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What were they thinking?

LJ_3M121318

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I actually saw it and really liked it just the way it was, I’ve had so many cars with just a sea of black inside it was different, I had an X5 with brown seats and black interior also and liked that as well.

Its obviously personal preference but just wanted to chime in that there‘s a few of us out there. Judging by how many black and red interiors and how few tan interiors are on the lots though, I will readily agree that I’m in the minority.
Yeah I understand.

I mean I've been debating going with the rubicon diesel but got so turned off with the interior options that I'm now leaning towards the 4xe. First it was because you get all black with blue accents, then the $7500 credit, then the HOV sticker, etc. But if the rubicon diesel had all black with white then I'd go that route. I know I can go with the tan seats to get the black and white dash, and then go like katzkin black seats but then that's just another $1500 or so for that look.

I test drove a diesel and loved the sound of the engine and how it made me feel driving it. I remember I had some car enthusiast friends who would only drive manual because of how it made them feel "one with the road" and I never understood that, until I drove a diesel and I could understand where they were coming from. But the color combinations on the diesel always made me know deep down I wouldn't enjoy it as much so that's how I'm leaning towards 4xe. Superficial concern but dropping $60k on something you have to be fully committed to it.
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ITGuy

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Yeah I understand.

I mean I've been debating going with the rubicon diesel but got so turned off with the interior options that I'm now leaning towards the 4xe. First it was because you get all black with blue accents, then the $7500 credit, then the HOV sticker, etc. But if the rubicon diesel had all black with white then I'd go that route. I know I can go with the tan seats to get the black and white dash, and then go like katzkin black seats but then that's just another $1500 or so for that look.

I test drove a diesel and loved the sound of the engine and how it made me feel driving it. I remember I had some car enthusiast friends who would only drive manual because of how it made them feel "one with the road" and I never understood that, until I drove a diesel and I could understand where they were coming from. But the color combinations on the diesel always made me know deep down I wouldn't enjoy it as much so that's how I'm leaning towards 4xe. Superficial concern but dropping $60k on something you have to be fully committed to it.
I would say get what will make you happy, you can’t take it with you man, and the JL is a blast. You can either change the trim pieces, but a nice seat cover, or get the V8!
 

LittleDog

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I actually saw it and really liked it just the way it was, I’ve had so many cars with just a sea of black inside it was different, I had an X5 with brown seats and black interior also and liked that as well.

Its obviously personal preference but just wanted to chime in that there‘s a few of us out there. Judging by how many black and red interiors and how few tan interiors are on the lots though, I will readily agree that I’m in the minority.

White jeep, tan (albeit cloth) seats here as well. Though one of the first things I did was get some heavier-duty cotton-duck seat covers on them. Still brown. Was the first one with tan seats that my dealer ever saw; I heard later that the whole place thought that it was different, but nice.

I didn't notice that they placed the charging port there, but agree that it is awful; a kludgey solution to a kludge problem. The battery placement itself already seems like it it was second place only to a giant carpeted box in the middle of the cargo area, and was only placed under the seats to mollify a small number of steadfast jeeper engineers, who were probably later fired anyway.

But I also agree that the Wrangler itself is a strange anachronism that we are lucky to have exist. One price to pay, (above and beyond the incredible number of dollars that we pay for such a fun, oddball relic) is that it must needs be subject to the demands of current thinking and marketing, in order to subsidize the line. Hence four doors, strange powerplants, too many electronics, too many "special" editions, (disclaimer: drive and love a Sahara, but that's a different story) and labour-saving (for them) engineering decisions that can sometimes all be bitter pills to swallow, but are necessary to keep the Wrangler line alive. One can't expect the battery hybrid band-aid that all manufacturers are sticking on every non-integrated chassis now to always look nice either.

The best-case circumstance for Jeep purists probably would have been for a much smaller boutique company to pick up and continue manufacturing after the CJ line, focusing on the fan base, which want(ed) off-road ability, durability, ease of repair and swapping parts, (which lends itself naturally to modification) and cost.

We have probably reached a point in time that it will be impossible for a new automobile manufacturer to suddenly appear with a successful product, and be able to thrive without being quickly absorbed into a much larger brand. Tesla notwithstanding, "successful" being a major argumentative point. Jeep fans and fanboys are at least equally as rabid as Tesla's, and there is clearly no lack of a consumer base, but stockholders and Wall Street would undoubtedly be much cooler on the prospect of an inexpensive, immortal, bare-boned, internal combustion-engined vehicle that sees much of its buyers' finanaces spent on third-party manufacturers and "fun".

