It is with regret that yesterday I said farewell to my 1998 Dodge Intrepid ES.
I finally bit the bullet and replaced it with a 2005 Acura TSX. After 7 years 3 months, 142,070 miles I finally let the old girl go. She still looked great and the body was in excellent shape, (no rust anywhere)it was just coming apart mechanically and I just don't have time or the locale to get under the hood and fix everything myself. As it stood, the A/C coolant was leaking biweekly (intolerable in high humidity Florida). It has a small oil leak on one of the gaskets and the last inspection 2 weeks ago showed a transmission leak that was just over the top in expense to fix. The gas mileage in the city had started to gradually drop from around 20.5 and was down to around 18.8. (Probably some build up in the injectors.) The front ceramic brakes were at the end of their life and I noticed that the right front wasn't holding toe anymore and wearing the tire abnormally. The Michelin HydroEdge tires still had about 40K left on them and turned out to be an excellent tire purchase. I suspected they would outlast the car when I got them at 96K miles. Besides the usual rock chips on my hood (of which none rusted) I only had one small paint bubble on my roof and that was caused by a chemical leak from a passing truck. The interior was in excellent condition and held up well to use. Since I was a bachelor, the back seat was not as used as most, but the front seats were still useful after many years. Only the backlight on the temperature gauge burned out. The CD player got slower to start over the years, probably due to a dirty laser lens, but other than one stuck CD a few months ago was still working fine. The right front door speaker was either blown or the driver was torn as the bass began to sound terrible a few months ago. I still had the OEM spare tire and used it only once when the OEM Goodyear Eagle GA lost air back in 2000. I checked my records and show 47 oil changes, 2 transmission fluid changes, 2 coolant flushes, and 3 A/C recharges along with a headlight bulb change and replacement of the interior floormats. Don't ask me how many front brake rotors I went through, as there were many in the first 60K miles. The front left main bearing was replaced in 2003 and the steering bushings were replaced as well in 2002. (they were also worn again). The transmission speed sensors were replaced in 2004. I had a Draw-Tite Class 2 hitch added in 2003 and it towed well, pulling about 1200 pounds without serious issues. Other than those front brake issues in September 2000 (and that infernal battery cable problem in 2003) my experience with the Intrepid has been wholly satisfactory. It's a shame that the new D-C management chose to drop development of the platform. While Deiter called it "bad engineering", I only saw great engineering, just too much cost cutting on component suppliers in certain areas. Today, there are no full size 4 door sedans with the interior space, trunk space and EPA rated mileage that the Intrepid has had for years. Only the 2005 Ford 500 comes close. My thanks to all on this board over the past 5 years who have supplied superb advice on technical/mechanical issues. You have easily saved me thousands of dollars in unecessary repair with your timely and expert feedback. Web: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dodge_intrepid> Subscribe: <mailto://[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribe: <mailto://[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Moderator: <mailto://[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dodge_intrepid/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
