I own a 2003 Chrysler Town & Country van. During a recent trip we ran over a piece of tire lying on the highway. The impact from the small piece of tire caused a rupture in the fiberglas gas tank, along an exposed seam. The dealer in durango co said they were told that there were five other incidents of damage to the same gas tank that week, necessitating a lengthy wait while a tank was shipped from detroit. We were told by the dealer that when the dealer called Chrysler for information about the tank, they were told to "impound" the car because it was unsafe to drive. When posing this to Chrysler, they deny that there was ever any impounding and that we were merely "advised" not to drive it. It was much more severe than that. It was, in fact, impounded and would not be released to us. We can produce witnesses to this statement who were in the dealership at the time, even though the dealership now says that is not true. Clearly, they don't want to interrupt a relationship with Chrysler. While we certainly would have little interest in driving an unsafe vehicle beyond getting it to some place where repairs might be more reasonably priced ($738 for a gas tank seems excessive), I am more concerned that the tank can receive such significant damage. It seems that any of several options would have prevented this problem. 1) if the tank was made of something other than fiberglas, it might better withstand an impact. 2) if the company is going to use fiberglas, a protective shield in front of the exposed area would prevent this type of damage. 3) a seam should not be exposed to the road surface. The split in the tank was at a seam on the underside of the tank. If such rupture can be prevented, it should be!

- Branson, MO, USA