New Member, New Owner, I have questions....

[wagoneer70]

Hello all. I owned a 1970 Jeep Wagoneer for about 6 years in the late 1990's. I helped my daughter buy her first car and it was a 2008 Jeep Liberty.

I have been eyeing Wranglers and Gladiators for years and the timing hasn't been right until now. Had a few 3rd row Durangos over the years instead for the family.

I drove 3 Wrangler Rubicon JLs and 1 Gladiator Rubicon last week after my 2005 Durangos transmission died at 205k miles. All test drives were 2019-2021 years. I just don't buy new cars.

I really thought I wanted the Wrangler for the shorter wheelbase, off trail, etc...I like smaller vehicles, but when it got down to it...most of my driving will be on road and the Gladiator is much better on road due to the longer wheelbase. I will also be towing a small homebuilt squaredrop trailer every six weeks for a weekend. The Gladiator is still more capable off road than any other vehicle I have owned in my life so should be fine for the National Forest trails in Northern Wisconsin.

I got a 2020 Launch Edition Rubicon and have downloaded the window sticker for it. $62k new. I got mine for $38k with 46k miles on it. Still have 10 months and 14k miles of powertrain warranty available.

The used Gladiator came with a single key fob, missing tool kit, missing manual, missing freedom panel storage bag, and missing bluetooth speaker. So that is all great, ha ha. I do like that it came with brand new 35" Toyo tires tires on it. I will be replacing all the missing items but the bluetooth speaker.

I have some questions about the Launch Edition but I am not finding much info. I understand there were 4190 in 5 different colors. Its basically a very well optioned rubicon with a badge on the tailgate and a different dash/stitching scheme and slightly different all black wheels. I have also seen some articles in Aussie land and Abu Dabi that mention a 'regional amount of 300 launch edition vehicles'.

I have seen three badges online and find it very confusing. Most say '1 of 4190'. I have seen one online that says '1 of 419' and I have seen one that doesn't say anything in the upper right corner. Just 'Launch Edition'.

Why do some have 4190 and some have 419 and some have no number? I suspect the ones with no number might be knock-offs, but why bother with a knock-off like that when the creator could just add the '1 of..." to it?

My truck originally went to Canada before ending up in Wisconsin where I bought it. I could see '1 of 419' making sense for say 5 different colors for North America and 5 different colors for the rest of the World. (like Austrailia and Abu Dabi) That would come out to 4190.

Any ideas on this badging difference?

I don't care if it really is one of 491 or one of 4190. I love the truck and all the options. Totally happy so far. I didn't buy it because it was a launch edition. I bought it because it was pretty much fully optioned with black wheels sitting on 35's.

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[wagoneer70]

cant edit the text. Meant to say 419 in the last paragraph. I also have the 419 badge on my truck, not a 4190 one. What the heck?

 

[ATL_Rubi]

Not that it answers your question, but 419 is the area code for Toledo. Perhaps the 1 of 419 are a play on that? We also have 419 etched into the plastic of the bed rail on the driver side, along with a heart.

 

[Gvsukids]

My truck originally went to Canada before ending up in Wisconsin where I bought it.

Some American dealers don't like working on Canadian vehicles.

https://parts.chryslerjeepdodgecity...E.html?partner=googlebase&feedLabel=cvb_parts

 

[Mr._Bill]

I would be concerned that you actually have the warranty coverage you think is there. Getting warranty coverage outside the original country of sale can be difficult. There have been some past posts from people who bought used trucks, from US Dealers, that were originally made for sale in Canada.

 

[Richord]

You mentioned it “went to Canada”. Was it first sold in the U.S?

I’ve imported vehicles from abroad including a Wrangler from Canada. Although the paperwork is a hassle, these trucks are identical so relatively easy to import. Not sure about the warranty however, but if it was originally delivered in the U.S, i suspect it would be covered.

 

[Hootbro]

Gladiator was available for order in 1st quarter of 2019. The "Launch Edition" at that time was advertised as 4190 vehicles being built. It was assumed and implied to a small degree that it would be the first 4190 vehicle built for retail sale but that turned out false.

The roll out the Launch Edition was somewhat of a debacle. When they started building and shipping the first few, there was train derailment in the Northwest that saw many of them destroyed and wrote off before delivery.

As time went on, they slowly started to be delivered eventually. All Launch Editions were suppose to be personal customer order deliveries and the intent was not for them to be on dealer lots as regular dealer inventory. Some dealers would place phantom orders using employees to get them in regular inventory. Eventually they became orderable by dealerships as they were slow moving with many being built right up to the 2021 model year launch.

As to the badging differences and numberbing, that seemed to have gotten abandoned when they opened up the Launch Edition to overseas markets and also due to some of the vehicles that had to remake from the previous train derailment mentioned.

In the end, I believe they made more than the 4190 number with all markets and replacements considered. IMHO, how Jeep executed this model and delivery, I think it will probably be one of the lease desireable Jeep editions to be consider "collectable" due to the mix up and extra vehicles they put into the queue and trying to prove a numbers provenance to any particular Launch Edition.

As a buyer, I would not pay a premium for a Launch Edition and only treat it as just a highly optioned Gladiator as that is all that it is sans the extra badging and dash covering.

 

[wagoneer70]

Gladiator was available for order i

Awesome response. This is the info I was looking for. Thank you. I did not buy it to collect it. I bought it to drive the wheels off of it and don't believe I paid a premium for it. Thanks again!

 

[Jaxmax]

Didn’t the launch editions come with some kind of wooden sword with the number on it, there was a guy here selling metal versions that were pretty cool! Welcome to the Zoo you are no more confused then the rest of us! What no picture yet??
If you want to edit post go to the lower left and click on the three dots you can edit or delete with that….Jack

 

[Hootbro]

Didn’t the launch editions come with some kind of wooden sword with the number on it, there was a guy here selling metal versions that were pretty cool! Welcome to the Zoo you are no more confused then the rest of us! What no picture yet??
If you want to edit post go to the lower left and click on the three dots you can edit or delete with that….Jack

Yeah, they sent some wood swords to direct order customers but they were not numbered.

https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/...nt-me-a-launch-edition-gladiator-sword.26095/

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