In recent years Jeep has gone hard on the marketing front. The “I Bought a Jeep campaign” took the world by storm. The phrase ended up everywhere, including in parody films made by people unimpressed by them. At the same time the designers really stepped up their game in the design of the cars as the newer models really look great and in many cases sound great.
We are not here to bag out the Jeep. Previous history shows they are not a particularly reliable product but the influx of vehicles being purchased in the recent years is yet to pass the test of time. Time will tell if the quality was improved along with the design.
However we do need to bring to light a small issue many consumers are failing to take into account when doing the math on purchasing and maintaining one of these great looking vehicles.
Maintenance costs. The Jeep is expensive compared to most cars when it comes to maintainence and here is why.
1. Fuel. A big heavy SUV will burn through more fuel or diesel than other family cars. However compared to other vehicles in the same category, the fuel consumption for Jeep is on par with the Ford Ranger, the Land Cruiser and other competitors.
2. Tyres. 20 inch tyres are expensive no matter what car you drive. SUVs will wear tyres quicker than most other vehicles. Do the calculations on replacing tyres every 60,000kms and if you never check your pressures you could be chewing through them much quicker.
3. Oil capacity. This applies to most of the high end SUVs. Mercedes, Audi, VW and Jeep. a vehicle that uses an excess of 10 litres of synthetic engine oil is going to have an oil change bill in the hundreds of dollars range.
4. Brakes. Factory fitted Brembo brakes (or other high end brake components) are amazing when your bragging to the other ladies at the gym about the features of your vehicle. But once you rack up 35,000kms and are told you need new front brakes (which in most modern european cars includes the disc rotor too) you wont get change from $1200 if you have Brembo Brakes fitted.
In the early days the maintainence cost will be low. Free or capped price servicing will insure this. But once you past the milestone of capped price you are on your own and the costs can rack up very quickly.
What does it cost to service these cars? We entered the details into www.fixedpriceservice.com.au here are the details of what we entered along with the results.
2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Automatic
Diesel
60,000Kms Log Book service.
Here is a screen shot of what local workshops are charging for that job. Granted there is some fluctuation in pricing however it demonstrates the inflated maintenance costs for these vehicles.
Compared to 2016 Nissan X Trail Automatic Diesel 60,000Kms Log book Service.
It is important to note here that these services at a dealership will almost certainly be dearer than privately owned workshops.
The point is, to date the latest range of Jeep products seems to be of reasonable quality. Consumers should do more research when it comes to the cost of maintaining such a vehicle.
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