Done with Jeep

[Joaquin1970]

I loved my Jeep Gladiator Rubicon Diesel, it was my fifth Jeep. With all the warranty and recalls dealing with incompetent dealerships I met my breaking point after my last recall experience and traded it for a new Chevy ZR2. When every time my Jeep would go in for warranty work or a recall the dealerships seem to be clueless as to what they were doing. Through the years I have searched for competent Jeep dealers in the Omaha Nebraska area even outside the city and all are just as bad. Some of the issues I've had... 200 mile joy ride in my Jeep while in the shop for warranty work. Returned with an empty tank, paid for work and found the work had not been performed, incompetent mechanics that can not diagnose anything. If they plug in a scanner and it does not tell them what the problem is they are clueless, poor communication among all service personnel, service managers that know very little about cars especially Jeeps, and poor management on all levels. Heck, they even lost my Jeep the last time. I filled out the survey as they asked and a manager called me. We talked for quite awhile then I noticed he had limited knowledge of vehicles as well. This was a large city dealership. I'm sad but I couldn't take it anymore.

Sounds like it’s more of an Omaha employee pool issue than a Jeep issue. It’s likely similar across other dealership brands as well. Orlando Florida is no better in many industries here for lack of competence, knowledge or customer service.

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[MaximusTX]

I loved my Jeep Gladiator Rubicon Diesel, it was my fifth Jeep. With all the warranty and recalls dealing with incompetent dealerships I met my breaking point after my last recall experience and traded it for a new Chevy ZR2. When every time my Jeep would go in for warranty work or a recall the dealerships seem to be clueless as to what they were doing. Through the years I have searched for competent Jeep dealers in the Omaha Nebraska area even outside the city and all are just as bad. Some of the issues I've had... 200 mile joy ride in my Jeep while in the shop for warranty work. Returned with an empty tank, paid for work and found the work had not been performed, incompetent mechanics that can not diagnose anything. If they plug in a scanner and it does not tell them what the problem is they are clueless, poor communication among all service personnel, service managers that know very little about cars especially Jeeps, and poor management on all levels. Heck, they even lost my Jeep the last time. I filled out the survey as they asked and a manager called me. We talked for quite awhile then I noticed he had limited knowledge of vehicles as well. This was a large city dealership. I'm sad but I couldn't take it anymore.

I hope you have better luck with your Chevy and it does suck when you can't find a good dealership to take care of you. Hopefully they have fixed the issue with the dead batteries in the ZR2 now.

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

• Yes, the diesel has had issues
• The Pentastar had massive issues for 2 generations that left people with lemon vehicles. The ecodiesel has burned far less consumers, in part because there are just fewer of them. But look at any Jeep forum from several years ago and it was nonstop complaints about the 3.6
• Motori has been making diesels since the 1940s. A lot of other companies engines were actually VM Motori, like the unkillable Toyota HiLux diesel
• All cars and all engines are international. The failing part on the 3.0 is made by Bosch, a German company
• That fuel pump is in lots of vehicles including GM. Bothe GM and Ford were sued over the exact same fuel pump
• The diesel Colorado has far more problems than the Diesel JL/JT and a GM master mechanic and diesel specialist has told me that they’re always in the shop for a myriad of nonstop problems and to steer clear
• In my experience with this particular Jeep, service everywhere in Virginia I’ve been to (HR and Richmond) has been awful. The same dealerships with previous Jeeps, they were fine. But other people I’ve talked to have said the same thing about Toyota, GM, Ford, etc.
• I think service quality has gone down across the board in recent years for 3 main reasons in order of descending importance: 1. Incentives are aligned for dealerships to cut costs and realign service departments into feeders for new car sales and sources used car inventory. The result is downward pressure on service quality. 2. A massive green labor problem coupled with a nationwide disinvestment in trades education. This actually might be starting to turn around a bit. How much or if it’s enough is hard to say. 3. Cars have become an extremely complex system of systems that’s software based and manufactures, also looking to cut costs have radically constrained what dealerships can even do to a vehicle without prior authorization. This means dealerships and by extension consumers are frequently at the mercy of OEMs first deciding a problem is common enough or presents a significant liability that they will invest in an engineering solution. Any engineering investigation costs thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The result is again downward pressure and misalignment of incentives on finding and solving technical problems outside of the product refresh cycle and mid production. This exists across the industry. Stellantis may be more aggressive in this approach, but I don’t know.

 

[RHINO79]

Did you find that the Chevy dealership was better?

True

 

[RHINO79]

I love me a 3.6

 

[BlackOak]

Unfortunately this seems to be an issue all across the country in multiple industries both blue and white collar workers, just not enough skilled labor.

That hit home for me. In the hvac business I always say if you train them and they leave, it's better than if you don't and they stay. It's usually management

Sorry to hear your story. Proof yet again that poorly trained/educated employees can negatively impact -any- business. I've been looking for a reliable and competent HVAC service provider for 3+years in the Boston area. On #5 now.

That hit home. In the hvac business I always believed "if you train them and they leave, it's better than if you don't train them and they stay" some managers don't see the value of this and some some techs also

 

[Ty01vette]

Sorry to hear about your experience with Jeep. I called my buddy (mechanic 30 years) who worked for Jeep for 14 years and he stated the same thing you said. Now days some of the so called mechanics are plug and play. If they plug it in and and it doesn't tell them everything, they honestly don't know what to do. Maybe you'll be back in the near future, best of luck with the Chevy.

