I think the time with our Jeep is sadly coming to an end

[Jimmy_Russells]

I used to be in the ‘dump it and move on camp’, but with pricing and stock in the current market, fix it and drive it for a while longer.
You won’t save as much in gas as you think; and how much you will have to pay for a newer vehicle, you can buy a lot of $1.70+ per litre gas!

Fuel more like 1.92 here, we are putting $6-650 a month of fuel into the Jeep, more in the summer. Fuel prices also not going to come down for the foreseeable future.

I can’t make your argument make sense anymore. We have kicked the can down the road on this thing for 12-18 months and it just keeps kicking me in the rear. We just spent $1000 on front axle seals (for the third time) like eight or nine months ago. I’ve spent about 10 hours doing rockers in the last few months and now this oil situation. $1500 just to fix that, or roughly 4k with a trans rebuild in which case we need to keep it at least another 3-4 years for that to make sense. Then in that case it needs a set of $1600+ tires in 12-18 months. And this is all assuming nothing else breaks.

If a new vehicle averages 30% less fuel consumption (which is a conservative estimate) then my math is correct. The Jeep currently averages about 13.5-14 L/100km and has for many years. Something like a Forester should average around 9.

In any event we will have it at least another 3-4 months I would imagine since it will take that long probably to get a car.

 

[clinebarger]

I bet low mileage NAG-1's are plentiful.

 

[Donald]

I used to be in the ‘dump it and move on camp’, but with pricing and stock in the current market, fix it and drive it for a while longer.
You won’t save as much in gas as you think; and how much you will have to pay for a newer vehicle, you can buy a lot of $1.70+ per litre gas!

I find that I have spent a lot of money in the last 6 months that I owned a vehicle and then decided to sell it. And wish I had not spent the money. I agree that maintaining a vehicle is the best way to go but if the engine or transmission is on its way out it might be time to dump the car before it goes. I have no problems trading in a vehicle that I know has a major problem and let the dealer determine what it's worth. Going to auction anyway.

 

[joekingcorvette]

OP I certainly understand your situation. If I owned a vehicle with all those problems I would be extremely unhappy and unload it ASAP. The most expensive repair I have ever had on a vehicle is a harmonic balancer on my 2005 Corvette which cost about $1400.00 with a front end re-alignment. I have been extremely lucky and have not had any vehicle that needed extensive repairs. No engines have been cracked open and I have never replaced or repaired a transmission. I had one rear end go out on a 340 Cuda however it was my own fault because I was young and beat it like a rented mule. 66 years of driving and knocking on wood to continue with good luck. I would unload that Jeep if you feel the need.

 

[dlundblad]

If fuel mileage isn’t a concern, the Toyota 4Runner will serve your wife well. The TRD models have rear locking differentials.

They just need better tires unless you spend another 15k for the TRD Pro model which has a few exterior upgrades and Nitto Grappler AT’s.

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

About 90% sure we are going to put a deposit down on a Forester in the new Cascade Green.

We are both bittersweet about it. We both like the Jeep, what we have done with it and what it offers. We’re just tired of dealing with issues. My wife takes it up logging roads almost every weekend and I am starting to get really concerned about her getting stranded out there somewhere.

I’m probably just trying to justify it but subtracting conservative fuel savings and a conservative trade in value the money out of pocket over four years is $12k, not including any additional repairs the Jeep would need. 3k a year maximum seems like chump change for much more peace of mind, more safety and comfort, etc etc. The off road ability doesn’t hold a candle to the Jeep but we don’t really wheel like we used to anymore and a lot of the time if there is a large washout or something like that she’s not going to attempt it in the Jeep with no other vehicles around anyway.

Really the perfect solution is for her to have two vehicles but unfortunately living in the city, and a place where you need to carry full insurance on all vehicles you own (even though you can only drive one at a time) makes that a non-starter.

I already started researching oil changes on the Forester lol. I wonder if a mityvac works because with the top filter mount that would be a heck of an easy oil change…

 

[meep]

My 08 WK was wonderful to drive in and was fun off road in even in 2wd form. but it started having repeated odd quirks after 4-5 years. No codes, no info on the forums, sold it. Came back a few years later and more folks were having the same problems. i really like the looks of the WK2, but I don’t think I could try it after that experience. My old ZJ, however? Loved that one.

 

[billt460]

...... Why would you wait until this chaos in the market settles down when you could get top dollar for it right now?

Whatever he might gain in the sale now, he'll have to turn right around and pay it back, and then some to buy anything to replace it. New cars are slim pickings right now, with not a lot to choose from. And they want list to above list for most of them. I would wait as well.

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

Interesting that this has been bumped up, about seven months has passed, so I'll provide an update.

The Forester took 4.5 months to arrive. So in mid August we traded in the Jeep for 20k, the dealer knew it needed some work, I thought that was actually a pretty fair offer when you consider you also save the 12% tax on that. The Forester was $37.3k (MSRP), we bought the full fat bumper to bumper extended warranty out to 6 years 160k km (100k miles) for 3k because I thought that was a reasonable price. So out of pocket was about 20.3k + 12% tax, $22,735.

