Originally Posted By: badtlc
I find this part odd as the Pentastar is more reliable, better HP, better fuel economy and it is MPFI vs GDI for the kia.
How many issues have you personally had with the dodge 6spd? I spent a lot of time researching minivan ATXs and this one seemed by far the most issue free from perusing the different forums on the net. Is your comment based on your experience or internet reading?
Do you have any proof on the pentastar claims?
Similar applications suggest that economy is about a equal/wash and more dependent on the tranny. The Lambda family has at nearly 50bhp max on the pentastar in NA guise (305bph vs 348bhp) and about 10% more torques. Rumor of the turbo pentastar hasn't happened but the Lambda T exists. Hyundai and Kia have been pwning FCA across most vehicle reliability matrixs and the V6 vehicles tend to rate higher than the 4 bangers within the h/k ranking. Speaking of which, go back and look up the "Global Engine Alliance" interesting stuff...
As for experience... you want personally or via the fleet? I had a torque converter failure in a sebring and the transmission replaced on another (grew up in a chrysler family). So 2 depending if you consider the 40TE 41TE and the 62TE as the same family. So I would say "plenty" if you tossed in fleet experience. The 62TE is newer in our fleet (vehicles are sub 30K) but have had two issue under warranty. The 40TE have had at least 750K or more mile combined in the fleet but most have since been surplussed and I have only one left. The 40TE have had burnt clutchpacks between 70-110K requiring replacement. Granted, this is nowhere near the problems I have had with 2009-2013 Impalas. The Journeys with 41TE have not "failed" but are more shunned for being a clunking sort.
We have had the 'common' an issue with a failed/defective solenoid pack repaired under warranty. Another issue was a bit more challenging. It was kicking us into a limp home mode and often giving us an issue with a speed sensor. However, it would also have an intermittent issue with shuddering. It took our dealer and they "played with it" the corrected the sensors issue but something just isn't right with that van as it is prone to be a bit more lethargic about shifting (up/down). I think there is either something flawed within that slushbox or it was a botched repair.
As for the Lambda vs Pentastar... the Pentastar is a good engine (
yay, Diamler Chrysler did something right... which is really the reason why folks like the pentastar as the old lH engines were such a hot mess and the 3.5 were 'meh' at best and more of an attempt to get you to the 5.7.), but the Lambda is the golden goose of Hyundai/Kia engines. A passing look at vehicles equipped with the 3.3 or 3.8 and there isn't any major engine issues. I have not hear anything either (the Theta yes, not for the Lambda). Fuel economy is about the same (20 combined fe.gov), comparing both minivans, which is more likely an item with the tranny but I have always been disappointed by the low 20s returned in the fuel reports. I get as good if not better hooning my Ginny with the larger variant. If you really want to point to the best engine of the two, the Lambda family has had better success despite being the older of the two.
I am not had nor hear the GDi issues, actually more timing chain items but that isnt all that common compared to most make. There hasn't been any mumor about any GDi issues with these engines either (at least on the Genesis forums). It will be interesting to see how it handles the turbo on the 3.3 but we are a few years out on that.
. And even less from industry standard average of 142. Not quite a smoking gun. What's more surprising is that all cars have problems (99 out of 100 of the best will have a problem?). Methinks we need to find what the median is here and not the average. And how many were big vs small. Heck my 2011 Camry had a problem--the parking brake handle got loose. Had it tightened up during maintenance inside of warranty period. Egads has Toyota gone downhill!
