Faults:

Right Valve cover gasket twice.

Right cylinder head warped.

Leaking transmission hoses.

General Comments:

My wife loves this car. It has been a very good car up until now. Taken to the dealer 4 times for burning oil smell. First time they said oil was overfilled, second time they found a cracked valve cover gasket. This is also when they discovered the leaking trans hoses, I think this was BS just so they could make some cash on the deal, the car has an extended warranty and the cost to replace the hoses was $435.

Third time for burning oil valve cover gasket cracked again, mechanic says probably over torqued the bolts.

4th time valve cover gasket cracked again, finally checked cylinder head and said it was out of tolerance (WARPED). Car is at the dealer now. Without extended warranty probably would be very bitter right now.

Faults:

My water pump went out on me at 120,000 miles. That was okay. My mechanic told me that at 80,000 miles it should be replaced do to the fact that it is located in the engine and this is what causes the big problem with engine failure. Also at which time I recommend you change the timing chain with its kit because it is within the same area. I paid a total of $600.00.

General Comments:

Every vehicle needs fixtures to attend to, but I like this car for its reliability even with the mileage it has. Imagine if I bought it new.

Faults:

Common problems for Intrepid ES:

1. Door seals shrunk and cracking causing wind noise and leaking when it rains.

2. Driver side power window motor has burned out twice.

3. Door locks squeal when locking by remote or the auto-lock feature when you start to drive. Had one replaced while still under warranty.

4. Electrical bug, lights sometimes flicker while driving and when adjusting dimmer switch for interior lights.

5. A/C fan motor burned out and slow leak of freon. Out of warranty.

6. Had a major system failure, transmission, power steering, brakes, everything failed at once. I guessed that a computer chip had failed, called dealership and they thought the transmission had gone out, (which did not explain the steering or brakes), turned out I was right a inexpensive computer chip had burned out and was in warranty. (Trust your instincts over the dealership until they run a diagnostic.)

7. Currently having A/C problems again..

General Comments:

I'm a tall, big guy (6'2") and the car has lots of room. The leather interior is nice, but a little noisy. Good stereo system which benefited from an after-market speaker upgrade. Lots of trunk space even with the sub-woofer box installed.

The car has good pick-up with the 3.2L engine and the front wheel drive handles well especially on curves and at higher interstate speeds. The autostick is fun to use.

Overall this has been a good car with the exception of the problems listed above, most of which are just annoying.

All cars have some sort of problem, many of the ones for the ES Intrepid should have been corrected by the manufacturer. You would think that by the year 2000 we could get quality door lock and power window motors and door seals...