AVOID Jim Archer Jeep Houston, TX

L

LouisanaJeeper

New member
EDIT: cliffs notes version:



i went to this stealership a few weeks ago. basically they said they would fix a problem, i let them try twice. 10 days and $800 later the jeep was still not working 100%. they would not refund $$$ just wanted to try more $$$$ repair at my cost.



Mechanic seemed like an OK guy, but I still was dissapointed overall w/ the experience
 
Haha well put. Sorry you had to be out that much money. Dealerships p*ss me off more often than not. I'm still undecided on getting a rear spoiler for my car, but even with something as simple as that, I'll take it to an independent shop. I don't go to dealerships unless it's the only option.



My uncle wrote a long statement to Mazda Corporate about the dealership in Chicago covering his brand new black Tribute with horrible swirls/holograms. He didn't get any sympathy though. I don't even think he ever got a response from them. :down
 
I would have told them to take out the 660 dollar part, and put it back on the shelf.



I once had a power stroke diesel and the cam sensors go bad on those in about 14k miles.



I knew it was the cam sensor, im sure they knew it, but when i picked the truck up, they told me "it was a quart low on oil"



I couldnt believe it. When a cam sensor goes, the truck just dies, doesnt matter where you are or what your doing.



So, the next day when i died, i was halfway through an intersection with 6000 lbs of sand in the back of it lol.



I called the dealer and told them how retarted they are, and i have 6000 lbs of sand in my truck, and i will be picking it up tomorrow hahah.



Stupid bastids had it ready for me the next day ....



Another gem is the Ford Tauras we had. The rotars on those are garbage, and it was warped at 17k miles. The iddiot had the nerve to tell me that i brake too hard.



Now when i goto dealerships, i treat them like they are children, and spell everything out for them. I left a stickie note on my steering wheel, "Do not touch paint, or wipe it after work is done, leave it"



Paint had finger prints all over it,but it wasnt wiped down with a rag...
 
I do hate dealerships. :wall



I went to Dallas for the Cotton Bowl last year and while I was there, my 02 Civic broke down. The engine ran fine, just the transmission would not move the car. I spent a week in Dallas trying to get things sorted out, the dealership there told me that I had to buy a new transmission, the "extended warranty" company told me that they would rebuild my transmission, but I just wanted a new one (side note: the guy I had to talk to at this insurance company, told me that he didn't care what I wanted and that there were no way in hell that he was authorize a new or rebuilt tranmission). I couldn't believe that a Honda Civic with only 2 years on it would break down like that. The only shining point in this story is that when I called the dealership that I bought it from (Gillman Honda in Richmond/Rosenberg), the service advisor (Nicole) gave me the number for American Honda. Now, the guy at the dealership in Dallas told me that he had called and complained to them, but they didn't care because it was like 5k miles off warranty. I call, I leave a message and the very next day, I get a call from the dealership in Dallas telling me that American Honda is installing a new transmission and picking up the entire bill.



It was a horrible experience, but I'm glad that there are some people out there at those dealerships who are honest and will actually help you, even if it's not gonna earn them a $1000 comission.



I agree with JBM though, tell them they can have their $600 part back.
 
I feel for ya. I had my Ram in for a wind noise problem at my local dealership. (Hudson Dodge Chrysler) They kept it for 55 days!!!! I got the run around every time I called. At one point they offered a free extended warranty. After they finally fixed the problem they backed out of the free extended warranty and said that they weren't going to give it to me, and that I was never offered it. They broke my auto start which I had to pay to fix, and also replaced my windshield, but refused to pay for the tint that I had done to the window. There's way more to my story but I won't get into it. Short story is that they had it for 55 consecutive days, but they actually worked on it for almost 11 months. I got nothing out of the deal except a worthless loaner and a hollow feeling when I see that dealer. Registered letters to the head cheeses is on tap for me. I plan on taking this to the top! :D



