A guy on reddit once told me 'So...you have access to all sorts of quality used vehicles in Germany...and you pick Dodge/Chrysler? All I have to say is you’re batshit crazy. And I mean that with full respect.'.
So even if they're not all that retro (to be fair, they're 15 and 17 years now...), I figure they might be of interest to someone here
They are definitely a bit of an oddball choice here in Europe!
Chrysler products have a terrible reputation in the states. The Ram was never officially sold here in Europe - only the next generation would start to be officially imported. The Sebring was indeed officially sold here, but I've read the registration statistics: As of 1. January 2017 there were only 1861 Sebrings registered in Germany. So it is a fairly oddball choice. I actually don't think I've ever seen one of the 01 - 06 Sebrings in reality before I bought mine.
The Ram
I've had the Ram for nearly 2,5 years now.
When I got fed up with my previous daily, a '99 Audi A8 4.2 quattro because you needed a degree in rocket science to repair that thing I wanted a daily that was so simple, it could be repaired by throwing rocks at it. My dad was on his second Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.7 by this point and from doing some work on his first one I knew they were simple.
So I set out to look for some Jeeps and pretty much found only absolute garbage for the money I wanted to spend. Started looking for alternatives. Chevy Blazers, Ford Explorers, you name it. By pure chance I went to look at a Ford Expedition, which is essentially a F-150 as a 9-seat SUV. That car was amazing but needed a lot of pricey repairs. But just from doing a test drive I knew that I had to have something of this size!!!
So I upped my budget and started looking for a Ram. Lo and behold, the same evening this one got put up on my vehicular buy/sell platform of choice and I was the first one to call. Went to look at it the first thing tomorrow and... fell in love. Bought it on 23. December 2016.
It's a 2004 Dodge Ram 4x4 Laramie Quad Cab 5.7 Hemi - what a mouthful!!
Being a Laramie it has a slightly nicer interior with some Leather seats and such, but still quite utilitarian with hard plastics everywhere. It is a truck, after all.
It's converted to run on LPG with a 160l fuel tank in the bed. So fuel wise it's actually pretty affordable. It gets somewhere around 21l / 100kms.
The car is a canadian model with the Kph cluster. It came to Germany when it was new in 2004. The first 3 years it was used by a dog food company as a advertising vehicle. After that only one owner until 2016 when he traded it in for a brand new Ram.
Driving this thing in Europe is akin to riding a T-Rex through a herd of chickens. You stick out everywhere like a sore thumb!
It's huge, it's loud, it's entirely inappropriate but I love it.
I've driven it daily for the past 2,5 years and it was very reliable! It did require some repairs and maintenance in this time, though.
I'll start in chronological order of what has been replaced:
- o2 sensor
- radiator
- exhaust after the old one rusted through
- shocks all around (Bilstein B6)
- front suspension overhaul (control arms, ball joints, tie rods)
- spark plugs
- brakes all around
- generator
- rear differential seal
- universal joints for the driveshaft
- front wheel bearings
- FCM (front control module, controls the lights and such)
- rear wheel bearings
- rear drive shafts
It also needed some rust repairs... when I got it there were some bubbles on the rear wheel arches. So I figured I'd just grind them down and repaint the bed sides last year... I naively thought this would be just surface rust:
Well, some grinding later this is what I got... oops.
So had a guy I know weld in some patches then smoothed it with a coat of filler and painted it in my garage.
I even went on multiple roadtrips with it. Went to last years RR Weekender at Goodwood with this thing (it was parked out of the way, though) and then went on a major roadtip up to Scotland and Ireland.
The only real modifications I did to it is the audio install. Originally I just wanted to retro fit a cheapo backup camera... things kind of escalated a tiny bit and I ended up spending enough to buy a used car...
- Pioneer AVH-X390BT double din headunit
- Pioneer ND-BC8 camera
- Audio System R165 2-component speakers for the front
- Rockford Fosgate P310D2 10" subwoofer
- Eton SR 100.2 amp for the front
- Eton PA 1502 amp for the sub
- 1F power cap
Before:
And that's pretty much where we are today.
As of last saturday, the Ram has been joined by another Chrysler product...
The Sebring
After 2,5 years of daily driving the Ram, the novelty has worn off a bit. I still love it, but parking that thing at my work is seriously annoying. So I started looking for a car to drive to work. It had to be an automatic, it had to be comfy and it had to be something uncommon and ideally american. I was originally looking at Chrysler Visions and Chrysler 300Ms but the ones available were not up to my ideas of good condition.
By pure chance I got passed on the way home from work by black Chrysler Stratus - which is the previous generation Sebring, as it was sold in Europe. I liked how that car looked and did some research about them. They seemed to fit the bill, so I started to look around. I quickly stumbled upon this one.
It's a 2002 Chrysler Sebring LX with the 2.7 V6 engine. With a lenght of about 4.95m it's one of the biggest modern-ish convertibles out there. I found some official figures, dated 1. January 2017: Back then, there were exactly 1861 Sebrings registered in Germany. So, exotic enough for me, hah!
It's a very clean car with only 112.000kms. It was used as a demo car by Chrysler back in 2002 until 2004. After that only two owners, the first one drove it until 2012, the last one drove it until last weekend.
It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but I like it.
When I picked it up on saturday:
As of yesterday it's actually registered in my name and I can drive around with it.
Now, where's this thing called summer?
