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mrgl02
Dodge Dakota
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12/10/2004
20:17:17
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 Subject: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING:
Daimler Chrysler will offer a 10 year / 100,000 mile warranty on upper ball joints on 2000-2003 vehicles not covered by this recall...
DETROIT (Reuters) - DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler division said on Friday it was recalling about 600,000 Dodge Durango sport utility vehicles and Dodge Dakota pickup trucks because of concerns about their safety.
Chrysler had disclosed on Thursday that U.S. federal safety regulators had asked it to recall the vehicles from the 2000 to 2003 model years. Some of the SUVs and trucks have had problems with an important suspension joint that Chrysler has blamed on corrosion in northern states where salt is used to clear roads of ice.
On Friday, Chrysler said an internal investigation has shown that the front suspension upper ball joints on some vehicles may be subject to corrosion and progressive wear.
It acknowledged that "in extreme cases" the corrosion problem could lead to "separation of the front suspension."
Chrysler said no substantiated reports of injuries had been linked to the recall.
The car company said front suspension upper ball joints on the vehicles would be replaced at no cost to their owners.
In addition to the recall, which industry analysts expect to be a costly one for Chrysler, the company said it would offer an extended 10-year or 100,000 mile warranty on the suspension upper ball joints on 400,000 2000-2003 Durangos and Dakotas not affected by the safety action.
Only four-wheel drive versions of the Durango and Dakota are affected by the recall.
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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99 dak
Dodge Dakota
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12/10/2004
21:45:37
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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too bad i have a 99 - had the bj's replaced 6 times under warrenty !!!
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01dakota_355
Dodge Dakota
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12/10/2004
23:39:07
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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Let's do the math on this one, to see how smart DC really is. Say some brilliant engineer decided they could save 5 cents per upper ball joint when designing the vehicle. That's 10 cents per vehicle x 600,000 recalled vehicles. They saved $60,000 in design costs. Let's extend that to include 400,000 other vehicles they cover with additional warranty, or $40,000.
They saved $100,000. Pretty smart huh? Sure, until recall time, and they pay to have it fixed. Wonder how many millions they'll have to fork out for this blunder. Well, guessing a very conservative $100 per repair, parts and labor, we're looking at $60 million, and that's just the recalled vehicles.
Design savings: $100,000.
Recall costs: > $60 million
DC Mentality to save a nickel here and there: PRICELESS!!!!
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jpconard
Dodge Dakota
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12/10/2004
23:45:43
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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Wait until you see how they treat your vehicle and you when you go in for service.
My guess is you will wait forever and they will slam, scratch, abuse your vehicle any way that they can.
When they replaced a battery under warantee they set the battery on the front fender because it was so heavy, making plenty of scratches. Not to mention that they will slam the hoods closed.
They don't allow you back there to watch not really for insurance reasons, but so you can't see what they are really doing.
That was the last I went to the dealer.
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Mike Bassi
Dodge Dakota
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12/11/2004
00:20:55
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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I have the 04 Dakota 4X4. Do they have the same ball joint problems?
