It's a jeep thing...

[tkelly11]

Best one yet from the dealership - earlier this year my front seat broke and locked itself forward. Seems to be a fairly common issue but it took 5 weeks to get the parts/finally get my jeep back. But when I got it back the drivers seat did indeed fold forward but it didn't roll forward on the rails as it should. I pointed out this incredibly obvious issue and they asked if I wanted to keep the loaner car and they would have another go at it. I was somewhat fed up with the process so said I would take it back for now and next time it was in for service I would get them to take a look.

Fast forward to today and I take it in for an oil change and whilst its there I explain that the seat wasn't fixed properly and could they have a look at it... and wait for it... after a 2 hour wait the feedback from the technician is "it is supposed to be that way, for safety reasons" hahahahaha. I say unless I have gone quietly mad and forgotten how seats normally work, pretty sure that is wrong. He insists.... so I ask him if he could open up the 2 door Islander they have sitting outside to see if that is the case. SHOCKINGLY, I was correct and now they have ordered me an entirely new seat. What a ridiculous experience.

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[The Last Cowboy]

They aren't used to the 2 door seats.

 

[aldo98229]

I learned never to pass up on the opportunity when a dealer WILLINGLY offers to look at a vehicle issue.

Getting their attention back onto an old unresolved issue is harder than sending a rocket to Mars.

 

[Hogdreamer]

Automobile technicians know EVERYTHING and you, the customer, know NOTHING.

A number of years ago I had the clutch replaced in a non jeep under warranty. When I went to leave after the repair I turned around in the parking lot because the shifter was super sloppy.

The mechanic who did the work stated "that's the way it's supposed to be!" Really, I said, let's check one on the show floor to see if it's the same.

It wasn't and it ended up he forgot to tighten the bolt that holds the shift lever in place.

Mistakes happen but they don't have to be a jerk when you mention the problem.

 

[FloridaLarry]

Best one yet from the dealership - ...
. What a ridiculous experience.

Contrarian says, imagine all the idiots who bring their cars and complain about stuff that's perfectly normal (for a Jeep) because they didn't read the manual. It causes service tech to doubt all customer complaints and they treat your legit complaints the same.

 

[aldo98229]

I made the mistake of taking my 2018 Fiat 124 Spider Abarth to my local Jeep dealer for a regular oil change. It was either drive 1 mile to my Jeep dealer, or 30 miles to the nearest Fiat dealer.

When I pick up the car, it has a loud rattle coming from underneath. I drive back to the dealer and ask them to take a look.

The Service Manager offers tech Brett, who looks like he just got back from his break rolling in a tar pit with their pet hog, to ride with me in the car so he can hear the so-called "loud rattle." I kindly ask them to cover the red leather seat with some plastic.

As I pull out of the dealer lot, instead of listening for the rattle, Brett starts yacking and won't shut up. Then all of a sudden he stops and says "Is that it?!?! Is that the noise?!?! That has nothing to do with anything we did!" I have no idea what he is talking about. I try to remain calm and say "No. That's not it." I shift down to 1st and 2nd gears and then he can hear the rattle. He doesn't say anything else the rest of the ride.

I drop off the car and get a call before closing to come get it. When I show up ask what was the rattle. The Service Advisor tries to downplay it. He says "Oh, the guys forgot to torque the lower shield." In plain english, they forgot to put the bolts back on the shield at the bottom of the engine to hold it in place.

In my experience, techs are usually more interested in deflecting blame than in resolving issues.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I recently rented a Nissan Armada for a long family road trip. About 50 miles into the trip, it was crystal clear that something was wrong with the transmission. It felt like it was slipping about 50% of the time. The worst was when you called for a downshift and only got, maybe, 25% of the power you were expecting in the lower gear. There was also a semi-persistent whine coming from the front end.

We called Alamo and they agreed to let us swap it out at the next major city. We pull in and I explain the issue to the guy. To his credit, he didn't directly challenge me and agreed to get a replacement. However, he did imply that I was a know-nothing and that "yeah, these Nissans can be loud."

Well, the replacement turned out to be an Infiniti QX80, which is pretty much the exact same vehicle as the Armada. And guess what? I was right about the Armada. The QX80 drove perfectly, with strong power and a great transmission. No weird noises. No slipping.

The first Armada clearly had a jacked transmission, but I do wonder if they ever looked into it. Or did they just assume I was a dumbass and rent it out to the next guy without ever diagnosing the problem.

 

[gato]

Sadly, 2-door and MT Wranglers are near orphan products. Jeep dedicates the least amount of engineering resources to those variants as they can possibly get away with.

That is why there are no Diesel, no hybrids, no V8s, no Xtreme Recon with 35s, etc on 2-doors or with a MT.

It's almost as if Jeep wants to punish you for daring to choose an MT or 2-door.

