The things I see at work

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The things I see at work

November 30, 2012, 06:17:06 PM

Tom is always posting work stories, so I thought I'd post a few recent happenings...

First, my experience with working on the Dodge Caliber/Jeep Patriot/Compass. IN my educated opinion, these are absolutely the worst cars on the road. They are the worst vehicle produced by any manufacturer in the past two decades. Their drivetrains are shiznit (especially the CVT), their suspensions are shiznit (nearly every component needs to be replaced by 36k miles, quite often as low as 10k miles), their interiors and electronics are shiznit, and their bodies are shiznit. Even Fiat/Chrysler's CEO Sergio Marchione has gone on record as saying "To call the Caliber a retail vehicle is an abomination". I shall call these vehicles the "Calicompiat" from here on out.

Now, combine these endearing qualities with the fact that Nova Scotia has one of the most corrosive environments on Earth (this was the results of a study done jointly by GM and Toyota a few decades ago). Vehicles in this environment tend to start showing lots of surface rust on the underside by the time they are five years old. Some trucks (*cough*GM*cough) show some rust-through corrosion on the frame by ten years of age, and most vehicles are rendered unroadworthy by the age of 15. Our junkyards are full of good engines because the vehicles rot away around them.

The Calicompiat is, in addition to all of its mechanical issues, especially rust pr0ne. The rear subframe in particular is especially bad. The metal is only as thick as body sheet metal when new. Once the salt gets to them they deteriorate very quickly. I've had to weld patches into several rear subframes, but this one that came in takes the cake. It came in for a safety inspection, and I was the lucky guy to do the inspection. The car needed the typical (of these cars) rear trailing link bushings, front lower control arms, rear boomerang links, and rear toe links. What took the cake, though, was the rear subframe. It was completely rotted through to the point that it is not salvageable. It must be replaced. This is a 2008 Caliber with 38k miles on it. It's JUST outside of Chrysler's corrosion warranty. The customer is currently arguing with Chrysler Canada over it. Meanwhile the car sits in our compound, unsafe to drive. Pics:

The things I see at work

Reply #1 – November 30, 2012, 06:19:19 PM

The sad (and amazing) thing is that the actual unibody structure of the car is near perfect, not even any surface rust. More pics:

The things I see at work

Reply #2 – November 30, 2012, 06:24:04 PM

Story #2 is a quick one. A customer brings in her 2012 Hyundai Elantra with the donut spare on, asking whether we can fix her tire. I took the tire out of the trunk and quickly saw why it was flat. Needless to say, it was not repairable:

That is a stabilizer link, appears to have come from a Chevy truck. Must have broke off the truck on the road, she ran it over. It went in the sidewall, then back out...

The things I see at work

Reply #3 – November 30, 2012, 06:35:18 PM

...And story #3 is another quickie. I work at a large used car dealership, and most of the cars we sell are bought at auction. Many of these are from rental companies. Recently I was doing the reconditioning on a 2011 Ford F-250 Super Duty 4X4. It is the longest F250 they make: Crew cab with 8-foot box. Just the kind of truck that would be rented for exploration purposed by, say, an oil company looking for places to drill, or a mining company looking for deposits. That's my theory with what happened to this one. On the shiny side it looked like any other year old work truck: Shiny paint, a few dings here and there...

Underneath, however, was a different story. The mud was caked on the underside of this truck 4" thick. The axle ends were literally gobs of concrete-hard mud, caked onto the brakes & suspension so much that it actually took the shape of (and scored the hell out of) the rims. I had to chip this shiznit away before I could even find the brake calipers. Even the vents in the rotors were clogged solid. Somebody had fun with this truck...

The things I see at work

Reply #4 – November 30, 2012, 08:21:47 PM

That seems like an amazing amount of rust for a 2008 with only 38K miles. So I believe what you say about Nova Scotia being a corrosive environment. Crazy . . . .

The things I see at work

Reply #5 – November 30, 2012, 09:43:16 PM

Some Moron actually bought that truck at auction to resell? They need a new buyer for sure.

All you have to say is Jeep and you know you will have it coming back to give you work.

The things I see at work

Reply #6 – November 30, 2012, 10:46:39 PM

wow, that makes the windstar recall look good.

The things I see at work

Reply #7 – November 30, 2012, 11:27:42 PM

Those Windbag recalls suck.

The things I see at work

Reply #8 – November 30, 2012, 11:33:12 PM

Does Chrysler even paint the rear subframe on the Calicompiat or do they just leave 'em bare steel? I see cars that have been on the road 20+ years here that look better.

The things I see at work

Reply #9 – December 01, 2012, 01:01:51 AM

Jeep=just empty every pocket. Been there, done that. 3 times over. And that was with stuff that was made BEFORE Chrysler got ahold of 'em.
Having worked on a few Durango/Dakotas, and one Ram 1500, I can tell you they are some of less thought-out designs. Of course, a pathetic maintenance schedule -sure didn't help. For that matter, I've owned 3 Dodge/Chrysler cars.

But, regardless of make, every manufacturer in the world has put out stinking steaming piles of utter shiznit. Unfortunately, we here in N America seem to get most of them.

