And Now, The Rest of the Story.
Dont even know how I never posted about this one. Bought my wife a 21 Grand Cherokee Summit. Fully loaded, Hemi, Yes, a damn Hemi!!!!!!!! That thing would go!!!!!!!!!!. This was Mid April 2024. 2 weeks later she goes to the beach with one of her best friend. 1 hour into the trip the AC goes out. It later comes back on............ Then a dump truck slung a rock and shattered the windshield... She spends the week down there, The Air would work most of the time..... She gets back, take to dealer, they cannot replicate. She is taking her friend to Birmingham for Chemo Treatments next day. One way back, goes out, she drops her off, and heads straight there, They check it in, AC not blowing cold air...... Later they call and say they found metal shavings coming out of the compressor/condenser. Full replacement. We pick up a few days later, they covered all the expenses.
Later June we head to Arkansas for vacation............ Did not even get out of town barely and AC stops blowing, We turn around, go home swap vehicles and drop hers back off at dealer. We get back after a week, I give them a few days then go by there. They cannot get it to act up...... I ask how many miles did you test drive it? "About 17, but we let it idle for hours"....... (really, not enough miles for accurate test drive for AC and idle is no load on the system)............ We pick it back up.
Had a few more incidents, I take it back, They go thru it, same crap but now there is a new Service Mgr who has been a Tech for 25 years). They still cannot get it to act up. I pick it up, take my trailer to Birmingham to pick up flooring supplies and put a good load, it works ok, I get back to town then head 45 minutes south to the jobsite, It is trying to act up, but I mistakenly hit one of the buttons on the screen and changes a setting. Notice it blowing colder now. One way back it is trying to go out it seems, Just not as cold.... Next morning, I load up my ski's to go ride with Peter Waldron and Christy Carlson. Guess what, AC goes out after about and hour of driving. I video the thermometer I had stuck in the vent, the settings, I ran the heat up, then back to cold, never blows colder than 70. On the way back, about the same amount of driving time, Guess what, Goes out again.......... This time I open the Sunroof and Windows.......... (It was August), The AC Starts blowing cold again........... Back to the shop we go........ Rinse and Repeat, They cannot get it to act up.
After a few times, I sit down with the Manager and we go ever all the symptoms. He decides to replace the whole head unit (Stereo, AC Controls, etc)....By this time it is late September... (At this point, they still covered all expenses or applied to our extended warranty, but we did not have to pay any co-pays). Get the Jeep back, I take it for a long test drive and it does great..... One thing we noticed before the AC would go out, it would smell really musty, wet dog musty...... Well, through the winter every once in a while would get that smell.
Now we get to April, on the way to pick up my Daughters car, AC goes out after about 80 miles, Luckily we were almost to dealership. Driving home it does fine. I go by dealer (Same one where my RAM was) and said "I need a plan, AC went out again, As soon as my Ram is fixed will be dropping it off. On way to drop off, Short 10 minute trip, I had AC blowing, hit Recir. Button on, then few minutes later, turn off............ Hot Air starts blowing..... Pull in, Mgr comes out and see's it. Next day they say they are going to replace the Lower Control Unit and Humidity Sensor, Had been asking them to try this....... We pick it up the next week after the parts came in on a thurs. On Monday, My wife takes my Daughter to Birmingham for a checkup, Bet you cannot guess, Dont think you can.
As soon as she texted, I went straight to dealer, Mgr is on Vacation, so I go to Sales Manager and ask for a meeting. I go through everything that has happend from 2 weeks post purchase until now. He tells me to have her bring it there, He going to put her in a loaner. (25 Grand Cherokee Limited with 176 miles on it).... I had stopped in once up front to ask if my wife could take the loaner out of town for a Niece Graduation. "Sure", He asked if I had heard anything, "Not a single word" and I left, did not even go to the back. Now, we come to the 2.5 week mark. Not heard crap from them, I stop in, walk in to Service Mgr office and sit down, We shoot the bull about his Vacation, Then he asks whats up........... "Please tell me the AC is not acting up?"........ I turn and point, Its been sitting there for 2.5 weeks......... He had no clue, In his defence, He does not know of every vehicle that is there, He is also trying to get their other dealerships Service Dept straightened up....... He tells me he is going to talk to the Tech and find out what is up..... Next day I call, I knew he was at other dealership, but was hoping to catch him. He is not there, but the Service Writer that I talked to on day one is who answers. I told him just calling to check on the GC..... "Who is your Service Adviser?"................ "YOU, YOUR FREAKING MORON"..... (Did not say that)....... He stammers on the phone, digs through papers........... Then appologizes, He dropped the ball and did not follow up with Shop Forman....... At this point, They have driven it maybe 100 miles at most. He calls my wife that evening to appologize to her, said they put another driver in it, went 25 miles and would not act up.......... She says "You have to put at least 45 miles on it, I will drive one of your employees to Birmingham if you want, it will go out"....... Friday, I go by, talk with Mgr about it again. I offer to drive it, Made it 29 miles and AC goes out, turn back, get it working again, get it to go out again, hit the Recir button again......... Out........... At this point we are done. Yesterday my wife and I went and had a sit down with him. She asked "Do you think you will ever be able to fix it" He responded that he would never say he could not fix it, He just cannot say when he could get it fixed............. At this point we know that we can never trust it, even if we make it 3 months with no issues, will never be comfortable........ So, We said enough......... Trading it back in on the Loaner we have been driving for a month now....... Loosing 3k, basically we are paying the difference between what we paid for hers used, vs this GC Limited new.
And, to top it off, for the past few years I have been pre diabetic... Not any more. Full blown diabetic, I am a very picky eater and eating well is really tough.... but, lifestyle change........ I got A1C down once before, have to do it again.
