grrr.........my chrysler rant for today

normally im not a complainer but this just frosts me. chrysler mini vans have a problem with the left front strut towers rusting out. common problem, bad design. list on the replacement tower is 136 dollars, and about 8 hours to weld in the new one. have a customer bringing one in, quoted him a price to replace it. called chrysler to order the part, well, because they sell so many of these towers, chrysler superceeded the part number, and raised the price to 375.00. same part, just more than doubled the price. grrr....ok im done, i feel better. (not really)

I wouldn"t worry to much. With the price of gas we"ll all be walking before long.

Glen, I bet you could fab a tower like that. I used to make a thing sorta like a football for Chevette shock towers. Not too beautiful but worked real good and cheap, which is my middle name. Dave

The "old" Chrysler went bankrupt charging the "old" price...so the "new" Chrysler is apparently trying to avoid that result by charging the "new" price.

That's how capitalism works...if you're going broke charging a lower price, you need to raise the price.

And the part was designed by the "old" Chrysler, which no longer exists...so the "new" Chrysler certainly won't take the blame for the bad design.

Sux for the customer, but that's how life works. Put on your big-boy pants and deal with it. Life ain't fair...once you understand that, and lower your expectations, your blood pressure will decrease a lot and you'll probably live long enough to see things get even worse.

I wish I could agree with you, but some people will buy it if it reaches $15.00 a gallon,and as long as they keep buying the price will keep going up-up-up.

I wouldn't have a choice, other than to quit my job. My job involves being on the road a good share of the time.

These stupid politicians think anyone who has a job can simply take public transportation from point A to point B to get to their job.

Try WWW.ecrater.com

I have said it before and I will say it again and get scolded, and ridiculed and other wise insulted and chastised, Mark my words, If everyone and I mean everyone would boycott ALL the fuel distributors for just 7 days. I mean everyone take a 5 day vacation and stay home, We could start to get their attention. With no consumption,they couldn't blame it on lack of supply of production. The EPA would go berserk because their largest reason for being would be gone, and we as a people could prove that we DO have the power to control our society and make decisions for our selves. Not only that it would completely blow away the dividends for the congress and senate that have all their money invested in the oil business. LarryT

P.S. Let me know the dates and I will just stay in bed.

That's not going to happen but a few years ago when the price of gas was high, a city in one of the Eastern provinces got together and boycotted specific service stations as a way of protesting. They'd boycott say Esso for a week and then boycott Shell the next week. It worked! Prices came down. Dave

Don't you know trker told us its President Bush's fault gas goes up?OPS! Bush ain't Pres no more.NOW who da gonna blame? Its the same old story economics supply and demand plus the falling US Dollar.3 years ago a Silver Eagle dollar coin would buy 5 gals gas now its one oz of Silver will buy
about 10 gals if you'd of bought them instead of holding onto US Paper money gas would be cheap.Live and learn.

There must be some "stupid politicians" on this board because on here they have said you don't have to buy gas you can take public trans or go Amish.

I'll betcha that part is outsourced and only distributed through Chrysler.

Problem is I'd have to walk or ride a mule 90 miles to catch the nearest public transportation.All jokes aside if gasoline does get to 15.00 a gal we won't have to worry about a job ,there won't be any. We will have all starved to death or committed suicide.

did you check your parts store and see if dorman/motormite offers it, www.dormanproducts.com

what year?

After the last Chrysler I owned I was informed by the better half that the Chrysler products, no matter the name on the front can not come in the drive ever again. Liked Chev's anyway.

Well being and ex Chrysler Plymouth tech and also a ex Chry Ply parts manage i am shocked at the huge increase in the parst from them and about fell over at the price of a new door for my 95 Dodge 3500 and oh don't even think of trying to get new rocker panels and here again way way over priced . And oh there is only a couple left also . I have owned a lot of mopars but i am starting to think of something else . Don't like any of the new line of Ford engines and never have been a G M person . May look into how many miles to a bale a horse gets and dig out my old Amish Sunday go to meeting hat and get it reblocked and cleaned .

its an 01 chrysler van. we have done quite a few of these, and they are not too terrible, drop the left suspension, cut the tower out, set it up on the frame rack to get it lined up, then weld the new one in, then a front end alignment. fabing up a tower would be just about as much as the price of the part, and add an extra day or so to the repairs. component is not available aftermarket that i could find that would be capa certified.