So I say, mostly, leave the questionable varients of your favourite vehicle alone; they are the reason your solid-axled freak show automobile is still alive. Having said that, that really is a dumb place for a charging port. But people are lazy and dumb, and a location on the driver's side was probably deemed "important", despite all the battery circuitry being much more accessible on the passenger-side cowl, in addition to (non-European) users now having to deal with stepping over the cable.

As for cargo frames/cages, Mopar doesn't make one, nor the they make anything else that fits on the cowl, despite it being touted as a useful hardpoint, besides one clunky, chunky mounting accessory, (which I have) so who cares that customers lose use of that area? Certainly not FCA.

(Man, I really wish I had a well designed, non-roof-drilling, bolt-on cage that let my windshield fold down)

Other than that, one big pet peeve is that the four-door doesn't have the same removable seats as the two-door. Why engineer and fabricate a totally different, less useful, seating arrangement that only fits one sub-model when you have a perfectly good one that you are already using? They must have gotten a pretty good deal on red loctite too.
 

Carolina Jeeper

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Warning to those that lack tolerance for complaint posts and threads, save yourself the suffering and just scroll right on to the next post.

Tag location should not be on the bumper.

Paint quality is far too lacking in many ways. Yes that means paint does go underneath all hinges regardless of what the consensus among the Jeep bean counters is.

Jeep hard tops should come with factory with insulation.

Should have just added locking hoods instead of fake hood vents that no one asked for.

Give purchasers the ability to order Wranglers without badges or decals. We all know it's a Jeep.

I know it's already been mentioned by the OP, but give me the ability to permanently disable ESS.
 

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Zandcwhite

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Ya, the 4xe jeep is really not meant for long overlanding wilderness travels. You pretty much need to remain close to malls and shopping centers or short trips to the beach nearby.
The diesel is the only wrangler available with more range than the 4xe. You guys do realize that a plug in hybrid still works without ever being plugged in right? It still has regenerative braking to charge and utilize the batteries and a fully functional 2.0t that works the same as any non-hybrid wrangler.
 

Zandcwhite

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White jeep, tan (albeit cloth) seats here as well. Though one of the first things I did was get some heavier-duty cotton-duck seat covers on them. Still brown. Was the first one with tan seats that my dealer ever saw; I heard later that the whole place thought that it was different, but nice.

I didn't notice that they placed the charging port there, but agree that it is awful; a kludgey solution to a kludge problem. The battery placement itself already seems like it it was second place only to a giant carpeted box in the middle of the cargo area, and was only placed under the seats to mollify a small number of steadfast jeeper engineers, who were probably later fired anyway.

But I also agree that the Wrangler itself is a strange anachronism that we are lucky to have exist. One price to pay, (above and beyond the incredible number of dollars that we pay for such a fun, oddball relic) is that it must needs be subject to the demands of current thinking and marketing, in order to subsidize the line. Hence four doors, strange powerplants, too many electronics, too many "special" editions, (disclaimer: drive and love a Sahara, but that's a different story) and labour-saving (for them) engineering decisions that can sometimes all be bitter pills to swallow, but are necessary to keep the Wrangler line alive. One can't expect the battery hybrid band-aid that all manufacturers are sticking on every non-integrated chassis now to always look nice either.

The best-case circumstance for Jeep purists probably would have been for a much smaller boutique company to pick up and continue manufacturing after the CJ line, focusing on the fan base, which want(ed) off-road ability, durability, ease of repair and swapping parts, (which lends itself naturally to modification) and cost.

We have probably reached a point in time that it will be impossible for a new automobile manufacturer to suddenly appear with a successful product, and be able to thrive without being quickly absorbed into a much larger brand. Tesla notwithstanding, "successful" being a major argumentative point. Jeep fans and fanboys are at least equally as rabid as Tesla's, and there is clearly no lack of a consumer base, but stockholders and Wall Street would undoubtedly be much cooler on the prospect of an inexpensive, immortal, bare-boned, internal combustion-engined vehicle that sees much of its buyers' finanaces spent on third-party manufacturers and "fun".

