New Jeep New Decisions

[AlpsSkidad]

Congrats on the new Jeep GC. I had one recently as a dealer loaner while my car was being serviced/recall work being performed over 2 weeks. It was a nice vehicle, it just didn’t fit me. I hit my head on the door frame everytime I got in the car. I could not figure out how to adjust the seat so that it wouldnt happen, I tried everything in the electronic seat range to fix it. I’d have to contort myself slightly which just ended up hurting my neck and back. I’m 6’ even on a good day, so not unusually tall or anything. I wanted to like the vehicle, but just couldn’t get past the weird angle of entry for me.

 

[dovski]

So my Jeep dealership got in the Mopar Crossbars and running boards for my Jeep GC 4XE. This was not a good experience. The cross bars add almost 6 inches to the clearance height and my dealership botched the install twice and are now having a third try to get these installed correctly. Have a feeling I may have to scrap these and go with Thule if they cannot get their shit together.

The spec running boards it turns out are plastic and actually flex down when you stand on them. Really flimsy and not impressed at all with these. dealership told me all Jeep GC running boards do this and it is normal ... that cannot be correct can it?? If that is the case I am going to have to go for an after market running board that is a little beefier. Would love input from others on this.

 

[dovski]

So quick update on the Jeep GC 4XE. This vehicle is a pleasure to drive and is consistently getting between 35 and 50 MPG. Daily driving is pretty much all electric and trips to the mountains are blend of electric and hybrid. Performance on hills and in snow is superb. We actually like the way it drives much much better than our former MDX. As mentioned in other posts, many mountains now have destination charging, so we typically recharge the car while we ski and that essentially gives us 26 miles of free driving. The regenerative breaking is also quite good as we typically add quite a bit of charge driving home from the mountains. Going down hills the car generates a surplus of energy to both run the electic motor and add charge to the battery. As a result when drive to crystal we get about 35 miles of electric driving but driving home we get about 45-50 miles of electric driving, which is great since the vehicles all electric range on a fully charged battery is about 26 miles.

On the downside, the Mopar accessories for this vehicle are terrible. Dealership installed the Mopar Roof rack incorrectly three times so were able to get our money back on that and have gone with Rhino Racks Vortex bar instead. This saves us over 3 inches of clearance and is a much better quality product. We are stuck with the side step, but will likely have to replace that at some point soon as it is incredibly flimsy. If you get a Jeep I strongly recommend going with the aftermarket parts from a specialty retailer who knows how to install them correctly.

We also bought a new ski box, a Yakima Lo-pro Grand Tour. This saves us an additional 3 inches of clearance an is able to fit more skis than our old rack. Fully loaded the car now has a clearance of aroun 6'8/6'9" vs the 7'3" with the factory bars and our old box, this means when travelling we can fit into most garages which is a big plus

 

[cantunamunch]

anyone reading have motorised drop down running boards? Herself*really* wants em.

 

[scott43]

anyone reading have motorised drop down running boards? Herself*really* wants em.

Seen them on a suburban or pick up somewhere. Pretty nifty to be honest...

 

[dovski]

Seen them on a suburban or pick up somewhere. Pretty nifty to be honest...

So the place where I got my Rhino Rack has a set that were ordered in for a previous model Jeep GC and then canceled. If they fit my jeep they will offer me a deal. That said I really just want a stable platform to step on in ski boots when I get back to my car so I can load the ski box. The real advantage of drop down running boards is that they do not impact your vehicle clearance, but since the Jeep GC has active air suspension that can be adjust to increase ground clearance by an additional 8-9" this is not really necessary, especially for the driving we do. Will see where we land as the Mopar running boards are absolutely terrible.

 

[Jerez]

How has the UConnect infotainment been for you? Ours is a nightmare on our new 22JGC that we had to buy because some A*hole on his phone rear-ended us at a stop light halfway across the country and totaled the old JGC we loved. grrrr.

Andyhow...The screen goes black for no reason. The SiriusXM takes forever to load certain stations for no reason. The backup camera goes black intermittently for no reason. (Except it seems to do it whenever you really need it, LOL), sometimes the Radio station will show one station while playing another. Took it to the dealer and they told us that this is a problem with the new Jeeps, that they have tried replacing the screen and the whole unit, but it persists. Couldn't get an appointment for it until February. Talked to Jeep national and they told me that since it had been more than two weeks since the "diagnosis" they could not open up a "ticket" and they insisted that it isn't a tagged problem.

As an aside, we found that the truck handles much better (more like our old Jeep) when we put the steering and suspension on the sportier choice. And we concur that it is absolutely terrific in the snow. We just got back from a trip to Wolf Creek with refrozen black ice on the road. Saw two 4X4's crashed. One suburban upside down in a ditch with the police in attendance and a truck that had run off the road into a ranch fence about 20 feet off the highway. We didn't slip once. X-ice tires helped. wink.

 

[dovski]

How has the UConnect infotainment been for you? Ours is a nightmare on our new 22JGC that we had to buy because some A*hole on his phone rear-ended us at a stop light halfway across the country and totaled the old JGC we loved. grrrr.

Andyhow...The screen goes black for no reason. The SiriusXM takes forever to load certain stations for no reason. The backup camera goes black intermittently for no reason. (Except it seems to do it whenever you really need it, LOL), sometimes the Radio station will show one station while playing another. Took it to the dealer and they told us that this is a problem with the new Jeeps, that they have tried replacing the screen and the whole unit, but it persists. Couldn't get an appointment for it until February. Talked to Jeep national and they told me that since it had been more than two weeks since the "diagnosis" they could not open up a "ticket" and they insisted that it isn't a tagged problem.

As an aside, we found that the truck handles much better (more like our old Jeep) when we put the steering and suspension on the sportier choice. And we concur that it is absolutely terrific in the snow. We just got back from a trip to Wolf Creek with refrozen black ice on the road. Saw two 4X4's crashed. One suburban upside down in a ditch with the police in attendance and a truck that had run off the road into a ranch fence about 20 feet off the highway. We didn't slip once. X-ice tires helped. wink.

So no issues with the Uconnect or any of the technology so far. Biggest issue was some paint damage from shipping that Jeep agreed to warranty, but dealership could not attend to until February which would interrupt ski season, so waiting until May to have that addressed.

As for driving in snow and variable conditions, the Jeep has been a real champ even with the all season radials that came with it. Once they wear out we will likely replace them with Michelin Crossclimate 2 or something similar.