Now I have no Dodge experience, but I've always heard rumors of dodges haveing junk trannys, and overall being recycled pieces of "you know what". Not just my buddies telling me this, but A guy whos worked at a body shop for 25+ years told me that dodges are recyled pieces of "you know what", and many elderly-like people (no offence older people!) that have worked on cars for the better part of their part of their life also seem to agree. Now i have nothing against dodges, besides their grilles being way too big, but are these rumors true?

Admins, im not flaming dodge. Im just curious if they tend to have "defective parts"

 

well considering i had a 2001 dodge durango before my 03 expy.the dodge was a joke the rattled,the timing chain broke,the tranny blew a sun gear,alternator made a burning smell ,rear window defroster broke,the front a/c went out,power seats broke,ashtray fell off, and the paint on the bumper came off.the truck was in the shop 108 days in 2 years time.it sucked i will never go back i have a pile of receipts about 6 inches thick

 

Well, having a good friend who used to work as an engineer at Chrysler, he informed me that their design lifecycle for components was 8 years and 100000miles...

Thats a fair indication in my book.

 

I see lots of old dodge trucks on the road. I like the 1st and 3rd gen trucks the best. I own a o4 ram1500qc 4.7l and also an 85 f150. I've replaced the tranny in the ford once in the 10 years I've owned it, the ford six banger still runs strong and I expect her to be around for a few more years. THe ram has been problem free so far with 33,000 on her. I have owned 2 dodge neons. I bought one the first year they came out in 95, It ran great and consistently got 30 mpg. I traded it in on a 2000 neon which ran problem free for many years too.

 

Back in the mid to late '70s my father bought a '74 dodge 3/4 ton with a 360 in it.. He traded it off a week late for a 3/4 ton ford with a 302 in it.... Guess why.. THe dodge WOUDLNT pull the race car.... THe ford had more power and got better fuel mileage.

 

i am not simply a car-nut, but a truck-nut too- i always loved Chevy and i think a lot of their car design too, but when i began to remember the '76 Cheyenne i had years back and i realized there werent any of them on the road; i started counting the pickups from that era still rollin down the hiways. the Ford trucks outnumber anything else, and they keep on rollin. so here i am with three of 'em and havin the time of my life too. not to detract from the Dodge or chevy crowds, but the numbers are hard to argue with. junk parts or not.

 

I was at a shop, and there was a 98 cummins with the bed off, and it had more rust on the frame than my 88 f150! I flicked the exhaust clamp with my finger and it fell off...

 

I went crazy back in the early 70's and decided to switch from Ford to Chrysler. And I paid for that stupidity.
First was a used 68 Baracuda. 273 V8 auto. Was fairly good for a while, but shelled the engine and left me on the side of the road in the middle of the King Ranch with a big bucks repair bill for an engine.
Next was a 69 Roadrunner used. Had a rebuilt 383 motor when I got it and seemed fine. But once the outside temp was over 75 degrees, the engine would heat up and boil the water out when you stopped. I did everything imagineable to try to fix it and never did. When the brake pedal went to the floor one day with my new preg wife at the wheel, I traded it to Chrysler for a new 73 Ply Satelite sebring 400v8 auto.
This was a fairly good car but in the time I owned it, I could NEVER get the wheels to balance. Went thru several brands of tires, and balance types but it still vibrated at 65 and above.
Then I bought a 75 Dodge PowerWagon full time 4wd short box 318 V8. Tough as nails, rode like a tank, and got 10 MPG loaded or empty. This was just before the first gas crisis of the 70's and It finally became too much of financial drain to feed it, I got rid of it
Lastly I bought a new 77 Ply Fury at the height of Chyslers incompetency. This thing was junk from the start. Ate a front tire every 3K miles and they never fixed it. After the 12 month warranty ran out and it had eaten all 4 tires up, JC Penny auto finally found the pitman arm joint was ready to fall out. Fixed that and no more tire wear. Another major problem with it was that it had more road noise around the windows and doors than a convertable (it was 4 door sedan) and water blew in when it rained. Again never fixed by bums at Chrysler. Final straw was when it shelled front main bearing at 36K miles. When I pulled the engine down, I found crank had 3 different sizes of bearings, standard and 2 oversize. Guess they used a junk crank and cut the journals as needed. Also had used 340 heads on a 318 block. Found that out when I reassembled the engine and exhaust gaskets did not fit the mainfold openings.
That was 30 years ago and I vowed that I would never drive another Chrysler product even if it was given to me, and I have made it stick.
Dialtone

