area service manager because as I said, his opinion is final.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

I own a purchasing company that purchases furniture, fixtures, and equipment for hotels all across the country and a few outside the country and I run into this daily with vendors and manufacturers. First don't sit and stew about this - get on the phone. I would follow Pauls idea of getting in touch with the DCM for Chrysler. Talk nicely to them (even though you'd like to rip their throat out). If that person can't resolve the issue just say "you know I just can't accept this situation could I speak to your supervisor". No one wants you complaining to their boss. Start climbing the chain of command and if you hit a brick wall ask (nicely) for the name of the President/CEO and their phone number. Ask that last person if they can transfer you to him/her. You probably won't get to speak to them but you probably will get one of their assistants - who doesn't want the boss bothered by "little" things. And always CYA. Write down the date, time of call, who you spoke with, how long the call was for and the outcome. This information will be available to put into a letter if it comes to that. Also have all you concerns listed so you can tell the whole story unemotionally. And if they say they will call back in two hours - set a timer and call them in two hours if you haven't heard back. And be persistent - exec secretary: I'm sorry we can't help you with this; you: Well in that case I must insist as a stock holder that I speak with the President. Persistent, persistent, persistent. Won't go away, won't go away, won't go away!!!! I've already set a kitchen timer to call back every 30 minutes until I got the answer I wanted, and deserved.

On a personal note Comcast is my cable company and it kept going down a dozen times a day for over a week and all my neighbors moaned and groaned about it. No one locally at Comcast in Pittsburgh knew who the president was or his phone number - yeah right. Went on line, got the info and called. Never got him but I did get one of his assistants. She was very nice and would look into it right away. Spoke to her the first day, called and left messages twice the next day, three times the next day. Then I got a call from the Pittsburgh office telling me they were on top of it and, please, there really isn't any reason to call the main office again. The problem was found that day and fixed. I had also given the assistants name and number to all my neighbors to call on the third day.

Sorry for the length of this.

Good luck and don't give up.
Mark

 

The peeling paint was a defect spoken about long ago on the website. I think in fact it was even found to be affected by some of the things we use to clean the cars with. Do a search on the paint and you may even find a TSB on it. I even remember taking a pole as to whether or not it was more common with certain interior colors. Don't remember the outcome but I remember reading all these troubling remarks right before I was buying mine. Hope you get some satisfaction.

 

Check "Interior Paint Flaking Off" thread. Problem was also common in the MB SLK interior. Hope this helps.

 

Good luck... and once again, the "chain of command" within Chrysler is very limited:

- dealership service advisor
- dealership service manager
- dealership owner
- district service manager... his/her decision is FINAL

When you call the Chrysler 1-800 number, you get an entry level worker for a customer service rep. They ONLY take your complaint and in turn contact your dealership to get their side of the story. Unless the dealership has a change of heart (which is not likely) a customer service rep calls you back with the "same" information the dealer has already told you. The customer service people have no power to override anyone and they WILL NOT give out any phone numbers where you can elevate your problem.

This topic has been covered several times before within this forum. There have been a few people here that talked the talk but, they have never offered any contacts. Chrysler considers each dealership an independent business. They will not intervene and they make no bones telling you that. If you can find any phone numbers or contacts within Chrysler, please post them.

The bottom line is unless you have a good dealership that is willing to take care of you or a sympathetic district service manger, you are SOL.

 

I had a similar experience with the dealership where we purchased our Crossfire; it was the third and now last car we had bought there within a four year period. Every time the touched the car they inflicted more damage then when I arrived:

- Installed wrong oil
- Took the wrong door apart when trying to fix wind noise
- Did not connect the cable for the driver side door handle
- Broke the inside driver side door pull
- Left greasy finger prints on headliner
- Never fixed wind noise, couldn't even find any TSB on problem

I ended up in the owners office with a list of TSB and print out from this forum that dealt with wind noise that their "Crossfire Certified Technician could seem to locate. Then I asked for and got the number of the Regional Service Manager. I laid out the chain of events and list of issues I had with the car and the Regional Manager guaranteed me that the issue would be resolved even if they had to send the car to the local Mercedes dealership but first he would like me to take it to another Chrysler garage( he made the appointment) who also sold and serviced BMW's and Audi's to see if they could resolve the problems. It turned out the new garage did an fantastic job and when the Regional Manager followed up after the service he told me he thought they could resolve the problem since they had access to other service technicians with European car experience and confessed that most dealerships are just not familiar enough or adequately equipped to properly service the European cars. All dealers that sell Crossfires are suppose to have at least one trained technician on staff and all the tooling but that doesn't mean that is who will be working on your car when you take it in for service, in my case it wasn't most of the time. So my advice is try to find a dealership who also sells more then just Chrysler and Dodge, preferably something European.

 

Yes try a new dealership. And a third if that what it takes. How about a call to the Better Business Bureau? If that doesn't work make the phone calls and climb that ladder. This is really a great car and once these problems are fixed you'll forget about them and enjoy the drive.

Called my financial advisor and he gave me the info below. If you are good on line I'm sure you can get more info. and contacts


As a last resort:

Mr. Tom LaSorda
Chrysler Group President & CEO

DaimlerChrysler Corporation
1000 Chrysler Drive
Auburn Hills, Michigan 48326-2766

phone: 1-248-576-5741

mark

 

the headlight lenses on crossfires will routinely develop a hazy or cloudy appearance over time from sun exposure. though it might not look good, it isn't necessarily a defect. this issue is easily corrected by using car polish or a cleaner wax on the lenses. make sure to polish your lenses every time you polish the vehicle and the lenses will look great.

what paint is flaking off your center console - the silver on the top of the console, or the finish on the sides? also, what color interior do you have?

 

I work for a DC company and can tell you I would keep going to the CEO of DC in Germany if that is what it took. Keep in mind no matter how mad you get, being rude to someone you are asking for help from isn't the best approach. I would for sure try another Chrysler dealer and send a letter to the owner of the first one and let him know about his store's customer relation skills. The trick is to stay on it, the squeaky wheel will get greased, just keep on squeaking.

 

Thank you for all of your replies. I have waited about a week now and I will contact the regional manager to see if he will correct the problems. If not, I will start making my phone calls and writing letters. It's not a huge deal, I mean I can polish the headlights in a few hours time and I can buy a new center console and install it, but it's just the point behind it. When I called 1-800-chrysler and nicely explained my issue, the woman on the phone basically said, 'I don't care if you buy another car from us because we're not fixing a darn thing!' But thanks again for your replies and I'll keep everyone posted. Just as a side note, I'm loving my crossfire.

Chad