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I dunno that they suck, but there are Jeeps I wouldn't touch. My first one was an '01 Cherokee, still had a tape deck when I bought it. It never left me stranded, but it did have its quirks, such as the idiot light always being on. I got stuck with an engine suffering from the cyl 3 misfire due to heat soaking...Jeep fixed it under the TSB finally. Even after two accidents it still drove - one where my wife t-boned someone and once where she was rear ended...after the 2nd one, we drove the Jeep home, the other car got towed.
I wouldn't touch a Patriot or a Compass, they're nothing but cars with the Jeep name on them. The Liberty is horribly uncomfortable and unrefined, though it's got a decent 4x4 system. I wouldn't touch an 06-10 JGC with a 10 foot pole, but I love my '12. It's not built strictly for off roading, but I've had it off the beaten path and had no worries that it was going to leave me stuck. Wranglers are a toss, I don't care for the 4 doors, but I've got no issues with them otherwise. Thinking of renting a 2 door for a weekend while i'm out of town to try that one out.
i had always liked jeeps in the past until i owned one. i thought they looked cool, unique body style, thought they were rugged, etc.
i bought a 1999 jeep what a terrible car. i bought it used but with only about 60k miles so not terrible mileage. water pump went out, radiator went, window motors burned out, speakers didnt work, all common problems among jeeps speakers bc of how thy wired after a lot of opening and closing the doors the wires in the wire harness get cut. another common problem they leak, so much for rugged off road cars. my car leaked people wanted big money to try to figure out why so i tried to figure it out myself. from reading others problems could be anything from the grommet on antenna to weatherstripping on door to winshiled not being installed properly to the blower fan which has really poor waterproofing. i finally tore up my carpet the side with the leak was fine so wasn't expectnig rust well when i got the drivers side carpet up the entire floor was rusted through seat was literally about to fall through the floor boards. had to get a new floor panel welded in. final straw was soemthing wtih the fuel pump. car would either not start or start and die. after bringing it to 3 or 4 mechanics havibng multiple fuel pumps and other parts put in finally gave up.
this was the worst car i have ever owned. everything about these cars just feels cheap too, doors, plastic used in dash and knobs and things. i dont know how jeeps got a rep for being rugged bc they are crap
The Jeeps were just a poor vehicle. Bad reliability (even though owners will insist they are reliable) really bad fuel mileage for the size of a vehicle they are. Overpriced--just not a very smart vehicle to own IMO. The Jeep Liberty of the early to mid 2000's may be one of the worst SUV's ever made. Terrible gas mileage and no room in them.
Which goes to show you knowledge of keeps the liberty was the first of the "new" keeps that many do not even consider a jeep.
I've had a '86 Cherokee, a '93 Grand Cherokee and now a 2005 Grand Cherokee. These have been among the best vehicles I've ever owned. I'm 57 years old and have had a few cars in my time. If you are including Consumer Reports in your research, all I can say is "don't". I bought 2 cars they heartily recommended and one was a complete piece of crap that I had to sell at 60,000 miles because it was literally falling apart and the other required so much work in the first few years I owned it that I was fully disgusted. Yet they continually knock Jeeps. I put over 150,000 miles on my previous Jeeps without major problems and the '05 has almost 50,000 trouble free miles on it now.
I can't speak for others but I love Jeeps and will continue to buy them.
I have never paid any notice at all to Consumer Reports for years. Even many years ago, according to C. Gayle Warnock (author of The Edsel Affair) they called him for info but then said "you know we are going to necessarily have to give it a bad review". The only thing I used CR for was their interior measurements for various cars.
Which goes to show you knowledge of keeps the liberty was the first of the "new" keeps that many do not even consider a jeep.
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Just my personal opinion, but Jeeps (not keeps ) have been, and will continue to be relative junk. I guess if you want the Yugo of SUV's, then a 'Keep' is a good choice. Since we are talking quality, not price, I will stick with my GX470 which rides smooth as glass, isn't chintzy and makes no attempts at 'appearance of quality'. I would though, take one if someone gave me a new Jeep for free, as I could sell it to a used-car lot and make a little (well very little) cash for it. No flames, please, just my personal opinion.
About the best all-around 4WD vehicle that Jeep has built in the last 40 years was the '97-'02 Jeep Cherokee. By '97, Jeep had most of the reliability kinks worked out of the vehicle, it had reasonably good highway manners, was reasonably comfortable to drive, but had an off-road-tough solid-front-axle suspension, good gearing and an adequate 4.0 six cylinder engine. That is why one still sees so many of them bouncing around in the backcountry. Everything Jeep has built since has been some kind of compromise--the Wrangler, that is excellent off-road, but gets poor fuel economy and is not comfortable on the highway; the Liberty, which now manages to do most things only mediocre, and many things poorly; the Grand Cherokee, which takes thousands of dollars in options and mechanical complexity to barely reach what a stripped-down Cherokee could do off-road; the Commander, an ugly large pig that does everything worse than a Suburban; and the Patriot and Compass, nothing more than glorified "cute-utes" for posers who wouldn't know what driving on backcountry trail is. What is sad is that Jeep built some of the best 4WD's around in the 1950's and 1960's--they knew how to do it right. They should dust off some of those designs, modernize them with current engine, transmission, safety technology, etc.--WITHOUT compromising their off-road ability. Then we'd have a decent 4WD to buy. Instead, Jeep markets mostly half-assed junk to "Main Street 4-wheelers" who, for the most part, don't have a clue what using a 4WD in the backcountry is about. Not that Jeep is alone--most all of the other manufacturers are selling the same stuff--watered down 4WD's built to a least-common-denominator of off-road ability.
