First time Jeep owner

[cdahl383]

Congratulations on your purchase, looks great. But I'm more interested in your 1972 Chevy Nova, brings back memories for me. I had a Chevy Nova in High School, great car.

I had a Nova in high school too, and still have it haha! It was my first car and I just kept it over the years, restored it, different engine and trans, wheels, etc. Had it for 22 years now. It's a fun car too!

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[cdahl383]

Must get a pretty good lease deal working at Chrysler. The Jeep is a good choice, it'll serve you well.

Yeah they have good deals for employees. Always wanted to drive a Wrangler and see what the deal was. They're a lot of fun I can see!

 

[Sean L]

Yeah they have good deals for employees. Always wanted to drive a Wrangler and see what the deal was. They're a lot of fun I can see!

Awesome deal! Find some local Jeepers to take you off road and enjoy it.

 

[timn1984]

I had a Nova in high school too, and still have it haha! It was my first car and I just kept it over the years, restored it, different engine and trans, wheels, etc. Had it for 22 years now. It's a fun car too!

Mine was a 1964 model, great car. Yours looks GREAT. I love those cars, they ran well and were easy to work on.

 

[Biohazard]

Welcome to the club. I'm on my fourth jeep, the JL is the best one yet.

 

[cdahl383]

Mine was a 1964 model, great car. Yours looks GREAT. I love those cars, they ran well and were easy to work on.

Thanks man! The 64 was a nice car, those were the boxy kind, very nice!

I agree, very easy to work on. You can actually see the engine when you pop the hood! I can do a lot on the old cars, but the new cars I'm not too good with working on them. I did some minor work to my Challenger and tuned it and stuff, but no major work. Too many wires and sensors everywhere haha! The old cars aren't as refined, but they're easy to work on and a lot of fun to drive!

 

[cdahl383]

Welcome to the club. I'm on my fourth jeep, the JL is the best one yet.

I hear everyone say the JL is the best, they fixed everything that was wrong with the old Jeeps, etc. What were the major griped with the older models? This is my first one so I have no reference point when people talk about that.

 

[ricku]

Picked up my new Jeep today! First Jeep I’ve ever owned. Always wondered what the big deal was about Jeeps, never really got it before. Finally had the chance to lease one through work so I figured I’d give it a shot.

Man what a fun vehicle to drive! They look cool outside, look cool inside, fun to drive, etc. It’s like driving a little tank with the short stubby windshield and dashboard and long straight hood. I like the boxy look.

Definitely a big change from the Challenger R/T I was previously leasing. I was getting onto the highway on one of those on-ramps that curve around and forgot I was no longer in a muscle car with performance suspension haha! Had to slow down a bit! But it rides and handles well for an off road vehicle.

I ended up getting the 2.0L turbo engine. Has much more power than I was expecting. Never felt slow either from a dead stop or a roll on the freeway. Plenty of power. Supposedly it gets 21/22mpg, so we’ll see where I end up falling. I drive mostly freeway, so it should be on the higher end of the spectrum.

I wasn’t sure what trim level to get at first either. Sport, Sport S, Sahara, or Rubicon. Obviously I loved the Rubicon, but after really looking hard at what I was going to use the Jeep for, it seemed like I’d be paying for a lot of extra off road stuff that I’d likely never use. I just wasn’t sold on the Sahara’s looks for some reason (wheels, running boards, not sure what it was). The Sport was too bare bones for me, so I opted for the Sport S. Exactly what I was wanting.

I didn’t get many options either, but the S package seems to have a lot of stuff standard anyway. I got the hardtop, headliner, and technology group, that’s it. Surprisingly the stereo sounds better than the one in the Challenger I had.

I can’t wait for summer, going to take the top and doors off for sure. It’s a bit too cold for that in Michigan right now though haha!

Really looking forward to driving the Jeep more and getting to know it better. I think I’m going to really enjoy it!

Congratulations ! Welcome to the Club. Now don't forget the Jeep wave !!

 

[Biohazard]

I hear everyone say the JL is the best, they fixed everything that was wrong with the old Jeeps, etc. What were the major griped with the older models? This is my first one so I have no reference point when people talk about that.

Had a few XJ's, they were mechanically reliable, but if you weren't leaking oil at the rear main seal, you either just got it fixed or it was going to start tomorrow. If you spent much time off road (which they did great at due to short wheelbase and light weight), the unibody creaked and flexed a good bit. Electrically they tended to be finicky (random door locks, power windows, hvac stuff would break).

And the TJ I had was fantastic pure joy to drive--but! Highway driving was a little precarious, and comfort wasn't outstanding. Same issues with oil leaking and electronic problems. And it also was just a two door and didn't have room for three kids and my wife.

My JLUR: as comfortable and quiet inside as my wife's previous 2009 lexus GX (though no where near as nice as the 2019 she now has), no mechanical or electronic issues yet, great engine, easy to modify, and (my favorite) 2 inches of lift and I've got 37 inch tires!

 

[timn1984]

Thanks man! The 64 was a nice car, those were the boxy kind, very nice!

I agree, very easy to work on. You can actually see the engine when you pop the hood! I can do a lot on the old cars, but the new cars I'm not too good with working on them. I did some minor work to my Challenger and tuned it and stuff, but no major work. Too many wires and sensors everywhere haha! The old cars aren't as refined, but they're easy to work on and a lot of fun to drive!

