September 10, 2011
To Maxim Ivanov
Chrysler Russia
Copy to –
John Stech
General Director of Chrysler Russia,
Sergio Marchionne
Chairman and CEO, Chrysler Group LLC,
Doug D. Betts
Head of Quality,
Reid Bigland
Head of Dodge Brand,
Mark M. Chernoby
Head of Product Portfolio and
Head of Vehicle Engineering,
Fred M. Diaz
President and Chief Executive Officer
Chrysler de Mexico and Ram Truck Brand,
Pietro Gorlier
Chief Operating Officer
Parts & Service (Mopar),
Scott G. Kunselman
Senior Vice President – Engineering,
Barbara J. Pilarski
Vice President - Business Development,
Gualberto Ranieri
Senior Vice President – Communications,
Robert (Bob) E. Lee
Powertrain Coordination
Vice President and Head of Engine and
Electrified Propulsion Engineering,
Mircea Gradu
Vice President and Head of
Transmission, Powertrain and Driveline Engineering
From ХХХ
WARRANTY REPAIR REQUEST IN REGARDS TO A BREAK-DOWN OF
DODGE RAM 3500 LARAMIE MEGACAB
VIN 3D73Y4HL6BG586364
Dear Maxim,
Thank you for your time, which you spent talking on the phone with me yesterday. Pursuant to our discussion, I am sending a description of this incident, in writing via electronic mail, with a copy to John Stech.
I emigrated from the USSR in 1988 and have been residing in the USA, in New York City, for 8 years, through 1996. I received US citizenship in 1995, and currently I have dual citizenship – USA and Russian Federation. In 1996 I moved to work and live in Moscow, where I have been residing for the last 15 years. However, I do visit the US several times a year. I fell in love with Chrysler products a long time ago, and I am a big fan of the Dodge brand; therefore, whenever I come to the US, where I don’t own a car, I always rent a Chrysler car, including even such vehicles as Dodge Durango. I wanted to purchase one of the models for a long time, namely, a RAM, but unfortunately, RAM’s are not sold at the authorized Chrysler Dodge dealers in Russia.
While trying to implement my dream of owning Dodge RAM I understood that the only way to purchase and use such a car would be to purchase it in the US and deliver it to Russia by sea.
In December of 2010, when Chrysler started accepting orders for building the 2011 production year vehicles, I asked a friend of mine, who resides in New York City, to order a Dodge RAM 3500 Laramie MegaCab for me, via a dealer, whom this friend of mine had some business with, when he was buying another car for himself. We discussed options which I wanted, and an order for this car was placed, and a deposit paid. If needed, I do have the original electronic confirmation of the order – which options have been chosen, invoice, etc.
Approximately in February 2011 my friend in New York City received VIN number from the factory, but the vehicle itself was delivered to a dealer and then on from a dealer to my friend only in June. My friend drove this car himself from New York City to Baltimore and put it on a St. Petersburg, Russia-bound ship.
The vehicle was delivered into the port of St. Petersburg, Russia at the end of July 2011, and had only about 200 mileage driven – i.e. the distance which the car drove from New York City to Baltimore. I received this car in my possession in the port, brand new, and got it customs-cleared at the St. Petersburg customs. I also received a Certificate of Compliance (I do have a copy) and registered with the traffic police office authorities, as well as received license plates.
Straight after that I took a month-and-half vacation and set out for a journey, in this car, around the Scandinavian countries – Finland, Sweden and Norway. I have a very long-term driving experience – since 1984, and besides I also own Range Rover Vogue and Land Rover Defender, and in the past I also owned such vehicles as Nissan Patrol; hence I am not only an experienced driver, but I also have experience of properly using four-wheel-drive SUV’s, as well as experience in their proper break-in process. I can confirm here, that the use of my vehicle started from a proper break-in process, without any unwarranted excess strain.
While in Scandinavia I drove 5 thousand km – only on good asphalt roads and highways. I returned to Russia via the Finnish-Russian border, and headed to the direction of St. Petersburg on a highway. Not yet within a 100-km proximity to St. Petersburg I heard an unpleasant “metallic” sound coming from the transmission area and felt some jerking vibration. I immediately stopped, turned the gear shifter into the “P” position and stepped out of the vehicle in order to inspect it. While in “P” the unpleasant “metallic” sound continued periodically. I turned the engine off, and then turned it on again. After that I tried to shift into “D”, and the shifter relocated into this position, but the vehicle would not move. I did the same with “R”, with the same result – the gear shifter could be moved into any position, but there would be no shift of gears. The unpleasant “metallic” sound continued. All this was happening last Tuesday, September 6th. This vehicle turned only a month-and-half since the start of my driving it (not counting about 200 miles, which the car has been driven from New York City to Baltimore), and the total distance driven was only 5 thousand km. Automatic transmission broke on a virtually new vehicle.
The vehicle was evacuated by way of putting it onto a massive platform pulled by a truck, and driven on top of it to St. Petersburg, where it is located now.
From the very beginning I understood that this vehicle was imported into Russia at my own risk, and that authorized Chrysler Dodge dealers in Russia are not providing warranty support. However, I wanted to own such a vehicle and drive it, and I took that risk.
Therefore, purely formally, Chrysler can deny me warranty repairs, and both you and I understand this – this is just a pure re-statement of a “regular” position which Chrysler might take. However, such a global corporation as Chrysler, perhaps, values its own name and stands by its products, and this incident which I described, I am sure, is just simply an extraordinary event – a defective transmission which broke on a brand new vehicle of a premium series, only after 5 thousand km driven. Therefore I really hope, that Chrysler will extend its help, given the circumstances, and will help to resolve the problem of warranty repairs in this case, especially taking into account, that I simply did not have a choice of purchasing this vehicle from an authorized dealer, since such cars are not sold in Russia.
I am a top manager of an investment company, and I have extensive PR capabilities, with friendly journalists at such publications, as Vedomosti, Kommersant, as well as at such magazines as Forbes, etc. If Chrysler were to help me in this situation, I would tell all my friends and others who would listen, how Chrysler stands behind the quality of its products, and – if you wished so – I could turn this positive story into a public one, via these publications. I will do my best to do good to you, if you do good to me, and will try to do for Chrysler whatever is in my power, from the standpoint of publicizing this in the most positive light. I believe Chrysler would benefit considerably from my positive commentary given both among my friends, as well as publicly, and it would be a net positive, compared to an incurred cost of repairs under warranty.
Additionally – I believe that Chrysler is interested that such break-downs do not happen with other vehicles, and therefore your company, I would imagine, is interested in finding out the reason of such a break-down, by way of analyzing defective and/or disintegrated parts.
I trust that you and your colleagues would give this letter your earliest attention with a positive outcome on behalf of Chrysler, in regards to this incident.
I also note a biography of John Stech at this link
http://www.good2work.com/article/17590, and that he received an MBA from the University of New Hampshire. I received my MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University, and I would welcome an opportunity to also establish a direct line of communication and perhaps meet him one day.
Thank you once again for your time,
Best Regards,