Good luck with yours. You need to contact the dealer owner, and the head of Chrysler. PM me, I have the addresses at work.
 
chpsk8 said:
I feel for ya. I had my Ram in for a wind noise problem at my local dealership. (Hudson Dodge Chrysler) They kept it for 55 days!!!! I got the run around every time I called. At one point they offered a free extended warranty. After they finally fixed the problem they backed out of the free extended warranty and said that they weren't going to give it to me, and that I was never offered it. They broke my auto start which I had to pay to fix, and also replaced my windshield, but refused to pay for the tint that I had done to the window. There's way more to my story but I won't get into it. Short story is that they had it for 55 consecutive days, but they actually worked on it for almost 11 months. I got nothing out of the deal except a worthless loaner and a hollow feeling when I see that dealer. Registered letters to the head cheeses is on tap for me. I plan on taking this to the top! :D



Good luck with yours. You need to contact the dealer owner, and the head of Chrysler. PM me, I have the addresses at work.
Click to expand...

this situation was never resolved. i was actually going to send a another set of letters certified mail so the actual owner gets it not some manager who just throws it away. or get sent into the worthless CS reps at chrysler. so yeah PM the adresss for chrysler people when you get a chance



my sister eneded up selling the jeep privatley and bought a 05 nissan xterra v6
 
Sounds like Hiley Mazda in Arlington. I had a CEL and an intermittent low speed miss. I took my car to my regular mechanic and he said the code he was getting didn't match any known codes. I then took my car to Hiley Mazda and their code reader gave the correct code for an O2 sensor (the code my mechanic got had an 8 in front of the 0133 code for the O2 for some odd reason). They then said my valve cover gaskets were leaking and that was causing the misfire. I told them to replace the O2 sensor (a $78 part) and I would take care of the valve cover gaskets myself. I go to pick up my car and the bill is for $295! They charged me $78 for the sensor, $35 for the installation and the rest was for diagnosis and a general check of the car. I told the lady who wrote my initial service request how outrageous the cost was and she said their standard diagnosis cost is $95 and I had two problems. :angry I needed my car so I paid the bill.



On the way home, I picked up new plugs to switch them out. I pulled out the old plugs and saw no oil fouling, nor any oil in the plug tubes. Now I was really pissed. In addition, even with new plugs, I still had the misfire. I ended up taking the car to the mechanic my Dad uses because he seems to be able to diagnose problems faster than anyone else I know. Turns out my #2 and #4 plug wires were bad. New plug wires, no more misfire.



It really hacked me off that Hiley Mazda was going to rip me off for more than $300 to change out the valve cover gaskets (4 hours of labor plus the gaskets) for a non-existant problem then would have had to call me to tell me they found out my plug wires were also bad.



Talking to the service manager did nothing, told him not only would they never see my car again but also that my next car would definitely not be a Mazda.
 
Scottwax said:
she said their standard diagnosis cost is $95 and I had two problems. :angry I needed my car so I paid the bill.
Click to expand...



That sounds just like my experience with the Maxima at a tire shop that diagnosed two codes for me. They charged me $55 EACH to read the codes, and $55 EACH to clear the codes! :angry

This was before I visited www.maxima.org, and discovered that I could check and clear codes myself in under 2 minutes, with no more than a small flathead screwdriver. I was so piss*d off about wasting $220 on that.



Later on, I decided to change out my knock sensor and oxygen sensor, because those two codes kept coming back (of course I checked/cleared them myself at this point). I was able to replace the oxygen sensor pretty easily, but the knock sensor was located in the valley of the block, under the intake manifold. I had heard before that this was a PITA to change, so I called up the nearest Nissan dealer. They wanted over $400 to change a damn knock sensor! :eek: They said it would involve removing the manifold, and then you have to replace the manifold gasket, labor for this, labor for that...

