3 for 3. My wife’s now too afraid to drive the Gladiator.

[JeepCares]

Right now we’re stuck in Butt Montana. Wife’s pretty pissed. Jeep only covers $1,000 during a trip when a Jeep becomes undriveable. Third trip. Third nightmare. This time the message was Exhaust service….see dealer (!) . Good luck with that one! Pressing the U Connect button is as worthless as “seeing your dealer” to try to get an oil or fuel filter. We’re traveling with animals so I have to leave her in a hotel 500 miles from home. I’m giving the dealer 2 days and then I have to figure out something survivable. No rental cars available one way. Hotels are full after Monday. I have one day left to be at work in Amsterdam so we’re so screwed and Jeep just says “ Yeah. It’s bad”. When will they ever get their shit together? Limp mode might be acceptable near civilization but it’s a matter of life and death out in the desert, which is where this piece of shit always fails.
Sorry for the rant. Desperate here.

Hi, DesertDog. Sounds like you might already have a case created; our team would be happy to dig in. Send us a private message that includes the case number to get started.

Kate
Jeep Cares

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[DesertDog]

Hi, DesertDog. Sounds like you might already have a case created; our team would be happy to dig in. Send us a private message that includes the case number to get started.

Kate
Jeep Cares

Thank you Kate

PM sent

 

[Gene26]

LOL. Siri Voice dictation. Need to get out of Butt. : ) And you’re right about Chico. That has been a favorite of ours for decades. We used to love it when you could land on the road and tie down in front of your room. Now an hour and 20 minute flight from Salt Lake takes eight or nine hours in the jeep. Colin has always run a great operation there. unfortunately, time is up for this adventure. This vehicle needs to be abandoned today. Heading to the airport in an hour. If I’m not in Amsterdam tomorrow I get fired. The thing that’s got my wife riled is that these computer codes and never ending errors that caused her to go into limp mode is really a dangerous situation. Being stranded 100 miles from Moab with two dogs and two horses in the most unforgiving desert was the last straw. Then I talked her into one more trip to get our son to college. Again. Stuck in the middle of nowhere with a brand new vehicle under warranty. At least this time she’s not trying to save her horses life because of these ridiculously dangerous and unreliable computers that Jeep is unable to do anything about.

Sitting in the hotel room and reading about this eco-diesel shit it looks like there are two options.

1. Break the law and go with the bypass kit and hope the computers don’t freak out too much.

2. Literally risk your life every time you drive beyond cellular coverage. We have learned to carry 30 gallons of water but sheesh. Is all this unworkable technical garbage with proven unreliability really the only option?

Maybe time for for an updated… 6.4 hemi??? Cummins diesel if you don’t want to switch to gas…. Either done right will fix the problem

 

[bleda2002]

I totally get that, but it could certainly could suck to be one of the unlucky 4% of the people that had a major failure and need a helicopter tow out to the pavement.

. 004% of people you mean. They sell hundreds of thousands of jeeps in a year, if the number was even 1% that had catastrophic problems you'd be seeing 10s of thousands of similar reports. Instead you see a handful here or there. The reliability concerns are greatly over blown, and most mainstream high volume manufacturers have about the same overall reliability.

 

[CrazyCooter]

. 004% of people you mean. They sell hundreds of thousands of jeeps in a year, if the number was even 1% that had catastrophic problems you'd be seeing 10s of thousands of similar reports. Instead you see a handful here or there. The reliability concerns are greatly over blown, and most mainstream high volume manufacturers have about the same overall reliability.

I was referring to the poll on this forum where 4% of diesel owners reported a major failure with their own vehicle. I have no way of knowing what the actual worldwide failure rate is.

 

[2TH MVR]

I emphasize with the OP. I do not have that kind of patience. I would probably get a different vehicle if I was stranded more than once.

As for reliability. I live in Scottsdale. I've made several trips to Tucson and Flaggstaff. No issues whatsoever in my JTRD. Love my diesel .... but if it left me stranded on the side of the road. Hope I didn;t jinx myself.

 

[DesertDog]

I get what you’re saying. There is just no other vehicle out there that does everything that the Gladiator does.
I understand that statistically the failures are rare.

Jeep Cares responded quickly.

I’m not really sure what can happen though as parts are (More often than not!?!!) lost in the supply chain.