The things I see at work

Reply #10 – December 01, 2012, 09:48:51 AM

Quote from: thunderjet302;403656

Does Chrysler even paint the rear subframe on the Calicompiat or do they just leave 'em bare steel? I see cars that have been on the road 20+ years here that look better.

They do paint them with something, because they are black when new. I'm guessing they bought the paint from Toyota or Nissan, who have similar corrosion issues but start out with thicker metal, so they last a little longer

Quote from: Fordracer08;403646

Some Moron actually bought that truck at auction to resell? They need a new buyer for sure.

All you have to say is Jeep and you know you will have it coming back to give you work.

Most of our vehicles come from auction. If they're three or four years old they're usually lease returns. If they're one year old they're usually former rentals. A good portion of those auction cars are purchased online, with only the photos from the auction house to go by. That's the way it is in the used car biz. Auction houses generally have a system in place where the purchaser can return any vehicle if it has any undisclosed damage. This truck wasn't really damaged, it was just really, really muddy underneath.

The rusty Caliber in the first bunch of photos wasn't an auction car, it was a customer's. I actually took those photos for the customer and emailed them to him, so he could go after Chrysler. He's still fighting with them, but if the Chrysler DSM had any sense at all he'd have fixed that thing without question instead of saying "Sorry, you're 16 days out of warranty". I suggested to the customer that he go to the news and to Transport Canada (our equivalent of the NHTSA). The news can embarrass the hell out of Chrysler, Transport Canada can force a recall if they determine it's a safety issue (which, of course, it is). Either one would be far more costly to Chrysler than replacing that subframe would have been...

The things I see at work

Reply #11 – December 01, 2012, 07:16:34 PM

I see old cars around here and especially in small towns, where cars have been sitting out in the weather for 30-40 years that look great compared to that.

The things I see at work

Reply #12 – December 01, 2012, 08:45:11 PM

Well

The things I see at work

Reply #13 – December 01, 2012, 09:26:48 PM

I dunno, Tom... I work on all makes & models, everything from Audi to Volvo, Acura to Toyota, and the American brands, and they are all far, far better than the Caliber with one exception. Even cars that are much cheaper (Rio, Accent, Fit, Versa) are much better. I have no "domestic" rose coloured glasses (I'm Canadian, there are no Canadian automobile manufacturers, so they're all imports to me). I don't even have a particular hate on for Chrysler (I own two, a 2005 Chrysler 300 and a 2003 Dakota 4X4). The CaliCompiot are just plain the second-worst cars that have been offered by any manufacturer now and for the past two decades or so, except for the Smart ForTwo which is the absolute worst.

As for your statement about why people buy Hyundai: I bought mine for several reasons:

First, my uncle has an Accent. It's his fifth, and he has had zero problems with any of them, probably three quarters of a million miles between them.
Second, my father has a 2008 Sonata. It's his second, and he has had zero problems with either of his.
Third, my sister has a 2009 Sonata. She's approaching 100k very poorly maintained miles on it. Her only problem was a harsh shifting transmission, which was replaced under that marvelous 100k mile warranty with no hassles whatsoever - they even put her in a courtesy car and delivered the car to her work when it was finished.
Fourth, there's that marvelous warranty. 5 year bumper to bumper. No other manufacturer offers it, except Kia. Ford, GM, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda all only offer 3/36 warranty, except on the powertrain. And any sensors attached to that powertrain are not covered, so when your Dodge's crankshaft position sensor fails (and it will) it's on your dime. GM is the only one of the lot that covers wheel bearings under powertrain. With Hyundai/Kia it's all covered. The fact that those companies offer cars as cheap as they do, and stand behind them like they do, is nothing shy of spectacular.
Fifth, my 2011 Hyundai Sonata was built in USA. Not Mexico, like the Fusion. Better yet, it was built by non-UAW labour in a right-to-work state. Yes, profits go to Korea. As I said earlier, I'm Canadian. No matter which manufacturer I buy from, the profits go out of the country.
And finally, yes, there is the value aspect. 198 horsepower, six manually selected forward gears, bluetooth and satellite radio, all the power goodies, cruise and A/C, comfortable seating for five, standout styling, an honest 35 MPG (the Sonata was not one of the cars that had their mileage revised, and I routinely see 35MPG or better on highway trips), the best warranty in the business, and all of this for thousands less than any of the competition. Oh, and the 0% financing for 84 months and $1000 gas card helped my decision along as well. Top it all off with a $65 set of true HID's for the low beams and a set of cheap aftermarket alloys for the summer and I've got one hell of a daily driver. 24k miles so far and not a single issue.

The things I see at work

Reply #14 – December 02, 2012, 12:07:51 AM

Yes, I would think the Chrysler DSM would be smart to just fix that subframe and move on. The bad publicity he could get will cost alot more.

I have 28 years in the car business as a mechanic here in PA. I have worked at several new car dealers (Ford, Honda, Toyota, Chrysler/Jeep) and none of them bought auction cars online. We have alot of auto auctions here in PA and the dealers have buyers who go out and purchase cars for them at the auctions. Its interesting to me that they buy vehicles that way at your dealership. I guess as long as they are keeping you in work it's good.