So long story short, I ended up devising a way to reach in there and remove/replace the knock sensor successfully in about 30 minutes. :)

It really is frustrating to hear how much these simple things can cost at a dealership, or even a small corner shop. I just can't understand how some people have even the smallest jobs done by a mechanic, when they could easily do it themselves for a small fraction of the cost. And often the place will add on some other stupid crap to jack up the bill.
 
Thanks for the tip, but I learned that as well after paying big $$$ to have the codes pulled. :(



I haven't had the CEL come on with the Mazda yet, but I'll be going to Autozone if/when it does come on.
 
I work on my own cars, you can pull codes by putting a paper clip into a wire and any codes if there is will flash so many times and you look up the code.



Best to buy a shop manual for your car!



Stalling at idle could mean a few things first it could be the MAF (mass flow senor) or the IAC (idle air control) both of these you can clean with electronic cleaning fluid (leaves no residue). Or it could mean a vacuum leak, fuel filter replacement, dirty butterfly contaminated with carbon clean with rag only /w cleaning fluid don’t spray cleaning fluid into intake housing, dirty air filter?



At 100000 miles you should do a complete tune up wires, plugs, O2 senor/s, pcv valve, change the tran fluid and a few others and maybe you should be thinking about changing to Synthetic oil like Mobile 1 5-30w you will get better gas mileage and your engine will last longer.



If you are going to keep your car for a while I will put on ceramic dis brake pads because they stop better and leaves hardly any brake dust and don’t forget to machine the rotors and torque the wheel lugs.
 
yes i normally do all my own work. i would not have gone to the stealer unless it was absolutely necessary. in houston so i could not work on it in my garage.



anyway prior to taking it to the stealer i did the following, only about $100 to do all this, probably would have been $1300 at stealer to try this:

cleaned throttle body

ran seafoam thru intake manifold

checked plugs and plug wires

repaced coil

replaced tps

replaced a couple tps wires on the harness that looked like were on way out

replaced IAC

replaced fuel filter

checked harnesses going into the ECU/PCM for loose wires/connectors

tightened battery terminals

battery was ony about 6months old so i did not check the batt/alternator. probably a bad mistake obvioulsy



i still did not know what was wrong with it, i think it was a short somewhere in the main harness like i told the stealer when i first dropped it off
 
I am beginning to see why people buy Hondas now. Our service department has always had positive feedback...



Crappy you had to go through that. Hope something works out for you.
 
Here's the addresses I used. Get a certified letter to the head of Chrysler, and the dealership owner, not the manager. CC the Manager and Customer service. Certified letters are a little $$, but you'll have proof they got it.



Dieter Zetsche

President & Chief Executive Officer

DaimlerChrysler Corporation

1000 Chrysler Drive

Auburn Hills MI 48326-2766



This one you probably already have. Dieters address is harder to find.



Dodge Division of Chrysler Motors Corp

Dodge Customer Center

P.O. Box 21-8004

Auburn Hills, MI 48321-8004
 
I have had similar bad experiences with the service department at the local Archer Dodge on the SW side of Houston. Their service is poor to say the least.



I hope you get a good resolution.
 
does this sound ok?

louisianajeeper

address

XXXXXXXX



27 Janurary 2006



Mr. Dieter Zetsche

President & Chief Executive Officer

DaimlerChrysler Corporation

1000 Chrysler Drive

Auburn Hills, MI 48326-2766



Dear Mr Zetsche:



I am writing to inform you of my recent service experience at Jim Archer Chrysler Jeep in Houston, Texas. This dealership is truly a disgrace to the Jeep brand as well as the Daimler Chrysler name. I have enclosed my original letter to customer service which explains the problem in detail. My problem was as follows. I sent a car into service where the mechanics misdiagnosed a problem twice. I was charged $800 and left with the same original problem.



I tried to resolve this situation thru the dealership management directly, but I received no response in writing or by phone. I also contacted DC customer service, but I was told that it was “out of their hands�. I realize Jeep dealerships are privately owned and operated, but there should be a bare minimum standard at which the service departments operate at. Archer Jeep operates well below this minimum standard.





