Recall only 48 hours after purchasing new JL

[Capricorn]

Your's is a clear cut case in your favor, Kyle.

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[Notorious]

@Kyle17428 Good call. Don’t let this sour you on Jeeps or the Wrangler. No dealership is perfect and some are worse than others when it comes to service needs.

Tag @JeepCares to assist with a resolution.

Also, as you deal with this, please understand that no one could have predicted that you would have to experience what you’re going thru.

It sucks and you have every right to be upset. Just remember that cooler heads prevail and even though you may not want to, keep calm, cool, non emotional and collected to work thru a speedy and efficient resolution. Best wishes.

 

[Capricorn]

Here’s the actual documents on the recall if anyone was interested. Notice how the mopar site shows March 3 as the recall date, and March 10 fca started buying back dealer inventory

Be sure to ask FCA if March 3rd is the day when the dealers were notified or was it an internal FCA decision date to recall. If not, ask them when the dealers were notified.

 

[Equitasforall]

Yeah at this point I’m just waiting to hear back from FCA about what they want to do. I’m avoiding involving the dealer any further as much as i can. When I do visit a dealer it will either be Safford or Whitten since at least they are close to me. Unless someone from here had issues with them as well...

I've had pretty good luck through Safford in the past, but typically use their Winchester location (which happens to be where I purchased) but if you're in Ruther Glen, you might consider Williamsburg Jeep. Still over an hour away from you but their service department has absolutely KILLED it when I've dealt with them on my Wrangler or the wife's Grand Cherokee. Phenomenal customer service each and every time.

Good Luck!

 

[ads75]

At this point I’m looking to convince FCA to do one of the following:
install an aftermarket clutch
Cut me a check to get an aftermarket clutch installed
Do a straight buyback/trade assist deal into a non affected vehicle, similar to what happens in lemon law situations.

This really sucks. But I absolutely would not let them cut me a check to get an aftermarket clutch installed on my own. If these manual transmissions have a history of catastrophic failure, let them fix it and be liable. I would not give them an excuse to say it was something a private shop did to cause a potential failure.

 

[Dkretden]

So, the recall was announced on March 3rd? And you purchased on the 8th. And the stop sale was distributed on the 10th?

I am unaware that it is lawful for a dealership to sell you a car without telling you that it was subject to a recall. I would start there. Assuming that you want out of the transaction? Do some research and then approach the dealership.

 

[fat_head]

No need for lawyers. No need to get all wound up. No need for forum drama. Have the recall done when they can do it and enjoy your Jeep. That "hot" smell you were smelling is pretty normal for the first 100 or so miles. Mine did it too and it's an automatic.

 

[Kyle17428]

I've had pretty good luck through Safford in the past, but typically use their Winchester location (which happens to be where I purchased) but if you're in Ruther Glen, you might consider Williamsburg Jeep. Still over an hour away from you but their service department has absolutely KILLED it when I've dealt with them on my Wrangler or the wife's Grand Cherokee. Phenomenal customer service each and every time.

Good Luck!

This really sucks. But I absolutely would not let them cut me a check to get an aftermarket clutch installed on my own. If these manual transmissions have a history of catastrophic failure, let them fix it and be liable. I would not give them an excuse to say it was something a private shop did to cause a potential failure.

I own an independent repair shop and am already a fleet warranty provider for a couple of manufacturers (not fca though)
Even if I end up waiting for the OEM fix, it's likely this job will get done at my shop assuming I can get us on the FCA warranty provider list. I'm working on that in the background.
The failure in question is limited to the clutch pressure plate, relatively straight forward repair. Not something you would want to attempt in your driveway, but not a problem for pretty much any legitimate repair shop. Just time consuming.

 

[blnewt]

I own an independent repair shop and am already a fleet warranty provider for a couple of manufacturers (not fca though)
Even if I end up waiting for the OEM fix, it's likely this job will get done at my shop assuming I can get us on the FCA warranty provider list. I'm working on that in the background.
The failure in question is limited to the clutch pressure plate, relatively straight forward repair. Not something you would want to attempt in your driveway, but not a problem for pretty much any legitimate repair shop. Just time consuming.

Well, this whole thing really sucks from the beginning, but at least you may have a potential for a huge amount of future business if doing Jeep clutch work is something that won't take too much away from your other work

And damn, that dealer needs to be skewered!

 

[ads75]

I own an independent repair shop and am already a fleet warranty provider for a couple of manufacturers (not fca though)
Even if I end up waiting for the OEM fix, it's likely this job will get done at my shop assuming I can get us on the FCA warranty provider list. I'm working on that in the background.
The failure in question is limited to the clutch pressure plate, relatively straight forward repair. Not something you would want to attempt in your driveway, but not a problem for pretty much any legitimate repair shop. Just time consuming.

Sounds like you know a boatload more than I do. If you know what you are doing probably best for you to do it if they will cover it then. Maybe even if they don't cover it.

 

[Kyle17428]

Sounds like you know a boatload more than I do. If you know what you are doing probably best for you to do it if they will cover it then. Maybe even if they don't cover it.

Yeah I trust myself quite a lot more than the dealership techs fresh out of trade school to do the job. Plus, I don’t want the down time on it. No doubt that once the fix is available it’s gonna take like a week to get it fixed. Maybe more.
I need it to quote jobs in hard to reach areas on farms and forestry operations. Even if they give me a loaner they aren’t going to want me to take a borrowed vehicle down a skidder trail.

 

[IceBerg]

Yeah I trust myself quite a lot more than the dealership techs fresh out of trade school to do the job. Plus, I don’t want the down time on it. No doubt that once the fix is available it’s gonna take like a week to get it fixed. Maybe more.
I need it to quote jobs in hard to reach areas on farms and forestry operations. Even if they give me a loaner they aren’t going to want me to take a borrowed vehicle down a skidder trail.

