Angry Wrangler And Gladiator Owners Are Taking Jeep To Court...

[Viper501]

How many class-actions magically disappear via an "undisclosed settlement without admission"? The lawyers settle to get paid and then just drop it.

Class settlements must be approved by the court so no scurrying into the dead of night in those cases. And sometimes the courts do not approve them. SC Electric and Gas was sued by rate payers and others in a class action related to the failure of a nuclear power plant being built. Prior to approval of the agreement there were objections from additional consumers that the Court had to consider and address prior to approval.

Sponsored

 

[sharpsicle]

Class settlements must be approved by the court so no scurrying into the dead of night in those cases. And sometimes the courts do not approve them. SC Electric and Gas was sued by rate payers and others in a class action related to the failure of a nuclear power plant being built. Prior to approval of the agreement there were objections from additional consumers that the Court had to consider and address prior to approval.

You've got a lot more faith in the class-action process than the results have given me. I'm looking at the overall view of them, not single incidents. I could find examples of any argument you'd want to make, but that doesn't help. And I'm not saying all class-actions are bad or that others haven't had results, but the vast majority don't do much other than force money to change hands. This one just smells of the same.

We'll see how this one plays out. Unfortunately a class-action over a nuclear power plant doesn't really impact 9 reported fires in a Wrangler/Gladiator.

 

[Viper501]

@sharpsicle I clearly understand your sentiment and agree that from a consumer standpoint it looks like the consumer gets the shaft and the lawyers get fat and happy. I’ve got the sub $5 ‘award’ as a class member as well.

 

[WestwallNF104A]

…none of the plaintiffs listed have reported a fire…

Sorry, but victimless plantiffs suing over an unproven theory is a cash grab for the attorneys. Corporate ambulance chasers. Nothing more.

And, in my opinion, lawyers who engage in this type of blackmail need to be disbarred.

 

[BTG36]

I have found a problem with the fuel system that can cause a fire. Plastic fuel rail leaks a small amount of fuel. I already replaced mine. Before a fire could start. I even found problems with the fuel line and pump. I replaced the fuel rail with an all metal fuel rail and braided stainless steel fuel lines. My fuel rail and fuel lines had a small leak. I only have 61,5xx miles my jeep. It was a pain in the butt, but I did not want to see my jeep go up in flames.

And if you are like me and you have wasp, I have found they like to hide there nest in the frame rail or under the sides of the bed. I wear a protective triple layer bee keeper suit ever time I work under the jeep.

 

[sharpsicle]

I have found a problem with the fuel system that can cause a fire. Plastic fuel rail leaks a small amount of fuel. I already replaced mine. Before a fire could start. I even found problems with the fuel line and pump. I replaced the fuel rail with an all metal fuel rail and braided stainless steel fuel lines. My fuel rail and fuel lines had a small leak. I only have 61,5xx miles my jeep. It was a pain in the butt, but I did not want to see my jeep go up in flames.

And if you are like me and you have wasp, I have found they like to hide there nest in the frame rail or under the sides of the bed. I wear a protective triple layer bee keeper suit ever time I work under the jeep.

So does that mean you're going to launch a class-action against Stellantis?

 

[Splenda]

Could it just be that owners of said vehicles are much more likely to modify their vehicles in ways that cause those vehicles to catch fire?

 

[Jrgunn5150]

Jeep has definitely pursued the wrong client base since the TJ lol. This thread shows it in spades.

Should have took the less per unit and less man babies crying about what could should might would happen after their Pilates class.

 

[sharpsicle]

Jeep has definitely pursued the wrong client base since the TJ lol. This thread shows it in spades.

Should have took the less per unit and less man babies crying about what could should might would happen after their Pilates class.

That's a bit ignorant, no matter your view on the lawsuit.

Let's say for the sake of argument that the accusations of a defective connector leading to engine fires is true. Are you really saying that wanting to fix that makes you "the wrong client base"? Who is the right base then, people willing to be engulfed in flames? If there's a defect uncovered, it should be remedied, no matter what.

