7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Its a cost thing
Date of Review: Mar 24, 2005
The Bottom Line: Be truthful with your self and make sure you really NEED what you are looking into buying. Gas aint going to get cheaper as the years roll on.
While some bash the car for its fuel efficiency, if you are buying this car with the mind set that you can not go more than 300 miles with out a 18 gal fill up (19 gal tank) you will be ok. However I will a test that the Windshield is prone to getting cracks. This is due to the glass not having a bend, rather it just lays flat unlike most "Cars".
Another down side to the "Its a Jeep thing" life style is the "Its a mopar rape thing". Mopar has a very high mark up cost for replacing parts. For instance, I had the bad fortune of having my jeep broken into. The thief broke the locked center console and glove box. Cost to replace both items is well over 2K using "Mopar" parts. Fram oil filters run about 5-8 at a local auto store where as a Mopar filter will run 15-20 from your jeep dealer.
All things said, the car is great when going off road to camp or SKI, but it severely lacks on road grace. If you are the type the honestly is out in the rough at least once a month this is a good car to look at. But be honest with your self, and if you are more an every few months or twice a year off roader, this car may cost too much to keep.
I love my jeep, but at times I kinda wish I just had a 4x4 Pickup.
**Update 7/25/05
The windshield again cracked. If you do a bit of googling you may find that the 02 model and 01 (All I could quickly find) have some known water leak issues. This is important because I have had the joy of walking up to my car after a strong rain and finding about 1 inch of standing water in the drivers side. This eventually caused a short in my electrical and a turn signal malfunction.
Also try looking at edmunds.com (http://www.edmunds.com/used/2002/jeep/wrangler/100003008/ratings_consumersdetail.html?tid=edmunds.u.ratings_consumersdetail.content..6.Jeep*&dcr_usein=u&pagenum=2&total=7&sortby=null&dcr_sid=all&modelid=100000375) and you will see that other people point this issue out, as well there is some bizar issue with the ventilation system just turning on and off by it self.
I'm sorry to say that after 3 years, tomorrow I will be taking delivery of my 05 Nissan Frontier. I really had planned to keep this car for the long run. I strongly urge buyers to really do some home work. As I mentioned before PLEASE do your self a favor and really be honest with how you are going to use this car. If you are not going to be doing REAL off roading (going over gravel in a parking lot does not count nor does 3 inches of snow fall) consider something else. The cost of ownership on this car can snow ball very quickly if things go wrong.
Don't forget also, gas prices only go UP, and with a average gas price of 2.60 18 gal will cost $46.80 (300 mile range) its likely that in the next year gas will move to 3.00 which would mean $54 to fill up with LOW GRADE gas.
No question it's a jeep thing, but the car just turned out to be a "Cheap thing"
Another REAL consideration:
Take a honest look at what people are talking about when they talk about this car. You should notice that most reviews are short on detail and contain allot of "I look good in.." "Makes me feel..." "Babe magnet" "people think im cool". All these sound kinda like people that are in it for an image, not for function, but thats just me being bitter I sapose. I hope this helped YOU make an informed choice!
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