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caveat emptor - let the flaming begin

13K views 81 replies 39 participants last post by  Scottina06 
#1 ·
Ok guys, so let the flaming begin, but I really regret buying this Jeep. Let me begin by saying this is a very nice vehicle, and one day will be worthy of the Jeep name but not yet. I am an avid Jeep fan with an 85 CJ, and an 08 JK, so I am the first to regret saying these words. At the end of the day, this vehicle is shy of perfection in many ways. To call this a refined luxury vehicle is just a stretch by any imagination. I have had this truck back to the dealership so many times for fit and finish and electrical problems, not to mention the two replacement dashes because of the phoenix heat melting the glue used to secure the leather. I dont even want to mention the shuddering... studdering.... bucking whatever the hell you want to call issue with the transmission/ecm/torque converter.
Many of you report no issues with your rigs and I wish you many many miles of trouble free use, but I was not so fortunate.

Im not being picky, Im not being over sensitive, I want to shove this thing down chryslers a$$.
 
#2 ·
I can completely understand mate.
Wearing a path to the dealer's door is simply unnacceptable, and is not becoming, not would it be acceptable, of a $10k Kia, let alone the "premium" vehicle in Jeep's lineup.

I've stated before that I feel they may have rushed it to market just a little too quickly....... the pressure was no doubt on do get sales moving ASAP, and new product was needed, but premature release is never good, and does more harm than good long-term.
 
#4 ·
Wowww.....ouch. No fun for sure. Sounds like my first GC in 1992...

When did you order and when did you take delivery? I sure the heck hope any bugs are worked out by now since I recently ordered one!
 
#7 ·
Sounds like you had a VERY early built one considering you said it was the first in Phoenix. Im not blaming this on you by any means but I always like to wait and let the manufacturer get atleast several months of building a new model prior to jumping the gun. You will find more often than not any manufacturer is going to have issues on early built cars after a redesign. Again, not your fault and its ashame that this happened because the new Grand Cherokee's truely are amazing machines and your example unfortunetaly ruined the experience. Wish you luck with whatever you decide to do.

James
 
#12 ·
... not to mention the two replacement dashes because of the phoenix heat melting the glue used to secure the leather. ...
This is a little concerning. I wonder if this will be a major problem during the summer months in the north & east.
 
#13 ·
good luck finding a "perfect" anything...especially a vehicle. The absolutely best vehicle with the fewst reported problems was 76 problems per 100 vehicles in the first 90 days of ownership. That means 76 of 100 vehicles had reported problems in the first 90 days. That was the BEST. No doubt replacing a dash twice sucks....but who says it was quality problems and not install problems.
Also...you guys use the lemon law too losely. My brother had a lemon law Nissan and it took literally hundreds of problems and like 65 visits to the dealer.

Please list the problems you had...so all owners can compare. Yoiu say various electrical and fit and finish...but only list the shudder and dash. Thanks
 
#18 ·
Also...you guys use the lemon law too losely. My brother had a lemon law Nissan and it took literally hundreds of problems and like 65 visits to the dealer.
Lemon laws vary from state to state, but in my state it is possible to successfully lemon law your vehicle in as little as three visits to the dealership. It depends upon the seriousness of the issue at hand, but after three failed attempts at repairing the same problem, you can apply for the lemon law.

I was successful with a Ford I purchased a while back. It had an electrical problem in the stability assist system that the dealer could not repair correctly. I actually gave them four chances to repair it and then started the lemon law process. In the end, I got every penny back that I paid for the car, including taxes/tags/misc. fees.
 
#14 ·
I am very sorry to hear this is happening to you man. I am very concern with the purchase since this is the first time I actually buy a brand new car (not jsut new to me). The only good thing is that I knew it was a Jeep so it made it easier to buy (I had several Jeeps in the pass and never had a problem with any of them)

I am curiours about the dash problem you reported. It is winter so I wont see the sun until June (Oregon rains) so I wont even see if I have that problem for a very long time.

I do hope you get everything fix. I do believe it is a great car and a great redesign but I hate to hear this type of stories.
 