 

Anything Dodge after 93' is junk. That is there last year for a Real truck. I Love Fords. But a friend of mine has a 47 Power Wagon. That is the toughest pickup i have ever drove. Tops out at 55 but it will haul any thing. So i am a Ford man first and an old Dodge truck man 2nd. I would buy one for a fun truck. The Old flat fendered round cab Power Wagon is the only Truck Dodge made that was any good in my eyes. And the only dodge truck i would ever buy.

But there older style gas engines never die. I mean the 318's and 383's 400's and 440's. They might eat every tranny and rear end you put in them though. The 360 is junk even though it is based on the 318. Those engines might not have all the power in the world but the NEVER die. alot like a 300 I6 but won't go as many miles. And not as good as a 300.
They might smoke and burn a quart every tank but they still run. even if they are not road worthy.

Those engines are the only thing Dodge has done good with. Not counting Muscle Cars.

DT

 

I had 2 dodges, once.

The brake hoses on the car were situated so when you turn the wheels in either direction, they would rub. Guess what happened; No Brakes.

They wired the battery cable behind the throttle linkage. Guess what happened next. fire.

I did have an older dodge pick-up, 1958. Ran good, until the engine let loose, but that was my fault.

Back in the early 80s, I drove up north to Alaska. The further north I drove, the roads got rougher, the Ford trucks seemed to dominate the scene. I mean 90% +. They were everywhere. Hardly saw any dodges and not to many GMs.

 

There is a story going around that after Benz aquired Chrysler, the German engineers were looking at the top shelf cars and remarked that there was no way they could sell this ------ (garbage).

I have seen the following:
Relatively new mini-vans puffing oil smoke when pulling away from a stop -- valve stem oil seals.

Mini-vans popping transmissions

A friend with a new stratus that was constantly in the shop. He got rid of it on the last day of the warranty.

I think quality issues have improved at Chrysler since the Germans took over. But I have no proof to back it up.

 

I think quality issues have improved at Chrysler since the Germans took over. But I have no proof to back it up.
Am prehaps because they are mostly using old Mercedes chassis, engine and frame designs?
The 300C is an old E-class.
The Crossfire is a last generation SLK.

Future Chrysler products will have a large Mercedes Benz input. This is a good thing IMO.

 

You really do not see a lot of Dodges on the road, except in certain markets where the far cheaper purchase price is important. In NH and ME you would be hard pressed to see any Dodge on the road and in mid Maine it is all Ford country.

Dodge lags far behind Ford and Chevy on quality (and # of vehicles sold) and make up for it in price. If you trade the thing in every three years it probably does not make a difference.

I know from three people that own Dodge trucks, they replace the tranny every 50-80k. Does not matter if the truck is used for work or play. I pointed out to one person (his work truck) going onto the fourth tranny he paid for (one under warranty) that the almost $12000 spent on the tranny rebuilds ($2800+ each time) would have more then made up for the price difference between the Dodge DRW 4x4 crewcab Cummings and a four door DRW Powerstroke F-350.

I used to work at a Chr/Jeep/Eagle dealership, pieces of junk imo. Even brand new they come with Gremlins

 

When year after year, the same company has the same problems (and they have paid millions in warranty work) and they don't fix the problem, you have to wonder...

For the last 30 years, dodge has had terrible automatics, and they use Mitsubishi built engines in their vans, and they burn oil like a diesel, and they have for the last 15 years, and they put tiny front end parts under a Cummins, and they have for the last 10 years.

Chevy has piston slap, for what now, 8 years, they used distributors that ate modules since 75 (still do) ... there are a ton of examples.... I sell auto parts, so I have a little background on this issue. When it comes to a ford truck, its hard on driveline parts, but they will get you home.

 

my fiance has a 99 durango, 2 weeks ago we blew the waterpump on a 400 mile trip... the thing has 62k miles on it... I see a problem here