Based on what several service departments have said, I don’t expect to see this vehicle anytime soon.
We made sure that the horse trailer and pop-up camper or stored properly as I don’t see the ability to tow either one of them anytime soon.

I try to put the economics out of my mind as $75,000 is sitting outside depreciating rapidly in a far away parking lot instead of being in the S&P.

At least everyone is safe.

 

[22EcoDs]

Have you thought about a 3.0 trail boss ?

 

[dcmdon]

LOL. Siri Voice dictation. Need to get out of Butt. : ) And you’re right about Chico. That has been a favorite of ours for decades. We used to love it when you could land on the road and tie down in front of your room. Now an hour and 20 minute flight from Salt Lake takes eight or nine hours in the jeep. Colin has always run a great operation there. unfortunately, time is up for this adventure. This vehicle needs to be abandoned today. Heading to the airport in an hour. If I’m not in Amsterdam tomorrow I get fired. The thing that’s got my wife riled is that these computer codes and never ending errors that caused her to go into limp mode is really a dangerous situation. Being stranded 100 miles from Moab with two dogs and two horses in the most unforgiving desert was the last straw. Then I talked her into one more trip to get our son to college. Again. Stuck in the middle of nowhere with a brand new vehicle under warranty. At least this time she’s not trying to save her horses life because of these ridiculously dangerous and unreliable computers that Jeep is unable to do anything about.

Sitting in the hotel room and reading about this eco-diesel shit it looks like there are two options.

1. Break the law and go with the bypass kit and hope the computers don’t freak out too much.

2. Literally risk your life every time you drive beyond cellular coverage. We have learned to carry 30 gallons of water but sheesh. Is all this unworkable technical garbage with proven unreliability really the only option?

Reading about your problem is a perfect illustration of why I hesitated on my Jeep. Inconsistent quality and a crappy dealer network with little support from the factory.

So I rolled the dice anyway.

The term I've come up with to describe this insanely idiotic way that the computers are implemented in our Jeeps is FRAGILE.

One little thing goes wrong and the whole effing thing packs it in. With no options.

Trucks end up disabled, unable to shift out of Park because a pin is bent when installing the doors plug connector. Insanity.

Electronic melt down when the battery is bad. Even though the truck is still running and the battery doesn't need to do much to keep things running.

It is so SO SO freaking stupid. I've designed software. Yo anticipate failures. You code in work arounds so that the user is inconvenienced as little as possible. This is computer science 101.

Fortunately so far my Gladiator has been good. Though it has thrown more codes in 6 months than my Volvo did in 14 years!! And my power steering shut off after I floored it on the highway. Then it came back when I decelerated through 30 mph. Then shut off when I floored it again.

I could trigger the failure at will. Until I shut it off and then the problem vanished.

Its just ridiculous.

None of this would be a problem if the dealer network was halfway decent. My wife's car was in for a new hatch strut and they had to keep it overnight. No problem. I was happily tooling along, putting miles on a brand new loaner that was nicer than our car.

My $60k Jeep cost more than most Volvos, Genesis, or Lexus. But nowhere near the quality of service is offered.

Just wait until the guy in teh $120,000 Grand Wagoner is told that he's on his own with a dead vehicle on the side of the road. SURPRISE!!!. Maybe you should have leased that Range Rover.

 

[DesertDog]

Have you thought about a 3.0 trail boss ?

I was a Chevy guy through and through for a lot of years. Even my simple Colorado ran strong for 20 years without a hitch. I’m convinced it was for one simple reason. Not a single chip or computer in the entire vehicle. Same story with 25 years in a Toyota 4 x 4 pick up. I don’t think this is necessarily a Jeep thing. All of the manufactures have gone completely crazy with extremely unreliable computers. When they don’t work they add more computers. When those fail they add more computers…and more. It’s complete insanity.

Commercial jet manufacturers are doing the same thing. More computers on top of more computers. Virtually all of the mechanical delays and in-flight challenges are caused mainly by one thing. Computers. Do you know how many computers were on a Boeing 727? Zero. And they were bulletproof.

Why are we okay with this?

