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2001 Dodge Intrepid R/t on 2040-cars

Year:2001 Mileage:356889
Location:

United States

United States
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I bought this car on eBay back in 2004 from a dealer in Texas. From papers I found in the car, it looks to have been a Coca-Cola executive car in Denver before that. The mileage is not a typo. The car had about 70,000 miles on it when I got it. It has had synthetic oil since then, with oil and filter changes every 7500 miles. The cooling system and transmission have been power flushed every 100K miles and the timing belt has been changed every 100K miles. The engine has never been opened other than to change the intake manifold gaskets. The transmission has been opened to replace the solenoid pack. The pack may have been good, but the gasket failed so I changed the pack just to be safe. I changed the front struts at around 150K miles and spent extra to put in the correct factory R/T parts. I could not tell any difference. Given that, I put off changing the rear struts. I put that off so long that the original rear struts are still in there and seem to work the same as when I bought the car.

Anyone (including the shop that works on things I can't work on and my brother-in-law) who says Dodge does not build reliable cars, is full of crap.

The paint on the hood, roof and trunk is fried (see pic of trunk). The front of the hood has numerous paint chips with several of those fairly large (see pic). There is a small spot of rust on the lower inside seam of the driver's door (see pic). I meant to fix this in 2004, but never did and it has changed very little since. The right rear quarter had a minor scrape when I bought the car. I had it repaired at Carsmetics but it was not their best work. There are some random sanding scratches and there is flaking around the antenna base. The driver's side hood strut mounting stud at the hinge has broken off. The other strut will hold the hood up - for now. The trunk release does not work due to a wiring or connector problem. I have tried three or four different trunk harnesses and can have either the trunk release or third brake light work, but not both. I opted for the brake light. This issue started a couple of years ago. Two days ago I dropped a torx bit and it zeroed the gap between the driver's side headlight and the radiator support panel. When I pulled the light to retrieve the bit, I found that there is coolant seepage from the radiator tank. The car has not been driven much for the past year or so and I have no idea how long this has been going on. The wheels have a little random curb rash but are decent. Three of the Goodyear tires are good and the other fair. I would guess there is another 20K left in the worst one. The driver's seat has a couple of worn-through spots but is not bad considering age and miles. The seat's front vertical adjuster does not work. The other seats look good and all the power functions on the passenger seat work. The carpet is good as are the OEM mats. There is a small leak somewhere above the driver's foot-well and the carpet gets wet when there is a long duration rain. The dash has a 12" horizontal crack along the faux seam above the a/c vents. The computer has set codes P0700 (transmission control system malfunction) and P1684 (battery disconnected within last fifty starts). The TCM was checked a couple of years ago when the P0700 code first began and reported that the torque converter lock-up has issues. When driven at a consistent 40 to 45mph under light load, you can feel the converter struggling to engage or stay engaged. I changed the battery a week ago so the codes were wiped out. P0455 (emission control system gross leak) is off right now but will come back eventually. This has been up for years but has no noticeable effect on anything and was not worth chasing down. The headlights and fog lights are two or three years old and are clear. The coolant recovery bottle is a year or two old. The window tint on both front doors is failing and has large wrinkles. The spare is fair but the jack and hold-down hardware are missing. The remote key fob works and will go with the car.

The transmission recently quit going into reverse, so the car has lost its role as back-up vehicle (no pun intended). I hate to get rid of the R/T but I picked up a 2000 LHS with 105K miles, so something had to go.  

I have tried to mention everything, good or bad, but may have forgotten something. It is thirteen years old with a zillion miles, so assume accordingly.

The car is for sale locally, so I may end the auction early.

If someone buys the car, I will be unable to respond to messages from 29 to 31 May.

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MotorWeek proves '90s were awesome with Supra, Stealth, RX-7, Corvette, 968, 300ZX comparo

