Funny to read about your Mopar “maintenance nightmare” and “not great design from a maintenance point of view” …
I’ve had different car brands over the years, both old and modern, American and European. I do the wrenching myself.
One year ago, I bought my first Mopar (1970 B-body) and have done a whole lot of mechanical work on it.
My conclusion is that this car is one of the easiest/best cars I have worked on, from a maintenance standpoint. I also think that the Chrysler engineers did a good job when they design these cars over 50 years ago…
Two years ago, I was stupid enough to replace my daily driver (Chevy Tahoe) with a "Premium German engineering masterpiece" Audi A6 Allroad - 3 litre TDI with DSG-transmission.
Wish I’d kept the Tahoe and spent money on gasoline… The Audi has ALWAYS followed service and inspection schedules, but that won’t do any good when these cars are poorly designed with many weaknesses.
The brilliant minds who designed these Audis, put the timing chain in the back of the engine. When the shitty hydraulic chain tensioners need replacement, transmission must come out.
They also though it was a great idea to attach "protective" plastic covers to the front subframe. The results are lots of trapped moisture and salt. On a 10-year-old “Premium” car, parts of the subframe rusts away because of this design (and crappy steel). Half the car needs to be disassembled to replace subframe.
I also have to mention that Audi market these cars with a so called 12 year antirust warranty, witch is fraud because they have become masters in disclaiming.
The DSG-transmission is mostly rugged, but the engineers decided to use engine coolant to cool down valve body/Mechatronic, which leads to catastrophic failure when shitty gaskets/o-rings fail.
The Audi is so expensive and time consuming to maintain, that it's going away, when everything is repaired.
I prefer to spend my time and money on wrenching and driving old Mopar muscle instead. (And gasoline for the glorious Big-block).
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