A little segment of “My Sad Story”

When I bought my brand new 2004 Crossfire I couldn’t have been happier. I thought, and still do, that it’s one of the better looking cars on the road today. And the joy I get each and every time I get behind the wheel is indescribable but each time I get behind the wheel my joy is short lived.

You see almost from the begging I’ve been returning to the dealer to get one thing or another fix, granted it’s the first year of production but the Mercedes R170 chassis the Crossfire is built on has been around sense 1997! Which makes this chassis 11 years old by the time of this writing, which I’m not say is a bad thing, I’m just simply implying that you’d think someone would have proper mechanical know-how by now to be able to fix my problems the 1st, 2nd or even on the 3rd try. Yet sense my initial purchase of the car there has been this rattle noise that at first was intermittent but has now festered into a constant annoyance that at low speeds and the radio turned up quite a bit still very noticeable. There have been a few ideas were thrown around and I’ve had the rear say bar links and bushings replaced twice with no success. Then they thought it was a piece of the parking brake assembly, it wasn’t. Among this and other very disappointing problems such as: Head and Fog Lights having a tremendous amount of fog in them (replaced and are now starting to show fog again), Spoiler Rattling Noise (fixed but they chipped four spots of the paint under the spoiler), Window Makes A Loud Cluck When Put All The Way Down (attempted to fix twice, still not fixed), Window Was Misaligned From The Factory And Made A Horrible Wind Noise (fixed but when bellow 45 degrees the window gets caught on the weather stripping and doesn’t seal all the way), ABS BAS ESP Warning Lights Came One (turned out to be a bad speed sensor), Rear Right Brake Caliper Makes A Clicking Noise When In Reverse (they say the pad does not lay against the caliper properly), Alarm Goes Off At Random And Am Unable To Turn It Off With The Key Fob (replaced: door sensor, alarm control module and key fob sensor… after 4 consecutive months of it being at the dealer they believed they have fixed it), A/C Control Unit Would Go Off And On At Random (replaced and works fine know), and I know there are more but I don’t have my novel of receipts with me at the moment.

Now for the kicker. You would think that after spending half its life at Chrysler dealers in my area they would show a little sympathy and compassion. In stead I get the cold shoulder, and my beloved car is treated with less respect you’d give to a 10 year old hyandi. Each and every time I get it back there is oil and grease covering the steering wheel, driver seat, center consol and headliner. And when asked if they could at the very least clean it up enough to where I can sit in it without getting grease on my cloths I get a sure and then they hand me the keys. One dealer not only returned it to me dirty but when I asked about the 3in scratch on my leather steering wheel I’m told to take it up with Chrysler and to never come back again. I’ve been told and I quote, “Every time you bring your car in hear there’s a problem. I recommend you don’t bring it back here…” and that’s the service manager in a Five Star dealer. And what’s even worse is that I got that same attitude twice from Courtesy Chrysler in Rockville MD (now DarCars) and from Hoover Chrysler in Savannah GA also a Five Star dealer. And every time I call Chryslers 1-800 # I get someone on the phone who always takes the dealers side no matter how incompetent or rude the dealer was.

I now have 15,355 miles at the time of this writing not because I don’t want to drive it but because I can’t. And the more I drive her the more it hits me, they’re jealous. And it’s sucking all the fun out of even having a Crossfire. I could drive around all day with the windows up and get googly eyed stars the whole time but once they go down and people see who’s really driving that rolling beauty they quickly turn to stares of disgust. Unless they’re my age in which case things become very interesting.

I’ll stop now before I end up typing all night… just venting.

 

how old are you? and i bought my car from that darcars do you live in maryland?

 

20... and I've own it for almost three years now, took a lot of hard work to get where I am and I sucks when someone just starts raining on your parade. I went there before they where Darcars not sure how things are there now haven't been in a while. I believe patpur still goes there without a problem.

 

That darcars is a sh!thole, pardon the french. If you can afford to trekk a little further, take it to Koon's of Tysons, in Northern VA. I remember when I was looking at Crossfire's they were selling an overpriced red coupe with key marks all over the exterior for some ridiculous price. After talking to the sales gentleman and I realized that the Rockville Darcars is a horrible operation.

 

PS... I'm 20 as well and let me tell you man, theres always going to be people jealous out there, making remarks about you're car being girly, people giving you bad looks on the road, guys in trucks looking in disgust at you. You just have to have the mentality that this is you're car, its fun as hell to drive, and if they are jealous... you don't give a damn.

 

Ya I keep hearing that Koon's is the place to go... only problem is now I'm in savannah for a while. Looks like I'll have to drive to Hilton Head to get it serviced, at least that's what the other dealer demanded I do.

 

Couldn't have sad it better myself! But when the dealers start doing it I'm outa luck! You would just think they would at least have the courtesy to be half way decent.

 

i am 18. talk about age descrimination haha. but it is usually from the middle aged people. talking to the older people. they all love that i can afford the car i have. and when i tell everyone i payed for it with my own money they about **** themselves. but really... that stuff happens all the time to me as well

 

I have had the same problem with my limited when I was 20, a year later i trader up for the SRT6 and found a new dealer WHOLE DIFFERENT story you would think it was a viper. SO I cant tell you if its the car but I'm pretty sure its the dealer. I used to complain about everything IN MY OPINION its a show sports car not your average run of the mill car. Some dealers don't get that.