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info
Dodge Dakota
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12/11/2004
00:49:35
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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I am happy that they (DCX) have decided to recall these vehicles. Unfortunately, as a tech for a dodge dealer, we are the ones who actually end up paying for this in the long run, please let me explain. Most techs are paid by a system called flat rate. In this system, the tech is only paid the times that the manufacturer decides are proper for the job. For example, the replacement of a head gasket on a 99 neon 2.0 sohc engine pays 6.0hrs of labor if not under warranty (this time is realistic) and if under the warranty the same job pays 4.0hrs. The tech gets paid that time, 6 or 4 hours, no matter how long it actually takes them. Well, when a recall is issued, the normal warranty time (which is unrealistic at best) is lowered even more. This results in rushed and sometimes poorly done repairs. The cost per vehicle that was listed above at $100 is a result of this lower labor time. Most dealer shops charge from $50-100 an hour depending on the location. So how much does that leave for the parts cost? The last time I performed a ball joint replacement (on my own dakota under warranty) the parts cost was around $70. So how does DCX think that they are going to get these vehicles fixed for $100? Of course! Lets lower the labor times! They also control the price of the parts and they will also drop when involved with a recall. The clockspring recall on the minivans is one example of parts price drops, before the recall the clockspring was around $70 and after the recall came out the price dropped to around $10. This is true with ALL of the recalls, they drop the labor times and the parts price so they do not have to pay as much as a customer would. Don't you wish you could screw up and have to pay less for your mistake than the person who has to fix your mistake? The techs that care about the customers and safety take the extra time to do it right, only to have a smaller paycheck than the techs who rush and do a poor job. Actually, ford techs are filing a class action lawsuit for unfair labor times and I hope other auto manufacturers take note and start allowing reasonable times for repairs. There is a website for the ford techs that are involved in this lawsuit and others who want to lean more about this concern-www.flatratetech.com. All auto makers bill repair time this way and in no way is ford the only one with unhappy techs. I am sure this recall will pay less than the normal warranty time for ball joint R&R and I will post the times when they come out. I really wish that some news station would do a story on this subject. I think it would satisfy many questions that customers have about the quality of work that is performed on their vehicles. How many of you would get on an an airliner that paid the people that repaired them by flat rate? I sure as hell would not. Although, more people are killed in car accidents than from commercial airline accidents by far. Just some food for thought. Sorry for the long post. Thank you for reading.
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mrman
Dodge Dakota
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12/11/2004
09:27:38
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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Great, I can't wait to get my crappy balljoints replaced with new crappy balljoints.
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ID4x4
Dodge Dakota
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12/11/2004
11:51:22
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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Just wondering if there will be fine print for the recall excluding modified vehicles? Yesterday I had my Rancho lifted 01 4x4 inspected (ball joints, brakes, and the lift) while having my tires rotated, everything came up nice and tight and good condition, but if I have problems down the road are they going to blame it on the lift and the 33" tires?
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Customer
Dodge Dakota
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12/11/2004
13:05:25
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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info,
Boohoo, cry me a river. Go to work for Toyota if you think you "are the ones who actually end up paying for this in the long run", or get out of the car business altogether.
As a customer I expect that the vehicle I bought is safe and designed to be so for many years. Dodge knowingly sold defective vehicles for many years, as they have done so often in the past, and now the chickens have come home to roost.
And my Dodge buddies wonder why I'm buying a Tundra next.
BTW, the airline industry has for decades been skimping on maitenance procedures. Look at Alaskan and their crash in 2000. Bus lines do it too. Everybody does it. That's why we have civil recourse for companies that kill their customers.
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Miguel
Dodge Dakota
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12/11/2004
14:18:47
|  RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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What are they replacing the ball joints with? From what I have learned on the forums here, the problem is the lack of a lubricant on the ball joints right? So what are the new ball joints like? Will it fix the problem, or is it the same ball joint being replaced?
thanks...
I hope the techs do a good job at my dealership, I would hate to come out of the shop with more problems due to the lack of attention to detail from the techs. I understand the tech's point of view above, but as a professional, you should do your job to your best abiliites, regardless of what you're getting paid. If the techs aren't satisfied with their pay, they should take it up with DC and not take it out on the innocent customers.
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Customer
Dodge Dakota
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12/11/2004
14:30:13
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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I just got off the blower with the dealer from whom I bought my Dak. They said the recall covers only certain years, built at certain times when the moon was in the seventh house of Jupiter on a Monday in a month starting with T.
Sounds like another DC denial of liability and doing the bare minimum to avoid a fine from the NTHSA.
I'm taking a wait and see approach. I just might put the Moogs on myself and make sure I never buy a Dodge again.
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TexasTodd
Dodge Dakota
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12/11/2004
14:49:30
|  RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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What a crock.
