

*nnnnnnnng* Thank you for playing, I cannot agree with this.  I believed
this and to put it nicely, it was a piece of junk!

I loved this car, I babied it, I pampered it, and after 2 years, it just
couldn't stay together, I would say that not everyone will have the
problems that I had, but know this, it's not just the car, it is the
ability to get the car fixed, which will NOT happen at any
chrysler/dodge/take your pick dealer.  I don't care if there are going to
reform their dealers/service with the intro of the LH cars, I will believe
it when I see it.  Case and point, the local dodge dealer.  You drive up,
just looking, you don't even get out of your door, when about 10 (yes 10)
salesman all eye you like their next meal, and literally pounce on you,
and try to get you to make a deal, on everything your eye wanders towards.
Service is about 2 times worse than that.  I had an alignment problem, but
they tried to tell me that the K frame was bent, and about 2000 dollars of
work/parts to fix it.  Let me tell you the problems I had, and I took care
of this car, I put alot of miles on it in the first couple years, but took
it to every checkup it needed, and many that shouldn't have been.

1988 Dodge Shadow ES

These were replaced within the 4 years that I owned the car.

Engine 
4 Alternators
Rear Suspension Torsion Bar
2 Water pumps
5 thermostats
Hall effect sensor
Main computer
4 Batteries

These were rebuilt/repaired

Radiator
Automatic Transmission
Power Steering


Those are just the things I can remember off the top of my head.  For
about a year before I sold the car, I said to myself, it's a good car, I
just can't find anybody competent enough the fix it.  In the end, before I
traded it in for a Saturn, the power steering started acting up again.  I
just stopped putting money into it.  I must have put at least $5000-$7000
worth of repairs over it's lifetime.  I am sorry but Lee Iacocca can bite
me.  Bullshit, whoever backs em best, is just afraid the stupid things are
going to fall apart, and no one will buy them without assurance, why the
hell do you think that LH has been nicknamed Last Hope.

You can do better, and I know people will disagree with me here, but
Japanese, like Honda, or Toyota, or the only american car company that I
feel is a quality product, Saturn.  I will not touch another chrysler
product again, no way.  I don't care how good the LH cars look good, and I
will admit they look promising, but not with the support that you get.  GM
isn't much better, thank god, they don't control Saturn, like they do
their divisions, or it would be just another marketing ploy.  

Don't get me wrong, i will be watching my car (which I do like) like a
hawk for the next 4 years.  I am much more hesitant to say it (or any) car
is really good, until it has proved itself to me.

But since someone else pointed out C&D as a source.  I will note, because
I used to read these magazines, that Car and Driver has never had a good
thing to say about most Chrysler products (Shadow for one), always were
they moaning about the reguritated K-car, and engine.  Whereas Motor Trend
always thought they were great cars.  No car magazine is really objective.

And although there are alot of people who don't like Consumers Reports, I
will use them to reinforce my argument (I already know about the big stink
with the Saturn crash tests, time will tell how good a car they are), the
shadow/sundance rate much worse than average, in fact none of the
chrysler's rate a better than average, I think the best one is just
average.  Excluding the diamond star/mitsubishi stuff and the LH's.  You
can find bad stuff about the Shadow.  Try as I might, when I researched
the Saturn, I could not find anything bad about it.  There is a great deal
of information about this company, just because it is a new american
company and it has created quite a stir in the automotive community, for
good reason.  Much more than the introduction of any new model lines of
any established company.  I read an article, which had a sub-column, an I
think this imprinted on me more than anything else.  Some big wig in
Toyota said and I quote, "We are watching them very closely."  Come on,
everybody grow up, the foreign cars, especially the japanese have been
kicking our butts, for good reason, the american car companies could not make
a good product or support the customer the way they want these days, to
set in their ways, which is one of the reasons Saturn was created.  They
are still struggling because they haven't learned yet.  They have the
ability, the workers are not inferior, the technology is not out of date,
but their attitude is, and they are just finding this out.  It's called
competition gentleman/women if you don't satisfy the demand of the
consumer, well your out..  

*asbestos suit on*