Lifetime drive train warranty on ALL their products commesurate today. Must be original buyer, if not any unit sold within 3 years the new buyer gets to enjoy a new 3 year warranty. WOW. That's pretty heavy stuff. Just more things for F and GM to think about. Like I said before the competition is heating up. Will Ford answer the "call" here and anti up?

 

Lets hope they step up to the plate and go for it!

 

That'll be Chrysler who has just been pensioned off by the mighty Dailmer-Benz then ?

So its not a sales tactic to try and instill faith that they can make it on their
own ?

I think they have stormy times to come !

 

There is only one reason for this sales ploy warranty = to sell vehicles. Chrysler has over a 6 month supply (30-40 days is the norm) of unsold Rams and Jeep Commanders.


Despite give-away bargain prices (example: $12,000.00 off sticker for a Big Horn Quad Cab / $30,000.00 MSRP / Sale: $18,000.00 - Wednesday's LA Times), offers of a free Hemi, trips to Europe, and etc., there are still 1000's of unsold Rams stored all over Detroit in storage lots. Dodge even rented an unused fairgrounds and that's full.


You can bet the farm that when these vehicles are finally sold, the "lifetime" warranty will no longer be offered.

Motor Trend reported that 1000's of Dodge Stratus' are packing storage lots near the airport. M/T goes on to say..."Well, at least they're close to the rental car lots!"

Sources: Automotive News, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC-autos, Motor Trend.

 

" There is only one reason for this sales ploy warranty = to sell vehicles."

Of course it is. They're going to do whatever is going to put money in their pockets. Everyone does that, not just vehicles either. You have an excess, you do what you have to do to lower your stock.

 

I went to Dodge.com and there are a few exclusions, They are: Diesels, srt, Sprinter and Chassis cabs.

 

At first I was like wow they are gonna lose their pants on this one. But then I thought... how many American's now-a-days buy cars to keep? I bet 60% of dodge sales are to people buying a new car b/c theirs is 4 years old and they want something new. They offer the warranty to get rid of their stock, then once their stock is gone the get rid of offering the warranty on new vehicles, and 60% of their cars 4 years later are in the hands of new owners and they have an obligation to just a few thousand cars... Pretty Smart

 

Yeah - because they sell.

 

Isn't this like the third thread on this "lifetime warranty" topic?

 

I am tempted to start up another one, just in case someone missed out on the good news

 

That's right on. We (wife and I) usually trade in our vehicles about every 3 years of so.

 

The only reason there is a warranty on anything is to sell the product. Short warranties work if your product has a very good reputation (Honda & Toyota) but you can only sell your product with a poor reputation (Hyundai, Kia, Chrysler, etc) if you provide a long warranty. Once you have improved your reputation, you still have a problem shortening the warranty because it becomes the expected.

 

I believe this won't go on for much more than until this sale of Chrysler is complete. I have been watching this deal on the web. There are some issues concerning this sale. In fact it looks like Daimler may have to pay to sell Chrysler. I'm assuming they need to get off a lot of inventory. If you remember back this winter DCX had an inventory of cars that filled many many acres of ground in both the US & Canada. They built way more cars than there dealers could even hope to sell. So this will be interesting to watch. As I said on one of the other posts dealing with warranty issues at the dealership sometimes is worse than the problem itself. I was just on the DodgeTalk Forum I own an 88 D250 also, and one point brought up was that will STOP an MODS. exhaust, intake, chips, etc.

 

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if Ford ever produces too many vehicles? And what happens to them?

 

The current issue of Motor Trend reports that the bottom line is this: Daimler is paying Cerberus 790 million dollars to take Chrysler off its hands (Daimler retains a percentage of Chrysler, I forget how much). Most of the money that Cerberus paid Daimler for Chrysler went right back into Chrysler. Motor Trend also speculates that Chrysler may be broken up, as Cerberus only (really) wanted Chrysler Financial.


In 2005, DCX overproduced Rams, and sent them to the dealers un-announced. The dealers then refused to order any more Rams till their current inventories were reduced. DCX kept right on building Rams despite the lack of orders. This lead to a HUGE stockpile of unsold Rams, at one time, the count was well over 100,000 units. Every storage lot in Detroit and surrounding communities was packed, and DCX even rented an unused fairgrounds, and it's packed too. In order to get rid of these trucks, DCX has offered Rams at well below actual dealer invoice.


Give-away type ads for Rams have run for over a year nationwide, with as much as 15 grand off MSRP. When that offer failed to move enough of them, the next tactic was to offer the Hemi package free, in addition to the huge discounts. This lifetime warranty is the latest ploy. While the Ram inventory has slowly been reduced, all this has had a major effect on all truck sales, forcing Ford, GM, Nissan and even Toyota to offer big discounts on their trucks. While the trucks may be bargains, these sales tactics have killed the resale value of Rams, and are hurting everyone elses resale values, too.


There's also a huge unsold supply of Jeep Commanders and Dodge Stratuses. The storage lots are packed with these two vehicles, in addition to the unsold Rams. The Commanders and Stratuses are also being offered well below MSRP.


Several manufacturers have announced that mods and lifts will void the factory warranty on 2007 models. Several automakers have added limiter switches to prevent burnouts. Congress and DOT are looking into the safety aspects of lifted trucks and SUV's. Congress is also investigating the outlandish advertised HP claims of some manufacturers.


The EPA fuel rating on ALL 2008 models will drop between 20-50% city mileage, and 15-25% highway mileage. After 22 years, Congress told the EPA to change they way the mileage figures are computed. The hybrids mileage claims will take the worst beating, according to Car & Driver and AutoNews.