So I say, mostly, leave the questionable varients of your favourite vehicle alone; they are the reason your solid-axled freak show automobile is still alive. Having said that, that really is a dumb place for a charging port. But people are lazy and dumb, and a location on the driver's side was probably deemed "important", despite all the battery circuitry being much more accessible on the passenger-side cowl, in addition to (non-European) users now having to deal with stepping over the cable.

As for cargo frames/cages, Mopar doesn't make one, nor the they make anything else that fits on the cowl, despite it being touted as a useful hardpoint, besides one clunky, chunky mounting accessory, (which I have) so who cares that customers lose use of that area? Certainly not FCA.

(Man, I really wish I had a well designed, non-roof-drilling, bolt-on cage that let my windshield fold down)

Other than that, one big pet peeve is that the four-door doesn't have the same removable seats as the two-door. Why engineer and fabricate a totally different, less useful, seating arrangement that only fits one sub-model when you have a perfectly good one that you are already using? They must have gotten a pretty good deal on red loctite too.
The 2 door seat is shoehorned between the fender wells and cage and barely has room for 2 large children. I guess putting a half a seat between the rear doors sounds like a great idea until you think about it. I'm sure a 4 door 4 seater would sell as well as the 5 seat configuration? The extra 10" of space on either side of the miniature seat wouldn't be annoying to climb in to. Picking up everything you ever put in the back seat from that void wouldn't be annoying at all, and most of it would unload itself when you open the rear door so that could be fun? The current configuration folds flat for sleeping in the back and hauling larger items, but I guess sleeping with your head a foot bellow your feet could be fun? Maybe those engineers actually thought about what they were building? My 1 gripe is the lack of being able to open the tailgate from inside as crawling through the door when sleeping in the jeep isn't optimal.
 

CWOFOR

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15 responses and no one has brought up the POS clutch system. I agree with the previous comment about the JL being over engineered and complicated. FCA had a good working clutch system in the JK, but decided to redesign it for the JL (which has the same engine/trans combo) and now they have shut down production/recalled manual transmissions to put a bandaid on it. The old saying of "if it isn't broke don't fix it" applies.

+1 for liking my tan seats.
 

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i like it the way it is. The ESS? well, that is more of a industry mandate isn't it?
 
OP
OP

Gee-pah

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Picky users... :movember:

Scott:

This is completely fair...better, accurate. So many things about the JL Stellantis got right. A vehicle with such broad market appeal can't be all things to all people. With its thousands of moving parts, not everyone can be near perfect, let alone to all owners.

No vehicle achieves this. Not even a Rolls Royce is perfect, let alone resonates with all buyers, if for no other reason, price alone.

My issue lies with simple design changes that would have made a world of difference, like relocating a charging port. But even then, one unique thing about our Wrangler is that if a stock design sucks bad enough, invariably, the aftermarket creates a fix.
 

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CT_LFC

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my biggest peeve is the "regret threads" and constant complaints on the forums lol. sometimes i wonder how many Ford and Toyota reps are posting here.
I don't mind the regret threads because it helps new buyers give an idea of what people ordered they don't really use, or didn't order and wish they had. In my case i wish i had gotten the tow package, for example.
 

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Even removing the tail lights, one of the easiest things to do on prior Jeeps is now a 30-minute ordeal on JL.
Really??
I just pop that plastic cover, remove the white spring-loaded fastener and it's off in 3 minutes tops!

Now I don't much care for the dinky 17 gallon fuel tank on the 2dr, and the visor retention "system" is utter crap, but all else is great!
 

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#1 - Steering. Frankly I’m amazed no one has mentioned it yet. FCA should have used the JL as an opportunity to massively improve steering but instead made it worse than the JK. That aluminum steering box should have never been placed in production.

#2 - The 7” uConnect. What a buggy POS that radio is. The devs in charge of that software should be fired for their piss poor quality control. It makes me think the 8” uConnect is managed by an entirely different team because it’s actually pretty good.
 

aldo98229

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Apologies, I didn't realize people got that. I'm curious to know what the thought process was. Did you hate the red so much? Or you really wanted tan? Now I'm not saying tan is bad per se, I've had many dark cars with tan leather as the contrast is nice, however in those cars the steering wheel, center console, and door panels were tan as well.

Here it's just the seats so the center console is black, along with entire dash and interior doors. Don't you feel the tan and black leather combo is off?

I think I could live with the tan if at least the center console was tan too.

Obviously this is just preference but I'm curious on how you chose that?
I wish I had saddle leather in my JL.

Black is just so predictable.
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