They are very heavy for their size and well built automobiles, I personally would have liked another one that was a little newer with the 104 engine, but after leaving the dealer network, parts prices will keep me away. Here the dealer knows parts are hard to find, and they all put a ridiculous mark up on stuff, I know the wholesaler's but it's still not cheap.
10 years ago I would just go to the dealership at lunch and park in the service manager's spot with the Roadmaster. We would negotiate my part discount before I would move, after he left the new guy just wasn't any fun... he just wanted to call the cops and evict me.
The brand devalued itself here several years ago, in the effort to increase volume of sales and reduce costs they started to play around with a rock solid warranty and customer service. I once replaced a 400k mile car's ABS HCU under warranty due to the owner being a loyal customer, nobody does that anymore. They really lost me over the spring perch failures on the 210 models... I got jerked around asking about it for a couple years before I took the car off the road and ultimately traded it in to a lot I knew would auction it as salvage.
The class action lawsuit they forced by not acknowledging their crankshaft pulley's failures (112,113 engines) drove away lots of customers too. I left the dealer in 2005, I miss it sometimes, but now I am as much out of date as the cars I worked on. I dont believe the quality of technician has improved since I left, in fact many good ones I know also left as the brand reduced warranty times here.
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