Hi Harry~ :) Really? My mom loves hers. She has had it for years and I've driven it many, many times too. It's never given her any problems or me. She loans it to Don and I every time we go up to see them. Don just said he has never had any problems with his or hers either. We don't own one now, but he has in the past. She likes it because she can take her dogs in it everywhere, all the time, night and day. I'm sorry you haven't had a good experience with yours. Umph!
Thanks M. It's not the older ones that have issues. They've had a lot of problems with them since 2014, when the systems were completely overhauled. They are now all computerized and the glitches have been endless. Every time I turn around, there is another recall on the car. Do you remember that young actor Anton Yelchin? His car didn't stay in park, rolled backwards and crushed him to death. Chrysler Fiat claims they fixed the glitch that caused the cars to not stay in park but I am not convinced it is fixed. The car still rocks a bit when I put it in park. Certain models also had defective axles that they didn't have an immediate fix for. They knew when they sold the cars. It took some people over a year to get the needed replacement parts. Meanwhile, you never knew if an axle was going to fail while you are driving around. Another problem on all the models is that it is easy for the driver or passenger to accidentally bump the gear shift and throw it out of drive and into neutral. Very dangerous when you are driving at a high speed on the highway. I could go on and on, but you get the gist.
2014...about the same time the Italians took it over. They were OK when the Germans took over from Chrysler. They built us a great new plant. (Toledo) We still have the original Overland smoke stack from when they started building them for WWII.
Please tell him to be very careful & do his homework. The amount of recalls and problems that have been occurring with them over the past couple of years have been massive. They are listed as one of the worst cars to buy now.
Hi Element 99 ~ No, not personally. I have had one on loan to me and it has never given me a problem. My husband owned one before we met and he loved it. He 4 wheeled, and drove the wheels off it a couple times, but he bought it as a play toy. As far as vehicular problems that he didn't create himself, he said it ran great. I had a Suzuki Samari once that looked like a mini jeep! It was a blast! I only used it for a be-bop car to run to the beach or the store, but we loved it. We named him Sammy. But, no Jeep for Merlin.
No, and I would not ever own one without a roll bar installed. The same with a convertible. All of them should come with roll bars otherwise there is very little protection.
Hi MorningStar~ I couldn't agree more! In fact, when we bought "Sammy" the Suzuki Samari that was imperative. I have a convertible right now that has a role bar, too. We wouldn't buy one or any convertible car without one. I back your thought 100%. :) :)
Being a Toyota man, I have had one 1968 CJ that was OK but the Land Cruiser was a much stronger safer vehicle. Wish I still had mine as it went everywhere! '
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at March 23, 2017 2:54 PM MDT
Yes, I owned a 1969 CJ-5 it was so much fun! Rebuilt the motor, inline 6 cylinder, 3 speed, welded metal on the body and repainted it....soo much fun in the mud!
Nope and I never will. After working for Enterprise, I've driven almost every Jeep there is and they all are horrible compared to their counterparts. The only one that I actually like is the Grand Cherokee.
Never a Jeep but I've had two examples of the British equivalent, the Land-Rover, inspired by the Willys Jeep and introduced in 1948 as potentially useful for people like farmers and the Army, as indeed proved.
Mine were both Series 2 long wheelbase examples, one petrol, the other diesel. The former proved to have a rusted-out chassis thanks I believe to the previous owner using it as a towing and launching car for a sailing dinghy, and leaving it.
Sadly they are no longer built in the proper form - the Defender, as primarily work vehicles - apparently because ever-increasing "safety" bureaucracy made their manufacture no longer possible.
Nor is the Range Rover made now, not in its functional but costly, luxury style more often used as a so-called "Chelsea Tractor". The new one, the Range Rover Evoque (I think it's called) is still very costly but just another boring, character-less Euro-Standard "jelly mould" in external style, and I'm not convinced you could cross the Darien Gap in one, as was proved possible with its original.
Both Jeep and Land-Rover were conceived as military and work vehicles, but nowadays so many motorists expect so much luxury and complexity it's probably hard to make in economical numbers a genuinely functional car that would be reasonably pleasant to drive, while still capable of carrying bales of animal fodder across a bleak Winter Yorkshire fell or Mid-West prairie. I don't know what the current Jeep is like, but generally, such cars have become little more than very expensive fashion-statements for bullying everyone else out of the way in the "up-market" suburban school run.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at March 23, 2017 2:54 PM MDT
Harry 