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If Money Grew On Trees I’d still chose a Wrangler!

JasonInDLH

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I absolutely love my new Wrangler and I got to thinking…”if I had all the money in the world I’d still chose a Wrangler!”

Ferrari F40? Wrangler!
‘69 Camaro? Wrangler!
McLaren P1 GTR? Wrangler!
Monster Truck? Well, I guess I’d go with the monster truck on this one.

Anyone else feel the same about their Wrangler?
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The Last Cowboy

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I agree. I’ve never aspired to own something that I could not afford to maintain, much less repair. If someone gave me something exotic, I’d sell it. I’ve always had pickups, Jeeps and a couple Scouts. Thtat’s what I like and what I’m most happy with.

I had a Mercedes car once and a BMW motorcycle once. The cost just to maintain them is too high to justify. Sometimes I miss that R1200GS though.
 

SH556JL

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I would keep my JLR, add a new Miata and a STI. Everything in manual sporty trim and would cover all my needs. If something needs to be moved or towed, pay someone.

I also would buy a much nicer and faster 4 seater airplane with the perfect hanger home to keep everything. If money was no concern.
 

aldo98229

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I would keep my JLR, add a new Miata and a STI. Everything in manual sporty trim and would cover all my needs. If something needs to be moved or towed, pay someone.

I also buy a much nicer and faster 4 seater airplane with the perfect hanger home to keep everything. If money was no concern.
Hah! My other car is Fiat 124 Spider, which shares many underpinnings with Mazda MX-5. The car has a slick 6-speed, sexy looks, an awesome raspy exhaust, and weighs only 2,300 lbs. It gets high fives everywhere I go.

I took her on a 600-mile road trip to Mount Rainier and Mount St Helens just this week. It was epic! The best part is, I only spent $50 bucks in gasoline on the entire trip. This much fun shouldn’t be this cheap!

I will likely keep the Fiat much longer than the Jeep. It has a 4 year factory warranty, it is very well built, and it is fun as hell.
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Jeep Wrangler JL If Money Grew On Trees I’d still chose a Wrangler! 1632664480955

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Jeep Wrangler JL If Money Grew On Trees I’d still chose a Wrangler! 1632664715008

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Jjirish

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We were driving around house hunting and I made the comment that regardless of tax bracket... everyone loves jeeps! Old jeeps new jeeps "cheap" jeeps expensive jeeps..... jeepers are defined by personality and love for fun... income may limit available jeeps but what other vehicle really is loved and bought by all groups if people? We saw mansions with cj7s to fully moded jeeps... we saw tear downs with jeeps in the "garages".... jeepers are a unique group of people!
 

SH556JL

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Hah! My other car is Fiat 124 Spider, which shares many underpinnings with Mazda MX-5. The car has a slick 6-speed, sexy looks, an awesome raspy exhaust, and weighs only 2,300 lbs. It gets high fives everywhere I go.

I took her on a 600-mile road trip to Mount Rainier and Mount St Helens just this week. It was epic! The best part is, I only spent $50 bucks in gasoline on the entire trip. This much fun shouldn’t be this cheap!

I will likely keep the Fiat much longer than the Jeep. It has a 4 year factory warranty, it is very well built, and it is fun as hell.
I really like the 124 Abarth and would be one the I really want. But they don’t make them anymore and I tried a few months ago to look for a new one, can’t be had it seems (at least a Abarth with manual). At this point in my life, I really prefer to buy new over used (and keep them for a really long time).

Also as someone who turns wrenches for a living. I dislike doing it on my personal vehicles if I don’t have to. On my Jeep with the terrible dealer experience, I already came to the conclusion I have to do my on own service. With the 124, it would be my “daily beater” and the JLR the weekend warrior. The 124 would be serviced ideally at the dealer, being it’s the same as the Jeep it would be a hard no for me. Even though it’s much better looking and sounds way better then the Miata.
 

aldo98229

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I really like the 124 Abarth and would be one the I really want. But they don’t make them anymore and I tried a few months ago to look for a new one, can’t be had it seems (at least a Abarth with manual). At this point in my life, I really prefer to buy new over used (and keep them for a really long time).

Also as someone who turns wrenches for a living. I dislike doing it on my personal vehicles if I don’t have to. On my Jeep with the terrible dealer experience, I already came to the conclusion I have to do my on own service. With the 124, it would be my “daily beater” and the JLR the weekend warrior. The 124 would be serviced ideally at the dealer, being it’s the same as the Jeep it would be a hard no for me. Even though it’s much better looking and sounds way better then the Miata.
Yeah, Fiat got the Spider right: Italian where it needs to be - sexy looks; raspy, punchy little motor; perfectly tuned suspension; and Japanese where it needs to be - quality of assembly and manufacture.

The last NEW 2020 Spiders sold at the start of this year.

