Why get a 4XE?

[Mikejt]

What you're describing isn't form. There are some of these that have been having issues with with failure of the electric heater and it will lock you out of electric only use, but you should be getting an error message that says "Electric Mode unavailable. Cabin heating or cooling." It may or may not trigger a check engine light to go with it.

Similar symptom in that it limits electric only use, but not the same thing.

It's both, unfortunately. I get both the "cabin heating or cooling" message AND the FORM. When it's hot here (well, for us, it's hot at 80F) I can get it into EV mode by turning off the climate system. Oddly enough, when it's cool (50F, for instance), that doesn't work.

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[Mikejt]

It went into FORM or it went into "electric mode unavailable" due to cabin heating or cooling?

Both ... seemingly random, although when it's cool it's mostly FORM, and when it's hot it's the "cabin heating or cooling" message.

 

[Mikejt]

I just ordered my 4XE Rubicon. Why?

1- I want to see if the wrangler platform works for me as a long term vehicle to replace my Tacoma. I plan on retiring in a few years and doing a lot of traveling. The other power train options don’t interest me except the diesel but it doesn’t fit my daily use.

2- My round trip commute to work is 18-20 miles depending on if I’m going to the lab or the test facility, well within the electric range.

3- I want to try a PHEV to see how I like that drivetrain long term.

4- It’s a cool tech toy and I’m an enginnerd ?

in The end I’m either going to have a fun toy that I sell because it isn’t the best for my retirement goals or a great way to travel and see the world (At least this continent). Or (fingers crossed) a giant headache lawn ornament that spends its time waiting on repairs and drives me back to a Toyota ?

We got the 4xe in May 2021 to replace BOTH a 2007 JK and a Hybrid Toyota Avalon. The JK got less than 20mpg, had crap headlights and marginal handling at highway speeds, but was lots of fun driving trails/roads up in the Sierra where we have a cabin (including navigating trails that were, uh, "motorcycle only"). The Avalon was smooth, fast, comfortable and got over 40mpg ... and NEVER broke. Now that I'm retired and don't need to commute, I thought the 4xe could be my daily driver, yet still able to bounce over rocks and ruts or pull a trailer. For the first 7 months of ownership, it was perfect ... but since the failure of the battery coolant pump and now the coolant heater it's been in the shop five times since December. Ugh. I hope things will go back to perfect once the grossly backordered part arrives.

In the mean time, we replaced our Audi e-Tron (fully BEV) with a new Toyota RAV4 Prime (it's a PHEV). The e-Tron was great for shorter trips (up to Sacramento, for instance), but it was VERY German (if you've every owned one, you know what I mean ... extremely opinionated and way too oriented around things should LOOK good rather than work WELL) ... and once the 4xe started acting up we needed a new long-distance vehicle. We're hoping the Prime will be a nice compromise between the Avalon and the Audi ... and, we are hoping, fewer drivetrain quirks than the 4xe.

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