JDR76

Yes, I've compared them. I found them both to be great, but neither is a luxury crossover. I struggle to name a luxury feature on the CX-5 that's not available on the RAV4.

SW17LS

Its hardly irrelevant. Today's new cars will be a decade old in a decade. How is somebody supposed to make a determination about how reliable a new car will be over time if not by looking at the manufacturer and the model's track record?

mmarshall

The latest-generation of Chrysler products are, at least to an extent, better built than the decades-old lemons you refer to. And, of course, they are also light-years ahead in fit/finish, paint work, interior quality/hardware, and drivetrain refinement. But, unfortunately, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, despite its many other improvements, has not shown the improved reliability (yet) that some other Chrysler products have. Perhaps the 2015 model will....time will tell.

UberNoob

could you compare today's chrysler to other brands please?
comparing to itself is like comparing better crap to ****tier crap
end of day, they are still crap
lol

sick21

No ****? I didn't know that.

It may have problems but the GC is selling better than any suv right now, which means the more you make the more are out there with issues.

spwolf

I dont see FCA getting any better either... rock bottom still in every single survey everywhere in the world.

Every new MY there is a new car from FCA, and they claim everything is solved, it is now real quality, unlike year before :-)

Still, GC looks good. I just would never buy it for its long term reliability thats for sure.

mmarshall

Right now, overall, they compete favorably (or at least adequately) with Ford and GM competition.....the post-2009 GM competition that did not have as many defective ignition switches.

That's one of the major differences between now and the past. At one time, for decades, there was a huge reliability gulf between the best of the foreign makes (Toyota, Honda, Subaru, etc...) and the typical GM or Chrysler product. For a number of reasons, part of which is that many American-badged vehicles now use foreign-sourced platforms/engineering, that gulf, in general, has narrowed considerably, and in some places, doesn't exist anymore. Unfortunately, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, having solved the fit/finish, assembly, and refinement issues, is still one of those few vehicles that has to work some more on reliability....(the Ford Explorer is another) but that is not the case with most other American-badged vehicles today.

Now, it is true that FC, in general, according to both Consumer Reports and J.D. Power, remains on the lower end of the reliability surveys. But what one has to keep in mind is that the average for the surveys in general have risen considerably...so that a "lemon" by today's standards is considerably more reliable than a lemon of yesterday.

LexBob2

That's not necessarily the case. Look at Accord, Camry etc. Hundreds of thousands of them every year and pretty reliable.

mmarshall

Not necessarily an excuse, but Accords and Camrys, while of course being generally well-built in the first place, are also usually driven conservatively and not subject to a lot of wear and tear. Grand Cherokees get a fair number of miles on them that often subject them to harsher conditions such as winter salt/abrasives, mild or severe off-road pounding, heavy loads/towing, etc....that can shorten the life of some components. Of course, that is also true of some other SUVs as well that are usually more reliable then the JGC, but Jeeps, in general, get more off-road miles on them than most other SUVs today, which only average around 4-5% off-road.

tex2670

Not as a percentage. More sales doesn't mean more reliable.

tex2670

Maybe so, but, historically, where has Jeep ranked on that list of reliable cars, compared to, say, Honda? All (maybe most) cars can say they are more reliable than 10 or 20 years ago, but how do they rank as compared against cars of the same vintage. Jeep has been historically on the lower end, year after year.

SW17LS

Again...I'm the one here who:

1. Not only owns a current generation Jeep Grand Cherokee, but has owned two.
2. Posts on Jeep forums and sees first hand what the issues are.

How the vehicles are driven has nothing to do with it. There are units out there with 500 miles on them that have been repeatedly towed back to the dealership. Mileage doesn't make buttons and switches fail.

Like I said, its like you either have a reliable unit, or you have an unreliable unit. My 2011 got BETTER as it got older and a lot of the little issues were worked through. I did however have 27 warranty repairs from new until about 2 years of age. Thats a ton. My Jeep had multiple leaks, stuff that wasn't hooked up from the factory, component and control panel failures, I had such corroded brake rotors at 22k miles that they needed a slide hammer to get the rotors off the hubs, so on and so forth. None of that is due to use, its poor quality components. Like I said so far my 2014 is good, its hit or miss.

And lets be real here, 99% of Jeeps don't get used in any way differently than a Toyota Camry.

I love the Jeep, obviously but I have to call a spade a spade. Theres a reason why the only brand lower on the reliability rankings is Fiat. And Fiat is supposed to help Chrysler here? They need to help themselves...

sick21

^^I agree. We had a 2012 Overland for a very short period of time, it was great other than a creaky sunroof but it was fixed.

A spade is a spade. Especially when the spade is American. I think any issue with jeep is no different than ford or Chevy. After our jeep we got an explorer sport. It was bought back by ford as a lemon. It just happens, although I feel like more of a chance is being taken with American made cars. I recently stumbled upon the Cadillac escalade forums one night when I couldn't sleep. Holy crap so many 2015 escapades having issues and those things are mega expensive. (Not saying expensive means reliable) but all these rich people are having issues and recalls with their brand new vehicles. And some don't mind because they really like their ride. Personally I don't mind if my vehicle has issues or not, I don't ever keep them longer than a year or two. And all vehicles have issues. My lexus and Toyota in the driveway both have some issue right now. Oh well it happens.

SW17LS

To me the biggest issue I had with the Jeep was that they do not give you loaner vehicles for warranty work. Couple weeks ago my Jeep was in for 3 recalls and they had it from 8:30 until 6PM and they would not give me a loaner. My 2011 was in the shop one time for 5 days for a warranty issue...no loaner. I'm in sales, I don't sit in an office all day. I need a car to drive during the day.

For the recalls I paid $57 to rent a car for the day, but for the 5 days I wasn't going to pay $285 to rent a car because the manufacturer of my Jeep couldn't build it right in the first place...so we had to make do with one car...seeing that its my wife's car and she was waiting at work for me to come pick her up with my schedule being irregular and hers being a normal work schedule...it about got me divorced.

If they had a loaner program and I could just leave it there and have a bunch of stuff fixed while the oil was being changed and I had a car to drive it wouldn't have been such a big deal. IMHO, if a company is going to recall your car and keep it all day...they should provide you a car to drive...comp a cheap Enterprise rental or something.

BUT...like I said I bought another one, so that tells you how much I thought of the vehicle on all other points.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

i highly doubt that's true. jgc's are usually grocery getters and kid haulers and for people looking for an upscale outdoorsy image without paying range rover or x5 kind of money - kind of like an upscale subaru outback which might see the occasional snow storm but that's about it.

as for reliability, when reading the forums on it, it seems some people have lots of niggling problems and others have none. but then if i read some model forums here on CL that's the case! as for 'reliability surveys' like consumer reports, well you know what i think of their 'ratings' the recent years jgc definitely had issues with the infotainment system, and with the initial intro of the 8 speed auto ('14), and some (major) issues with the new fiat diesel and a complete lack of parts (duh). i've also seen problems with seals, suspension parts, etc. of course the jgc has a bunch of different all wheel drive systems and an air suspension in top trims, which are all very complex. but then a lexus gx460 and lx570 can do all that reliably so it's no excuse.

i do believe however that by NOW with a bunch of software updates and fixes that have occurred, and its maturity in cycle, the jgc should be pretty reliable. most people who buy them are smitten, and for a few it doesn't work out. when i was in western canada this summer, they were EVERYWHERE there's also a load of them in central florida here. so they can't be that bad.