bad day in Dodge country

[Frank Fusco]

Tuesday, while driving from my home to Little Rock for a meeting (about 150 miles), half-way there, the transmission on my 1999 Dodge truck went out. I maintain the vehicle meticulously. It has 117,000 miles on it. Five months ago the differential went out. The dealer wanted $5,000.00 to fix that with new parts. We did it for $1,500.00 with used parts. Now they want $4,000.00 to fix the transmission. Other mechanics have told me I was lucky to get the other 17,000 miles as they usually fail right about 100,000. I'll probably get a used tranny put in then hock something to buy another vehicle. No matter what, it will be a losing proposition. I have been a Dodge fan for many years. No more. GMs have failed me too many times in the past. By default, I'll go with Ford this time. (we don't have any foreign car dealers in the area, have to get something that can be serviced locally) Probably downsize to a Ranger, which I am told, is really a Mazda. Oh, well. BTW, if there is a bright side to all this. I was in the middle of nowhere when the truck quit. My wife had just bought AARP tow insurance, it saved us a $400.00 tow bill.

[Joe Pelonio]

Frank,

Go for a stick shift. When I had the automatic rebuilt on my '72 El Camino
I asked the mechanic about my Explorer, he says they normally see them at 100,000 to 120,000 miles needing a rebuild. With all of the overdrive electronics and all they are a little over $2,000 to rebuild. Cheap compared to your Dodge, but he says that not many transmissions these days will go much longer than 120,000, here, in part, because of the bad traffic (stop and go) which is hard on them. Sticks are a lot cheaper to fix and last a lot longer.

[tod evans]

frank, you could always take the road i`ve chosen.....that of pre 1958 vehicles. not only are they inexpensive to work on they go up in value every year......02 tod

[Frank Fusco]

frank, you could always take the road i`ve chosen.....that of pre 1958 vehicles. not only are they inexpensive to work on they go up in value every year......02 tod

I'm almost wishing I had my 1977 Dodge back. Could see everything on it and it was fixable. At 500,000 miles I got rid of it because I got tired of watching the road go by under my feet and, at my age, I figured I deserved air conditioning. As for the stick shift, with my right shoulder in worse condition that the Dodge tranny, I'll stay with the modern shifter.

[Larry Conely]

The Ford Ranger is built at the Ford plant in St Paul Minnesota, where the Ford Ranger, Ford LTD, Ford Crown Victoria, Ford F-Series are built. The Mazda clone is built on the same line.

You will notice the interior of the Ranger shares instrument panels, dash boards, drive trains and other components with several other Ford procucts. It's a Ford.

My last two vehicles have been Ford Ranger 4x4s and I have been very pleased. I had a Dodge Dakota before that, it virtually fell apart around me.

Larry

[Mark Pruitt]

Frank, $4000 to fix a transmission is absolute highway robbery. There ain't no way in the world they could justify that price, I don't care how fancy it is. If you can find an independent repair shop with a decent reputation, tell that dealer to take a hike.

This is why I hate going to dealerships for out-of-warranty service. They will screw you so hard it'll strip your threads.:mad:

Don't mean to stir things up, but I just feel the same way about this as I feel about these stinking big oil companies gouging prices.:mad: :mad:

Mark

[Vaughn McMillan]

Frank, if it's any consolation, my Dad's got a 1997 Ford Ranger 4x4 extended cab (with the 5-speed manual) and he's got over 230,000 (mostly highway) miles on it. Still running strong, and all he's done is change the oil and the tires, a few brake jobs, and a new battery or two.

Looks like the Ranger will soon become my lumber hauler. Since my mom passed away, dad's decided he doesn't need two vehicles, and he has offered to let me have the Ranger whenever I can get to New Mexico to pick it up.

- Vaughn

[Tim Burke]

Frank, $4000 to fix a transmission is absolute highway robbery. There ain't no way in the world they could justify that price, I don't care how fancy it is. If you can find an independent repair shop with a decent reputation, tell that dealer to take a hike.

This is why I hate going to dealerships for out-of-warranty service. They will screw you so hard it'll strip your threads.:mad:

Don't mean to stir things up, but I just feel the same way about this as I feel about these stinking big oil companies gouging prices.:mad: :mad:

Mark

Frank,

Tough break on the tranny - always my biggest worry about car maintenance. I do almost all of my own repairs, but there's not much to do with auto trannies.

I had one good experience though. I bought a 98 Accord for my wife just out of warranty. The dealer convinced me I didn't need the extended warranty "because it's a Honda". Yes, one month later the tranny fails. No warranty, and Honda trannies can only be factory rebuilt. Upside is that Honda knew these trannies had issues and replaced them for free under certain conditions. My dealer installed a factory rebuillt tranny, no charge for anything! Total bill would have been over $6K!!

I talked with a local auto repair shop owner at the same time. He is an authorized Honda repair facility. He said that Honda is hands down the best customer service company. FWIW.

Good luck on the repair.

Tim

[Peter Stahl]

Frank,

A guy at work had his go at ~100K. My daughter just traded her Dakota pickup in because she was affraid the trans would go. I acted up on her several times and dealer there was nothing wrong with it.

[Frank Fusco]

Frank,

A guy at work had his go at ~100K. My daughter just traded her Dakota pickup in because she was affraid the trans would go. I acted up on her several times and dealer there was nothing wrong with it.

Yes, the more folks I tell about this, the more identical responses I get. Apparently, at 117,000 miles, I was lucky to get the extra 17,000. I was referred to a local garage that has been in business for many years. He will do the rebuild for $1,500.00 and guarantee for one year. His brother-in-law, who owns a salvage yard and will put in a used, 43,000 mile tranny with 90 warranty for $1,300.00, is the one who referred me. For $200.00, I'll take the one year promise. And $1,500.00 is a long ways from $4,000.00. I'm still going to shop for a trade on a Ranger later.