Owners are furious about Jeep Wrangler JL corrosion issues
Discussion
I went to view a ‘19 reg Wrangler Rubicon, thinking it would be an ideal winter-hack to save my nicer car(s) from seasonal damage. I noticed some paint bubbling on both doors, in the areas around the hinges. Left untreated it is perfectly obvious that bubbling will progress to cracking, and then to flaking and the exposure of bare metal. The dealer - a Jeep franchise - was surprisingly quick to dismiss this as “patina” and to state that they wouldn’t address it as pre-sale prep.
A little internet research reveals that this (corrosion under paintwork) is a major problem across Wrangler JL’s manufactured between 2018 and 2024, and that Jeep’s response to warranty claims has been lamentable. The article linked below covers the issue really well. I’m amazed that something like this can happen, given how long we’ve been making cars without the corrosion issues that were so damaging in the 1970s…
There are nearly 100 such vehicles listed on Autotrader, at prices from £27k to £95k. No-one should buy a JL that is out of warranty for corrosion issues without being aware of the potential problems.
Anyway, I have dodged a bullet here and am sharing so that others might do the same.
https://www.theautopian.com/owners-are-furious-abo...
A little internet research reveals that this (corrosion under paintwork) is a major problem across Wrangler JL’s manufactured between 2018 and 2024, and that Jeep’s response to warranty claims has been lamentable. The article linked below covers the issue really well. I’m amazed that something like this can happen, given how long we’ve been making cars without the corrosion issues that were so damaging in the 1970s…
There are nearly 100 such vehicles listed on Autotrader, at prices from £27k to £95k. No-one should buy a JL that is out of warranty for corrosion issues without being aware of the potential problems.
Anyway, I have dodged a bullet here and am sharing so that others might do the same.
https://www.theautopian.com/owners-are-furious-abo...
I bought a 2020 Wrangler Rubicon from a franchise, it was an ex-Jeep UK owned car only ever used for press events, it was 4 years old, had 1,900 miles and was immaculate.
A few months after I bought it I noticed a few small (tiny) ripples in the paint around the hinges on the doors and boot door. Having got 'used' to the quality of the US paintwork I assumed they'd always been there and I'd just missed them in the past when I'd been cleaning the car. Within a couple of months the corrosion had become very visible and in places the paint had come away to expose the corrosion!
I took the car back to the dealer who officially took the line 'wow, this is highly unusual - let me take some photo's and send them to the Jeep UK warranty dept, this should be covered as the car is still within warranty period'. Then while chatting in the car park the customer adviser openly admitted the issue is well known and in almost all cases gets sorted under warranty.
What followed was months of incompetence from Jeep UK. The claim went missing in their system a couple of times, the car was taken to a body shop for assessment and the report was lost by Jeep, repeated requests for photo's despite the fact they'd already acknowledged receipt of previous photo's, Jeep UK continually reporting that they were waiting on the dealership for details yet when I spoke to the dealership they confirmed the information had been supplied a number of times. To this day I'm not sure if it was genuine incompetence or if it was a tactic to try to make me give up pursuing the claim.
Eventually Jeep arranged for the car to go to an approved independent body shop and all 3 doors were replace with new doors that had been modified to stop future corrosion, at a cost to Jeep of just over £12k! Speaking to the owner of the body shop he said they were doing at least 4 cars per month, but a couple of years ago it was more like 4 cars per week!
I loved the car however for something with a £63k price tag the build quality was questionable! Aside from the rust, the roof panels always leaked - Jeep shrugged their shoulders and more or less said 'yeah, they do that'. The software was super glitchy, various dash functions would disappear and reappear at will, Android car play would stop working for no apparent reason and usually required a head unit re-boot which in turn re-set all of the vehicle settings to 'factory'.
As much as I loved the car - which really was a fun bit of kit when the sun was out, I'd not buy another one!
A few months after I bought it I noticed a few small (tiny) ripples in the paint around the hinges on the doors and boot door. Having got 'used' to the quality of the US paintwork I assumed they'd always been there and I'd just missed them in the past when I'd been cleaning the car. Within a couple of months the corrosion had become very visible and in places the paint had come away to expose the corrosion!
I took the car back to the dealer who officially took the line 'wow, this is highly unusual - let me take some photo's and send them to the Jeep UK warranty dept, this should be covered as the car is still within warranty period'. Then while chatting in the car park the customer adviser openly admitted the issue is well known and in almost all cases gets sorted under warranty.
What followed was months of incompetence from Jeep UK. The claim went missing in their system a couple of times, the car was taken to a body shop for assessment and the report was lost by Jeep, repeated requests for photo's despite the fact they'd already acknowledged receipt of previous photo's, Jeep UK continually reporting that they were waiting on the dealership for details yet when I spoke to the dealership they confirmed the information had been supplied a number of times. To this day I'm not sure if it was genuine incompetence or if it was a tactic to try to make me give up pursuing the claim.
Eventually Jeep arranged for the car to go to an approved independent body shop and all 3 doors were replace with new doors that had been modified to stop future corrosion, at a cost to Jeep of just over £12k! Speaking to the owner of the body shop he said they were doing at least 4 cars per month, but a couple of years ago it was more like 4 cars per week!
I loved the car however for something with a £63k price tag the build quality was questionable! Aside from the rust, the roof panels always leaked - Jeep shrugged their shoulders and more or less said 'yeah, they do that'. The software was super glitchy, various dash functions would disappear and reappear at will, Android car play would stop working for no apparent reason and usually required a head unit re-boot which in turn re-set all of the vehicle settings to 'factory'.
As much as I loved the car - which really was a fun bit of kit when the sun was out, I'd not buy another one!
Gassing Station | Off Road | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff