1998 Chrysler Voyager from North America

Summary:

Stay clear of Chrysler products

Faults:

Required new oil seals after five years.

Hood and roof paint is bubbling and peeling off after seven years.

Rubber soundproofing gasket around driver door failed after five years.

Transmission failed after six years and had to be replaced.

Rubber seat rail cracked after four years.

General Comments:

A sturdy engine (not counting oil leaks) and good all around hauling one would expect from a mini-van.

This is the first Chrylser we've owned (had two previous minivans) that had its paint fail after seven years. All in all, the car seems made only to last four to five years.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 27th March, 2006

1998 Chrysler Voyager SE 2.0 petrol from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Loved the car, but hated the repair bills

Faults:

Exhaust problems from 54,000 miles.

Needed to go back to dealer on several occasions.

Always grinding when going into reverse.

Fuel pump went at 73,000 miles, no warning.

Power Steering Pump went at 82,000 miles, again no warning.

General Comments:

This car was ideal for our family at the time of purchase, plenty of room and very comfortable.

Very sluggish, it was never fun to drive.

Expensive to run.

2.0 Petrol engine not able to preform with such a heavy body.

When it gave trouble it would cost a fortune to repair.

Changed the car for a 2.0 CRDi SUV, I'm loving it!

Will never buy a Chrysler again.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 14th March, 2004

1998 Chrysler Voyager SE 2.5 diesel from France

Summary:

A great big package for little money (10000 Euros)

Faults:

Small problem with the drive belt & pulley which was horrendous noise (clack clack clack clack) I thought it was a major engine defect, but turned out to be minor one . A great local (Citroen) dealer ordered the parts and fixed it for 140 Euros!!!

Merci.

General Comments:

I'm very happy with the car, just drove back to UK from South of France over 1500 km without missing a beat. Economy good too considering its such a huge beast.

Great performance.

Nice big fuel tank.

4 year old daughter loves it too!!..her caravan!!

Great comfort.

All the whiners are just not getting the right dealer to work on their cars.

I agree,.. go to a local mechanic who knows engines and they will fix/repair whatever goes wrong.

I'm hoping the car will last a few years and the engine looks set to run & run!

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 12th September, 2003

26th Dec 2003, 08:26

I agree, the 1996-2001 voyager is a very nice car with lots of space and it looks just as good as it handles.

But it's not all fun and laughter;

The diesel engine is totally outdated, even back in 1998. Being built by an Italian company, VM, who's specialty is building engines for industrial purposes it just cannot give you the drive-ability like an engine designed to be in a car. It also produces a heap of noise at higher rev's, say around 3500. VM also integrated a very nice little time bomb in the '96/'97/some '98 models;

- Instead of having the crankshaft driving the cam and fuel pump with gears they've mounted a chain... and it breaks when you least expect it.

Mine broke when we were on holiday in the south of Spain and it took 10 days to repair at a price of $1500. Fortunately there was no harm done to the valves.

I don't know why they decided to change the gears to a chain, but that was not a smart idea. They figured it out themselves because on later models they changed it back to gears!

1998 Chrysler Voyager LE 3.3 from UK and Ireland

Summary:

A very expensive pile of junk backed up by very poor aftersales service with attitude

Faults:

Brand new vehicle, faulty since day one, main fault is that it pulls to the left very badly. It will pull from the fast lane of a motorway into the hard shoulder within a matter of seconds.

It failed a standard MOT inspection carried out by the Vehicle Inspectorate within the first few months.

Faulty speedo, permanently stuck at 120 mph although it hadn't been moving when this happened.

All the above faults have been confirmed by a qualified independent engineer.

It also has a faulty fuel gauge, the battery went flat from new within a matter of months.

General Comments:

The selling dealership has done absolutely everything to avoid taking their legal responsibility in this case, they have tried and FAILED to fix the vehicle on 5 separate occasions.

In fact Chrysler have acted in a manner in which they are backing the lies of the dealer, probably because it is one of their biggest dealers in London.

This particular Chrysler/Jeep vehicle and almost every other vehicle manufactured by them has suffered from a vast number of quality/design/build defects in the US for many years now.

Chrysler have been renowned for their very poor quality/after sales service for ages in the States, but as they are relatively new to the UK not many sources of information are available for counsumers to make an informed choice about these vehicles.

My advice, be careful, be very careful. Voyager came up very badly in Top Gear JD Power survey, and has received very bad ENCAP ratings. Incidently, the new PT Cruiser has also suffered from bad press in it's first few months of release.

It seems that Chrysler are heading towards building the very same bad reputation as they have in the US.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 23rd August, 2000

23rd Jan 2001, 03:50

Re Voyager LE

I purchased a 2.0 Voyager LE from new Dec 1998. My first impressions were that the car had great road presence and some innovative design features.

First year: Only covered 6k miles, but despite the expensive servicing costs, happy motoring.

Second year: 6k again, but with two complete handbrake failures, one of which happened whilst parking 50M from a cliff edge in north Devon, not good when you have a wife and four young children in the car.

On both occasions, the dealer told me they were too busy to look at the car within the next seven days, and that I should bring the vehicle to them. When Chrysler UK were contacted, the dealer sprung to life and rectified the fault within 24 hours.

This year: My Voyager is currently with the dealer having a new instrument panel as the original one froze, and left me with nothing. And surprise surprise, when I phoned the dealer, we are fully booked with services, so we can't look at your faulty car for two weeks.

My first and last Voyager.

Doug Cox

doug_cox@westlb.com