Hi. Anybody want to talk about vans that have been modified with ramps and
lockdowns for people with wheelchairs? we have had one for the last 8
months for our son who has CP and other than the fact that it's big and the
modifications work great, it's a lemon. It is a '96 Plymouth Grand Voyager
Van with barely 31K miles on it and we only bought it because of our son's
chair. we had been very happy with our Subaru Legacy's up to this point.
Consumers Reports gave it a fairly good review but everybody kept warning us
about the transmissions on Chryslers etc. well, it finally happened...
luckily we were only driving at 30mph when the bang and the loss of drive
and steering and the drip of Automatic Transmission Fluid all over the road
occurred. other than the fact that they sell these vans and cars with known
safety defects, has anyone thought of having a class action suit against
them for putting transmissions into cars that have a known history of being
unable to get more than 30+K miles on them? just curious. anyway, looking
at the NTSA records of bulletins and recalls, I was amazed to find over 120
safety bulletins, whereas our Loyale, admittedly the worst Subaru ever made
had only 24 and this is a 10 year old car! The Legacy's were lucky to have
more than 10 if that. And recalls??? go to this site if you have a van or
car that you think has problems: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems.
anyway, the dealership is trying to stick us for extra labor even though we
have a service plan that is supposed to cover trannies that blow up and
expose your family to possible death on the highways ( have a trannie give
out on the highway and think about how lucky you are that you are on an
outer lane with no one behind you. i hope that's how lucky you are when
that happens. ) they say that the extra labor is because we put in a
special gas tank so that we could have the van lower and kneel and have the
ramp etc. sounds like an ADA suit to me and believe me, I'm going to be
screaming that one at them tomorrow if they don't eat the two hours extra
labor. anyway, are Ford vans any better? i heard the ride stinks compared
to Chrysler's and they nickel and dime you to death as the old expression
goes. anyway, for converted vans, there seem to be few options. if some
smart Japanese car manufacturer put these conversions into their vans, they
would have an instant market. oh, but wait... they use one piece frame
construction which can't be modified. so the more structurally sound and
safe design for a car frame is not one that you can modify for a wheelchair
accessible van? sounds like we're caught between a rock and a hard place,
but when Toyota or Honday or Subaru or whoever modifies that van of theirs
into something accessible, they will have an eager market of disgruntled
ex-American car customers waiting for them. anyway, i had to get that off
my chest after having the transmission go a week after bringing it in for a
change of the fluid. i thought at first they had just been incompetent as
is so normal nowadays and forgotten to tighten the pan and the gasket /
seals burst.. no such luck. i could go to Jiffy Lube for that kind of
incompetence. no, this was a Norwood, MA Chrysler dealership on the Route 1
Automile who will remain nameless for now. and they're only trying to make
some extra money off people who already have a service contract. they
probably wouldn't pull this routine if i was paying for the trannie out of
pocket, now would they? hey, what's two more hours of dealership labor
anyway? ($150. in case you're curious.) any wonder why i go to mechanics
who set up their own businesses and charge half that labor rate? btw, i can
tell you about a great Subaru mechanic in Eastern MA who loves his job and
the cars and will not screw you, but this was supposed to be about Chryslers
and their wonderful transmissions and the plethora of choices available for
those who need accessible vans. thank you for letting me ventilate.
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