1997 Dodge Stratus LE from North America - Comments

Modern day car maintenance is just a nightmare. I'm on the verge of buying a Dodge Diplomat or similar old rear drive Fifth Avenue. That's when they knew how to build durable cars. Stratus is just another maintenance nightmare 'Made by Chrysler' and they knew how to make them last before. Now you are barely past car payments when your first transmission and engine goes.

And what's worse is that most repair shops, dealer or non dealer, don't know how to repair modern type cars meaning cars with electronic fuel injection/catalyst/modern emission equipment/electronically managed transmission and et cetera. The mechanical parts are usually OK, but the car's electronics are just a nightmare to troubleshoot and fix. And FWD means there's no space under the bonnet to work. I'm surprised that a whole industry can make products that badly constructed, the problem is not isolated to Chrysler/Dodge.