Percentage of jeep sales with steering issues

[Chocolate Thunder]

Your concerns are valid and warranted. Some people, like you, are very cautious and careful when undertaking the purchase of what is often the second most expensive thing you’ll ever buy besides your home.

Here’s an analogy: No right minded person would buy a home from a builder that they have reason to believe might build houses with known serious safety issues without first getting more information and doing all the homework. Maybe it’s a legit issue that makes you choose another builder. Maybe it’s a legit issue that they’ve figured out and corrected on homes they’re currently building. Maybe the issue is exaggerated or overblown and it was just one or two houses. This is what you’re trying to find out. It’s hard because obviously the builder won’t likely tell you anything that might sway you from buying their home. They will not truthfully tell you how many houses are defective.

Jeep won’t publicize how many Jeeps have janky steering or shitty welds or anything else. There is no way to know. Owners will sometimes give you legit info and others might minimize the issue either because it doesn’t affect them personally or because they’re ignorant about it or they don’t want to feel or look stupid because they bought a defective house/Jeep. Many simply won’t care if it’s the home/vehicle of their dreams. Or they’ll trust that the builder will “do the right thing” and make it right if something is wrong.

We don’t and very likely won’t know what percentage are affected because Jeep will never tell (they might not know) and owner surveys aren’t a reliable source of info. This thread is more proof of that. Good luck and I hope yours is one of the thousands of trouble free ones you keep hearing about.

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[WXman]

I believe a lot of the "problems" are resolved by lowering the tire pressure to 32- 37 psi and then the rest of the "steering problems" is normal handling of Wranglers.
I know some JLs left the factory with the wrong programming for the steering and a few may actually have a real problem, but most are tire pressure.

I respectfully disagree. Tire pressure will not cure a wandering all over the road problem. In my decades of experience, I actually find it to be funny when somebody says they dropped their tire pressure and it cured their steering.

 

[JeepSmash]

You are being a little mean and a Prius is a fucking ugly vehicle. Sorry to offend anyone who has one including members of my family.
I’ve already ordered my Jeep. Simply just trying to stay informed and analyze some things I have read. What’s wrong with that?
Must be my analytic mind. I owned a manufacturing bysiness for many years.
I always like to analyze things.

So what happens if we say well 55% of Jeeps have steering issues. Will you cancel your order?

Point is, you’re going to over analyze to the point that once you get your Jeep youre going to be focused solely on anything negative about it and not enjoy it.

Just get the Jeep. Drive it and enjoy it. If there’s an issue. Take it in for service.

The odds are definitely in your favor that you’re Jeep will be just fine.

 

[LLRubylady]

So what happens if we say well 55% of Jeeps have steering issues. Will you cancel your order?

Point is, you’re going to over analyze to the point that once you get your Jeep youre going to be focused solely on anything negative about it and not enjoy it.

Just get the Jeep. Drive it and enjoy it. If there’s an issue. Take it in for service.

The odds are definitely in your favor that you’re Jeep will be just fine.

If it were 55 percent I definitely would cancel.
Lol. I am just curious but the numbers will not be made public.
I am not green to manufacturing issues. Surely their team is doing an assessment. It’s just frustrating to read these issues and think that one day I’ll turn on the news and there will be a story about someone killed because steering defects.

 

[TJEli]

My first vehicle was a 79 CJ7 with a worn out manual steering box. It had a half turn of steering play. I drove it for 5 years like that. My JL drives great.

-Eli

 

[JeepSmash]

If it were 55 percent I definitely would cancel.
Lol. I am just curious but the numbers will not be made public.
I am not green to manufacturing issues. Surely their team is doing an assessment. It’s just frustrating to read these issues and think that one day I’ll turn on the news and there will be a story about someone killed because steering defects.

I certainly hope it doesn’t come to that.

Can I suggest go to YouTube and watch all the videos of people enjoying their JLs. You need some Jeep excitement.

 

[old8tora]

Or they’ll trust that the builder will “do the right thing” and make it right if something is wrong.

Good insight , @Jeep noob . This is the thinking of the naïve consumer , but it may not be the thinking of the manufacturer . If the buyer has doubts about Jeep reliability , and intends to buy a Jeep trusting that Jeep will make it right if something goes wrong , the buyer ought to ask , what if the manufacturer does not make it right ?

 

[tyresmoker]

If it were 55 percent I definitely would cancel.
Lol. I am just curious but the numbers will not be made public.
I am not green to manufacturing issues. Surely their team is doing an assessment. It’s just frustrating to read these issues and think that one day I’ll turn on the news and there will be a story about someone killed because steering defects.

I hear what you are saying, as the steering issue has my attention too. My dealer gave me one to drive a few months ago and my take away...."this thing is all over the road at highway speeds"..I thought it was just me. Well, fast forward a few months and after shopping every vehicle under the sun, my wife is smitten by an all-up sting gray Sahara. To compound this, she is coming out of a BMW, which handles and drives like the day we got it.

Good insight , @Jeep noob . This is the thinking of the naïve consumer , but it may not be the thinking of the manufacturer . If the buyer has doubts about Jeep reliability , and intends to buy a Jeep trusting that Jeep will make it right if something goes wrong , the buyer ought to ask , what if the manufacturer does not make it right ?

That's easy...You start the pathetic task of a buyback...Or two...Then watch the dealer blame the manufacturer and the manufacturer blame the dealer. I went through it with two Cadillac Escalades three years ago. The '15 was bought back due to transmission issues and replaced with a new '16. The '16 had "the shake"....All common issues (at the time) with this vehicle. Fixed it nicely though, I got my money back on the '16 and bought a '17 GC SRT.

