Grand Cherokee 4xe?

[Whaler27]

A family member is the original owner of a 2012 Jetta turbodiesel with the so-called factory cheater tune. He has received, and ignored, any number of mailings that offer no-charge reflashes at a VW dealer of his choosing. He knows from perusing any number of related forums and threads on the subject that the new tune would functionally cripple the vehicle's admirable fuel economy and performance.

I'm honestly not trying to rub salt in the wound, but hopefully you weren't truly forced to have your WK2 reflashed, to its detriment.

"Forced" was a poor word choice on my part. Although I don't actually remember doing it, I think I probably agreed to the latest flash when I was getting other service-- but I would not have agreed if I had I known that it would ruin an otherwise great vehicle.

The reflash was also required to get the FCA settlement (about $3,500) and the "lifetime" powertrain warranty. In retrospect, your friend with the Jetta made the smarter choice.

Part of my current dilemma is my wife's embarrassment driving the Lexus. She was ready to get the Toyota Highlander, but I found a multiple month waiting list everywhere I looked for one of those, so I looked at Lexus (just a Toyota with more boring colors, softer seats, and a longer warranty.) She's a good sport, so she didn't say anything at first, but she's since admitted that the Lexus is "boring", and "mushy", and she's embarrassed to drive something people consider a status car. (Which is why she wouldn't want a Mercedes, Porsche, or BMW either... I don't care, but she's uncomfortable with the stigma. A jeep, no matter what it costs, doesn't seem to have any of that fake status baggage.)

We're going to drive a couple GCs with the gas engines and see what she thinks. I'll to take a ~$5,000 beating selling the Lexus, but it's worth it to keep my wife happy. She's put up with a lot -- and she continues to put up with a lot.

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[Whaler27]

When an overpriced BMW costs less, you know Jeep prices are out of touch with reality.

I’m not fond of the new Grand Cherokee styling, either. The outgoing model looked young and sporty. The current Grand Cherokee screams “Look at me, I’m a rich, middle-aged, undersexed mom...”

Just my two pesos.

I'll start telling my single buddies to look for MILFs driving newer GCs!

 

[Heimkehr]

Part of my current dilemma is my wife's embarrassment driving the Lexus. She was ready to get the Toyota Highlander, but I found a multiple month waiting list everywhere I looked for one of those, so I looked at Lexus (just a Toyota with more boring colors, softer seats, and a longer warranty.)

...she's embarrassed to drive something people consider a status car.

Mm. Maybe such perceptions are geographical. Locally, there's a decent number of Lexus vehicles on the road. All I see is a tarted-up Toyota, which kinda squares with your definition.

The only vehicles that I consistently profile are contractor trucks and Japanese compacts, and that's because of the likelihood of inconsiderate driving by the nut holding the steering wheel.

Now that I think about it, perhaps the most expensive vehicle that I'll see on the local highways and byways are spotlessly clean F350 King Ranch crew cabs. Even the Cummins duallies, which have to cost about the same as the prissy Fords, are usually being used for proper work.

 

[Sean L]

The only vehicles that I consistently profile are contractor trucks and Japanese compacts, and that's because of the likelihood of inconsiderate driving by the nut holding the steering wheel.

We've had a few employees that we had to revoke company truck privileges from...

It's the "Ain't my truck" mentality.

 

[Whaler27]

Mm. Maybe such perceptions are geographical. Locally, there's a decent number of Lexus vehicles on the road. All I see is a tarted-up Toyota, which kinda squares with your definition.

The only vehicles that I consistently profile are contractor trucks and Japanese compacts, and that's because of the likelihood of inconsiderate driving by the nut holding the steering wheel.

Now that I think about it, perhaps the most expensive vehicle that I'll see on the local highways and byways are spotlessly clean F350 King Ranch crew cabs. Even the Cummins duallies, which have to cost about the same as the prissy Fords, are usually being used for proper work.

One of my friends bought a new F350 Dually Powerstroke to pull his retirement RV. The full-blown imaginary retail on that truck was well over $90,000. It has seats that massage... in a pickup!

I bought a loaded one-ton, 4X4, six-pack, Ford Powerstroke in 1995. I paid almost $27,000 for that truck. My dad was still alive at the time. When I toild him what it cost he said, "You must have fallen out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down!" Of course, he remembered eggs being 25 cents a dozen too.

On the Jeep front, the dealer we spoke to used to keep 30 to 40 jeeps in stock along with a similar number of Dodge pickup trucks. It's a rural area, so Jeeps and trucks are their bread and butter, but they have very few of either in stock. According to the sales manager, they can order new trucks, but their allotment depends on ordering a certain ratio of fuel efficient cars, which they have never been able to sell in significant numbers. He said the new ratio may drive them out of business, because it is preventing them from ordering their usual allotment of trucks for inventory.

 

[S2k Chris]

Anyone have any new thoughts on this? I’m at about one year left on my 4xe Wrangler lease, and I’m ready for something new and different. I took a job with a longish (35 miles each way) highway commute a few days a week, and the Wrangler just isn’t good at that. I thought about another sedan, but meh, and lease prices are insane. However, it does appear that Jeep is offering pretty great deals on GCs, especially 4xe GCs. Like $500-600/mo on $60-70k GCs. That’s not bad. You can talk all day about the GC being almost as expensive as an X5, but they don’t lease X5s like they lease GCs, and from my experience with a family member’s string of X3s and X5s, those things find all sorts of new and creative ways to fail catastrophically. Plus I don’t like the BMW image and infotainment; but a GC flies under the radar a lot more which I like (two execs at work drive and X5 and a 540i; I don’t want to get too far over my skis with the same car as the bigwigs).

My biggest concern is losing the fun-loving nature of the Wrangler, I go top/doors off all the time which I love. I don't off-road much (a GC would easily manage what I do). My biggest issue is the weird feature levels of the GC; a base 4xe (essentially a limited) doesn’t have a trailer hitch and adding one is $$$; the Trailhawk doesn’t currently have a sunroof (a must for me) and the Overland is $$ and only comes with black leather (wtf Jeep?).

 

[Heimkehr]

I’m at about one year left on my 4xe Wrangler lease, and I’m ready for something new and different.

My biggest concern is losing the fun-loving nature of the Wrangler, I go top/doors off all the time which I love.

Help us reconcile those two sentences.

Unless the new commute is truly tortuous in your Jeep, maybe you could consider buying the 4xe at the conclusion of its lease?

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