2000 Dodge Intrepid 6 cylinder from North America

Summary:

Arguably the worst engineering and shoddiest execution ever

Faults:

Two exterior door handles (cheap pot metal) broke off at the internal hinge; each time, dealer NLA and had to source from a junkyard. They're hardly ever used.

LR door latch broke, door wouldn't stay closed. Again, dealer couldn't get parts, so had to buy from eBay.

Transmission selector cable broke. Had to be towed. Took garage two days to disassemble the dash and half the front end of the car, just to put a new cable on. Dealer part NLA, garage had to fabricate one from a GM car. This happened once in our Toyota, took 15 minutes to fix.

All four brakes, including calipers, replaced twice due to freezing solid from rust and sponginess. Master cylinder failed at 20k miles.

All four window motors gradually stopped working. Garage was able to get three working again after two days labor. Parts NLA from dealer, so fourth replaced with aftermarket rebuilt unit.

Poor starting has always plagued this car. It takes two or three long cranks before it catches and keeps running.

Battery ground cable and battery positive cable both corroded badly. It took an experienced mechanic more than 6 hours to get the old cables out and new ones installed; he said it's the worst design he's ever seen.

Once a year or so, the battery will drain for no obvious reason. AAA hates to replace batteries in this car; it is buried and takes an unreasonably long time.

Fuel filler neck rusted badly between gas cap and gas tank. Looked like Swiss cheese; mechanic was appalled. We smelled faint gasoline for a couple years before mechanic found this. We thought someone was stealing gas, but it was just evaporating.

Remote locking stopped working in less than a month, dealer could never fix it, gave up. Power locks have never worked properly, each front door has to be locked and unlocked with the key from outside, can't do it by hand. Back doors have to be locked by hand.

All driver's power window switches failed long ago, except driver's window and right rear passenger window.

Glovebox door used to flop open, so it had to be locked to keep it closed. But once locked, it jammed closed and won't reopen. The door gets more and more warped, so the big gaps at the sides spew light from the glovebox at night because it's the one bulb that won't seem to burn out.

Power steering moans, repeated attempts to fix have failed.

General Comments:

The absolute worst car ever designed and built by anyone, anywhere, anytime. This car, and everything else from Chrysler, is why the company collapsed... Chrysler's collapse had very little to do with the economy and everything to do with the fact that it was building cars like this.

A bad design was enabled by bad engineering, exacerbated by horrendous execution, shoddy assembly, bad parts, no thought given to maintenance or repair. A poorly designed car, built with shoddy components. I firmly believe Yugo's were built with far better quality parts.

From getting into the driver's seat, I now have two permanent 1" vertical scars on my right leg. There is a sharp, protruding lower dash bit that has caught me there many times, even when I'm being careful. It's clipped the lower leg and/or drawn blood from everyone in the family who has ever gotten in the beast. We call it the Vampire Car... it draws blood, gets your wallet, and it probably would have killed one or more of us if we hadn't eventually found and fixed the Swiss cheese filler neck leaking gasoline fumes into the car.

My uncle bought this car new when he was in his mid 70's, and since then we've spent the purchase price over again in repairs. You can't sell it, even for cheap... nobody wants it.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 14th December, 2010

2000 Dodge Intrepid ES 3.2 from North America

Summary:

Awesome

General Comments:

This is a low maintenance vehicle.

Other than regular maintenance that has to be performed on all vehicles, it hasn't had anything malfunction.

It handles better than any D segment car out there to date, and is still very comfortable on harsh roads, when little Civics and Corollas would rattle your brain out.

Very good performer for the year, especially considering the price, size, and the fact it has no performance badge on it anywhere.

One of the best multipurpose family friendly cars out there, that can be purchased used for little expense.

For anyone out there bragging about your imports, my vehicle has had 220000 trouble free miles.

If any of the people nay saying this vehicle, had a brain in their head, they'd research a car's reliability before you bought it. 2.7 Chrysler motors were horrible engines. 3.5 and 3.2 liter models are absolutely bulletproof.

And don't forget, Japanese car owners, you are making this country poorer every day. You drive an "affordable" car because foreign automakers don't have to conform to union standards, and pay the guy bolting the lugs on your Toyota over 20 dollars an hour, like the big three automakers in America. That's right, even for the factories Toyota owns in the U.S., they don't have to comply with U.S. (liberal) regulations.

It's OK though, Al Gore is giving you an imaginary pat on the back to make you all warm and tingling inside for helping another country prosper, while yours is going down the drain. Good job.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 13th October, 2010

14th Oct 2010, 07:19

We are making our own country poorer every day, and it is not by purchasing a Japanese car. Toyota, Honda, BMW, etc are assembled on our soil, and are employing American people. Chrysler and GM have assembly plants in Canada and Mexico. I was working on my buddy's 2006 Chevy Equinox, and noticed that the engine block had "made in China" stamped on it, and the transmission was made in Japan (Aisan Warner Type). Buying an "American" name does not always mean you are getting something made over here.

24th Feb 2018, 21:56

Perhaps blame should lie on Chrysler for driving customers away from American products with garbage like the 2.7. It’s hard to be patriotic on a budget, especially when your own country preys upon the poor.

MAGA!