Car Dealerships: The Good & The Bad

I would get the extended warranty, but maybe not from that dealer..

KnowWhy said:

Looking at a new Chrysler Pacifica. Have two kids in car seats and occasionally another rides in back seat. Have rented so many Pacificas and usually enjoyed them much Even the rentals get bugs in the software though and the controls don’t work well.
I have camped/slept in them a lot as it is cheaper than a hotel for a guy. The seats fold basically flat into the floor and when not folded in the holes are good storage. Huge sunroof and big windows. I LIKE light and being able to see out of my vehicle. I have a new hybrid Sienna but it is cramped inside comparatively, the windows are small and the headrests and chair backs are thick. I bought an older model, thinner headrest for the passenger seat but still the back seats are bad. The brakes are electronic and starts with battery regen until slowed down, then switches the actual brakes and causes a lurch. Weird on rough winter roads with ice—especially around low-speed corners. Wife likes it though. But she likes the pacifica more.

I found a dealer with a bunch of ‘26s on the lot where most are getting ‘27s in. They stated 0% for three years and i asked for pretty low out the door—12k off msrp where most are already 8-10k off the overpriced “msrp”
We’ll see. The dealer i got the toyota from was great. 10k less than Alaska and no pressure clear communication.


I expect about 60k miles out of the chrysler. I have over 175k on my ford and honda and am maintaining/repairing them. Purchased them new.

So—I am probably buying a new car and expecting the life of a 1970s vehicle.

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If you can make the numbers work, I'd just lease the POS.

What I would do - which is not what other people's needs align with - is buy a USED Honda or Toyota, or even an older DodgeChryPlym minivan. Because the QC in Stellantis products just isn't there.

But, if you don't want the Better Half in a used car (I get that) I'd lease the thing. Because my guess is, at the end of three years, it'll have scrap value, nothing moar - everything from all the plastic parts on the engine, requiring removal to change out; to the potential failure of the corporate garbage-pile that is Stellantis itself. A product like that, without support from the maker, has no value but scrap.

Lease it, look for a three-year lease with acceptable mileage limits. KEEP your present car, see if someone can park it in a barn somewhere, or just use it once a week to keep it alive. But anything made before Obombah fuel standards, before Direct Injection and turbocharging, before Stellantis or WokeFord or Mary-Barra-GM, is gonna be a better bet than what's being sold today.

searcher said:

Inside Ford's "Passionate" Reinvention<!-- --> | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

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Someone should point out to Jimmy Farley and Billy Ford...what happened to, say, Packard. Packard chased the market up, until they found nothing beneath them. Packard, like so many other brands focused on the "Lifestyle" buyer (remember the Jordon Playboy? That was actually a car, too...) they've disappeared.

The number of buyers who can pay six figures for a full-size Tonka truck with a four-foot box in the back...a box you can't even reach into, it's so high off the ground...that customer pool is limited. Limited moar by the short lifespan of these things...rolling iPads, all of them; neither the electronic equipment, which is INTEGRAL to operation, nor the Woke engineering-design that has major (cost-preclusive) repairs coming in at about 30k ($10k to remove an engine to replace a timing chain because of the shoddy design? Material-blasting intake ports because of the inherent defects of direct-injection?)

...neither of them are gonna encourage repeat buyers.

Volkswagen...Volkswagenwerk AG has forgotten its heritage; it was taken over by NSU's management after West Germany forced failing NSU into Volkswagen in 1969. But the original company with the original product...the company being created to make a pre-existing product....a car intended for people who had never before been able to afford a car...they built a huge industry around repeat sales of the same high-quality product. Design was stagnant, but engineering continuously improved (not bigger screens, but actual design changes to add longer life and greater operational ability) and buyers returned - again and again and again.

Toyota repeated that, with their evergreen Camry. It was cutting-edge when introduced - a FWD midsize car. Un-advertised was it's unnatural long life. Again, the design stayed what it was, with some cosmetic improvements, but engineering, until the last seven years, continuously improved. People bought - again and again, not because the car was flashy, it's not. It's now thought to be a granny-car. But it was a solid value - until Toyota joined the Woketarded parade.

Right now, Ford is laughing to the bank, while the numbnutz who have acceptable credit, shrug and accept thousand-dollar-a-month car notes to drive a Bro-Dozer truck. It won't take long even for a cretin, to get fatigued with all that debt, with no end in sight - and dammit, those things won't LAST the ten years of that thousand-dollar note.

Ford, the company, was based on Henry's vision, the same later shared by VW and Toyota...a simple car for average people. Billy Ford is Woke, and also not-too-bright. Jim Farley is no auto man - he came from Steelcase, an office-furniture maker.

It's the end. Probably for the whole of the American auto industry. Wanna see our future? Read the history of what happened to the great British companies...merged together into government-owned British Leyland, and then sold piecemeal to American, then German, then Indian and now Chinese absentee owners.

Connecticut car dealership to refund customers $4 million over alleged junk fees, double charges​

HARTFORD - A Manchester car dealership has agreed to refund customers $4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by state and federal officials that claimed the business double-charged for used vehicles and collected junk fees.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and the Federal Trade Commission announced the settlement with Manchester City Nissan on Wednesday, more than two years after they sued over consumer protection violations.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...s-double-charges/ar-AA2awX3B?ocid=socialshare

Rented a pacifica again yesterday and the family got in. So much room compared to the new sianna. The visibilty out the back and the headroom in the rear-most seats is a lot better. I will have at least three kids in back for a few more years.

