Shocking And Disappointing Service From Jeep All Round

Shocking And Disappointing Service From Jeep All Round

In December / January we took our Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo 4x4 to the Kgalagadi, we bought it new under a year before and it had done under 11 000 km before this trip. The area had a lot of rain and the roads were gravel with water and corrugations from the water and wear and tear.

During the trip the bolts holding the engine cover vibrated loose and several came out completely. The mechanic at Tweeriveren removed the cover and the remaining bolt and we kept it in the boot. He was not able to reaffix the cover as most of the bolts were missing. We were in Mate Mata at the time and had to drive all the way down to Tweeriveren to attend to this, very inconvenient. This is about 150km one way!

Just before this the rear LHS taillight popped off as the plastic clip on it’s RHS broke due to presumably the rattling or the pressure from the water as we passed through the large puddles on the road. We taped this light back on the outside with double sided tape so that it could be functional.

We must also state that we travelled on the roads and that this trip did not involve any extreme 4x4ing just mild offroad.

Upon our return we took the vehicle to William Simpson in Tokai for a service and to report and have the above fixed. As the vehicle has a full motor plan and a warrantee all should have been good.

The service we received from William Simpson was absolutely shocking and we reported this and it was dealt with. When we collected our vehicle we were told that the above two malfunctions were not covered by the Jeep factory, nor the motor plan and warrantee! What a shock.

We spoke to the manager of the branch who said that she understood our frustration and would take it up with Jeep. This was done and their reply was a vehement no and they would not cover this. I thought that this was absurd, petty and very offhand and called Jeep myself. The lady dealing with this, Lebo listened to my complaint and said that she would take this up with management and would call the dealer and myself. She never did call me. I called her a few days later only to be told that this was definitely not covered and I would have to pay for it.

Not satisfied I called Cargo motors from whom I bought the vehicle and got no response to my complaint, which was strange as their service always was excellent during my dealings with them. Presumably they had no joy with Jeep either.

Accordingly, my only option now is to explain this and review Jeep SA like this.

Buying a million rand new 4x4 vehicle that is specifically designed and manufactured to be able to easily handle the Kgalagadi roads and when the vehicle experiences abnormal vehicle malfunctions we find out that Jeep simply washes their hands off this and states that the warrantee and the maintenance plan does not cover this!!!!

Heaven help us the next time we are in the Kgalagadi and the major engine bolts and other important bolts rattle loose and our engine or undercarriage simply falls out what will then happen?

Whilst we do understand that whilst bolts and lights should not rattle out, this can happen and that is what a warrantee and a motor plan is for.

We are appalled by this and despite this being our third Jeep we shall never buy another one nor recommend a Jeep to anyone. We are considering replacing this with a Land Rover as we have booked two further trips to the Kgalagadi this year and can not risk something more major happening due to manufacturing defects.

This is an absolute disgrace especially when one considers that the claim is just over R2 000 including an absurd R800 to unclip the light, plug the cable in and push it back into the body!!!

Jeep SA really does not care about their image and brand in SA and we shall accordingly, also report this to Jeep’s head office in America as they do care about their brand, image and customer satisfaction.