#15 ·
List of issues:

Shuddering while cruising at 40 MPH
Shuddering while decelerating from 60 MPH
Two defective dash pads
Radio switch malfunction
Alignment off
Bad drivers side wheel bearing
Driver front brake dragging on rotor
GPS inop due to "excess padding" sitting on top of the unit in the dash
Transmission hard clunk when shifting from park into drive
Rattles in passenger seat area, near track
Rattles in dash likely from poor install at dealership
Random in-operation of interior illumination

To list a few......
 
#36 ·
Which Engine

Which engine do you have? :confused:

List of issues:

Shuddering while cruising at 40 MPH
Shuddering while decelerating from 60 MPH
Two defective dash pads
Radio switch malfunction
Alignment off
Bad drivers side wheel bearing
Driver front brake dragging on rotor
GPS inop due to "excess padding" sitting on top of the unit in the dash
Transmission hard clunk when shifting from park into drive
Rattles in passenger seat area, near track
Rattles in dash likely from poor install at dealership
Random in-operation of interior illumination

Which engine do you have? :confused:

To list a few......
 
#16 ·
This sounds like my last new BMW, and it cost a lot more that the WK2. If the repairs get out of hand, it would behoove Chrysler to do a buy-back and get you into another one.
 
#20 · (Edited)
Sorry to hear of your troubles. There are just no excuses. Having said that, I feel this can happen with any make vehicle at any cost. I read that 50% of Land Rovers have defects. :(

I once had a similar problem plagued car....Lexus GS400. It was 1998 when this new Lexus came out. I recieved one of the first 5 to arrive here in Toronto. Within the first 4 months I had it back to the dealer 5 times with various electrical complaints. At 6000 km I took it in for the last time and told them that I plan to sell it immediately after the service. The next morning, I got a call at work from Lexus Canada. They appologised for all the problems and said there were two brand new GS400s at the dealer of which I could choose any one. In short, they gave me a new vehicle after 6000km/4months at no cost. Now that's customer service. :)

I do feel you have a lemon and unfortunately it happens. Good luck.
 
#25 ·
LOL......yeah....one member on JeepGarage represents the 2011 Grand Cherokee as a whole. WRONG! Like I said above....the BEST vehicle surveyed by JD Powers in initial quality was a Cadillac and 76 out of 100 owners had problems with their vehicle in the first 90 days that required service. EVERY new car line has a few little problems here and there....its a fact. NOWWHERE did I or Milous say the new Grand Cherokee would be perfect. Nothing is perfect. If anyone here expects that.....they can dream on
 
#23 ·
Let's be blunt here:

If this were truly a result of bad design and an inherent problem with quality control we'd be hearing far more of these stories than we do.

You got a lemon, and that sucks. It can happen with any vehicle, regardless of cost, but your experience is the exception and not the rule.

I can find experiences similar to yours with any vehicle.
 
#26 ·
^^^ Yeah its true. Man if you think this Jeep was bad you should have heard some of the horror stories I read over on the Audi forums. Before I discovered the new Overland I wanted to get a 2010 Audi S5 or S4. After reading story after story I stayed farrrr away from those cars. One guy had a total of 3, yes 3 S5's and he said every one of them was a complete POS. Problem after problem.

I understand sometimes people need a car asap depending on the situation, but all I can recommend is atleast wait several months after the first one rolls off the line. This way a lot of the teething problems are worked out, minor changes are made, software updates are applied etc etc. Let other people be the guinnea pigs with such a new car :) Unfortanately you were the guinnae pig in this situation.
 
#27 ·
you guys like to say 'over 100,000' sold; maybe 5K of those have ever even seen this forum. prolly more like 3K but lets stick with 5.

so that 1/20th of the amount sold. so you MAY only see 1/20 of the issues. YES?

so for every issue reported here there are prollly 19 more that you didnt hear about.



and i will stick to my opinion, shit, i may add it to my avatar.