Was supposed to be getting on a one-way flight in half hour this morning to pick up new pacifica. Dealer called me last evening to let me know Stallantis has a recall and they can’t sell any Pacificas until resolution. Sure enough, there are no pacificas on any dealer lots showing on the websites right now. They pulled them off nationally. It’ll get worked out, but a fair amount of planning was involved for this and mildly screwed up.
Hope it resolves in the week i am here.

Reliability versus usefulness.

I have a Sienna, a 2009 that's in remarkably great shape. "Only" 149k miles on it. Got it cheap, and it runs like a Rolex.

Back IN 2009, I had one of the Chrysler bubble minivans. A 2007 I bought out of inventory late in 2008 - Chrysler's incipient bankruptcy seemed inevitable then; Daimler had stripped the company and dumped it on a private-equity vulture-capital outfit.

But that van was the cat's ass. The driving position was untiring; the V6 gave 28 miles a gallon. And it was a GREAT road car - I took it to Colorado from Ohio and back; then down to Dallas for a job interview; then on the road to Wisconsin and Michigan. I actually enjoyed driving that car.

The problems of the Ultramatic e-automatic transmission were becoming legendary; and Chrysler had indeed filed for bankruptcy, so with 60k miles and no problems, I dumped it for a used full-size Dodge van - much less of a driver's car.

I mention this because now I have this Sienna, the same-era minivan. The thing is quiet but it handles like a waterbed on wheels. It doesn't track straight (doesn't feel like alignment, and the tires aren't wearing) and it really scrubs the tires in curves, even gentle curves. Tractor-trailers outpace this van up in our mountain passes on the Interstate.

Nonetheless, in this day and age, just plain-old reliability and value-retention, are worth a lot. The deal-buster, in fact.

KnowWhy said:

Was supposed to be getting on a one-way flight in half hour this morning to pick up new pacifica.

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Good thing they let ya know prior to you making the flight.

My luck, it woulda been landing and turning the phone on just to see a text saying they couldn't sell me the car. Lol

Casey Jones said:

Reliability versus usefulness.

I have a Sienna, a 2009 that's in remarkably great shape. "Only" 149k miles on it. Got it cheap, and it runs like a Rolex.

Back IN 2009, I had one of the Chrysler bubble minivans. A 2007 I bought out of inventory late in 2008 - Chrysler's incipient bankruptcy seemed inevitable then; Daimler had stripped the company and dumped it on a private-equity vulture-capital outfit.

But that van was the cat's ass. The driving position was untiring; the V6 gave 28 miles a gallon. And it was a GREAT road car - I took it to Colorado from Ohio and back; then down to Dallas for a job interview; then on the road to Wisconsin and Michigan. I actually enjoyed driving that car.

The problems of the Ultramatic e-automatic transmission were becoming legendary; and Chrysler had indeed filed for bankruptcy, so with 60k miles and no problems, I dumped it for a used full-size Dodge van - much less of a driver's car.

I mention this because now I have this Sienna, the same-era minivan. The thing is quiet but it handles like a waterbed on wheels. It doesn't track straight (doesn't feel like alignment, and the tires aren't wearing) and it really scrubs the tires in curves, even gentle curves. Tractor-trailers outpace this van up in our mountain passes on the Interstate.

Nonetheless, in this day and age, just plain-old reliability and value-retention, are worth a lot. The deal-buster, in fact.

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My 20+ year old f250 got dropped off for diagnose and repair two days ago. I bought it new and it has served well. Reaching the end though. All the new ones are as you described as ipads on wheels. The 3k estimate to repair four known things is fine with me as it is only a tow vehicle for typically short runs as it’ll get me by probably several more years. Weird to think my next truck will likely be my last, given the rate i wear them out.
I have and will keep a newer sienna for it’s fuel mileage, but i could sell it for close to what i paid still.

No Chrysler dealer has any new stock listed nationally at the moment. Strange like a covid-drastic moment for them, but maybe it happens sometimes and i just have never seen it.

Used Car Complaints

Aug 21, 2026
I get way too many of these calls.

15:25

GM 6.2L V8 Nightmare Gets Worse, Post-Recall L87 Federal Engineering Analysis Opened​

The Office of Defects Investigation's engineering analysis covers an estimated 997,743 trucks and sport utility vehicles from the 2021 through 2026 model years. Beyond Chevrolet, affected brands further include GMC and Cadillac. As for suspect nameplates, make that Silverado 1500, Sierra 1500, Tahoe, Suburban, Yukon, Yukon XL, Escalade, and Escalade ESV.

More:

• Volkswagen announced a further 50,000 job cuts as it forges ahead with its restructuring plan.
• The carmaker’s shares jumped on Friday as investors welcomed the cost-cutting plan.
• The decision could create a “halo effect” for the German auto manufacturing industry, analysts said.

Volkswagen, the RICH people's car company...is gonna make history.

It's gonna be the first automotive drop-shipper and rebrander of Chinese crap. Once again, they're beating Government Motors, who was really all-set to do the same, having borrowed heavily from Chinese state banks to continue GM-Korea in bankruptcy.

So...like Chrysler used to do with Rootes and Mitsubishi subcompacts...they're gonna slap Adolf Hitler's circle logo (yes, it was his, or was approved first by him) on PRC-collective-made China crap.

That'll work out fine, I'm sure.

Woman Sees Her Car on a Joyride While it Was in for Repair

Sep 6, 2026
She said it was the mechanic's step-daughter who was driving it around town.

11:04

A Boston woman, Shayna Morales, dropped off her vehicle at an auto repair shop in Hyde Park for routine service, only to later spot it being driven by the mechanic’s stepdaughter around town Moneywise.