Not to mention, safety doesn't just go away when things are cheaper.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

This one is highly debatable. If i own a vehicle with a track record of catching on fire, shouldn't i expect such concerns to affect my vehicle's value on the secondary market? Were i interested in trading said vehicle due to fire concerns and was offered less money as a result, perhaps even to the point where I can no longer afford to trade said vehicle, have I not been damaged even without seeing my own vehicle go up in flames?

What do you think happened to the street value of Pintos that didn't explode?

There's a reason stuff like this is a matter for a judge and jury. All of us sitting here playing armchair lawyer (myself included) can spin any narrative we want because it's really easy to tell a tale when the evidence is imaginary.

General public opinion still thinks the McDonald's "Hot Coffee" case was lawsuit lottery run amok, yet i know very few people who actually sit and read the facts of the case and maintain that opinion. (FYI: the coffee was so hot it fused her labia together and gave her life threatening injuries. McDonald's knew it was serving coffee over OSHA safe limits and was doing so purposefully because they performed actuarial analysis and determined the marketing value of the free refill policy was more valuable than the injuries they expected to occur to patrons, and also viewed the value of the free refills lost to be greater than their expected future payouts for said injuries. The jurors took one look at the fact that McDonald's concluded it was cheaper to knowingly injure people and said 'We're going to make that not true")

I don't disagree with every part of that, but some things are very different between the Jeep fires and the Pinto of decades ago............
NBC, CBS, ABC, WaPo, NYT and even the Des Moines register were talking about the Pinto in bold letters. 60 Minutes and others had stories. It was news across the whole nation, you could not possibly avoid seeing it.
Today, there's been a few fires and the cause isn't even known. There are suspect areas, but so far, no one can say they WILL burn under a given condition or situation, unlike the pinto where various investigators rammed them in the rear on purpose to make their points. In a rear end crash, the risk was very high and it was announced from the highest mountains.
The Jeep thing? Unless you hang out on the internet in Jeep forums or read certain blogs - you won't even know about it. I'd bet that it's not even 1/5 of all Jeep owners have seen or heard "it's being looked into". It's not been on any national news, I've not seen it on NBC or CBS dot com sites.
So, talk of the values going down because of that? A bit of a stretch, but then Jeep people love to gripe about a gnat landing on the hood and devaluing their Jeep. Jeep buyers will buy the Jeeps. Most will never hear of this until a cause is found or it makes mainstream.
I'm on the web a lot and if not for these forums, I'd have never heard of it.
If I was looking to buy a used JT - I'd ha e been looking without any idea of there being a fire thing with them. And that's the case with most used Jeep buyers.

Now - 4xe owners have a legit case - a second recall has gone out for potential battery fires. It's a huge thing, and it's all over the internet - you don't even have to look for it. Notices have gone out, and it's been the talk of the Grand Cherokee and JLU 4xe for way over a year. If your 4xe is involved, the fix is going to be very tough to get and very time consuming.
In the mean time FCA is again saying "don't park it in your garage, don't plug it in" - more than a year of that stuff.

As far as McDonalds coffee - it would never be a problem in Iowa. By the time they get the coffee out of the dispenser (and the temp at most is limited to just under 212 or it would be boiling as it was dispensed) and to the customer, it would likely be about 100 degrees. They are so bloody slow here no one in our area calls McDonalds "fast food" any more. They need more chairs in the ordering area........... and drive-through? HAHAHA, you'll fall asleep in those lines.
Anyway, in that case, some idiot had things all screwed up in order to be serving coffee that damned hot. They must have been boiling the coffee. The only way any coffee maker I've ever had could burn you that bad is if you put your hand under the drip as it's coming out. They had clueless idiots working there (and to that, we could all probably say "DUH!, what else is new")

 

[ShadowsPapa]

@sharpsicle I clearly understand your sentiment and agree that from a consumer standpoint it looks like the consumer gets the shaft and the lawyers get fat and happy. I’ve got the sub $5 ‘award’ as a class member as well.

Like Toshiba (laptop computers), Fakebook and many others I could name that I've gotten notices on. When I look at the details, the work to prove "I would be a member and suffered harm" - I'd rather take a pocket full of dollars to Prairie Meadows, my outcome would be about the same - time spent, nothing gained.

