When the dealership checks to see if youve abused your jeep…

[CT_LFC]

Dealerships are assholes, though it did take me a minute to confirm i was in the JL forum and not a Honda Civic one.

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[LITTLE WILLYS]

These stories drive me nuts. First off what is the jeep in the shop for? Second of all is the dealer, and more importantly the service department makes up 75% of the total dealer profit. The dealer gets paid for warranty work as with any other repair. The notion that dealers do not want to do warranty work means one of two things. The customer does not understand that fact, or the dealer itself is not looking out for it's customer. In many cases, dealers/service techs do not want to chase down squeaks and rattles. However it is within their scope of work to isolate, and repair under warranty. I had a truck that made a pulsation squeak at 55 mph. Two techs claimed they could not hear it. I recorded the noise, and sent it to gm, and bam! I got a call, and the truck was fixed. They heard it, they were just to lazy to do their job, and isolate, and fix it. But they got paid for the repair, and my squeak went away.

 

[aldo98229]

The sooner, the better. The dealership closest to me is absolutely terrible. Most recently, the service manager told me one thing, turns around and tells FCA something else. Wasted a month of my time - for warranty service, I now drive twenty miles out of my way to use another dealership.

Bought my latest Jeep through emails with a dealership out of state. Haven’t looked back since.

Funny you guys mention Tacomas. If it wasn’t for my damn height (6’5”) and the god awful seating position, I would have sworn off Jeep by now.

Yeah, I was done with Jeep, too.

But I couldn’t stand Tacoma’s seating position and that terrible automatic transmission. It is that bad. The truck itself was handsome, drove nice and felt very well put together. The Toyota dealership experience wasn’t posh, but it was no-nonsense, efficient and to the point.

Eventually, Wrangler started calling my name, though. I just missed owning a Jeep Wrangler.

I sold that Tacoma for the same amount I had paid for it new. Amazing.

 

[SH556JL]

Dealerships are assholes, though it did take me a minute to confirm i was in the JL forum and not a Honda Civic one.

I too remember my high school days with stolen McDonalds food trays under the back tires of my Acura with handbrake pulled.

 

[viper88]

These stories drive me nuts. First off what is the jeep in the shop for? Second of all is the dealer, and more importantly the service department makes up 75% of the total dealer profit. The dealer gets paid for warranty work as with any other repair. The notion that dealers do not want to do warranty work means one of two things. The customer does not understand that fact, or the dealer itself is not looking out for it's customer. In many cases, dealers/service techs do not want to chase down squeaks and rattles. However it is within their scope of work to isolate, and repair under warranty. I had a truck that made a pulsation squeak at 55 mph. Two techs claimed they could not hear it. I recorded the noise, and sent it to gm, and bam! I got a call, and the truck was fixed. They heard it, they were just to lazy to do their job, and isolate, and fix it. But they got paid for the repair, and my squeak went away.

Most Tech's hate warranty work because they are deprived of the opportunity to make more money at the retail level.

Managers have quotas. Dealers need to spread out or average out warranty and retail work they take in. Booking too many warranty jobs during a certain business cycle can have a negative impact for that cycle.

The warranty repair labor rate is predetermined by the car manufacturer. These rates are not the same as what a retail customer would pay. Most warranty work is billed and paid at a much lower rate than what a retail customer would pay. Then there is cash flow. Cash flow is the most important tool for dealers. A retail customer pays for the repair/service the day the vehicle is completed and picked up. Warranty reimbursements can take a lot of time to process. A busy service department will give higher priority to better paying customers if they are behind.

 

[aldo98229]

If a tech is worried about billable rates and cash flows, something is not working.

The whole premise behind the independent dealer model is, among other things, that customers are insulated from the day-to-day problems of running an operation.

 

[The Last Cowboy]

All of those hits on the rev limiter and the activation of traction control and stability nannies will show up on the dealers diagnostic machine.

What I despise almost as much as incompetent or lazy dealers are those who buy a new vehicle and drive the living hell out of it then demand that all of the damage caused by it be fixed under a warranty claim.

 

[deserteagle56]

I've heard this before.... what is wrong with the seating position?

Very low - the cab is not very tall. So the seat sits so low (so your head doesn't contact the ceiling if you're tall) that it feels like you are sitting on the floor with your feet sticking straight out in front of you. Very uncomfortable off road...and for me, on road also.

 

[aldo98229]

Having owned Chryslers, Dodges and Jeeps for 30+ years, I found dealers’ customer service took a dive around 2014, after Fiat took complete control.

Fiat took over Chrysler in 2009; FCA was officially incorporated in 2014.

Chrysler dealers used to be very easy going about warranty work. I never, ever, experienced the least hint of pushback. But around 2014-15, that all changed, and things have been getting progressively worse.

A few years back, not that long ago, you used to get things fixed that same day or the next day at most. Today, anything takes 2 weeks to fix. And this trend started well before COVID even hit.

Of course vehicles are now more complex. But dealers also seem poorly trained.

My local dealer is pathetic. I don’t understand how management even thinks that the way it treats customers is acceptable.

 

[sentience]

I've heard this before.... what is wrong with the seating position?

Easier to show than explain. This guy does a good job of it (start at the six minutes mark). Short answer: headroom is crap. Legroom is crap. The entire driver side is a massive blind spot. Feet cannot get comfortable. Disproportional steering wheel distance to driver. Weird and cramped driving position.

 

[aldo98229]

Easier to show than explain. This guy does a good job of it (start at the six minutes mark). Short answer: headroom is crap. Legroom is crap. The entire driver side is a massive blind spot. Feet cannot get comfortable. Disproportional steering wheel distance to driver. Weird and cramped driving position.

Great vid!

I had a TRD Off-Road with the Premium package, just like that one. Mine was automatic.

I agree with his comments. I am 6’0”; still I was never able to find a comfortable driving position in my Tacoma. If I adjusted the seats for my legs to be comfortable, the steering wheel was too far; if I adjusted for my arms to reach the steering wheel, my legs had no space against the pedals.

The automatic transmission’s hesitation downshifting he talks about made for some scary moments passing other vehicles on 2-lane roads. It was utterly frustrating to drive that Tacoma on 2-lane Mountains roads, which abound around here.

Finally, my truck was white: looking straight ahead was like peering over a freezer. I had the hood wrapped in black vinyl to cut the glare.

 

[Heimkehr]

i was just doing burnouts the week before. And my vehicle probably sees red line 30 times a day.

So… what actually constitutes abusive driving?

I had to get a whole new rear end replaced.

 

[SH556JL]

Jeep should hire him for torture testing.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Guys, we understand that the OP was joking about the burnouts and 30x redline, right?

 

[LiveToWork]

I had the common problem many on this forum had. Rear end gears start shredding themselves

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