Only 4 WD's?
It's the same ball joint-WTF?
We need to start raining a stink about this Crock of crap!
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DSW
Dodge Dakota
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12/11/2004
15:21:11
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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It sounds like DC is getting off easy with only recalling 600,000 4WD Durango's and Dak's as a majority of the Durango's and Dak's built are 2WD models. They are extending the warranty for the other 2000-2003 models (2WD) for 10 years or 100,000 miles, but this isn't going to do jack for most of the people as the uppers have surely been replaced on 2-5 year old vehicles.
What I love is DC's song and dance about internal corrosion on a sealed part, these things are water tight so how is water and salt supposed to get in there. From personal experience, the ball joints are not lubricated which is the reason for the failures.
The sad part of the recall is that DC is not owning up to the cause of the problem. I'd bet 60-70% of the public wouldn't know a ball joint if they held it in thier hand, therefore they don't know DC is lying to them.
I don't think Santa is going to be stopping at DC headquarters this year ;)
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game warden
Dodge Dakota
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12/11/2004
16:30:24
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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hey "customer", what a freaken jerk you are! sounds to me like you the one doing the boohooing!!!!
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Harley
Dodge Dakota
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12/11/2004
16:50:59
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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Hey, what's up with just the 4x4???? My Dakota is NOT a 4x4, why aren't my ball joints covered??? Aren't they the same ones they put in the 4x4s? Why do I have to wait for my wheels to fall off before my 100,000 miles guarantee is up. Something stinks here. Maybe the gov't only did the testing on the Durango and Dakota 4x4s as they are the most popular versions, but never included some of the 2 wheel drive vehicles. Something is very wrong here.
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martinphantom
Dodge Dakota
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12/11/2004
17:00:33
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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The one's I've seen on tv were obviously corroded with rust. It must be a seal problem that lets in moisture and holds it within the seal thus the problem.
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hmm
Dodge Dakota
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12/12/2004
08:53:33
|  RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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DSW - why do you claim a majority are 2WD - I believe you are mistaken. Most in my area appear to be 4WD. DC is recalling 600,000 4WD and adding extended warranty to 400,000 2WD; what does that tell you ?
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Ed
Dodge Dakota
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12/12/2004
11:02:17
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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No, dumass, the majority of Dakotas and Durangos sold are 4x2's, especially the Dakotas.
But, the ball joints are more likely to fail completely and throw a tire on the 4 wheel drive models, because the suspension of the 4x4's raises the front end another inch or two. That, along with the added weight of the tranfer case to make the front tires 'drive' makes the 4x4s more necessary for the recall, and the 4x2's just get the warrenty extension.
I have a 2 wheel drive dakota, and was told last month that I have a bad ball joint up front when I got new tires put on. As soon as I can, its going back to the dealer to get fixed. Hopefully the dealer doesnt try and screw me over and tell me that there is nothing wrong.
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Then
Dodge Dakota
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12/12/2004
12:09:38
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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Explain why 600,000 4WD are being recalled; and only 400,000 2WD are having they're warranty extended. Do the math and tell me who's the dumbass now ?
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Izzy
Dodge Dakota
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12/13/2004
10:12:18
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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That figures, my 2000 Clubcab needs ball joints something fierce....and I just passed the 100,000 mile mark. Thank goodness I just bought Moogs 2 weeks ago but haven't put them on yet.
My wifes 2003 Durango is now popping and clunking in the front end when she turns...and she only has 12k miles on it.
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Look
Dodge Dakota
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12/13/2004
10:27:18
| RE: It's official... Dodge recalls '00-'03's
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Just look at the dealership for numbers. I looked for about a month before I found a suitable 2wd Dak. to buy, could of had my pick of hundreds of 4x4s.
I've got just under 70000 miles on my orig bal joints, no prob thus far, but I am thankfull that the're covered for a few more years/miles.
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