Has dodge improved?

In reply to DrBoost:

Oh trust me, I'm aware. Everybody's all "dodge sucks" and yet everyone gives MB a pass for making Dodge suck. I point that out and they act like I'm crazy.

Having grown up on K-cars and first gen Neons, yes, they're better. Are they better than their peers? That's a tougher question.

On the MB thing, I remember reading an article in a financial magazine during the early days of the Cerberus ownership. Most of what they did was to clean up after MB. Under Daimler, issues couldn't just be resolved without sending everything of to Germany for review, modern tech such as LED tail lights where forbidden, a lot of stupid stuff like that.

Dodge quality is a little better. The technology from the Fiat merger is forced right now. The dart is just a stop gap until? The journey is a GREAT family car. Some issues but probably not much more than others. My biggest gripe is that I know some of the power train engineers and they were big on HP over MPG just before the bankruptcy and so far Fiat doesn't want to green light the millions needed to recertify a new power train setup (mostly software some gearing) until they renew the cars. Still I am supremely disappointed in the Chrysler 200 MPG. Just horrible.

The best vehicles are probably the minivans and Durango's.

neon4891 wrote: On the MB thing, I remember reading an article in a financial magazine during the early days of the Cerberus ownership. Most of what they did was to clean up after MB. Under Daimler, issues couldn't just be resolved without sending everything of to Germany for review, modern tech such as LED tail lights where forbidden, a lot of stupid stuff like that.

By clean up you mean cleaning out any left over cash and funneling it to their cronies before claiming bankruptcy? Yes I worked there then. Some Cerberus employee apparently worked with me to complete a report but used some amnesia enducing drug on me because I never saw or heard from him to complete the report he was contracted to do for a few million$$$. Berkeley Cerberus!

We're renting a 2011+ V6 Charger right now and wow its pretty nice to drive. A 2011+ R/T is on my short list among other, totally unrelate cars no one likely has ever cross shopped. Anyways, I like the potential for tuning and lowering. Thought about a pre-'11 SRT but I think the newer models not only look that much better in and out but the R/T is likely a better buy. Don't know abut the reliability ratings in particular, but owner satisfaction is very high, which is always an interesting statistic to consider.

In reply to Advan046: Well, it was a Forbes interveiw with the head of Cerberus back in fall '08, I don't think he went on about that part. Mostly how MB sucked.

Anywho, eco diesel ram please.

drainoil wrote:

ronholm wrote: That 3.6 Pentastar engine is awesome.

My last Mopar was my '90 Plymouth Voyager turbo (auto). Back just after the 3.6 came out I rented a new at the time Caravan. As much as I liked my turbo Voyager, the new 3.6 powered ( and much heavier) Caravan blew it away in all aspects in my opinion. It really hauled -ss when you got on it. As I recall I burned several hundred miles worth of rubber off the front wheels during that week Makes me have ideas of swapping that motor into the much lighter '90 or older Caravan or Voyager.

Yeah.. I have an 89 and a 90 Turbo Van. The 90 is a factory 5spd with a Maserati/cosworth 16v engine. Both turbo vans just barely make what that Pentastar does for power at the moment, and that is nearly twice the setup in the 89 and 1.5 times what the Maserati engine rolled out of the factory with. Granted they are a lot lighter than the 14 (it is over 4500lbs iirc) but still.

I also have a 89 BMW 750il. The 2014 Caravan is just as powerful, and really nicer to drive in almost every way. Hell.. The Minivan has more luxury features, and I am certain it would outrun the BMW on an autocross course..