About the best all-around 4WD vehicle that Jeep has built in the last 40 years was the '97-'02 Jeep Cherokee. By '97, Jeep had most of the reliability kinks worked out of the vehicle, it had reasonably good highway manners, was reasonably comfortable to drive, but had an off-road-tough solid-front-axle suspension, good gearing and an adequate 4.0 six cylinder engine. That is why one still sees so many of them bouncing around in the backcountry. Everything Jeep has built since has been some kind of compromise--the Wrangler, that is excellent off-road, but gets poor fuel economy and is not comfortable on the highway; the Liberty, which now manages to do most things only mediocre, and many things poorly; the Grand Cherokee, which takes thousands of dollars in options and mechanical complexity to barely reach what a stripped-down Cherokee could do off-road; the Commander, an ugly large pig that does everything worse than a Suburban; and the Patriot and Compass, nothing more than glorified "cute-utes" for posers who wouldn't know what driving on backcountry trail is. What is sad is that Jeep built some of the best 4WD's around in the 1950's and 1960's--they knew how to do it right. They should dust off some of those designs, modernize them with current engine, transmission, safety technology, etc.--WITHOUT compromising their off-road ability. Then we'd have a decent 4WD to buy. Instead, Jeep markets mostly half-assed junk to "Main Street 4-wheelers" who, for the most part, don't have a clue what using a 4WD in the backcountry is about. Not that Jeep is alone--most all of the other manufacturers are selling the same stuff--watered down 4WD's built to a least-common-denominator of off-road ability.
I beg to differ about the Cherokee. It's a fantastic 4WD, no questions asked - I had an '01, but it was not "reasonably" comfortable to drive. I loved it, bought it when I was 19 - didn't care about the ride quality, which sucked, or the small seats, which started to suck as I got older and realized I wanted more room, it was fun to drive and never got stuck in a foot+ of snow. Now I have a '12 Grand Cherokee. More legroom, more comfortable seats, smoother ride, far quieter ride, more options (I want my toys) and more room overall. Better gas mileage and 100 more HP to boot. Yeah, it's a heavy vehicle, but the Pentastar has plenty of oomph and the 5 speed helps too. Your average Joe is never going to leave pavement, and Jeep had to adapt to that, but still consider those of us who do occasionally need to drive on something other than asphalt or concrete. Mine has Quadra-Trac II, which includes 4-Lo for those situations where AWD isn't going to work. But for everyday driving, plus the occasional fire road, back road or outright dirt trail going into the woods, it does perfectly fine and doesn't make me wonder whether I'm going to wind up stuck. I'm never going to go rock crawling or mudding in it, though I've seen people go crawling in GCs, more power to them. I'd rather not worry about banging up my $35,000 SUV. If I want to do that, i'll go out and buy a used Wrangler or similar for cheap and outfit it accordingly.
If you're looking at a Liberty, Commander, or the micro Jeeps, there are far better vehicles to be considering. As for the Grand Cherokee, especially '11 or later ones, there aren't any out there in the same class that are just as capable and comfortable at the same time. The 4-Runner isn't bad by any means, but it's still geared more towards true off-roaders and the Explorer lost its testicles when Ford made it a FWD. vehicle.
My frame of reference is a little different than most. I use a 4WD its intended purpose--I travel some really nasty trails for both work and recreation. That said, I like a vehicle that has some modicum of highway comfort (because even people who use 4WD's hard out in the backcountry still spend a lot of windshield time in the vehicle on the highway), but I have to know that the 4WD that I'm driving is going to be up to the task when I'm 20 miles up some nasty road with nobody around--no AAA, no cell service, no mechanic riding next to me. Bluntly, few of the modern crop of 4WD's are up to that task. If vehicle size on the trail is not an issue, my 4WD of choice in the current crop of 4WD's is the 3/4 ton Ford 4WD pickup. Solid-front-axle (SFA) front suspension, good transmission, good engines--just an all-around tough 4WD. In SUV's, the '97-'02 Cherokees still beat just about everything new out there. A Wrangler Rubicon is tough off-road, but it lacks much highway comfort and is not the most reliable vehicle around--plus having to rely on Chrysler's still moribund parts network.
There is a small, but very real market out there in this country for a reliable well-built "Cherokee-like" SUV with an SFA front suspension, decent ground clearance, decent engine (like a fuel-efficient turbodiesel), and durable body. A medium-size pickup along the same lines would be great, too.
My frame of reference is a little different than most. I use a 4WD its intended purpose--I travel some really nasty trails for both work and recreation. That said, I like a vehicle that has some modicum of highway comfort (because even people who use 4WD's hard out in the backcountry still spend a lot of windshield time in the vehicle on the highway), but I have to know that the 4WD that I'm driving is going to be up to the task when I'm 20 miles up some nasty road with nobody around--no AAA, no cell service, no mechanic riding next to me. Bluntly, few of the modern crop of 4WD's are up to that task. If vehicle size on the trail is not an issue, my 4WD of choice in the current crop of 4WD's is the 3/4 ton Ford 4WD pickup. Solid-front-axle (SFA) front suspension, good transmission, good engines--just an all-around tough 4WD. In SUV's, the '97-'02 Cherokees still beat just about everything new out there. A Wrangler Rubicon is tough off-road, but it lacks much highway comfort and is not the most reliable vehicle around--plus having to rely on Chrysler's still moribund parts network.
There is a small, but very real market out there in this country for a reliable well-built "Cherokee-like" SUV with an SFA front suspension, decent ground clearance, decent engine (like a fuel-efficient turbodiesel), and durable body. A medium-size pickup along the same lines would be great, too.
Agreed with your opinions on the 4WDs. For those of us in the Snowbelt who don't go "offroading" but encounter lots of gravel and dirt roads a Subaru is just fine. The newer ones return very respectable MPG as well.
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