Fuel mileage on the freeway is basically half the Jeep, well more like 80% better I guess. The Jeep would get 17-18 mpg or so and this is getting 31-32. In the city it's more like 50% better. All in all I think we are saving $250-300 per month in fuel pretty easily. Some of the tech features are pretty sweet too, the adaptive cruise + lane keep is pretty amazing on longer freeway drives. My wife mentioned to me a few weeks ago that she's actually pretty surprised how much she enjoys driving it. It's so much more comfortable and quiet.

 

[aquariuscsm]

What I’d do Jimmy is to keep nursing it along while actively looking for a good deal on a new car you like

 

[D60]

{snip}
Anyway, the wife is absolutely in love with her Jeep but she realizes the time has probably come. She does need a vehicle to get to trailheads and stuff but she doesn’t need something this hard core for 95% of them. So to get into something maybe like a Forester or something like that will serve her pretty well and also get like double the fuel mileage. I guess we will have to start doing some research. We were hoping to wait it out a couple more years until this chaos in the market settles down but, I’m not sure we can anymore.

I just got a REALLY good laugh outta this 'cause the second you said "trailhead" I thought Subaru because everyone in CO who wants to think they're active or just wants to portray the active lifestyle drives a Subaru so they can "get to the trailhead."

Don't get me wrong, I guess they work for that but for the bulk of owners it's an image thing more than actual use case scenarios. I think everyone has a right to own whatever they want, I enjoy the amusement.

As for quality, Chrysler/FCA/Stellantis is equally amusing. I own a '19 JL and some of the frame welds are truly laugh or cry -- obviously, I choose to laugh.. At least you didn't get an aluminum steering box -- but I did get mine replaced under the TSB while still within warranty.

I think Wranglers occupy a unique niche of the market and I hope they never vanish. I really wish the new Bronco had come with a SFA to be a true Wrangler fighter and force Stellantis to up their game. Competition is good for the consumer I believe.

I wouldn't blame you for a second for ditching the JK, Jeeps are more of a hobby than an appliance -- not that my opinion matters anyway. On the bright side, down here the Subie (apparently) comes with a free case of N95's for when you're driving alone with the windows rolled up, so that's cool

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

I just got a REALLY good laugh outta this 'cause the second you said "trailhead" I thought Subaru because everyone in CO who wants to think they're active or just wants to portray the active lifestyle drives a Subaru so they can "get to the trailhead."

Don't get me wrong, I guess they work for that but for the bulk of owners it's an image thing more than actual use case scenarios. I think everyone has a right to own whatever they want, I enjoy the amusement.

As for quality, Chrysler/FCA/Stellantis is equally amusing. I own a '19 JL and some of the frame welds are truly laugh or cry -- obviously, I choose to laugh.. At least you didn't get an aluminum steering box -- but I did get mine replaced under the TSB while still within warranty.

I think Wranglers occupy a unique niche of the market and I hope they never vanish. I really wish the new Bronco had come with a SFA to be a true Wrangler fighter and force Stellantis to up their game. Competition is good for the consumer I believe.

I wouldn't blame you for a second for ditching the JK, Jeeps are more of a hobby than an appliance -- not that my opinion matters anyway. On the bright side, down here the Subie (apparently) comes with a free case of N95's for when you're driving alone with the windows rolled up, so that's cool

My wife spends a lot of time in the mountains, just about every weekend, she has for a couple decades now. I know a lot of people consider hiking as a walk around a lake... Not in this case. A 10-12 mile, six to eight hour, 3000 foot elevation gain hike with our dog is her ideal Saturday.

 

[Aredeeem]

Some of you may remember maybe five or six months ago I had a thread on replacing a rocker arm in my wife’s 2014 JK. Well, today after work we decide to go out for dinner, I jump into it for the first time in a couple weeks, immediately hear the same sound as before . This time it sounds like driver’s side, thank goodness. So I just spent 3.5 hours changing it.

Halfway through the job however I dropped a tool, get under it… oil everywhere. I check it out and I’m 90% sure it’s the rear main and not the oil cooler. There’s no oil pooled in the valley and I had the upper intake off and didn’t see any oil at the back of the top part of the engine. Also the top part of the bell housing appears to be dry, it’s mainly on the driver’s side. I guess this explains why the last oil change was a quart or so low. It has been three weeks (maybe 1000 miles) since I did that oil change and it is down 1/2 qt again now.

Well this was kind of annoying because if we are going to trade it in (likely now) I wouldn’t have done the rocker lol. Oh well. Part of me wonders if it might have something to do with the pcv I changed when I did the rocker on the passenger side. But this also seems to be a common failure, so who knows. The Jeep has 119k miles on it now and I feel like paying someone to do the rear main, without doing the trans (auto) might be a stupid idea. If I’m honest the trans has been making some funny noises and odd shifts sometimes too.

Anyway, the wife is absolutely in love with her Jeep but she realizes the time has probably come. She does need a vehicle to get to trailheads and stuff but she doesn’t need something this hard core for 95% of them. So to get into something maybe like a Forester or something like that will serve her pretty well and also get like double the fuel mileage. I guess we will have to start doing some research. We were hoping to wait it out a couple more years until this chaos in the market settles down but, I’m not sure we can anymore.

I can’t ever remember my wife leaving the house saying “ I need to get to the trailhead”. I guess I’m missing something