'I would NEVER purchase a vehicle in its first MY'


i gauged a lot of my opinion on the fact that there are a GABILLION TSB on the 05 WK.

so then i heard 'there will never be that many form the wk2'.............well yeah, instead of issueing TSB now they issue RRT or whatever the acronym is. GREAT> an issue is an issue NO MATTER WHAT YOU CALL IT. and then they still have TSB to make each amount look smaller.

http://www.wk2jeeps.com/wk2_tsb.htm#NEW

not quite wk level but getting quite a few................

where is the RRT list? so we can REALLY see all the issues in ONE PLACE????????




last point: besides the OP I wouldnt expect anyone who spent 40-45K on a first MY to agree :lol:
 
#28 ·
you guys like to say 'over 100,000' sold; maybe 5K of those have ever even seen this forum. prolly more like 3K but lets stick with 5.

so that 1/20th of the amount sold. so you MAY only see 1/20 of the issues. YES?

so for every issue reported here there are prollly 19 more that you didnt hear about.



and i will stick to my opinion, shit, i may add it to my avatar.

'I would NEVER purchase a vehicle in its first MY'


i gauged a lot of my opinion on the fact that there are a GABILLION TSB on the 05 WK.

so then i heard 'there will never be that many form the wk2'.............well yeah, instead of issueing TSB now they issue RRT or whatever the acronym is. GREAT> an issue is an issue NO MATTER WHAT YOU CALL IT. and then they still have TSB to make each amount look smaller.

http://www.wk2jeeps.com/wk2_tsb.htm#NEW

not quite wk level but getting quite a few................

where is the RRT list? so we can REALLY see all the issues in ONE PLACE????????




last point: besides the OP I wouldnt expect anyone who spent 40-45K on a first MY to agree :lol:
Got it. You don't know how many issues there are, even though only a tiny fraction of the owners here have reported problems, but you're convinced there are quite a few because buying a first model year is a stupid idea.

Hard to argue with your logic.
 
#29 · (Edited)
my logic is based on past history. use the wk as MY example.

i could give a rat shit about the wk2 at this point. inc case you would like to see th data I base MY OPINION ON: http://www.wkjeeps.com/wk_tsb.htm
look at the 2005 as that was the first MY of the WK.


my point is 'I DO NOT BUY A FIRST MY VEHICLE' PERIOD.



have a great day. good luck with your wk2. as i said i wouldnt expect someone who just spent 40-45k on a wk2 to agree.
 
#30 ·
my logic is based on past history. use the wk as MY example.

i could give a rat shit about the wk2 at this point.


my point is 'I DO NOT BUY A FIRST MY VEHICLE' PERIOD.



have a great day. good luck with your wk2
i agree with rob, most first MY vehicles have problems, especially when the production was rushed.
 
#34 ·
I've been lurking/semi-participating on here with the intent of ordering a WK2 in a month or so. Initial quality is definitely a concern of mine, as it would also be for any other new vehicle that I would consider (newly redesigned or not). The unknown/unknowable reliability history of this new WK2 and Chrysler's history with quality are a bit troubling, but I think I've become comfortable with the decision to buy a WK2.

The fact of the matter is this... no one will know how reliable the WK2 is on average until the thing's been out for a couple of years, and people have put millions of cumulative miles on it. To me, the attractiveness of the WK2's overall package outweighs my desire to wait 1-2 years to buy one.

And to the OP, I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. For my own selfish reasons, I hope you're an outlier and not representative of the whole, but we won't know the answer to that for years...

As a side note, I don't think I saw this story posted before. It's a somewhat interesting profile of Chrysler's self-proclaimed newfound emphasis on quality.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7082ZA20110109
 
#35 ·
Thanks for that link.

Quality is not just a factor of manufacturing, it's inherent in design and materials as well.

It's pretty clear that the design of the WK2 has had more focus on quality from the ground up than previous generations. Even if the assembly line hasn't improved, the attentive design alone should result in fewer problems.
 
#38 ·
thats what i speak of...."Initial quality"....quality of materials, engineering etc. It is leaps and bounds better than the WK.
 
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