1998 Chrysler Voyager LE from UK and Ireland - Comments

Brand new vehicle, faulty since day one, main fault is that it pulls to the left very badly. It will pull from the fast lane of a motorway into the hard shoulder within a matter of seconds.

It failed a standard MOT inspection carried out by the Vehicle Inspectorate within the first few months.

Faulty speedo, permanently stuck at 120 mph although it hadn't been moving when this happened.

All the above faults have been confirmed by a qualified independent engineer.

It also has a faulty fuel gauge, the battery went flat from new within a matter of months.

The selling dealership has done absolutely everything to avoid taking their legal responsibility in this case, they have tried and FAILED to fix the vehicle on 5 separate occasions.

In fact Chrysler have acted in a manner in which they are backing the lies of the dealer, probably because it is one of their biggest dealers in London.

This particular Chrysler/Jeep vehicle and almost every other vehicle manufactured by them has suffered from a vast number of quality/design/build defects in the US for many years now.

Chrysler have been renowned for their very poor quality/after sales service for ages in the States, but as they are relatively new to the UK not many sources of information are available for counsumers to make an informed choice about these vehicles.

My advice, be careful, be very careful. Voyager came up very badly in Top Gear JD Power survey, and has received very bad ENCAP ratings. Incidently, the new PT Cruiser has also suffered from bad press in it's first few months of release.

It seems that Chrysler are heading towards building the very same bad reputation as they have in the US.

Re Voyager LE

I purchased a 2.0 Voyager LE from new Dec 1998. My first impressions were that the car had great road presence and some innovative design features.

First year: Only covered 6k miles, but despite the expensive servicing costs, happy motoring.

Second year: 6k again, but with two complete handbrake failures, one of which happened whilst parking 50M from a cliff edge in north Devon, not good when you have a wife and four young children in the car.

On both occasions, the dealer told me they were too busy to look at the car within the next seven days, and that I should bring the vehicle to them. When Chrysler UK were contacted, the dealer sprung to life and rectified the fault within 24 hours.

This year: My Voyager is currently with the dealer having a new instrument panel as the original one froze, and left me with nothing. And surprise surprise, when I phoned the dealer, we are fully booked with services, so we can't look at your faulty car for two weeks.

My first and last Voyager.

Doug Cox

doug_cox@westlb.com

I know exactly the dealer you are talking about, they are a West London dealer, and I had exactly the same reponse from them every time I went there with a problems on my Jeep Grand Cherokee.

They were evasive at all times, used the courtesy as their own personal vehicle at the expense of their customers, and only remedied a fault after four visits after I told them what part to replace!!!

Refused to replace brake disks after 4k Miles saying it was my driving that caused them to warp, even though they had a v minor Shimmy when I bought the vehicle.( I drove a Nissan Sunny in Africa for 100k miles, like a maniac, often off road, no problems) The Brakes on the Grand Cherokee are definitely under specified.

Should have taken legal action, but moved abroad. Next time I certainly will.

Peter.nugent@csfb.com.

Obviously the above dealer is total untrained. The instrument panel will freeze as an electronic fault and you only need to remove and the put back the electric switches under the bonnet to re-boot it. I has the same problem and a local mechanic did it for me! As for Handbrake problems - the Chrysler braking system is apparently only adjustable from the rear disk area - I have had the same problem - main dealers seem to know how to do this, but charge the earth! Apart from that I've had no problems with my Chrysler - my advise... Get a good local mechanic who you can trust to do the servicing and normal repairs, and only use the main dealer for emergencies.

I live in the Boston area and just experienced the same frozen instrument panel problem with my 98 Voyager. I do many repairs myself, so I may try to remove and replace myself before spending a lot of money. Would appreciate any guidance available. I have been satisfied with the vehicle for 5 yrs/ 64k miles. Had a few minor issues, but overall it has been reliable. This is my second Voyager and I must say I did have fewer problems with the first. You get what you pay for.

17.05.2003.

I am very surprised at the foregoing comments about the Chrysler Voyager. I have owned my diesel Voyager for four years and have not expierienced a single problem.

For me the car is a supurb touring vehicle and I drive regularly around Europe in it. It has proved to be - fast, comfortable, flexible, reliable and economic to opperate. I shall certainly be replacing it with another one when the time comes.

Anstee

Bristol.

We lived in Canada for 5 years I owned a total of 3 Chrysler's

1-A Chrysler Grand Voyager

2- A Chrysler Intrepid & 3- A Chrysler/Dodge Neon..

Out of these cars we had NO problems with any..It's a real shame the Dealersip have let you down,...we now live back in the UK & own a 1995 Chrysler Grand Voyager (the old shape) We got it in Germany...It's got 100+ KM on the clock and we have NO problems with it...It's not Chrysler it's these dealers???

I bought my 1998 2.0 SE Petrol Voyager in 2001 with 54,000 miles on the clock.

From day one it had exhaust problems.

At 73,000 miles the fuel pump went and cost 1,000 euro to repair.

At 82,000 miles the power steering pump went and it cost 800 euro to repair.

Despite the expensive purchase price I received a very bad trade in price for the vehicle, in fact some dealers wouldn't even take it as a trade in.

Have you seen the encap results for this car, not so good for carrying a family in!

1998 Chrysler Voyager 3.3LX bought this car from a garage in Chessington Surrey.. at 30,000 miles in April 2004. Very pleased with it at the beginning. Went into a Chrysler dealer in Amersham for its 37,000 mile check up to be told that the track rod ends had gone and the sub-frame had worn so badly it was dangerous to drive!!! nobody can believe that in just 7,000 miles this could happen. Have considered legal action... but who do you go after??? and trying to prove anything.. my husband and I have given up. Just forking out £2500.00 for this to be rectified. In some respects this isn't the point... the point is that we have been driving our 3 young children around in what we thought was a reliable family car!!!

My father owns a chrysler voyager 3.3 SE 1998 with 17k it has been adapted for him to use in his wheelchair as he is tetra-plegic. The changes to vehicle are floorpan, hand controls, electric handbrake.

The fault is if the car is left for a week, the battery will be flat. Checked out seemed okay, but changed the battery for a new bosch one rather than take the risk of it failing again on my father. Flat again! As I am en electrical engineer by trade I put a Digital Clip-on ammeter around all conductors from the battery. The meter set on auto store. One week later ammeter reading 0.04A peak, this would be less than the alarm would use and yet the battery was flat again.

Changed the battery again! because it can't be anything else. Guess what flat again. To stop this from happening I have to go round twice a week to drive the car around for an hour or so.

I'm writing from Mongolia asking to have assistance on my van. I have bought 98 Chrysler Grand Voyager SE with 2.4L DOHC engine in 2002 from Europe. After arriving in Mongolia this car's automatic transmission broken down. So I decided to change automatic transmission to manual transmission. I have replaced Japanese car's /Toyota Camry/ manual transmission /4S type enigine/. I need some used car's parts for my car. So please write me what you have and offer. Actually I don't know names of the parts in English. After receiving your e-mails I will go to Benz dealer office in Mongolia and ask what they would be.

I hope you will help me with your reply.

Thanks to you all.

Tuvshin.D

Chrysler Voyager Owner.