 

[Flyboy2109]

I loved my Jeep Gladiator Rubicon Diesel, it was my fifth Jeep. With all the warranty and recalls dealing with incompetent dealerships I met my breaking point after my last recall experience and traded it for a new Chevy ZR2. When every time my Jeep would go in for warranty work or a recall the dealerships seem to be clueless as to what they were doing. Through the years I have searched for competent Jeep dealers in the Omaha Nebraska area even outside the city and all are just as bad. Some of the issues I've had... 200 mile joy ride in my Jeep while in the shop for warranty work. Returned with an empty tank, paid for work and found the work had not been performed, incompetent mechanics that can not diagnose anything. If they plug in a scanner and it does not tell them what the problem is they are clueless, poor communication among all service personnel, service managers that know very little about cars especially Jeeps, and poor management on all levels. Heck, they even lost my Jeep the last time. I filled out the survey as they asked and a manager called me. We talked for quite awhile then I noticed he had limited knowledge of vehicles as well. This was a large city dealership. I'm sad but I couldn't take it anymore.

Sorry for your bad luck and disappointment! That experience would suck with any brand.

I also think your comment on mechanics these days being too reliant on the scanner is spot on!

Wish you could bring your Jeep out here to Hawaii, my dealers', service department seems very squared away when they did my manual transmission recall, and even found another problem and fixed that also within a reasonable time frame. I was even impressed with the service manager herself, and I am not easily impressed. Luck of the draw, I guess

 

[BearFootSam]

Bad experience, but probably dealer issues, not Jeep’s. And to be honest, the diesel platform has a track record of problems. Most of us with the 3.6 have vehicles with zero issues. Good luck with your new one. Nothing wrong with chevys. I like them and we own one now, and have owned lots. But they aren’t jeeps.

There is something to be said for a mostly unremarkable NA, PFI, mid displacement engine. Less power per liter generally equates to lower stress, less expense, better reliability.

Good gearing is all you need to get the job done, however slowly, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

 

[WILDHOBO]

There is something to be said for a mostly unremarkable NA, PFI, mid displacement engine. Less power per liter generally equates to lower stress, less expense, better reliability.

Good gearing is all you need to get the job done, however slowly, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Agreed. It’s no sports car or hot rod, but if treated well and setup right for the owner’s use case, it does amazingly well.

 

[HooliganActual]

There is something to be said for a mostly unremarkable NA, PFI, mid displacement engine. Less power per liter generally equates to lower stress, less expense, better reliability.

Good gearing is all you need to get the job done, however slowly, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Agreed. It’s no sports car or hot rod, but if treated well and setup right for the owner’s use case, it does amazingly well.

+1 to these sentiments. My 2016 JKUR and 2018 JKUR have the same engine and have been trouble free as engines go.

Although I kinda wish I could have the old 4.0L that was in my Cherokee (and effectively what was in my CJ). Those engines were bombproof!!

 

[HorsesRear]

I just couldn’t see a Chevy Colorado sitting in my garage in place of my Gladiator. Nor could I picture myself looking out over the hood of a Colorado going down the road. I enjoy driving and looking at my plain old noisy Gladiator.

 

[Banned]

I loved my Jeep Gladiator Rubicon Diesel, it was my fifth Jeep. With all the warranty and recalls dealing with incompetent dealerships I met my breaking point after my last recall experience and traded it for a new Chevy ZR2. When every time my Jeep would go in for warranty work or a recall the dealerships seem to be clueless as to what they were doing. Through the years I have searched for competent Jeep dealers in the Omaha Nebraska area even outside the city and all are just as bad. Some of the issues I've had... 200 mile joy ride in my Jeep while in the shop for warranty work. Returned with an empty tank, paid for work and found the work had not been performed, incompetent mechanics that can not diagnose anything. If they plug in a scanner and it does not tell them what the problem is they are clueless, poor communication among all service personnel, service managers that know very little about cars especially Jeeps, and poor management on all levels. Heck, they even lost my Jeep the last time. I filled out the survey as they asked and a manager called me. We talked for quite awhile then I noticed he had limited knowledge of vehicles as well. This was a large city dealership. I'm sad but I couldn't take it anymore.

That sucks man, dealerships play a huge role in what vehicles we buy. A vehicle or warranty is only as good as the dealership backing it up.

 

[Rusty PW]

My dealership has been quit good. I'm on my 3th Jeep from them. When I bought the 1st Jeep. I told the sales manager, " you sold me this Jeep. But your service dept. will sell the next Jeep." My service advisor "Candy" is great. She will return calls, and e-mails. I told the manger, "if she leaves, so do I".

My JT had only 2 recalls on it. The fuel pump and the tail gate latch. Both were taken care of hassle free. The only issue that wasn't a recall was the cable broke on my oem roll up tonneau cover. Which was replaced under warranty.

Good auto techs are hard to find. I know a few of them. What happens is the dealership will try to screw them over and they end up leaving for another dealership. A couple of them have worked for just about every local dealership around.

 

[FloridaAussie]

Here is my 2 cents There is no quality control anymore or competent employees that actually give a shit. Just happened this morning order a stk. bagel at MCD get to work BACON WTF.. So I had a 2020 glady - let me start my service manager is awsome. Have an issue I call him he orders the parts has a loaner waiting for me.
Now the 2020 and quality -the list replaced under warranty - both batteries, radio, valve cover gaskets, door lock ,inner fender, drums, calipers rotors ,pads ,driveshaft, rear axle ,steering box .at 60,000 miles lifters took out cam . I lost all confidence in the 2020 dealer still saying its a normal repair and you still have 40,000 miles left on warranty. I have owned jeeps the last 40 years.
I love this p/up so ,a month ago purchased a 2024 .
I feel your pain ,I hope you have better luck with your chevy . I am a JEEP MAN and I still smile everytime I look back at my GLADIATOR.good luck

Wow that 2020 was a lemon.

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