Avoid this service dept! Go at your own risk!

Written by Bill on 10-Dec-2007

So, here's my story: At the end of the month of June, 2007 our 1999 Chrysler LHS sedan’s “check engine” light turned on and the speedometer was not functioning, so we took the car to Tate Chrysler in Frederick, MD for service. We were told that the car was mechanically sound and that nothing severe was wrong with the car, but it required almost $2000 in “routine” maintenance. Since the vehicle is older and has high mileage, we declined the service because of the high dollar amount involved. I figured it was time to start shopping for a new car, and that's a lot of money to put down in "routine maintenance." After sleeping on it overnight however, we contacted the service department again and stated we were really hoping to avoid buying a new car until 2008. We wanted to discuss what was necessary to keep the car in proper running condition for another ten months. We were assured that our car was not suffering from any issues other than needing routine maintenance, and it should have no problem functioning for another ten months . We talked about what services were really required in the short term and got the amount of service required down to $1200 instead. According to the service department, the only work that was required to keep the vehicle safe and road worthy was 1)lube, oil/filter change 2)coolant system flush 3)basic tune-up 4)timing belt. The service department then took about three weeks to complete the “routine” maintenance on the car. When we called to find out when we could expect the car, we were told they discovered a “bad module” that was the reason the check engine light had come on in the first place, and it would cost an additional $450 to fix that as well. Once that work was done, we were told we could pick up the car. On July 23, 2007 we went to pick up our car, paid for the work and were presented with the keys to our vehicle and told all work was completed. When we got into our car to leave, the check engine light was no longer on, but the car could not stay running