The lemon Jeep Wrangler 4xe story continues
11 month of ownership. 8 months spent in the shop.
I wrote it earlier my case with the lemon Jeep Wrangler 4xe Rubicon. After spending around ~6 months in shop, it’s transmission among some other smaller things were fixed (around $25,000 service bill paid by FCA to dealership for the work and parts).
Lemon happens, parts are hard to get in this COVID-19 and supply chain shortage era. However, FCA and Jeep didn’t try too hard to make it up for the inconvenience. No loaner, no rental vehicle was provided during the 6 months. No matter how hard I tried with the dealership or FCA case manager, nothing. However, the FCA case manager told me they will reimburse the rental during this period. Now, paying upfront for rental car for 6 months is a long period. However, paying upfront for a Jeep Wrangler rental for half year in California — now that’s expensive.
How expensive? Like $1,435-is per week.
For six months, this is $1,435 / week * 4 week a month * 6 months = $34,440, give or take.
I’ve started the lemon process right after passing the 1-month period in the shop — hoping that my transmission gets fixed soon. I got on weekly or bi-weekly basis promises from the shop that it will be ready the week after. There were ups and downs in the process. Initially I rented a cheap economy like category. Then a “cheap Jeep” — in most of the cases were regular beaten Sport Wranglers — no off-roading or overlanding capabilities. One time though I’ve scored a nice Sahara trim and did a great trip to Death Valley — but no off-roading tho — with those slim Sahara tires.
My lucky part in the rental process was that through my employer — I was able to get significant discounts and upgrades from Avis. Not through Jeep (though I am pretty sure they have Avis/Enterprise discount codes), but from my employer.
Why this is great? Instead of going back to a regular gas Sport trim Jeep Wrangler rental, which costs $1,435-is per week, I could score Hemi powered Dodge Chargers and Dodge Challengers with for sometimes $400/week, sometimes $700/week.
With all those discounts and free upgrades (eventually I built up a nice Avis membership — thank you Jeep) my total cost of rental came to about $12,000 for the 6 months. This is still a hekk load of money sponsored upfront while paying the monthly financing for the Jeep but still, better than the $34,000. In other words, I’ve saved $24,000 for Jeep thanks to my employer. Lucky me.
Not so lucky me, my lemon claim progressed this week where the adjuster / negotiator person from Jeep came back to my attorney saying that they will cover only 50% of the rental I’ve paid.
They provided no loaner despite asked many times, not paid upfront the rental, didn’t provided any help in rental or discount code. But they do refuse to pay the entire rental. What a shame.
The story will continue forward as I am not agreeing to get reimbursed with this amount — probably the case will end up in court.
The sad and pity Jeep (company)
On the side note, the current adjuster is so hungry for the money that they didn’t want to calculate properly the repurchase price. During the lemon law process, the manufacturer must reimburse the full purchase price of the vehicle minus the mileage offset based on the miles driven till the first repair attempt [Mileage Offset = (Purchase price of vehicle) x (Number of miles driven at first repair attempt ÷ 120,000 miles)].
I took my Jeep into the dealership (with video proof) of my failing transmission at around 350 miles. The dealerships stated they cannot reproduce the issue and the odd behavior of my transmission is an expected behavior. Well, at 2000 miles, the same transmission died.
Since they were not able to replicate the issue 1st time, they did nothing to fix — therefore according to FCA, the basis of the vehicle amortization should be the 2nd repair attempt (at 2000 miles vs 350 miles).
I decided for now let this part go, but if the case hits the court, pretty sure I will include the recalculation of this amortization in my claim too.