Regards,





XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX
Click to expand...



Mr. JAMES E ARCHER, Owner

Jim Archer Chrysler Jeep

19200 NORTHWEST FREEWAY

HOUSTON, TX 77065-4715



Mr Archer:



I am writing to inform you of my recent service experience at your dealership, Jim Archer Chrysler Jeep in Houston, Texas. This dealership is truly a disgrace to the Jeep brand as well as the Daimler Chrysler name. I have enclosed my original letter to customer service and dealership management which explains the problem in detail. I sent a car into service where the mechanics misdiagnosed a problem twice. I was charged $800 and left with the same original problem.



I tried to resolve this situation thru the dealership management directly, but I received no response in writing or by phone. I realize you do not handle the day to day operations at your dealership, and such affairs are handled by management. I believe there should be a bare minimum standard at which the dealership service departments operates at. The people I have encountered during this experience operate well below this minimum standard.





Regards,
Click to expand...
 
My experience in general is to tell them you will not return ever again and you will tell others of your experience. It might help, it might not.
 
Wow LousianaJeeper that's a nice story...too bad it's not all true. I'm the technician that worked on your "vehicle".



You seem to have left out a few minor details. First of all you failed to mention the condition of your vehicle. I would not drive a vehicle in that condition from my dealer to my home let alone out of state.



Let me refresh your memory...as I recall you quite well even after all this time. You see every now and then "special" customers like you find thier way into my life and it's very hard to forget you.



Upon initial inspection of your jeep you had no ignition, yet your crank sensor output at you pcm as well as all other inputs were present and you had a "primary ignition coil circuit" fault. I remember being very thorough as I always am with vehicles in a condition such as your's. You had NO output from the pcm coil driver circuit, a common condition when a pcm has been subjected to massive vibration.



This brings me to the second thing you seemed to have overlooked...the "modifications" done to the jeep. Now I'm not opposed to lifting a vehicle when it's done right, I even have a lift on my comanche. However your lift was a real hack job. wiring harnesses were stretched as well as over things that were obviously not taken into consideration when you lifted it. Your pcm was loose on the firewall (remember talking about that...I do) and it literally beat itself to death.



After installing the new pcm low and behold you had ignition (surely THAT part was not needed right?). I attempted to drive your vehicle, but deemed it unsafe because of the "modifications" added. You being a much (braver?) soul took off in the thing, and yes it did die. It died because you had neglected to reroute the crank sensor during your "modifications" and it melted into your exhaust manifold. But I suppose this was my fault too.



As for your alternator story...it doesn't hold water man. Actually if an alternator only had 15 amps output it would not have sufficient current to charge your battery or even run the fuel injection/ignition period. Yet I distinctly remember NOT having to jump your vehicle..hmmm. Let's not make up stories to cover our tracks ok?



If you are going to go on a public forum and flame me..at least be honest about the condition of your vehicle. I honestly tried to help you all I could. I knew you were from out of town and I rushed to get your jeep diagnosed. The only mistake I made was trying to help you too fast and I overlooked the crank sensor issue.



Another tip... It's generally not a good idea to walk into a service department and call a technician a liar. You do remember that don't you? Just afterwards you commenced to telling me how "you have your own shop, but you only do suspension work". I can say one thing ..judging by THAT suspension work..it's a damn good thing.



You guys may hate dealerships, but we are the ones that see all the weird issues first and the aftermarket world learns from us. Where do you think the literature comes from that you find in all the manuals? We are the first place a new car comes to and the last place one comes to when the "other guys" can't seem to figure a problem out.



Yes, I did register here just for this single response as I take great pride in my work and have for the last 22 years. In my career I have worked only on jeep from AMC to Daimler Chrysler. So...as far as my not having "knowledge" or "experience" I beg to differ. Peace to all you jeep lovers out there, I just needed to clarify a few things here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top