Yea, I just did a little tuning, spark plugs etc... I actually had a couple, one was a Chevy II Nova and the other was a Chevy Nova 1965 Station wagon, white. I drove that until it died, RIP CHEVY! Ahhh many memories

 

[cdahl383]

Had a few XJ's, they were mechanically reliable, but if you weren't leaking oil at the rear main seal, you either just got it fixed or it was going to start tomorrow. If you spent much time off road (which they did great at due to short wheelbase and light weight), the unibody creaked and flexed a good bit. Electrically they tended to be finicky (random door locks, power windows, hvac stuff would break).

And the TJ I had was fantastic pure joy to drive--but! Highway driving was a little precarious, and comfort wasn't outstanding. Same issues with oil leaking and electronic problems. And it also was just a two door and didn't have room for three kids and my wife.

My JLUR: as comfortable and quiet inside as my wife's previous 2009 lexus GX (though no where near as nice as the 2019 she now has), no mechanical or electronic issues yet, great engine, easy to modify, and (my favorite) 2 inches of lift and I've got 37 inch tires!

I see. Sounds like they've come a long way then! Mine seems to handle pretty good on the freeway. I've had it up to 85mph with no issues. Just gets caught by the wind a little more than my old car did. But that's to be expected with it being shaped like a brick haha!

 

[cdahl383]

Yea, I just did a little tuning, spark plugs etc... I actually had a couple, one was a Chevy II Nova and the other was a Chevy Nova 1965 Station wagon, white. I drove that until it died, RIP CHEVY! Ahhh many memories

I pulled the original engine and trans out of mine and dropped in a 383 stroker with a TH350 trans and 3800RPM converter along with swapping rear gears from 3.08 to 3.73 posi. I put a new double pumper carburetor on it last summer that woke it up. It's relatively easy to work on the older cars as they have more room and less junk to deal with in general.

That sounds like a nice car! The old Chevys are nice!

 

[cdahl383]

Had the Jeep a couple days now, already put over 300 miles on it. Can’t believe the fuel mileage! Averaging almost 24mpg so far. Way better than I was expecting out of a heavy brick shaped vehicle haha! I remember my brother in laws 2012 getting mid/high teens. Didn’t buy it to get great mileage, but I’ll take it!

 

[jeepoch]

Nice.

I too am a first time Jeeper (at least a Wrangler). My pick was a 2019 JL Sport S 3.6L auto 2dr, also bright white. However, this Jeep picked me. Something like Harry Potter "the wand picks it's wizard."

My old 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan (with almost 300K miles) was totaled when I was T-boned in traffic by a distracted 16 year old. Long story short, I'd have likely driven that minivan until the axles had fallen off. No one was hurt, and it did give me chance to look for something new.

On a whim, the car rental lot in town had a 2019 JL with 14K miles almost exactly like the one I eventually bought. Luckily, the reservation for this Jeep had just happen to become available because the previous renter opted for an Expedition upgrade instead.

I fell in love with this Jeep straight away, even though I did experience one of those notorious 'death wobbles'. That's when I joined this forum and read everything I could on the subject. Once I truly understood the nature of the incident, it didn't distract from the pure joy and fun I was having with it.

Unfortunately, my insurance company only gave me 72 hours to find a replacement car after they determined the minivan was totaled. I had no trouble in getting prefinancing for what I thought would be 25K worth of Jeep. Whoa boy was I wrong...

Recall, my minivan was just shy of 300K so I was surprised to get any settlement at all. I had even thought that I'd owe the insurace company on top of my deductible for their time and hassle. The cheapest option for anything close to this rental jeep was THE rental jeep itself. The rental company offered this exact vehicle for sale at 30K. So I agreed. Had to sell some of my meager stock savings to make up the difference.

However, just before they could make the vehicle ready for sale, I noticed an almost identical rig on a dealership web-site 75 miles away for only $1K more. It too was used but with only 1024 miles on it.

It was purchased and titled but the lady who bought it returned it because the low-end digital cluster went dark. The dealership said it would take 3 months to get a replacement cluster (huh).

Anyway, they talked her into something else. In the meantime, it looked like this jeep was used as as a shop utility vehicle. They dropped a garage door on the hood, and the latches on both the driver and passenger seats were completely broken. So this jeep became somewhat of a nemisis that they just wanted to get rid of.

It had one more way cool thing that the rental didn't have, heated seats and steering wheel with the low-temperature package. So the sticker was almost $39K and they dropped $8K from that.

I bought it on the spot, after they agreed to fix the seats, and the hood. They already replaced the cluster. The only downside is the cluster shows a 'Headlight auto high-beam needs service' message that they just can't puzzle out. There is zero circuitry in this vehicle to even support such a feature.

Anyway, this Jeep found me. It has it's personality and I'm loving it!

And by the way, in a previuos life I used to be a Chrysler Powertrain Software Engineer and used to work in the very same building you parked your Jeep along the side. It used to be called Lee Iococca's Glass Palace when I worked there. The call of Colorado was the only reason I left. The minivan had the Engine Control Module that had quite a bit of my software in it. So I knew it like the back of my hand. It was really sentimental in watching it get towed away.

But here's Snoopy, my new Jeep buddy:

 

[cosine]

congrats on your new jeep and welcome to the forum.

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