Chrysler/Dodge and Toxic car syndrome

In 2012, my son had left for college, I was single again, and I wanted a sports/muscle car. I did a lot of research, (as I love cars and have owned 25-30 cars over the last 3 decades). I have had Volvo’s and VW’s, Mercedes and Lexus, Audi and Saturns, Mitsubshi, Chevy Volts and more. I knew that I wanted an American car and ended up deciding to buy a 2012 Dodge Charger SXT Plus Blacktop. It was a V6 with an 8 speed Pentastar transmission, everything looked great on paper. Decent Carbon footprint, actually good mileage and a little rocket. Literally from the day I purchased the car, there were mechanical and technical issues/problems. I dealt with those problems every day, until just 2 years in, with less then 20,000 miles, while driving up a paved winding mountain road, the transmission blew out the bottom of the car! I was very lucky and somehow I managed to back the car down into a safe place on the road and had it towed in for repairs, which ended up being extensive.

While being “repaired” the Dodge Boulder’s Dealership offered to “upgrade” me to a 2014 Charger with the same specs. I expressed my direct concerns, as I had just spent several years dealing with too many mechanical problems, culminating in my current transmission issues, and was repeatedly reassured that Chrysler had worked the bugs out of the model and that the 2014 was a much better car and a smart move.

Having researched what other cars in this class I could buy, I decided to have faith, trusting that the car was a better version and that it was a smart purchase, and like an idiot I agreed to the swap/upgrade.

Less than 24 hours after purchase, I called the dealership and reported several problems, mostly minor and easily fixed, (I found out that there was an alternator recall on my brand new car that I had not been informed about, among other issues like thermostat issues, non-upgraded Navigation systems, etc…), but there was one significant problem.

There was an odor, NOT new car smell, more like burning and or melting plastic or oil. It was extremely strong and made it difficult to breathe in the car. After driving 30 minutes to Denver I got a blinding headache and severe nausea.

When I took it in to be diagnosed and fixed, Matt the service manager at Valley Chrysler Dodge in Boulder, (where I purchased the vehicle), said he found an engineering warning describing the exact problem and a possible fix. Something was happening that was caused by a chemical interaction between the hoses and the radiator fluid. He called in to Chrysler and was told that; “my car was not affected by that issue as it was built after the issue was discovered and so the repair had supposedly been made at manufacturing.”

I came back 1 week later, as the smell/fumes were getting worse, and they put the car on the rack and said that the diagnosis was; “stickers on the manifold melting from the heat”, and then spent the day scraping the melted stickers off, supposedly.

Unfortunately the smell did not go away, and in fact was getting progressively worse, to the point where, driving again to Denver, I was forced to pull over to side of the road and vomit, as I was so dizzy and nauseated from the fumes!

I brought it in yet again and a Chrysler “specialist/engineer” came in to evaluate the situation, and not only acknowledged the smell in my car, but that in fact the odor/off-gas was present in ALL the 2014 V6 versions on the lot.

He said it was a “chemical anti-corrosive sprayed on the engine block that took any where from 5-10,000 miles to burn off”. I was told that I should "run the car hot and fast to help burn off the chemical". I was shocked because he basically said that in order to own my car I had to breathe a chemical off-gas for 6-8 months and maybe it would go away?... and then he reported to his superiors that the vehicle was “operating as designed, and that the odor was just new car smell”. Things just got worse from that point on.

The car became impossible to drive and I brought the vehicle in AGAIN! (Please keep in mind this is all happening in my first 45-60 days of owning a brand new vehicle.) This time they decided that my car was indeed experiencing the hose and radiator issue, (where a toxic chemical interaction occurs between the rubber materials the hoses are made of and the new coolant radiator chemical), and so they spent two days replacing all of the hoses and flushing the radiator system. Unfortunately they did not do a very good job as two weeks later, in the middle of a huge snowstorm, my heater stopped working because all of the coolant fluid had leaked out from where the repair had been made and so once again my car was in the shop.

I repeatedly asked for information and details regarding what exact chemicals that were off-gassing and causing me such large problems. Chrysler and the dealership basically refused to disclose the names of the chemicals I was breathing, claiming no one knew what the name of the anti-corrosive was that is sprayed as part of their “operating as designed” tech spec, and no name for the chemicals interacting between the rubber hoses and the radiator chemicals. I repeatedly asked and was never given an answer. At this point I became incredibly frustrated by Chrysler’s response and inability to solve the problem AND I was getting sick every time I drove the car. So I asked Chrysler customer service rep Kelly, who was supposedly empowered to reach a resolution, to be released from the contract and my money refunded so I could go purchase a different vehicle that did not make me sick. Kelly kept saying she understood and was very sympathetic and concerned and would make every effort to resolve this, made me wait a few days or a week, and then say that there was nothing she could do because the vehicle was "operating as designed"???

So Chrysler basically decided they were done helping me to resolve this. and that because their tech reported the car as “operating as designed” there was nothing further they could do to help me. They went so far as to tell Matt not to assist me anymore in looking for a solution.