 

[MrGneissGuy]

Not a Jeep, but back in my college days I bought a used car and the day I took it off the lot, the muffler fell off. Well, it was still hanging there but the pipe had come loose right in front of the catalytic converter. After a little pushing, they agreed to pay for the replacement and sent me to a muffler place. When the muffler came loose again, I looked underneath and realized that it had separated in the same place, but the catalytic converter appeared to be missing and I was pretty sure I hadn't lost any pieces. I called the muffler place to schedule an appointment to have the muffler fixed. At first they tried to tell me it wasn't under warranty and gave me a very high quote. I pointed out that, aside from the fact it failed due to crap workmanship, all of the advertisements, include signage in the store, brag about their lifetime warranty for all mufflers. They eventually agreed, so I took it in, and asked them to check the catalytic converter too.

The manager comes out, tells me that my catalytic converter is bad and needs replaced. I ask him how much, and he gives me a pretty outrageous quote, so I told him I was a poor college student and had to hold off on that (which wasn't really a lie). I get my car back, get home, look underneath and what do I see, a catalytic converter.

Now I'm no detective and I could be wrong. But putting all the pieces together, it sure looks like when the muffler fell off the first time, they (or the dealership) decided since I wasn't paying, they were just going to delete a bad catalytic converter instead of replace it. Then when I went back to get the muffler fixed, someone saw it was missing, decided they didn't want to get in trouble in case I noticed and called them on it, and said it was bad hoping I'd buy a new one. When I said no, they decided they needed to cover their butts so put one on anyway.

That dealership and that muffler place place both went out of business a few years later.

 

[tkelly11]

Contrarian says, imagine all the idiots who bring their cars and complain about stuff that's perfectly normal (for a Jeep) because they didn't read the manual. It causes service tech to doubt all customer complaints and they treat your legit complaints the same.

Yeah that is a fair point, sure they do have to deal with a lot of nonsense... it was partly why I was polite when saying I didn't think that was correct so would like to check to make sure I am not going mad as in the off chance they were right I would have looked pretty silly!

 

[tkelly11]

They aren't used to the 2 door seats.

Yeah I can understand that. He even initially tried walking me to a 4 door to show me and I was like "nope, not that one" haha

 

[tkelly11]

Sadly, 2-door and MT Wranglers are near orphan products. Jeep dedicates the least amount of engineering resources to those variants as they can possibly get away with.

That is why there are no Diesel, no hybrids, no V8s, no Xtreme Recon with 35s, etc on 2-doors or with a MT.

It's almost as if Jeep wants to punish you for daring to choose an MT or 2-door.

Yeah that does sound about right.

 

[tkelly11]

I learned never to pass up on the opportunity when a dealer WILLINGLY offers to look at a vehicle issue.

Getting their attention back onto an old unresolved issue is harder than sending a rocket to Mars.

Yeah my thinking at the time was it is still under warranty and I had been without it for 5 weeks in the middle of some terrible snowy weather in Chicago so was desperate to have it back. Thankfully now getting the new seat should maybe solve the problem... for now. Probably made with even cheaper parts than it was before.

 

[Steph1]

After all the people saying that their 3.6 JL engines were overfilled by dealers because technicians mistake the JK and JL , which takes 1 quart less than the JK , I mentioned it to my dealer on my last oil change (I have lifetime free oil changes).

His answer was '' Our technicians are professionals and not Walmart mechanics and sure as Hell know the difference between the JL and the JK''.

A few weeks passed and I read a few more overfill complaints and decide to check my Jeep.... The oil level was a good inch up on the ''rod of the dipstick'' !!!!!. At that point, I didn't know if it was really overfilled or if I had the wrong dipstick.

I decided I didn't trust the level and would flush the oil and do my own oil change.... Exactly 7.5 quarts were drained from my engine supposed to hold 5 quarts !!!!!

I filled it up with 5 quarts, and the level is spot-on at the full line on the dipstick.

So I don't care about their free lifetime oil changes... From now on, I'll do my own thank you.

 

[falcon241073]

After all the people saying that their 3.6 JL engines were overfilled by dealers because technicians mistake the JK and JL , which takes 1 quart less than the JK , I mentioned it to my dealer on my last oil change (I have lifetime free oil changes).

His answer was '' Our technicians are professionals and not Walmart mechanics and sure as Hell know the difference between the JL and the JK''.

A few weeks passed and I read a few more overfill complaints and decide to check my Jeep.... The oil level was a good inch up on the ''rod of the dipstick'' !!!!!. At that point, I didn't know if it was really overfilled or if I had the wrong dipstick.

I decided I didn't trust the level and would flush the oil and do my own oil change.... Exactly 7.5 quarts were drained from my engine supposed to hold 5 quarts !!!!!

I filled it up with 5 quarts, and the level is spot-on at the full line on the dipstick.

So I don't care about their free lifetime oil changes... From now on, I'll do my own thank you.

I couldn’t have resisted going back to the shop and heading them 2.5 qts of oil telling them I was being polite and returning it since I didn’t need it.

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