1999 Dodge Intrepid Base review from North America

Oil pan replaced a couple of days after purchased. Dealer took care of it at no cost.

That's it!

The base model features a 2.7-liter V6 that seems a bit challenged by the heavy bulk of this car. From a dead stop the car is a little slow and a little noisy, these minor annoyances had me thinking that I'd better trade up to the ES model. But, after looking at the posts here from ES owners, the vast majority of which are totally negative, I think I made the right choice.

Its mind boggling to hear other people label this car a "lemon." I just do not see it. This car has given me absolutely not one bit of trouble in the past two years since I bought it.

The only issue concerns the oil pan. This car is a former Hertz rental car. I believed it was a good idea to buy a former fleet car because "fleet-maintained" generally translates into "well-maintained." Take oil changes for example. You can bet that the oil was changed regularly at it's manufacturer-recommended intervals. This relates to the only time it's been in for repair: The oil pan drain plug, made of iron, stripped the threads of the oil pan, which could have resulted in a catastrophic loss of oil if the screw were to fall out. It's a safe bet that, if the oil pan threads were stripped at just 27,000 miles when I bought the car, the oil must have been changed quite often.

The dealership was, fortunately for me, very cooperative and replaced the oil pan for me at no charge.

Since that time... so far so good! I'd buy another big cruiser like this any day. The Intrepid is what American cars are all about: Big, spacious living rooms on wheels! Let the Europeans make due with there teeny little lawn mower cars, the Intrepid is what a car should be.