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Members Who Worked For Ma Mopar

The Rebel

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Looking to hear from former employees stories and your pic's of what it was like to work for Ma Mopar back in the day.
 
In 95 when I finally got to my first Mopar dealer, after being at some GM and euro/oriental dealers, we were checking in our daily parts order[ I'm a parts guy] and at that time the quarter window motors on the minivans were being replaced left and right. Pulled out this one obviously miss tagged unit. The PDC had slapped a motor tag on this P-part computer box. I checked the number and it was for a 94 5.9 a/t 2x truck. I just happened to own one of those. Asked my boss if I could nab it at the motor price. SCORE!
 
A couple of my uncles worked for Chrysler. I guess is was pretty mundane like most jobs, but they did say when the oil crisis hit they started filling the fields around the plant with gas-hogging C-bodys as far as the eye could see, and they had a lot of fun driving them out there.
 
My biological dads father or my grandfather worked at a local Chrysler dealer, not sure if you heard of it Roger but it was called Burnside Chrysler Plymouth in East Hartford. All I know is he was a mechanic for I believe 30 years and retired in 2001, a year after I was born.
 
He did not tell me much about his work or anything just what I said in my above post
 
I was a Senior Manager of Electrical Engineering at Chrysler was involved in many products including the viper and prowler programs and yes I had lab cars of each. I also worked with the SRT group developing engine controllers for their vehicles. By the way when I went to meetings with the VP of engineering outside his office sat a 426 Hemi on an engine stand and it was still there when I retired back in 2003.
im-203853
Tom Gale designed the prowler to look like his 33 ford.
 
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Looking to hear from former employees stories and your pic's of what it was like to work for Ma Mopar back in the day.
I have been a dealership tech for 25years. In 1997 I became a Viper Tech and couldn't wait to get my hands on some Vipers. I took my shop foreman for a ride to find a rattle noise in the instrument panel. I was driving on the service road of Interstate 20 in Grand Prairie, TX in a Blue w/White Stripe 1997 Viper GTS with 4400 miles on the clock. I couldn't contain myself because I wanted to hear that 488ci V10 scream . At the top of 6th gear I began to run out of road at 186mph without my seat belt on and the windows down. One of the best days I have ever had as a dealership tech.

Fast forward a couple of years and my friend Jerry was a Viper Tech too. He was doing a PDI or Pre-Delivery Inspection on a 2001 Viper GTS. I hopped in the passenger seat and went for the 2 mile cruise with him. All is well at 60mph on 360 in South Arlington near Interstate 20 and the damn top flies off and goes 30 feet in the air. Smash. It's in pieces and we panic. There is no way the dealership is going to believe us. We get back to the shop and our zone tech Bob Weir is pulling in behind us and praise to the Mopar God's because he was behind us on the highway where it happened and vouched for us. Man, what a day.

I have a few more crazy Viper stories and some fun SRT8 stuff too.
 