Would sure increase the price of horse flesh

If the guy is proud enough to own a mopar product the cost to repair it shouldn't be a big deal!

(At least that's what i tell my customers that drive Dorfs!)

I don't know what you all are worrying about. We aren't gonna need gas anymore. All we'll need to do is plug in and charge our cars and everything will be wonderful in the US with rainbows and unicorns and all the other algore things.

(quoted from post at 23:04:00 01/18/11) I don't know what you all are worrying about. We aren't gonna need gas anymore. All we'll need to do is plug in and charge our cars and everything will be wonderful in the US with rainbows and unicorns and all the other algore things.

Click to expand...

:lol: :lol: Yeah, Al Gore, the Sierra Club and other tree huggers have made such a noise that all the Auto Makers climbed on the bandwagon. Electric cars are NOT cost competitive with gasoline (yet). And OUR government is subsidizing their purchase with $8k of YOUR money. And even at that, they'll only be able to make a small dent in gasoline consumption as you can't get enough battery power in them to drive long distances. You can't just pull into a gas station on the Interstate and "fill em up" with electricity in 5 minutes and be on your way, like you can with gasoline. So, look at all the cars (and trucks) traveling on the highways more than 40 miles per trip and that's how much gasoline we'll still need. I think I read somewhere that if we replaced ALL of the in-town, short hop commuting that was feasible to do with electric, it would only be about 25% or so of the gasoline consumption. Could be wrong on the exact number but it sure wasn't getting rid of all of our gasoline. Also, to go that route, you will need to have either an expensive hybrid OR have 2 vehicles, one for in-town, one for long distance. How is THAT more cost effective?

And even if we did reduce gasoline consumption even 25%, do you think the price will go down? :lol: :lol: No, it will go UP. As an example of this principle, the Detroit Water Dept has been pushing conservation for years (even though it's supply comes from the Great Lakes which has 20% of the world's fresh water). Well, as consumption has dropped, the Water Dept is RAISING it's rates because the decrease in consumption has reduced it's revenue (duh) and it needs the money to maintain infrastructure. So, we're paying MORE for LESS even though the supply hasn't changed. Just the demand was reduced. The same will happen with gasoline. The oil companies will argue they need to charge MORE for a gallon of gas if we use less because they still need the refineries, pipelines, etc. to make it at a reduced efficiency.

Solution? My personal favorite is to focus development of hydrogen fuel cells. It's portable and infrastructure is there. We would just need to convert existing gas stations to hydrogen. Subsidize (if we need to), hydrogen production by building nuclear power plants for the electricity to make it. Price would be a lot more stable than oil.
Biggest problem with that are the tree huggers, EPA, NIMBYs etc. that oppose nuclear power.

This may-B

https://www.dormanproducts.com/documents4rb/2008ss/2800115_Chrysler_Strut_Tower_Caps.pdf

If you want to know the best for them price email me they are on sale rat now...

Just wait until all these cars start plugging in and the grid can't handle it. Then the power companies will "have" to upgrade and apply a surcharge to everyones bill to pay for it.

Glennsteer just be glad it is still available. I have several Chrysler products and half of the parts I need are not even made anymore. I just needed the left window module for my 1990 W350. The local dealer always kept one in stock and sold twenty plus a year of them. No longer being made. I needed the shifter boot for a 1998 W2500 no longer available.

The "NEW" Chrysler must think that if they quit making parts then we will buy new. NOT IF they don"t service what they sell.

I have not owned a Ford in almost thirty years but I will look long and hard the next time I buy. I lost half my retirement in the General Motors bond scam. I will not ever buy another GM product. I just about that way on Chrysler too.

Fords no different about discontinued parts... I spec Toyota has been the best over all for OEM parts on vehicles over 20 years old...