I have some unused space left in my garage for a third car, and I have some ebay notifications running... Chryslers, Dodges and Plymouths made up until 1995. Let's see what else I can add to my garage this year.
So even if they're not all that retro (to be fair, they're 15 and 17 years now...), I figure they might be of interest to someone here
They are definitely a bit of an oddball choice here in Europe!Chrysler products have a terrible reputation in the states. The Ram was never officially sold here in Europe - only the next generation would start to be officially imported. The Sebring was indeed officially sold here, but I've read the registration statistics: As of 1. January 2017 there were only 1861 Sebrings registered in Germany. So it is a fairly oddball choice. I actually don't think I've ever seen one of the 01 - 06 Sebrings in reality before I bought mine.
The Ram
I've had the Ram for nearly 2,5 years now.
When I got fed up with my previous daily, a '99 Audi A8 4.2 quattro because you needed a degree in rocket science to repair that thing I wanted a daily that was so simple, it could be repaired by throwing rocks at it. My dad was on his second Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.7 by this point and from doing some work on his first one I knew they were simple.
So I set out to look for some Jeeps and pretty much found only absolute garbage for the money I wanted to spend. Started looking for alternatives. Chevy Blazers, Ford Explorers, you name it. By pure chance I went to look at a Ford Expedition, which is essentially a F-150 as a 9-seat SUV. That car was amazing but needed a lot of pricey repairs. But just from doing a test drive I knew that I had to have something of this size!!!
So I upped my budget and started looking for a Ram. Lo and behold, the same evening this one got put up on my vehicular buy/sell platform of choice and I was the first one to call. Went to look at it the first thing tomorrow and... fell in love. Bought it on 23. December 2016.
It's a 2004 Dodge Ram 4x4 Laramie Quad Cab 5.7 Hemi - what a mouthful!!
Being a Laramie it has a slightly nicer interior with some Leather seats and such, but still quite utilitarian with hard plastics everywhere. It is a truck, after all.
It's converted to run on LPG with a 160l fuel tank in the bed. So fuel wise it's actually pretty affordable. It gets somewhere around 21l / 100kms.
The car is a canadian model with the Kph cluster. It came to Germany when it was new in 2004. The first 3 years it was used by a dog food company as a advertising vehicle. After that only one owner until 2016 when he traded it in for a brand new Ram.
Driving this thing in Europe is akin to riding a T-Rex through a herd of chickens. You stick out everywhere like a sore thumb!
It's huge, it's loud, it's entirely inappropriate but I love it.
I've driven it daily for the past 2,5 years and it was very reliable! It did require some repairs and maintenance in this time, though.
I'll start in chronological order of what has been replaced:
- o2 sensor
- radiator
- exhaust after the old one rusted through
- shocks all around (Bilstein B6)
- front suspension overhaul (control arms, ball joints, tie rods)
- spark plugs
- brakes all around
- generator
- rear differential seal
- universal joints for the driveshaft
- front wheel bearings
- FCM (front control module, controls the lights and such)
- rear wheel bearings
- rear drive shafts
It also needed some rust repairs... when I got it there were some bubbles on the rear wheel arches. So I figured I'd just grind them down and repaint the bed sides last year... I naively thought this would be just surface rust:
Well, some grinding later this is what I got... oops.
So had a guy I know weld in some patches then smoothed it with a coat of filler and painted it in my garage.
I even went on multiple roadtrips with it. Went to last years RR Weekender at Goodwood with this thing (it was parked out of the way, though) and then went on a major roadtip up to Scotland and Ireland.
The only real modifications I did to it is the audio install. Originally I just wanted to retro fit a cheapo backup camera... things kind of escalated a tiny bit and I ended up spending enough to buy a used car...
- Pioneer AVH-X390BT double din headunit
- Pioneer ND-BC8 camera
- Audio System R165 2-component speakers for the front
- Rockford Fosgate P310D2 10" subwoofer
- Eton SR 100.2 amp for the front
- Eton PA 1502 amp for the sub
- 1F power cap
Before:
And that's pretty much where we are today.
As of last saturday, the Ram has been joined by another Chrysler product...
The Sebring
After 2,5 years of daily driving the Ram, the novelty has worn off a bit. I still love it, but parking that thing at my work is seriously annoying. So I started looking for a car to drive to work. It had to be an automatic, it had to be comfy and it had to be something uncommon and ideally american. I was originally looking at Chrysler Visions and Chrysler 300Ms but the ones available were not up to my ideas of good condition.
By pure chance I got passed on the way home from work by black Chrysler Stratus - which is the previous generation Sebring, as it was sold in Europe. I liked how that car looked and did some research about them. They seemed to fit the bill, so I started to look around. I quickly stumbled upon this one.
It's a 2002 Chrysler Sebring LX with the 2.7 V6 engine. With a lenght of about 4.95m it's one of the biggest modern-ish convertibles out there. I found some official figures, dated 1. January 2017: Back then, there were exactly 1861 Sebrings registered in Germany. So, exotic enough for me, hah!
It's a very clean car with only 112.000kms. It was used as a demo car by Chrysler back in 2002 until 2004. After that only two owners, the first one drove it until 2012, the last one drove it until last weekend.
It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but I like it.
When I picked it up on saturday:
As of yesterday it's actually registered in my name and I can drive around with it.
Now, where's this thing called summer?
I have some unused space left in my garage for a third car, and I have some ebay notifications running... Chryslers, Dodges and Plymouths made up until 1995. Let's see what else I can add to my garage this year.
