Ugh! My car died on me today.

My 1998 Dodge Durango only has 39k miles on it and it died today. It's already passed it's 3 year 36k mile warranty. Of course, now all the new dodge's have a 7 year 70k warranty. Just my freak'n luck. this sucks cause I had so much to do today, but now I have to get my car towed and taken to a shop. I'll probably end up getting a new car this weekend, and I hate dealing with money hungry car salesman. I'm never going to buy an american car again. I'm sticking with German or Japanese.

I don't expect anyone to reply to this thread, just wanted to vent.

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Originally posted by dizzle


I don't expect anyone to reply to this thread, just wanted to vent.

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Well here's what I think about your expectations.....

Actually, I'm going car shopping as a little graduation present to myself and am debating between the Ford Explorer SporTrac and Nissan Xterra...I don't know a TON about cars...are american cars really *that* bad? I love the interior of the ford and feel more comfortable in it, but if reliability's that much an issue...i'll go with the nissan.

should have bought a FORD!! its like they time things to break right after the warrenty is up

Great car at a great price is a Chrysler 300M

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Originally posted by BigGreen


Well here's what I think about your expectations.....

Actually, I'm going car shopping as a little graduation present to myself and am debating between the Ford Explorer SporTrac and Nissan Xterra...I don't know a TON about cars...are american cars really *that* bad? I love the interior of the ford and feel more comfortable in it, but if reliability's that much an issue...i'll go with the nissan.

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You will get what you pay for. The proportion of reliability of american vs. japanese cars is similarly proportional to the price. i.e. the japanese cars are going to be a little more reliable, but they are also more expensive for what you get. You can get almost any american car for an excellent deal right now, with rock bottom prices and 0% financing in most cases, so I would go american.

buy a camaro:) and to dizzle, what exactly happened to ur car (ie:battery, alternator) i dont think that a car w/ that many miles should just DIE. maybe some maintenance, but no dying!

I've owned and currently own a Ford truck and imho I think they make the best. Never had one problem with any of them at all. The last truck I drove for two years and put over 90,000 miles on it and she (do you guy's also refer to your cars and trucks as females?) never gave me one problem. With that said I can't say the same for Ford's cars, imo they suck big time except for the ponies. But I love Chevy's cars.

I have a 2000 Durango and knock on wood I haven't had a problem with itand it has 46k on it. Can't wait to get rid of it in Feb but no problems.

That sucks though.

I LOVE MY HYUNDAI

Well one day I'll be able to afford a new car, ut I will never own a foreign car, my preference is anything Chevy. But as Ford or Dodge is helluva lot better than any foreign crap that's out there.

You will get what you pay for. The proportion of reliability of american vs. japanese cars is similarly proportional to the price. i.e. the japanese cars are going to be a little more reliable, but they are also more expensive for what you get. You can get almost any american car for an excellent deal right now, with rock bottom prices and 0% financing in most cases, so I would go american.
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True, true.
I haven't bought a used car since my old 69 VW Squareback. First a 1980 Datsun 210 (great car),
1982 Datsun pickup (needed a truck for my sideline piano tuning biz),
1986 Mazda 626,
1995 Geo Metro (1 liter engine--wow)
2000 Chevy S-10 pickup.
39k miles on the current Chevy, fixed the brake lights under warranty, no other problems. Have started buying American 'cause I took a car repair class back in 1988, one of the homework assignments was to get prices for a list of auto parts for our cars. The foreign parts were four times as expensive (on average). Oh yah. Honda, Nissan, & etc may hardly ever break down, but when they do, god help ya.
Kinda wish I still had the Geo Metro . . . put maybe 100k miles on it, still ran like a top. No get up and go (it got up and left), but great gas mileage (56mpg+ on trips). Traded it in after some idiot plowed into the back end in a rainstorm . . . Thank you, Allstate Insurance!

But ya, these days, I'd go American, and I'd buy something they made a lot of (good spare part availability down the road) unless you really really really needed a new car for $8k, then I'd look at one of those bitty Korean cars. See if the salesguy would throw in a kilo of powdered oxandrolone to sweeten the deal . . .

It could be a very simple problem so why waste all that money on a brand new car when it probably just a small problem. Do you realize how much money you lose on a brand new car after owning it for one year. (Rant ON) I know a girl that had a mid 90's Saturn that was working fine. It needed a muffler and had a coolant leak. Instead of spending ~$300 to fix it she went and bought a brand new car when she was already in debt. She said the car was a piece of junk. Hasn't anyone these days heard of a little maintenance. I doubt she ever freakin flushed the coolant anyways. This is not directed at the poster but it frustrates me for some reason. (Rant OFF)
Take care.

Update: It took almost two weeks to get it fixed. They had to replace some computer shit or something because the electrical system wasn't working right. I picked it up yesterday afternoon, it cost $1200 with towing. On my way to work today, boom, car dies, the exact same problem I had before. I pushed it into a lot, and ended up having someone pick me up to go to work. I'm hella pissed that I have to go through this shit again. If I can get it up and running, I'm taking it straight to a Japanese Dealership to trade in for a nice Acura (Honda), Infinity (Nissan) or Lexus (Toyota).

As I said before, I will never buy an American car again.

Well all I can say is, don't blame the car, blame the idiots that "supposedly" fixed your car. I used to be a full time mechanic and trust me, when it comes to them fixing that "electrical crap" so to say, most of the times they didn't replace anything except a fuse or re-ran the same wiring. SO what happens is that, the car will start and run, until the same problem occurs. Go get another car, but next time take it to a reputable shop to get it worked on.