Other manufacturers are offering and supporting their performance options with warranty; in many cases a seamless one.
As others have pointed out here, the Stage I upgrade is custom tailored to work in a stock vehicle to give maximum gains with minimum intrusion. In a nutshell, it is a bolt-on kit that will supply the most bang for the buck as far as total expense goes. The more outside mods the car has, the less the performance gain potential of Stage I.
Having said that, the concept of a custom, vehicle specific, transmission specific, advertised by manufacturer and promoted by salespeople, available through dealership parts department, Mopar part numbered ------ A very specialized add-on that is engineered, designed, produced and documented to give totally seamless integration.... Having no warranty on parts or construction, infinite shades of gray when trying to isolate the stance of any of the players involved from the sales end to the CAM jockey.
Did I miss anything? Is there any element of the concept of paradox that is missing from the above assessment of the world of Stage I?
This is 100% opposite of concept of reason. A contest to add the most physical weight or bulk from the largest number of outside manufacturers, who have the least specific info about the platform on which their product would be used would warrant the paranoid, scared of one's shadow, doubtful of one's own essence approach that DCX/Mopar/PVO have taken on narrowing down any statement on warranty to a statement that has no semantic absolute value. And they decided to take this fearfull approach to standing behind their own product; a product that has every available co-operation, communication, understanding and support level potential behind it in every step.
What do they know that we don't? Obviously, their "warranty statement" (read - lack of any specifics) clearly shows that all the players involved in the Stage I project wish to distance themselves as far away from the concept of any stated, implied or derived liability. They simply don't want to get any on them.
I personally believe that the Stage I PCM and slightly larger injector combo is the easiest, most cost efficient and least complicated setup - for the performance gained.
When you consider that the current proposed Stage II prototype is getting 260 HP with little more than new programming and still larger injectors, it becomes obvious that the Stage I gains of 20 HP places little additional strain on an engine that can produce nearly 50 additional HP with a more agressive PCM/Injector combo and additional turbo management (mostly electronic).
Why they have decided to let this comedy of errors play out in the introduction of the Stage I upgrade is beyond me. I don't think a single opportunity for further customer alienation was passed by; from the missed delivery dates, lack of dealer support, units that were delivered with no VIN number flashed in them, total confusion in the order system, lack of dealer/seller knowledge, lack of C.A.R.B. approval, competition/off-road use only (competition use will void warranty; no questions asked).... Did I miss anything here?
For every bump in the road in the road from announcement to delivery, the customer becomes a little more aprehensive on the final outcome. This is the essence of the mole-hill to mountain approach to customer dis-satisfaction. It didn't have to be this way.
Despite my vocal posts on this project, since it's availability announcement in May, I have had one on order for an unspecified time; based on delivery dates posted here. If it and the BOV conversion plate aren't onhand at the dealership I ordered from by 1 hour from COB tomorrow (Friday 8/1/03), I will be forced to cancel. I ordered in anticipation of a trip from SE Georgia to East Texas that has been planned as long as I have had my GT. I ordered early enough assure delivery by the slowest ground shipper, based on the latest round of delivery dates posted.
I started to cancel today, after I picked up my G
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