Although the new Jeep Grand Cherokee can be a great car if it works,
it suffers from poor manufacturing quality. Many owners have been
complaining about the following
- Brake rotors warp every 6,000 - 10,000 miles
- Loud drivetrain noises (whining) at highway speeds
- Bumping transmission and clunking between gears
- Transfer case, transmission, and differentials needed replacement -
several times within 12 months
- Failure of four-wheel drive / quadra-drive
- Stalling engine and failing fuel pump
- Pull to the right
- Power windows fail
- Screeching noise in steering wheel
All these vehicles that were less than 2 years old. Most
problems already occured within the first few months.
So far, Daimler-Chrysler has done nothing to address these problems
but expects its customers to fix the manufacturing defects. In several
cases Daimler-Chrysler even refused to cover warranted repairs and blamed
the problem on the customer. The company flatly refuses to pay for towing
expenses if the vehicle fails in some remote area, although towing is
included in the basic warranty.
Many owners also complain about the arrogance of DaimlerChrysler's customer
service and district managers. Instead of receiving help and assistance, they
found evasive answers and delaying tactics.
Personally, I had my own negative
experience with DaimlerChrysler, but the sheer number of reports
from others customers about the problems they had to go through speaks
for itself. Here are a few interesting web pages.
-
NHTSA Complaints: This is the official database of the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
By February 12, 2000 there were 574 complaints about the
1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee (about 120 are about brake rotors,
70 about powertrain, transfer case, differentials etc.)
This puts the Jeep Grand Cherokee into the same category as the
Ford Explorer with its problem with Firestone tires.
Compare this to 29 complaints about the 1999 GMC Jimmy, 51 about the
1999 Toyota 4Runner, 146 about the "ordinary" 1999 Jeep Cherokee.
For all these vehicles the number of complaints about 1999 models
is less than about 1998 models. Only for the Jeep Grand Cherokee it
went up.
- The
Jeep Grand Cherokee Owners Posting Board is an excellent source of
information about customer experiences with their vehicles. You'll find
plenty of detailed complaints
that make it obvious that the problems with
the 1999/2000 series are not isolated cases.
- On the Autoweb
Reviews page you'll find consumer reviews about all kinds
of vehicles. Note that the majority of 1999/2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee
owners likes the vehicle but still complains about the poor
manufacturing quality.
Here are some extracts
- Another set of reviews can be found at
Productopia. It is not well sorted, so you
see reviews of all Jeep Grand Cherokees from 1993 to
1999. But again, reliability is pointed to as the main weakness of the
vehicle.
Extracts
- At the
Sport Utility Vehicle Conference
you'll find another discussion forum about the Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Again, lots of quality complaints although the forum originally aimed at
discussing "fun" issues.
Extracts
Daimler-Chrysler does not appear to have solved the problems for the
2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee, so there is a good chance that owners will
have to go through similar ordeals. Customers should ask themselves
whether they want to spend $30,000.- and more on a vehicle that is
manufactured so poorly.
