Another shut down and lousy serve
Here is my story:
On June 22, my wife was driving our new 2018 Chrysler Pacifica (non-hybrid) minivan down the highway on the way to our son's birthday party. While in heavy traffic and highway speed, the car suddenly shut off. Alarms sounding, power steering out… Much of the same as posted many places now on the web. Trouble is, only way to restart the car, is to come to a complete stop, put the car in park, press the button with the foot on the brake. All in the middle of a highway, in traffic, with 4 kids between 9 and 15 in the car. The car at that time had less than 3500 miles on it.
We immediately called the Bolles Motors service department (Ellington, CT where we made our purchase) and arrange to have the car in the shop first thing Monday. Because of our busy schedules, we were unable to drop the car over the weekend; we were travelling out of state and could not travel without the larger vehicle. After another 500 or so miles, we left the car at the dealership who provided us a loaner vehicle.
The service department found no issues. The computer reported no concerns. My wife was even asked if she hit the button while driving by accident. (No words can express how insulting such a comment is.) As I'm sure you can understand, a sudden shut-down of an engine, especially while at highway speeds, is a potentially life-threatening defect. We notified the Chrysler home office immediately.
Chrysler told us they had never heard of such a problem before, but seemed to be properly horrified at the implications of such a vehicle failure. (Imagine a family of 5 pulling onto a highway in front of an 18 wheeler, then shutting off, with no power steering.) They even told us not to drive it. We were told that normally an incident needs to occur multiple times before it could be escalated, but we were given the opportunity to escalate immediately. We did. We heard nothing for days. We called several times with no response, then discovered the case worker we were assigned was on vacation the entire time. Every time we called it took 2-3 days before we got a response.
To our surprise, it didn't take much looking to discover pacificaforums.com where the issue has been discussed for months, long prior to our own incident and current drama. Since we began, the number of complaints filed with NHTSA has blossomed alarmingly.
Meanwhile Bolles Motors began calling us asking when we would pick up our car and return the loaner. We had to tell the dealership to contact Chrysler because they were the ones that told us not to pick up the car and not to drive it. Eventually Chrysler connected with Bolles, but even together, nothing could be discovered.
My the end of June, I needed to travel to Europe. My wife drove my personal vehicle, while the loaner sat in our garage. I was the only one on the contract authorized to drive it. On or about July 5, my wife received a call that if we did not return the loaner, it would be reported stolen! My wife called me while I was still in Europe (a 6 hour time difference) in tears. I called overseas at 11:30 PM local time to straighten them out, along with a pointed email suggesting that a contract and a van worth almost $60,000 for collateral over a $22,000 Dodge Journey did not in any way make the loaner car "stolen" and that if that avenue was pursued they would be hearing from attorneys and as many news agencies as I could get ahold of.
The dealership backed off quickly, with the General Manager informing me that it was Chrysler itself that suggested that course of action to them. The communication problems continued with Chrysler as the would not respond to calls by either us or Bolles for 2-3 days. That makes it very difficult to get anything done. Chrysler's suggestion was to attach a data recorder and return the vehicle to us to drive until the shut-down happened again. I have no intention of risking my family's well-being in order for Chrysler to collect data they should be doing on their own. Bolles and I agreed that the dealership would drive the car as much as possible with the data recorder attached in the hopes the sudden shut-down would reoccur. After 100+ miles, it did not.
Upon my return to the US, the dealership was told by Chrysler that we should be charged for the loaner from July 5. The dealership, I believe sensing their liability, told us they would not charge for the loaner until the 17th. We returned the loaner Saturday, July 22 after purchasing a 2018 Honda Odyssey Elite on the 20th. Bolles Motors still has the Pacifica in their lot and is doing nothing. Chrysler has done nothing.
Our only recourse is to pursue buy-back or litigation. I understand Chrysler wanting to hide this issue so as to not make the news with yet another faulty product. The van looks pretty inside and out and drives nicely. If this had never happened we would be merrily driving our Pacifica -- which is now sitting in a parking lot.
The Pacifica cost me nearly $60,000. I now own the car outright. Write me a check and I'll go away. Chrysler can keep the car and test drive away with whoever they are paying to risk their lives.