If you really want one now, you have to keep your eyes peeled and act quickly.

The same is true of Fiat 500 Abarths: they sell as soon as they come to market.
 

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viper88

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I wouldn’t. Not with the dealer I got.

Jeep should make dealers more accountable but dealer and brand are 2 different things. I do get the frustration with some dealers though. One dealer had my JLR for over a month trying to figure out what was wrong with my infotainment. They never did figure it out. Same dealer scratched up my seat repairing it. The director of service was supposed to cal me back personally and never did so I suspect the issues with my dealer are from the top down. Incompetent service by them all around.

I know there is internal data from counsumer surveys. I wish car companies would incentivize dealers to perform better. Reward or punish good or bad dealers. Make that information from consumer surveys public so consumers can decide who they want to do business with.

I wish there was a central source that some how rates how satisfied consumers are with dealers so consumers can make a more educated decision.

Audi used to send out consumer surveys to customers after their cars were serviced. Audi would reward dealers who performed well and punish dealers who did not. Anything less then a perfect review was considered a failure and deducted from the incentives.

What is the latest issue with your dealer?
 

aldo98229

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Jeep should make dealers more accountable but dealer and brand are 2 different things. I do get the frustration with some dealers though. One dealer had my JLR for over a month trying to figure out what was wrong with my infotainment. They never did figure it out. Same dealer scratched up my seat repairing it. The director of service was supposed to cal me back personally and never did so I suspect the issues with my dealer are from the top down. Incompetent service by them all around.

I know there is internal data from counsumer surveys. I wish car companies would incentivize dealers to perform better. Reward or punish good or bad dealers. Make that information from consumer surveys public so consumers can decide who they want to do business with.

I wish there was a central source that some how rates how satisfied consumers are with dealers so consumers can make a more educated decision.

Audi used to send out consumer surveys to customers after their cars were serviced. Audi would reward dealers who performed well and punish dealers who did not. Anything less then a perfect review was considered a failure and deducted from the incentives.

What is the latest issue with your dealer?
This is a long, convoluted story.

Chrysler, like most automakers, used to survey customers’ satisfaction with their dealer experience. But then Chrysler went bankrupt and Fiat took it over.

Sergio Marchionne did not believe in tracking customer satisfaction; in his mind “good dealers will raise to the top and poor dealers will flounder,” as if by magic. So one of the first things he did was cancel Chrysler’s long-standing dealer satisfaction tracking program.

Unfortunately, things didn’t work as Marchionne envisioned: poor dealers stay in operation for a variety of reasons. For instance, some customers, like myself, have only one local dealer so we have no alternative; also, state laws are heavily biased towards protecting dealers from the automakers.

The end result of Marchionne’s experiment was that customers’ experience with CDJR dealers deteriorated dramatically over the next several years. By 2014-2015, CDJR dealers were firmly at the bottom of the JD Power Customer Satisfaction rankings —see below.
Jeep Wrangler JL If Money Grew On Trees I’d still chose a Wrangler! 1632678506548


By this juncture FCA finally realized that letting dealers do as they pleased wasn’t working. So it introduced a new dealer satisfaction tracking program that tied dealer bonuses down to individual survey responses. Worse, anything below an 8 on a 10-point scale was considered a “fail.” So now dealer staff was more focused on managing survey responses than on doing a good job. It was a big mess.

Just like FCA loves to tinker nonstop with vehicle options and colors, with the pricing and ordering system, FCA also loves to tinker with every else, including making warranty claims more difficult, and making endless changes to the customer satisfaction program. FCA has continued to screw around with the program hoping to get better results, but things haven’t improved.

It’s gotten to the point that some dealers have given up trying to please FCA, let alone please the customer. Many have taken the stance that they will refuse every warranty claim that comes through the door, using whatever excuse, to avoid getting screwed by FCA. The whole thing is one big mess.

Unsurprisingly, CDJR dealers continue to suck. 2021 results show no improvement —see below.
Jeep Wrangler JL If Money Grew On Trees I’d still chose a Wrangler! 1632679290661


FCA has proved brilliant at developing and building the vehicles people want. Unfortunately, it has also proved terrible at the soft side of business: it totally sucks at marketing, at managing dealers and suppliers, and at honoring the commitments it makes to customers.

The latest issue with my dealer is that after it sold me and installed the Mopar lift, now refuses to do the steering box TSB under the pretext that it “has 35-inch tires and an aftermarket track bar...”.

I’ve been arguing with this dealer, for one reason or another, since I moved here four-and-a-half years ago, and I’m exhausted. After 30+ years owning Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles, I may have to cut my losses and buy something else next time.
 
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txj2go

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I would have to own a Jeep for what I want to do, no matter what my lottery status was. However as already mentioned I would trade in what I have for a new model equipped a little better. And I would still want to own a second vehicle like I do now.
 
 



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