That's their problem, not yours. You have a 4WD vehicle and need a comparable loaner while yours is under repair. If they provide you a 4WD vehicle they have to expect it to be used.

 

[viper88]

Haven’t even owned our JL a whole week and already have a horror story shaping up with it.
On Saturday we visited a dealer near our home to look at a jl. I asked about getting a manual transmission and the salesman was cryptic about ordering one. So we left and I started looking for dealers with one on the lot. I finally found one about 1.5 hours away at Lustine Jeep in Woodbridge, VA.

So on Sunday (3/8/20) we home a brand new jl Willy’s sport with the 6 speed manual.
On the ride south on i95 I could smell clutch burning. I wondered many things during this time- “am i doing it wrong? Is it just breaking in?”
Mind you I have been driving manual transmissions as my daily driver for 14 years.

The next day (3/9) our salesman calls to follow up and i tell him what happened. He was more worried about me leaving a good rating on his survey. I drove it around most of the day doing estimates for work. Didn’t notice the smell again until I had to make a 20 mile jaunt on the interstate.

Tuesday (3/10) I come home from work and find an internal fca recall notice about 2018-2020 JL clutches with some strong language about the possibility of fire. I check my vin on mopar’s site and my Jeep is affected. Come to find out this recall came out on March 3rd according to mopar! I call Lustine and speak with the sales manager. The manager says “we performed that recall, they just didn’t submit the work order yet” to which I replied “how could you perform a recall if the parts aren’t available?” This made him nervous. He said he had to call his service manager and would call me back. 20 minutes later he calls back and essentially tells me that my only option is to drive all the way back and drop off the Jeep for some undetermined amount of time- probably at least a month- and take a loaner vehicle.

At this point I’m getting upset:

-I was sold a brand new vehicle even though it had an open recall
-I traded in my perfect running and driving daily to get it
-no one told me about this recall at any point of this $30k transaction
-the sales manager attempted to lie about performing the recall.
I aired my grievance with the sales manager, who then became hostile.

After that fruitless conversation I decided to contact FCA directly.

The rep from FCA confirmed that no dealers are allowed to sell stock with open recalls and that this in fact had an open recall when I took delivery of it. She escalated the issue to someone higher up who will be contacting me in the next day or so.

At this point I’m looking to convince FCA to do one of the following:
install an aftermarket clutch
Cut me a check to get an aftermarket clutch installed
Do a straight buyback/trade assist deal into a non affected vehicle, similar to what happens in lemon law situations.

Has anyone else bought an affected manual after the 3/3 recall date like me? What else can I do?

I think it's against Federal Law to sell a vehicle with a active recall. You might get another vehicle or a buy-back.

 

[aldo98229]

I have owned Chrysler products for 30 years, Wranglers for 11 years, and FCA products for the last 6 years —FCA was officially formed in 2014.

Over this time I have figured out the following:

1. I LOVE Wranglers!
2. While Chrysler never ranked tops in reliability, their products offered a lot for the money. I rarely had any quality issues while my vehicles were under warranty. The occasional times I had a recall they took care of it promptly and effectively. I felt I could always count on them.
3. “Value” has become tougher to justify under FCA. Their products look like a million bucks, but their prices have gone through the roof. Worse, quality problems now emerge the moment we drive off the lot, recalls are a dime a dozen, and dealers have become complete blood-sucking leaches. The only thing FCA cares about is money NOW.

I was so fed up with FCA’s shitty quality, terrible dealers and greedy attitude that one day I drove my 2018 JKUR Recon from my local CDJR service department across the street into a Toyota dealership; dumped that Jeep right there and drove off in a brand-new Tacoma TRD Off-Road.

Tacoma’s build quality and Toyota’s customer service put Jeep to shame. Unfortunately for me, driving that truck only made it clear how addicted I am to Wranglers. So I was back within six months. But in order for me to own and enjoy a JL, I had to separate in head my LOVE for Wranglers, from the greedy company FCA has become, and how terrible its dealers are.

I shopped for a JL VERY carefully: it took me 2-3 months to find a Wrangler that (a) drove well, (b) felt well put together. (c) had the equipment and color I wanted, and (d) was priced right. I even found a great dealer!

Yes, there are still a few good Jeep dealers out there. But FCA is making sure that they are becoming harder to find by the day.

My advise to my fellow JL owners: don’t confuse your LOVE for Wranglers with “love” for FCA or its dealers. If you do, sooner or later will come and bite you in the ass.

 

[JohnAinVA]

Not to get too far off track, but no joke! That place is a shark tank.
I contacted them on Saturday night and got a preapproval, scheduled a time to go in and look at it. We show up and not two feet away from stepping out of the car and a salesman accosted us. We told him we already had a salesman we were working with. Dude says “well I’ll be helping you from here” he straight stole the other guys sale.
And let me tell you about that finance office- the place was kept at a balmy 95 degrees while they tried to sweat us out into agreeing to an extended warranty. Mind you, the Silverado we traded was financed at a pretty competitive rate with perfect payment history and the guy was blowing smoke up my ass saying he could only get us a rate that parallels my credit card. After 2.5 hours of pretending to look for a better rate, saying ‘well they may give a better rate if you do this service plan’ while we were trapped in this sauna my girlfriend finally broke down in tears from the pressure of the sales process. At that point he gave up the act and gave us the same rate we had on the Silverado.
Would not recommend.

Exact same thing happened to me when I bought my Jeep there - hate that place! They kept pressing me about the extended warranty - my whole experience there was horrible. Where you dealing with Brandon? Slimy.

Anyway - sorry about the circumstance. My clutch has been smelling too but I'm still driving it. I just found out about this recall this am....

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