So I just want to reiterate their findings: Chrysler reports the vehicle is operating as designed???? On what planet and in what Universe could this possible be true? I asked to be shown where exactly in the owner’s manual it states that; “The new 2014 Charger comes with a special “Nausea/headache/vomiting” option?” I think most people would decline that option, AND, as that does not actually exist, I asked repeatedly how that level of toxic off-gassing could possibly be part of the design spec? I have owned some 30 cars and driven hundreds more, and never experienced anything like this before. No car I have ever owned or driven or been in has a design that says “you must throw up to enjoy driving this car!”

Chrysler adamantly stands by its decision that the vehicle is “operating as designed.” Which to me implies a serious violation of the Covenant of Good Faith as Chrysler states the car is operating “as designed”, and the experience I am having is part of that intentional design experience. I then learned this is an industry wide known issue, “Toxic Car Syndrome.” Essentially where the interactions of materials, solvents, plastics, and chemicals come together and potentially cause these kinds of serious health related issues. I would think that knowing I would have to breathe a toxic petrochemical if I want to own a new Dodge Charger should be disclosed at the time of acquisition so I would have the choice not to poison myself? Now after more than 120 days, I have no results or fixes/solutions, and on a daily basis I am forced to breathe this unknown gas or gasses, and I get headaches and nausea and cannot drive for more then 20 minutes even with recirculation turned on, and in the winter in Colorado it is not practical to drive with an open window all the time. (Plus the expectation that somehow I should be patient and be willing to be a chemical experiment to help a major corporation resolve its engineering and design issues is just not working for me.)

I spoke with the dealership, Valley Chrysler Dodge in Boulder and the Manager there, a gentleman named Tyler, said they could swap for a new car if I would pay $8,000 to transfer my brand new car, except the dealership also knows that all of the vehicles similar to mine have the same issue. I could not believe he was asking me to pay an additional $8,000.00 to trade a brand new vehicle because of a problem I did not cause? A car that should be under full warranty and is an issue I raised when I had 12 miles on the car, and that exists in the other vehicles they would swap me to? Seriously? That feels like extortion to me! Then weeks later they raised the amount to $13,000.00 to get me out of my car and my 6 year obligation to own a defective car.

When I spoke with Chrysler all I asked for was a refund of my initial deposit, $1000, my registration fee $625, and the payments I have been making at $581.24/month and to be released from the contract and the loan reported as paid in full and paid as agreed. I have never missed a payment on anything in 40 years. I am an honest, reliable and timely consumer, and I just don’t want to be in a car that makes we want to throw up and may give me cancer? That does not seem unreasonable to me, but then again I am not a corporation. (Chrysler has been dealing with significant manufacturing problems since before the bailout, not much has changed unfortunately.)

Corporate Feudalism works on the principal that, we the consumers, as the essential feudal serfs, are beholden and morally obligated to honor our agreements with them because they bestow their beneficence and largess on us by loaning us money and objects and making huge profits from those deals, and we are expected to be happy and complacent and quiet and not rock the boat. They count on us either being afraid, (afraid that we will be sued or hurt financially or our “credit rating lowered”), or complacent or simply unable or unwilling to wade through the complexities of conflict. They expect us to be docile and yet also to be willing bail them out with taxpayer funding when they get in trouble. They also expect taxpayer interest free bailouts and a total lack of accountability. My only options for recourse and resolution at this point are;

• Keep the car and keep getting headaches and nausea and vomit occasionally, and potentially get cancer down the road, and just deal with the car that I bought. Or worst case scenario pass out and cause a serious accident? (That is the solution Chrysler seems to want me to take??)

• Litigate, which they know I cannot afford to do and go against their deep pockets lawyers, as they would rather spend tens of thousands of dollars with lawyers to prevent paying me back and releasing me from this toxic vehicle, as they will simply tie the whole thing up in court until I am financially unable to continue.

• Or I can do a “voluntary repossession”, simply turn the car in at the dealership and walk away, which then means that my 40 years of pristine and perfect credit is basically ruined, and the cost of the failed car and mechanical issues created by Chrysler, I am forced to pay for. A $20,000 deficit I would be forced to pay and would be reported against my credit as a failed debt? This is the crux of the corporate dilemma and the average consumer. That Chrysler would rather pay millions of dollars to corporate executives rather then a few thousand to a consumer justifiably defending himself. Corporations expect that consumers are essentially indentured servants and have no power. I am expected by the corporate decision makers to breathe toxic chemicals AND also pay for the privilege or be penalized for standing up and saying this is unacceptable!

I am not an attorney but the definition of fraud from Wikipedia states: “Fraud is a deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain (adjectival form fraudulent; to defraud is the verb).[1] As a legal construct, fraud is both a civil wrong (i.e., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud and/or recover monetary compensation) and a criminal wrong (i.e., a fraud perpetrator may be prosecuted and imprisoned by governmental authorities). While the precise definitions and requirements of proof vary among jurisdictions, the requisite elements of fraud as a tort generally are the intentional misrepresentation or concealment of an important fact upon which the victim is meant to rely, and in fact does rely, to the harm of the victim.”