 

[Chocolate Thunder]

Good insight , @Jeep noob . This is the thinking of the naïve consumer , but it may not be the thinking of the manufacturer . If the buyer has doubts about Jeep reliability , and intends to buy a Jeep trusting that Jeep will make it right if something goes wrong , the buyer ought to ask , what if the manufacturer does not make it right ?

I’m not the guy to usually trust a manufacturer or seller of a product to stand behind it when it fails. I’m kinda cynical that way. I presume most will do almost anything they can to avoid accepting liability. I was referring to some forum members who consistently chime in with that line of thinking whenever anyone complains about Jeep build quality problems. If they do the right thing, I’ll take it. I’ll be pleasantly surprised because old world pride of workmanship and integrity to stand behind what you build/sell is not commonplace anymore.

Coming from cars with far higher build quality standards I’ve learned already that Jeep isn’t about building the highest quality vehicle that they can. They’re about building a product that fills a niche that almost nothing else in the market does. Buyers will snap them up at record pace even if they’re not that well built and they can work out the bugs as they go. The customer base is used to even shittier build quality in the past so mediocre to pretty good quality seems like a huge win. I’ve resigned myself to this, and still I want one. I’ll go against my logical side and buy it anyway and hope I get one if the trouble free ones that seem to make up the majority of vehicles sold, depending on who you ask. But I’m going in with my eyes open, torpedoes be damned.

 

[KJS]

I respectfully disagree. Tire pressure will not cure a wandering all over the road problem. In my decades of experience, I actually find it to be funny when somebody says they dropped their tire pressure and it cured their steering.

Hello everyone, this is my first post (reply) on this forum.
This is also my first Jeep Wrangler and I have heard that the JL has much improved ride and handling but I immediately noticed the, what I would call, a state of constant oversteer or correction which my dealer calls "a Jeep thing".
The first thing I considered was tire pressure which was at 39/40 psi cold. I have dropped to 36psi all corners and it has made a HUGE improvement. I have put 200 miles on at this pressure and will try 34psi cold next. There is a lot of rubber between the rim and the road so tire pressure WILL make a difference and has in my case. Its not perfect but it is much improved. I will also check alignment. I would also like to know what tires people with steering issues have as that could be the problem. I have the Bridgestone Duelers. Most of the handling and steering issues I have had in my 63 years can be traced to tires so.....................just saying i think we should make sure tires are not the problem before climbing other trees.

 

[FWB FL]

My first Wrangler also but had a lot of GC, and enjoyed them, so far with !,500 miles all is pretty good, many more miles coming in 3 weeks after we tow to N Ga. Steering seems pretty good and very smooth at 75 mph.

 

[Akbill]

I read somewhere that 143,000 wranglers have been sold so far. Anyone know the percentage of owners with steering issues?
** correction- that was in one month. Obviously that would be low for the YTD. Assuming the YTD is approximately 1,600,000

We don’t know the percent with issues, only Jeep knows. BUT we can make a speculative estimate based on what we know.

There is a recent post that 100 complaints were filed with NHTSA, if you estimate that only 10% of owners bother to report it, that is less than 1%. (140,000 sold YTD)

Based on this forum, more than half of owners with any steering issue have reported their steering was fixed with a combination of several interventions. That would make it 0.5% of all JLs with steering issues not yet resolved.

If you make a really pessimistic estimate and multiply that 0.5% by 10x more, that is still less than a 5% chance of getting a JL that has a difficult to resolve steering issue.

Worst case scenario, your new JL has better than a 95% chance of having no steering issues that can’t be resolved based on this very rough and very pessimistic estimate. Less pessimistic might be closer to 98 to 99%. But of course, this is a speculative estimate.

 

[suchacrisis]

I respectfully disagree. Tire pressure will not cure a wandering all over the road problem. In my decades of experience, I actually find it to be funny when somebody says they dropped their tire pressure and it cured their steering.

Exactly this. It doesn't even make any sense. Why would over-inflated tires cause it to wander? How come my over-inflated tires on my 2017 civic or 16 silverado did basically nothing except ride a little rough? But in a JL all the sudden it causes loose steering and wandering? My buddies JK doesn't do it regardless of what pressure his tires are at.

I'm actually interested to find someone who doesn't have these problems that I've actually met just so I can see what it feels like. I was just shooting the breeze with the finance manager at the same dealer I bought mine from and without even mentioning my steering problems, he tells me his wife loves the new JLs but when they test drove it she didn't like how loose it was and she couldn't keep it straight so they are sticking with their current JK,

In fact, no one I know in real life has NOT noticed the steering issues.

 

[TravisRogers]

I'm actually interested to find someone who doesn't have these problems that I've actually met just so I can see what it feels like. I was just shooting the breeze with the finance manager at the same dealer I bought mine from and without even mentioning my steering problems, he tells me his wife loves the new JLs but when they test drove it she didn't like how loose it was and she couldn't keep it straight so they are sticking with their current JK,

In fact, no one I know in real life has NOT noticed the steering issues.

This. Personally, I think it's all subjective and Jeep is treating it as such. My wife doesn't think there's anything wrong with the steering in our Sahara – as she's swerving all over the road with an old lady clinging to the front bumper.

 

[Bearman95]

My rubicon steers better than any Jeep I have ever owned which includes a cj5, a new Tj, and 2 new Jk’s. I am sorry some of you guys are having problems but if not for this forum I would not have a hint of there possibly being anything wrong with the JL steering.

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