Unfortunately I never had 30 days straight of being able to drive the car.
Numerous electrical and electronic issues, shifter linkage issues and more than one broken shift fork.
I had nightmares with my transes going through shift forks.... Let me tell you a long story and one of my strikes against Chrysler...
I bought my Laser XT stated above brand new. My dad made a deal with me that if I could get on the honor roll senior year, I could get the new car of my choice.
After my girlfriend of 3 years started dating my best friend of 5 years behind my back, and subsequently I broke up when his younger brother ratted them out to me, I still made a 3.62 GPA senior year without any "blow off" classes. My counselor couldn't believe it and asked me how I could go through all that and still pull off good grades. I told him, "I'm not going to let that b!tch ruin my chance for a new car, she's not worth it..." :finga:
So I get the car and they literally had to move two others to pull it out of the showroom so I could drive it home.
I noticed that it wasn't shifting properly and took it back, they said that it was fine... A month or two later, it would grind every time I downshifted into second for a turn. There were no shift forks in the service parts, so they had to have an engineer at the transmission plant to go to the line and pull one off so they could fix mine. So with new shift fork and synchros, they sent me on my way.
I brought it back again, as it didn't shift right. Again they say that it's not a problem... Two to three months later... grinding into second for a turn again... Another new set of synchros and shift fork...
So by 16,500 miles, I have been through three sets of synchros and three shift forks. Now they are going to install a new trans. I saw in the MP book that they had a nice Centerforce clutch that was heavier duty than the stock one and supposed to improve the shift, so I asked the service manager if they could install that one. He said that if I paid for the clutch, that they would install it free as they already had to pull the trans... I also asked if they could install the new Getrag trans that was in the new Shelby turbo cars and they said "no".
I asked, "Why not because it will work?" sarcastically...
It helped, but by 22,500 I blew the new trans again.... So when I go to the dealer to get it fixed again, he had the Chrysler Zone rep there and they took a picture of me when I took it to the Mopar Nats launching off the line with me license plate in clear view - I could not deny that it was me....
They then told me that they don't warranty vehicles that are taken to the track. I asked Mr. Zone Rep "How many runs did I make?"
He replied, "I don't know, I was only there a half hour.. But I saw you take it down the track and beat on it, then get back in line for another run..."
So this a--hole goes to the Mopar Nats for only a HALF HOUR??? It was obvious that he was sent there to take pictures of everybody racing their new front wheel drive cars, so they could then try to cancel their warranty. (If I was sent to Mopar Nats for work, after I was done with my work responsibilities, I would have stuck around to enjoy the show...)...
I told them that they advertise these cars to compete with the v-8 Mustangs and Camaros, If you can't run with them, then give me my money back and I'll go buy one of those. So I left the dealer Service Manager and Zone Rep in a cloud of smoke as I burned rubber driving away...
So we had to park the car for a while. Then one day my dad calls up the owner of Cavanaugh's Motors in Monmouth, IL who he knew from his college days, they are a great dealer and go out of their way to satisfy the customer. That's who dad bought his laser from, instead of the local dealers near us...
Dennis tells him that if Chrysler hasn't sent us a cancellation notice in writing, they can't cancel our warranty. So we went to Bettenhausen Dodge and ran it and the warranty was still good. So Bettenhausen Dodge replaced the transmission again, and that one lasted until 86,000 miles before I had to get that one fixed myself...
I couldn't believe that Chrysler would try to deceive us like that to tell us that our warranty was no good and it really was to get out of their responsibility.
Many years later, I was reading a magazine who was interviewing one of Chrysler's head powertrain engineers who had left Chrysler, and he stated in that interview that those transes in my car were under designed and should not have been put into production.
So here they took short cuts and then tried to blame me for the problems... :finga:
This was my first new car, and this is just one of the many reasons that I will not buy Chrysler today. After my dad bought nothing but since 62, and I still tried to support them after that. Then I had another issue with my wife's 95 Neon that I had to butt heads with Chrysler to get it fixed under warranty. So I don't buy them anymore, as I am tired of fighting with them.... :violent1:
Im glad that you still have yours!