Well I worked for Ma Mopar back in THE day!!!! It really wasnt a bundle of roses either!!!! I graduated from HS in '69 and went to work for Chuck Diering Chry-Ply in Alton Illinois. I entered the apprentice program at $2.20 an hour!!! My pay was raised every so often so I would be making SIX bucks an hour when I got my Journeysmans card.,,, YEAH!? This dealer also sold GMC trucks and acquired an Amercan Motors dealership in about '72. We had a contract with the city and also worked on Police cars and City trucks, All the easy work was done at the City Garage and they would bring (tow) the heavy work to our shop,,, It was NO fun to put a clutch or broken rear spring in a GARBAGE truck!!!! We also had a contract with the USPS, We (I) did all the service on thr post office trucks and IH scouts'. I got stuck with all these odd jobs since we already had our Journeymen mechanics doing their "specialty" work. I was the "new car" service prep too. I serviced all the new cars, Imperials, Chryslers, RR's Dusters, Cudas, etc, and AM cars after 72. We never had much serious muscle come through there but I do remember a Superbird that I serviced. B5, Black int, 440 auto on the column, I took it on the "test" drive up the "river road", That is a 4 lane highway running out if town right along the Mississippi river. this was not a black top or concrete h-way but was hard packed rock and chip, no guard rails between you and the river!:eek: About once a month a rescue crew would be fishing somone and their car out of the water! I would
"test" drive all the new cars on this road. I would stop just outside the city limits and then let her go,,,,through all the gears, I remember the S-bird was really hugging the road when I Passed 100, and i really dont remember how fast i topped her out at. It was put on display in their show room but it never sold and was moved to the garage when the '71's came out. I was told I could buy it "right: But I was getting married soon and had to look at housing. I did "volunteer" as a judge a t several T-shooting contests. The dealership building is still there. In '73 right after I got my J card the dealer ship was in "financial" distress and I faced lay off (with a new baby)so I went to work At Lewis and Clark Chry Ply in N St Louis County, The building is now a U-Haul. OH boy, a Flat rate shop, now I can make some money!!!! WRONG!!!! Again I was the new guy and got stuck with the "crap" jobs. They also sold IH trucks. I got stuck with mostly anything that our "specialist" didnt want to do,,, and warranty jobs,,,warranty, no money here, it was really tough to make the the 40 hours and often times I didnt. They did send me to A/C school and I became the "expert" A/C technition but there just wasnt enough paying AC jobs to make any money, again it was mostly warranty. There was a mechanic there that built hot rods and each one would be powered by a HEMI, he would scratch build a frame plop in a HEMI and bolt on a fiberglass dody, these were his " work " cars, he would drive them to work every day, weather permitting. He was quite a character, His name was "Phill", I bet somebody here remembers him. I quit at L&C in 79 and went to work for UPS and retired from there after 25 years, but that is another story. Both C-D chry and L-C chry went under shortly after I quit. So there are my 10 years of Mopar; Nothing exciting, no hair raising stories. no glory ,just a job, I had to do,,,,,but I survived!!!!
 
Some service departments really catered to the chosen few tech's giving them the gravy while letting others starve. At one Dodge dealer I worked at in Poway Ca, the service managers son worked as a "tech" there. He got all of the PDI's, which blew when the other tech's were out of work and there were plenty of PDI's to go around. One day a customer pulls in with their NS minivan and said the horn didn't work. They tossed it on the lift to troubleshoot the lack of toot. What they found was the horn wires still wrapped up near the units and were never connected. Guess who did the PDI? He tried to push it off as someone had disconnected them. Sure. All the fool had to do on the vans was slap wheel covers on, install antenna, hook up horns, check fluids and pressures, set the clock, test drive. Plus this lazy fool had a helper who did most of the work for him. Another time at the same dealer they got in a new 2500 with the then new HO 24 valve with the 6 speed. They got the truck prepped so they could show it off at the rodeo the dealer helped sponsor. The sales manager told the lot lizard to go to the gas station and put gas in it. The kid did exactly that as he didn't know diesel was different. Braniac. It got from the station, about a mile away, back to the dealer and it was toast. They somehow managed to get it warrantied.
 
I started at a Chrysler Plymouth dealer in 1987 as a helper for $4.50 an hour. The first job I had was a short block on a 3.9 Dakota. Took me 2 days and the guy I learned under said you seem to know a little (very little lol) are you sure you want to do this for a living? I said maybe I have to keep my 76 Aspen R/T on the road lol. Thought working there would be able to work on hot rods lol. Now after 34+ years of working as a dealer tech wrenching on everything from Omni’s to Fiat 500’s to Hellcat’s and seeing all the cool tv shows now days maybe I should have thought about it a little more!!!!
 
Longknife, I remember L&C C-P well, 74-77 I worked just down the street at MODoT.
Before the building became a Uhaul it was empty for a long time and was a Chebby dealer before that.
Those days I was driving a 65 Sport Fury.
 