I did a bit of digging last night - pages of rules and paragraph numbers, and considerations and so on - OMG - it's almost a craps shoot to even show it should be a class, and then prove harm - that YOU suffered harm, I almost got dizzy reading the laws on those things and said - "I wish them luck, they're gonna need it!" not to mention the years that will be involved.

 

[Figmo]

Jeep has definitely pursued the wrong client base since the TJ lol. This thread shows it in spades.

Should have took the less per unit and less man babies crying about what could should might would happen after their Pilates class.

LOL you think this is bad, I’ve also got a Bronco. The Bronco6g forum is just dripping with this kind of stuff. Anytime I’m bored, I can just post a “I knew a guy who flat towed his Bronco and Ford denied warranty when the auto tranny blew” thread. Then, cut up some cheese and kick back and wait for the whine.

But seriously, if it turns out there actually is a problem - I’d be a lot happier with a recall fix than making some rich lawyers even richer and a “Here’s $500 off your next new Jeep” gift certificate (that expires in a year)

 

[yoda13]

OK, I think Jeep should take care of its customers and Stellantis should be held liable if this is a known potential issue to them, and they rolled with it anyway. However, did I read it right, there are 9 known issues? I don’t know how many have been sold for sure, but isn’t it over 700K? I suck at math, but isn’t that a 1 one hundred thousandth of a percent chance? Isn’t that about equivalent to randomness? If that’s all there is, I have been worrying for months about where to park my jeep…

 

[ShadowsPapa]

OK, I think Jeep should take care of its customers and Stellantis should be held liable if this is a known potential issue to them, and they rolled with it anyway. However, did I read it right, there are 9 known issues? I don’t know how many have been sold for sure, but isn’t it over 700K? I suck at math, but isn’t that a 1 one hundred thousandth of a percent chance? Isn’t that about equivalent to randomness? If that’s all there is, I have been worrying for months about where to park my jeep…

Two Jeeps - one a 2022 Gladiator, the other a 2023 JLU 4xe.
Give you 3 guesses as to where they are both parked right now............ and whether or not the 4xe is plugged in to a level 2 charger.
I live in Iowa - a state that is constantly mocked or listed on lists of states with the worst or rudest drivers in the country.
I have a greater chance of hitting a deer before I get to town, and then once I reach out of our neighborhood, have an even greater chance of being hit by a TEXTING driver, a driver on the phone, distracted by stuff on their dash, talking and using hand gestures conversing with a passenger or someone who just can't stand it that they aren't the first in some line.
As far as the latter - don't even THINK about driving near 4 Mile Elementary school in early morning or late afternoon. Those ruthless women dropping off or picking up kids will literally blow through a stop sign to cut ahead, and will stop and sit in the highway so they can force their way in ahead of others.
Naw, I'll take my chances with FCA. This state is so full of idiots (some without a license and that's a fact WHO TV showed us a while back) on our roads it's scary out there.

A friend who lived in Toronto got engaged to a woman who worked in Eugene, OR. Both worked for Symantec when I was doing online tech support for the company. Rob flew to OR so he could meet up his fiancé and then drive her car and her back to Toronto to get married. Their route went right through Iowa, minutes from us. I invited them to stay with us for a break, etc. We met up in Ankeny on the north side of Des Moines. They came into Iowa on I80.
We met up at a gas station - as Rob got out of the car and looked over the roof, the first words out of his mouth were "I knew we were getting close to Des Moines because suddenly people were cutting us off, fingering us and were just plain rude". (he had heard about our reputation before his travels)
That's from a man who had just driven through half of the country and lived in TORONTO. He said he'd never seen such driving and foolishness in his travels.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

Are you really saying that wanting to fix that makes you "the wrong client base"?

I'm really saying a bunch of nail biting nervous wrecks sitting on a forum and filing lawsuits about what could possibly maybe happen some day potentially while they're out for a latte, if not who I would want as a client base, even if my per unit price was 15k higher.

Sponsored