Jeep, Chrysler quality and cust. service - YUCK

I have a 2002 liberty sport with the off road and towing package. So
far while I am very happy with the engine - the rest of the vehicle is
a POS. And Chrysler has been a nightmare to deal with.


At 60 K miles - I was standing outside the vehicle talking to my
neighbor - when both airbags explode! I call chrysler - they want to
send an engineer to look at it and "investigate". 2 weeks later I get
my vehicle back - The report apparently said they didn't know why the
bags exploded - but I did nothing to cause the problem. In the
meantime I had to rent a vehicle for transport (if I had turned it in
to my insurance I would have had the car back on the road in 2 days -
but I thought I was doing chrysler a favor. It only took me 6 months
to get reimbursement for the rental vehicle.


Now the tilt wheel is flopping all over the place - turns out Chrysler
is using a non rebuildable column and typically an airbag deployment
wrecks the column. So now I have to get that fixed - and of course
chrysler says that there is "no evidence" that the bad steering column
was caused by airbag deployment.


The seat belt receptacle also quit working because of the plastic
"shoe" around the buckling mechanism. So now I have to replace that !
(chrysler says 400 bucks - ?)


This thing is going up for sale - it's the last chrysler I will ever
own - the germans can go find someone else to ignore their poor
service and poor quality!


Carl "soon to be jeepless" Johansson

 

Sounds like you are getting the runaround somewhere,but I would think that
seat belt issues would be covered under some warranty, I would go to another
dealer.
the steering column in a Liberty *does* need to be replaced after airbag
deployment,I don't know why a chrysler engineer wouldn't know that.

 

Something doesn't sound right. I've had nothing but good experiences with
Chrysler working through the very few issues I've even had with them over
nearly 20 years of buying their vehicles. Perhaps trying a different
dealer...look for the "5-star" rated dealer. Good luck!

 

What does the "5-star" rating signify? I had less-than-outstanding
experiences with two "5-star" dealers, and the last time I looked, one
of them no longer had that rating (and therefore did not show up in the
"find a dealer" listing when we were looking for a new vehicle).

What does a dealer have to do to get (and lose) that rating?

Perce

 

Well I know the dealer is crap - thats common knowledge around here -
but it was the really arogant and shoddy treatment by Chrysler (in
auburn Hills or wherever) that really suprised me!

 

Not a thing.

 

Surprises me to. I hope it isn't a general trend.

 

I believe they have to qualify annually (or at least periodically). I don't
know the specifics, but I believe customer satisfaction surveys, return
visits for the same repairs, condition of the shop, etc. are part of the
equation. The dealer I use has been a 5-star dealer for as long as I can
remember. You can eat off of their shop floor and I have not had a single
occurrence when any repair wasn't done right the 1st time (and that's over
nearly 20 years and several cars/van's/trucks). A little expensive, but
worth it when those are the results.

 

The dealer must stay above the "Group" Rating in both CSI, and SSI. The
group is all other chrysler dealers of his size in sales volume. The smaller
dealers typically have a much higher CSI and SSI rating then large volume
dealers. But for a dealer to become 5-star, they must be higher then average
for there size. Also they must have implemented a 100% call-back system.
Meaning they have to have a person in the dealership dedicated to answer all
customer concerns. Someone must phone 100% of the people who Just purchased
a new vehicle. And Service must phone 100% of the warranty repair customer.
Know this is customer Just for warranty. All calls must be logged on a
call-sheet, as to time called and what the conversation entailed. Know the
caller is not the person in charge of the customer service, it is usually
the receptionist, who is paid eg.(25 cents a call) they must write down any
complaints or concerns that the customer made. Then the next day, the
Customer Service person, goes through the logs to see, the concerns and
complaints. They then talk to the appropriate department manager, and come
to a decision on how to deal with the concern. And then that manager would
contac t the customer, and let them now they received the concern and would
like to rectify it. ( now this is the important part) Some of the customer
concerns is total shit! Sorry, but it is. There are a number of buyer
remorse stories, and the whole bit, so the customer just wants to bitch
about everything. If that is the case there is no incentive whatever for the
dealer to help the customer. But if they are genuine, such as dirty car on
delivery, grease monkey left grease on steering wheel, etc. Problem with
totals charged, etc. Then they will do something for you. The good dealers
would offer free oil change next visit, free detailing, etc. I worked at
Chrysler when they implemented it in Canada. And they big thing there was we
were pushing dealers to be ISO certified. So the dealers ISO certified,
already had the systems in palce to deal with customer concerns. ONCE A
DEALER IS CERTIFIED, it is hard to be de-certified. A dealer must be
certified based on his 12 month average for CSI and SSI, So it is hard for
shitty dealer to certify. But once he is, and his score go below average, a
dealer can dragg on indefinately. And trust me, the reps hat this part! A
dealer just has to show he has implemented a system to TRY and improve his
score. That's right - to Try and improve his score. Which helps a fairly
good dealer, because if the are genuine in acheiving the high score, they
will try and do there best to improve, including firing people, and the
whole bit. But other dealers just write up a one page letter stating they
are going to clean the shitters once a day, make sure coffee pot is full,
etc. And if the dealer is friends with the Regional manager, for Chrysler,
Forget it! The reps can't even type a documentation letter to the dealer,
without approval from the regional manager.

Anyway. there are a few more criteria, involved. and cleanliness is one.

If you really want to know, a small dealer who is 5-star is more then likely
a sincere person who does want to do there best to please you in the
purchase. As they are small, they have a very small return percentage on
CSI, and SSI scores, so it is very easy for them to get lower scores. So
they try to make sure they get in all surveys that they can. And typically,
Small dealers in general, have a homier feel, and down home atmosphere that
automatically make people feel better about buying a car.

If anyone needs to know a genuine dealer in Canada, Drop me a line!

 

My Chrylser dealer is quite good but another 5 star one sucks. So I would
agree the stars mean nothing.

 

**** you, dealer.

 

Absolutely NOTHING

 

The five star rating means that they have factory trained and certified
techniciansthey would lose that rating if they refuse to train thier employees.

 

Actually all Chrysler dealers have to have Factory trained technicians.

 

And that contribution is helpful, exactly how?

 

the one thing that was not written was the spiffs the dealer gets for being 5
star
and thats the bottom line of that whole scam
the techs are suppose to get cash for no comebacs
do u think that happens? and there is no recourse when they don't get it

 

wellll he got that off his chest and now won't go postal

 

Spiffs to the mechanics is a dealer thing. It is not from Chrysler. Chrysler
does not spiff the mechanics for anything, due to the problem with Sears
years ago spiffing there mechanics to upsell parts. I think they got busted
on dateline, or some other news show. If the dealer wants to spiff that's
fine, But it is not from Chrysler. The dealerership get's extra money from
Chrysler depending on there scores, and sales volume.

 

actually the techs are suppose to get 125.00 from the dealer for a 95% or better
ffv per 1/4 but we know that never happens and it's not general knowledge