Was a Jeep/Doge/Chrysler/Hyundai dealership tech for about 5 years. If it wasn't for "office politics" I'd probably still be doing it, I loved it. My service manager had it in for me and fired me twice. I started as a helper and worked for the foreman. Any job I did he flagged, I was hourly. Anyway, one day he had a real gravy job which was a 60K service and four wheel brakes which I didn't even do. A week later, the foreman was on vacation. Car came back, customer said the wheel fell off but this was after several hundred miles which seemed odd but OK. Manager is incensed and calls the foreman while he's literally in the airport getting ready to fly somewhere and asks him what happened. The foreman threw me under the bus and I was fired on the spot. I went to another Chrysler dealer for a while but went back to the first place when the owner hired me back over the manager's head. Probably pissed him off royally and was just waiting for an excuse to do it again.

He got it in 2012 when the NY area got hit with Hurricane Sandy. We lost power for two weeks, had a very fragile 4 year old with a serious heart condition and a 4 month old newborn baby. We really couldn't stay in our house without power so we went to stay with relatives in NYC. Called in to work twice, no answer and no one called me so I figured they didn't have power. Day we got power back my wife went to work and I went back to the shop with the baby in his carrier to see what was going on. Shop was open, I had no idea. Walked into the service office, manager looks at me and says where have you been, you're fired. I was fine with it and never looked back.

On the day our second son was born, I'm at the hospital and the manager calls me around 5:00 in the afternoon screaming at me that I didn't finish some job. Seemed like he was drunk or high or something. Some part had to be ordered and it wasn't there when I left so I told the writer what was going on, left the R.O. on my box with a written note explaining what was going on etc. I'm like dude, it's all there, don't f*cking scream at me today of all days, GTFOH.

The foreman I worked for also did some real stupid **** too, way worse than anything I ever did but he was the golden gravy boy, the manager was scared of him and would never fire him for anything. Here's one that sticks out - one afternoon the Safety Kleen truck was parked outside our garage changing barrels. The foreman guy was taking a Grand Cherokee on a test drive but he can't get out until Safety Kleen is done. At this particular moment, one of the office girls is smoking by the back door and he's playing cutesy peek-a-boo with her, backing the car out then pulling it back in quickly. I guess he didn't realize the truck was so close because at one point he goes too far too fast and literally smashes the whole back end of the car on the Safety Kleen truck lift gate. I watched the whole thing. Thousands of dollars worth of damage, close to totaled...

Fast forward a few years later after I'm gone, the same no neck, illiterate, asshole service manager was arrested for interstate drug trafficking. He was involved with our sleazy wholesaler guy who would transport cars from Florida up to NY and this was how they moved the drugs. They were involved in this deal with a local biker gang. When he got caught the manager ratted out the bikers and fled town. Scumbag.

But yeah, I loved turning wrenches. I had my share of mishaps but most of the time I did OK. My career was a little short but I know I'm a decent mechanic. Still have all the Chrysler-specific training under my belt, all my tools and knowledge. Working in a shop is not like working in an office or something, you just have to experience it to know what it's like. Lot of fun when the situation is good.
 
Great stories! Any assemble line workers here from the 60's?
 
Me, my Dad, my brother, my oldest nephew and two brothers-in-law all worked at various times for Chrysler in various capacities, since 1967 up to around 2008 or so.

My wife ran parts for the local Dodge dealer for a couple of years in the late '80s, and my oldest son was a lot porter at the same dealer about six years or so ago.

I worked as a parts guy/parts runner for a year at a C-P-FIAT dealer in western Colorado. Dad sold new Chryslers, Plymouths and Dodges for a couple of years at a different small-town C-P-D dealer, both in the late '70s.

One B-I-L worked the Chrysler Depot in Denver for nearly 30 years before he retired in 1997. The other worked there, plus probably five C-P or Dodge dealerships total, as a parts manager, for perhaps 40 years total, all in Colorado.

My nephew worked as a mid-level Chrysler marketing exec for about seven years before going to Mitsubishi, then Nissan.

Yup. We've been around it for decades.
 
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