I strive to remain objective about how different manufacturers compare, and even to give them all the benefit of the doubt. Problem is, ownership of a 2002 Chrysler PT Cruiser (my wife’s car, she wanted something cute and fun) can make this very difficult. A conversation today with a dealership service writer was only the latest incident.

Some background: back in the fall of 2006 we had to replace the wheels on the PT Cruiser because, at 3.5 years of age, the original ones had corroded so badly around the valve stem seats that the tires were losing over ten pounds of pressure per day. Chrysler picked up half of the tab. They felt they were being gracious in doing so. After all, the wheels were six months out of warranty.

I’d never before heard of wheels corroding so badly that the tires wouldn’t hold air. So TrueDelta conducted a special survey on alloy wheel and chrome wheel corrosion. It turned out that while this problem was most common with Chryslers, it wasn’t uncommon with many other makes.

I heard from a few other owners of the same special edition of the PT Cruiser. It seems likely that the failure rate is close to 100 percent for cars in places where the roads are salted in the winter. Just a few months ago, I came across the following on Honest John’s, a UK car site: “Chromed alloys corrode and lose tyre pressure. Are unrepairable and a new set is £2,000, so best to switch to aftermarket wheels.” Wish we had, but Chrysler’s “customer care” assistance was predicated on buying the replacement wheels from Chrysler.

A few months after the wheels were replaced, the torque converter failed at 52,000 miles. This time they picked up nothing. We’d used up our “goodwill” with the wheels–one payment per customer.

We’ve had a few other repairs since then: brake calipers, control arm bushings, wheel bearings, the horn, and the thermostat housing (cracked). Today we had the outer tie-rod ends replaced. We’ve learned that a repair every eight months or so feels like “in the shop all the time.”

But what really concerns me: the finish is starting to flake off the replacement wheels, which are about 2.5 years old. Seems the replacement wheels were no better than the originals. We’ve had this problem once. We shouldn’t have to deal with it again.

So I called the dealer, which is located just a few miles from Chrysler’s HQ. Turns out that they’re not happy that I haven’t had my car serviced there since the awful experience getting the first set of wheels replaced (tires still at 10 psi after paying to have the wheels “inspected,” lug nuts overtorqued so badly AAA almost couldn’t get them off).

The service writer’s final response before hanging up on me: “You’re the one who bought a PT Cruiser, not me. You get what you deserve when you do that.”

The final words I squeezed in before the click: “I can’t believe you just said that.”

I’ll call Chrysler Customer Care on Monday, to see if there’s anything they care to do about the wheels. Probably not.

Conducting TrueDelta’s research, I hear of quite a few such horror stories, with many different brands. Honda might be a bit better than most. Toyota certainly isn’t. In general, the only way to avoid such “customer care” is to not have problems in the first place.

I’m still waiting to learn of a company that truly stands behind its products by consistently taking care of common problems caused by engineering errors even after the warranty ends. If GM and Ford want to live, this is the #1 thing I would suggest that they do. For what such a strategy would look like, read this blog entry from November 2007. Chrysler? They’re most likely too far gone.