 

[rharr]

because it's shiny

 

[Caraholic]

Right now we’re stuck in Butt Montana. Wife’s pretty pissed. Jeep only covers $1,000 during a trip when a Jeep becomes undriveable. Third trip. Third nightmare. This time the message was Exhaust service….see dealer (!) . Good luck with that one! Pressing the U Connect button is as worthless as “seeing your dealer” to try to get an oil or fuel filter. We’re traveling with animals so I have to leave her in a hotel 500 miles from home. I’m giving the dealer 2 days and then I have to figure out something survivable. No rental cars available one way. Hotels are full after Monday. I have one day left to be at work in Amsterdam so we’re so screwed and Jeep just says “ Yeah. It’s bad”. When will they ever get their shit together? Limp mode might be acceptable near civilization but it’s a matter of life and death out in the desert, which is where this piece of shit always fails.
Sorry for the rant. Desperate here.

 

[Caraholic]

We had a GMC Yukon Denali we had to dump 10 years ago because it would go into limp mode and the dealer couldn’t determine the problem. “Yea we see the codes but they don’t tell us what’s doing it”
it would go beserk, door locks up down- dash would die, wipers would freak on max speed, radio would die, and it would limp in third gear.
She made me offload a paid for 3 year old Denali Because of the getting stranded fears….Yea I get you.

 

[Trailman]

I get what you’re saying. I have a Pentastar with a six speed in a soft top JL. With the altitude and mountains in Utah it won’t even pull a pop up camper. We also have a JLU Rubicon with a 2.0 turbo E Torque. It’s better but still totally inadequate. The Ecodiesel is perfect when it runs. I just feel stupid leaving town with it.
This gives me flashbacks to the mid nineties when flush with cash for the first time I bought two matching black Rovers. A D90 and a Range Rover for my wife. (License plates: Wallace & Gromit. : ) They were so ridiculously unreliable that I quit leaving town without the escort of my trusty Toyota 4X4 pickup with over a hundred thousand miles. The service shop was wonderful and with speed dial to personal mechanics, they would even make house calls. Then I had an epiphany: Why am I on a first name basis with the service department??

For what its worth, I live near the Eisenhower tunnel in CO and can pull 5k lbs through it with the 3.6. The 3.6 is not flashy, but it gets the job done. The diesel is known for having MORE (not less) issues with towing due to heat.

That 5k lbs by the way is a horse trailer with two donkeys.

So, trading the fun engine for the cheaper old reliable isn't really a "solution," but if your issue is pulling, the gladiator is totally different than the JL. Remember, these are rated at 7k (or 7600 with max tow) vs 3500 for JL.

Finally, cool plane. I fly 152/172 and have done tail wheel a few times; hoping to transition that way in the future.

 

[Rocksalt]

Reading about your problem is a perfect illustration of why I hesitated on my Jeep. Inconsistent quality and a crappy dealer network with little support from the factory.

So I rolled the dice anyway.

The term I've come up with to describe this insanely idiotic way that the computers are implemented in our Jeeps is FRAGILE.

One little thing goes wrong and the whole effing thing packs it in. With no options.

Trucks end up disabled, unable to shift out of Park because a pin is bent when installing the doors plug connector. Insanity.

Electronic melt down when the battery is bad. Even though the truck is still running and the battery doesn't need to do much to keep things running.

It is so SO SO freaking stupid. I've designed software. Yo anticipate failures. You code in work arounds so that the user is inconvenienced as little as possible. This is computer science 101.

Fortunately so far my Gladiator has been good. Though it has thrown more codes in 6 months than my Volvo did in 14 years!! And my power steering shut off after I floored it on the highway. Then it came back when I decelerated through 30 mph. Then shut off when I floored it again.

I could trigger the failure at will. Until I shut it off and then the problem vanished.

Its just ridiculous.

None of this would be a problem if the dealer network was halfway decent. My wife's car was in for a new hatch strut and they had to keep it overnight. No problem. I was happily tooling along, putting miles on a brand new loaner that was nicer than our car.

My $60k Jeep cost more than most Volvos, Genesis, or Lexus. But nowhere near the quality of service is offered.

Just wait until the guy in teh $120,000 Grand Wagoner is told that he's on his own with a dead vehicle on the side of the road. SURPRISE!!!. Maybe you should have leased that Range Rover.

yet another good reason to bypass the shitty aux battery . It will fail without much warning . Check out the 600 post JL thread... yep

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