Thu, 24 Jul 2014

Oh, the heady days of 1993, back when the Clinton Presidency was just getting underway, and it seemed like every hot new rock band was coming out of Seattle. Sports cars in the US had finally shaken off the shackles that slowed them during the '70s and '80s, and you could buy any number of legitimately quick vehicles again. MotorWeek recently went digging into its archives to find this six-model test from 1993 showing off some of the best semi-affordable performance coupes that money could buy at the time, and it's priceless.
Featuring the 1994 model year Toyota Supra in twin-turbo guise and MY 1993 versions of the Porsche 968, Nissan 300ZX TT, Mazda RX-7, Dodge Stealth R/T Turbo and Chevrolet Corvette LT-1, MotorWeek definitely covered all of the bases. One thing that might surprise younger readers is these cars' performance. The video only provides 0-60 acceleration times, but several of these vehicles would still be considered pretty potent today - over 20 years since going on sale. The Supra is especially impressive, hitting 60 miles per hour in just 5 seconds. Even today, that's nothing to sneeze at.
Given their performance potential and still-attractive looks, it's amazing that some of these coupes are old enough to drink now. The progress of interior design and safety equipment in the intervening years is pretty shocking, though. In most of these models, having two airbags is touted as a big deal. Scroll down to watch a Throwback Thursday blast from the past about some of the '90s best sports cars.

BMW tops Consumer Reports 2023 Brand Report Card

Thu, Feb 16 2023

Feels like we wrote about Consumer Reports' 2022 Brand Report Car and 10 Top Picks a few weeks ago, but it was last April. So the mag is back with a ranked roster of 32 brands and 10 vehicles in four categories for your debating pleasure. Starting with the brands, last year's top three were Subaru, Mazda and BMW. This year, the Munich crew climbed two spots to win the prize thanks to "Superb road test scores and solid results in CR’s reliability and owner satisfaction surveys." Subaru narrowly fell to second, maintaining its four-year run in the top three. Mini, eighth last year, jumped five spots to get the last step on the podium. The rest of the top 10 were Lexus (up one spot from last year), Honda (down one spot from last year), Toyota (up three), Genesis (up 12), Mazda (down six), Audi (down three) and Kia (up eight). The magazine and testing outfit says its Brand Report Card "[reveals] which automakers are producing the most well-performing, safe, and reliable vehicles based on CRÂ’s independent testing and member surveys," and that "Brands that rise to the top tend to have the most consistent performance across their model lineups." Last year's top 10 had six automakers from Japan, three from Germany (giving Mini credit for England), none from the U.S. or South Korea, and five luxury brands. This year's list counts five makes from Japan, two from Germany because Porsche fell out of the top ten, two from South Korea, still none from the U.S., and four luxury brands. Buick again ranked as the best domestic, dropping to 12th after being 11th last year. The big mover was Lincoln, its 10-place jump up to 16th attributed to better reliability from the Corsair and Nautilus. Tesla's improved overall reliability saw it climb six spots to 17th. Dodge climbed one spot to 15th. Jeep got out of the penalty box in last to come second-to-last. Land Rover fell three places into the penalty spot.  CR's top 10 vehicle models The 10 Top Picks list is practically a new list. Only two holdovers made it to 2023, those being the Subaru Forester and Kia Telluride.

FCA UConnect fiasco could set over-the-air updates back years

Fri, Feb 16 2018

Since cars have become more software dependent, most major automakers have been inching toward enabling over-the-air updates to keep vehicle electronics, ranging from infotainment systems to safety features, current. But there are only two car companies — Fiat Chrysler and Ford —± currently doing OTA updates, and on a limited basis. GM CEO Mary Barra announced last summer that the automaker will launch a new EV architecture and infotainment system capable of over-the-air updates "before 2020." The one exception, per usual, is Tesla. Since the release of the Model S almost six years ago, the maverick EV automaker has made routine OTA software updates a core part of its vehicle platforms and value proposition, and has sent out updates for everything from adjusting ride height to enabling Autopilot, largely without incident. When I've asked automakers why they can't do the same thing, I've heard reasons ranging from running afoul of their dealers (and archiac regulation) to security concerns. Automakers like Ford and General Motors say they want to act like tech companies, which routinely send out OTA updates for a wide range of devices, but overall the car industry still moves at a very cautious snail's pace. And when automakers do try to move faster and take more risks — unlike with a smartphone update, which people bitch about but live with — the consequences can be significant when things go wrong. That's the case with Fiat Chrysler America and its recent public-relations nightmare when an OTA update went awry. The update went out at the end of last week for the Uconnect system in late-model vehicles, and it made head units go into a near continuous reboot, which caused owners to not only lose access to entertainment features, but also critical functions like emergency assistance. Almost immediately, owners took to Twitter to express outrage, and FCA was caught flatfooted. A tweet went out on Monday on the UconnectCares Twitter account that read, "Certain 2017 & 2018 Uconnect systems may experience a reboot every 45-60 seconds. Our Engineering teams are investigating the cause and working towards a resolution.