 

Sorry to hear that's the way you're feeling but I don't think its because of your age. I too sometimes sense a bit of jealousy on the part of others and I'm in my mid-50's. You probably already know, although I'm in MD, I have gotten good service at Koons in Tysons Corner, VA. I'm sorry to hear about DARCARS; they've been good to me as far as sales, and service on my Sebring and Pacifica. I guess I may have "sensed" that they would not do as well with my XF and so (after reading good things about Koons on this forum) I took it to Koons for my major issues (intermittent starting and rear differential). It took them a while but they got the job done and never gave it back to me damaged or dirty. They'll even run it through their own car wash if you ask. (BTW, oil change was $75.)

 

Put away you soap box I am sorry to disappoint you but most likely it has nothing to do with age discrimination. I have encountered the same experience you have at a dealership where I had purchased (but no more) two previous vehicles and I am more then twice your age. My car also has also experienced more problems as a result of work done preformed my my local dealer. I too got the same oh well attitude from the general manager after their so called techs worked on my car for a wind noise on the passenger side and ended up ruining the weatherstripping on the driver side, installed the wrong oil even after I scheduled the oil change in advance and had the price quoted for Mobil 1 0-40w. The only way I ever got my car back to the factory condition was to contact the regional manager directly. The Regional Manager sent me to another dealership, one that also sold and worked on Audi and BMW. My advice go your dealership and request the number of the Regional Manager in your area. If they don't want to give it to you ask how they would like to see your car in the local paper with huge lemon by it sitting in front of their dealership in the local newspaper with the caption Don't let this happen to you. This is a little trick I learned from my uncle, business will blow you off if they can but they will not risk negative publicity and will usually settle.

 

+1

As Katt Williams says, "If you have 4 haters, your a** better figure out how to get to 20 haters before the summa get here!"

I feel you on that one bro, people always looking at you like you don't belong in the vehicle. I'm 17. I got flipped off by an old man in a suburu (sp?) for being faster then him.

All you have to do is laugh.

 

I'm 48. The other day I saw a 20 (or so) driving a brand new Viper with paper tags on it. Probably a spoiled SMU student. Was I jealous? HELL YES! LOL

 

Man I feel your pain! They feel as if a younger person doesn't deserve what they have, just because we get it at an early age....I eventually found a trust worthy mechanic and I take my business to him now. Sorry you had to deal with those inconsiderate as*es! Keep rollin bro...

 

I'm 24 and I haven't had age discrimination, per se. I have nice cars and always have to explain that I can easily afford them because the new ones are used, good deals and the classic ones I restored myself... that, and all of my money goes into nice cars.

 

Dude, this has nothing to do with age. I'm 32 and a military officer. My local dealer gave me the same attitude. I even showed up in uniform on my way home from work and was surprised that I was still treated like a POS. I finally requested to speak to the service manager after a couple of days of nonsense. I met with her and demanded that they fix my car and all of the problems they created in the process. I also contacted Chrysler customer service and actually spoke with someone who was on my side. Unfortunately, they passed me off to someone who was not on my side. Long story short, they never did fix the original problem, but i got a new interior out of the mess because they ruined it with grease, scratches, and scuffs. The fact is that Chrysler dealerships hate this car. It created tons of headaches for them because they have to special order Mercedes parts, send techs to special training, and use completely different methods of repair diagnosis. It never made them any money, and many probably lost money on the car. They hate the car and can't stand seeing one come in for repair because they are difficult to work on compared to a Sebring or PT Cruiser.

Man, I am so sick of hearing about how poorly Xfire owners are treated by the dealerships. I really wish there was some way we could all write a group letter or sign a formal complaint and send it to Chrysler. Better yet, create a forum or web page that publicly lists the dealerships to avoid. Not that Chrysler dealerships care about our forum, I'm going to start a thread right now!

 

I think it is disgraceful when Our Country's uniform is, in effect, disrespected.

 

Agreed!!! cgocifer, that's means for a beat down in my book! What dealer was that?

As for the rest of the responses... I find it sad that the dealers treat anyone this way let alone everyone. I see your point Idaho, that the dealers are just plan feed up with our cars and the lost revenue caused by them.

As for the guys/gals my age I know they’re just jealous and to ignore there comments and actions…. and I do like 99.9% of the time but man that .1% I don’t know I guess I need to just let it out.

However on a positive note all this week all I’ve gotten are positive reactions from everyone! In particular I was on my way to school yesterday morning around 7 and I was behind a Toyota SUV and I saw that there was and older women driving it… well see got ahead of me at a stop light and when I looked in the back window 4 kids where plastered to the glass smiling and waving. I guess as sir Isaac Newtown said, “For each action there’s an opposite or equal reaction” (sp)

Everyone have a Great Day!!!

 

Good thing your'e not driving an SL55 AMG... .

Reality check.... It's a Chrysler Crossfire.

Sticker price $35,000..... Real Price.... $22,000.00

About the same as a Ford Pickup truck....

Nothing to be jealous about.

 

God no... I only drive the SL during bad weather conditions! And save my Crossfire for my nice weekend cruiser