Hello everyone,
I am a first-time Jeep owner and new to this forum. I live in metro Atlanta. I would like to share my purchase experience and some upgrades that I made on my Jeep.
The JGC caught my attention several years ago on a camping trip. I traveled with my friend who owned a 2014 JGC Limited. I was impressed by the comfort and passenger space that the JGC can provide, albeit being a little disappointed at the cargo capacity.
I fell in love the 75th Anniversary Edition because of the beautiful Recon Green paint color only available to this edition. This color shines under the sun but hides itself when the darkness arrives. It fits the smoky accents on the grille extremely well. In my opinion, it looks much better than a lot of the green paint colors on other cars. To my surprise, I have never seen any Recon Green JGC on the road.
In early January, after doing some research and sending emails for quotations, I went to the closest FCA dealer store that had a green 2017 JGC in stock. At that time, I had not purchased a new car before and lacked the experience in dealing with car sales. To make the long story short, after two exhausting days of negotiation, I became the owner of my dream car. Here are some numbers that might be helpful to folks who are planing to buy a JGC:
<2017 JGC Limited 75th Anniversary Edition with the Luxury Group II package, Uconnect 8.4 Nav, a pair of running boards, and some upgrades from the dealer>
MSRP on the window sticker: $47050
OTD price (including dealer document fee, title fee, and 7% tax): $45000
Finance interest rate: 3.96% (A week later, I refinanced at a local credit union at 1.79%.)
To get this OTD price, I got $2500 in rebate from FCA and roughly $2500 in discount from the dealer. Notably, the car came with some upgrades from the dealer (including door-edge protection, exterior protection, interior protection, tinted window, and nitrogen in the tire). The dealer shamefully priced these upgrades at $1900+ and tired to fool me into paying more on these items. :lol:
At the end of the negotiation, I made them to include a pair of running boards in the deal. During the financing process, the staff member tried to trick me into buying extended warranty by tuning the interest rates of the car loan.
The whole purchase process was time-consuming and awful. The dealer store was full of lies and tricks from the front desk to the back door. I could have lowered the OTD price further should I had more negotiation experience and prepared myself better. The most important lessons that I learned from this experience are (1) do not start to negotiate until you are well prepared and (2) stick to the bottom line as hard as you can.
So far I have driven the Jeep for a month and I absolutely love it. I used to drive a 2.4 L Toyota Camry and a Nissan Leaf. The Jeep is much taller, giving me a totally different view when I am on the road. The 3.6 L engine is powerful enough for me and the ride is fairly comfortable. My only complain comes from the wind noise when the windows or sunroof are open. I am considering to install a pair of window deflectors on the front windows. Also, I plan to change the engine oil by myself this weekend given the fact that my Jeep was built in August 2016.
Below is a list of upgrades that I have made on the car:
1. The Curt tow hitch receiver with the Curt hitch lock. The installation is very simple.
2. WeatherTech no-drill mud flaps. The installation took me a while mainly because I do not have the right tool to remove the panel clips.
3. WeatherTech BumpStep
4. Thule 990XT bike rack
5. A rear-view mirror system with built-in dash cam. I bought this item in China (forgot to mention that I came from China).
My wife and I gave our new car a nickname -- Shrek.:lol: I cannot wait to have our first camping trip with Shrek! Below are some pictures of Shrek.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4qugx878zo32fu7/20170110_163445.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qkysihh77qwpkhk/20170214_165407.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pluyseaa0h610h4/20170214_173947.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/10cieqg52942v9f/20170214_171409.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vz54ayq5e1suv56/20170214_171531.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/19y70k9sydew8eb/20170214_165804.jpg?dl=0
I am a first-time Jeep owner and new to this forum. I live in metro Atlanta. I would like to share my purchase experience and some upgrades that I made on my Jeep.
The JGC caught my attention several years ago on a camping trip. I traveled with my friend who owned a 2014 JGC Limited. I was impressed by the comfort and passenger space that the JGC can provide, albeit being a little disappointed at the cargo capacity.
I fell in love the 75th Anniversary Edition because of the beautiful Recon Green paint color only available to this edition. This color shines under the sun but hides itself when the darkness arrives. It fits the smoky accents on the grille extremely well. In my opinion, it looks much better than a lot of the green paint colors on other cars. To my surprise, I have never seen any Recon Green JGC on the road.
In early January, after doing some research and sending emails for quotations, I went to the closest FCA dealer store that had a green 2017 JGC in stock. At that time, I had not purchased a new car before and lacked the experience in dealing with car sales. To make the long story short, after two exhausting days of negotiation, I became the owner of my dream car. Here are some numbers that might be helpful to folks who are planing to buy a JGC:
<2017 JGC Limited 75th Anniversary Edition with the Luxury Group II package, Uconnect 8.4 Nav, a pair of running boards, and some upgrades from the dealer>
MSRP on the window sticker: $47050
OTD price (including dealer document fee, title fee, and 7% tax): $45000
Finance interest rate: 3.96% (A week later, I refinanced at a local credit union at 1.79%.)
To get this OTD price, I got $2500 in rebate from FCA and roughly $2500 in discount from the dealer. Notably, the car came with some upgrades from the dealer (including door-edge protection, exterior protection, interior protection, tinted window, and nitrogen in the tire). The dealer shamefully priced these upgrades at $1900+ and tired to fool me into paying more on these items. :lol:
At the end of the negotiation, I made them to include a pair of running boards in the deal. During the financing process, the staff member tried to trick me into buying extended warranty by tuning the interest rates of the car loan.
The whole purchase process was time-consuming and awful. The dealer store was full of lies and tricks from the front desk to the back door. I could have lowered the OTD price further should I had more negotiation experience and prepared myself better. The most important lessons that I learned from this experience are (1) do not start to negotiate until you are well prepared and (2) stick to the bottom line as hard as you can.
So far I have driven the Jeep for a month and I absolutely love it. I used to drive a 2.4 L Toyota Camry and a Nissan Leaf. The Jeep is much taller, giving me a totally different view when I am on the road. The 3.6 L engine is powerful enough for me and the ride is fairly comfortable. My only complain comes from the wind noise when the windows or sunroof are open. I am considering to install a pair of window deflectors on the front windows. Also, I plan to change the engine oil by myself this weekend given the fact that my Jeep was built in August 2016.
Below is a list of upgrades that I have made on the car:
1. The Curt tow hitch receiver with the Curt hitch lock. The installation is very simple.
2. WeatherTech no-drill mud flaps. The installation took me a while mainly because I do not have the right tool to remove the panel clips.
3. WeatherTech BumpStep
4. Thule 990XT bike rack
5. A rear-view mirror system with built-in dash cam. I bought this item in China (forgot to mention that I came from China).
My wife and I gave our new car a nickname -- Shrek.:lol: I cannot wait to have our first camping trip with Shrek! Below are some pictures of Shrek.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4qugx878zo32fu7/20170110_163445.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qkysihh77qwpkhk/20170214_165407.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pluyseaa0h610h4/20170214_173947.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/10cieqg52942v9f/20170214_171409.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vz54ayq5e1suv56/20170214_171531.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/19y70k9sydew8eb/20170214_165804.jpg?dl=0