Trying to buy new Jeep (hard)
DW and I have been looking for a new or good used toad. We have had several Honda CR-V’s in the past but alas, they are no longer towable we also want something as high up as possible to reduce the size of the drop hitch we need and the resulting tail drag on occasion.
This has led us to the Jeep Cherokee. Wow, what an experience! Finding real facts out has been quite a challenge. We know that only the Active drive II 4x4 is towable since it has a transfer case that can be switched into neutral. The problem is that when looking online a dealer stock, it only shows 4x4, not if it is active I or active II. This makes finding a suitable model a very tedious process of calling on each car.
Today we drove 2 hours to see and buy a new Cherokee only to find out it did not have the correct driveline. We were then told by the salesman we could not get the Lattitude Plus with the active II transfer case. So DW went and got a Cherokee brochure and showed him where the Latitude Plus can indeed be so equipped. He then told us it would have to have the 4 cylinder with turbo or the V-6. That also proved to be false.
We came home and I scoured the Jeep.com site again and attempted to “build” the model we wish with the active II system. Nowhere can one make that selection. Only 4x4 is allowed with no differentiation between the two types.
One more strange note. On the Jeep site on some models two options for the 9 spend tranny are offered one costing $1205 more. Curious, I clicked on the detail description of both to see the difference. Both had EXACTLY the same wording! No explanation of why one is more or what benefit it offers.
Now the local dealer has found one in CO he can get for us. No thanks, we don’t want the first 2k miles on the vehicle to not be us. I suspect in the end we will sit down with someone that actually knows jeeps if we can find anyone and order what we want from the factory. Would prefer not to do that but may be the only way.
This has led us to the Jeep Cherokee. Wow, what an experience! Finding real facts out has been quite a challenge. We know that only the Active drive II 4x4 is towable since it has a transfer case that can be switched into neutral. The problem is that when looking online a dealer stock, it only shows 4x4, not if it is active I or active II. This makes finding a suitable model a very tedious process of calling on each car.
Today we drove 2 hours to see and buy a new Cherokee only to find out it did not have the correct driveline. We were then told by the salesman we could not get the Lattitude Plus with the active II transfer case. So DW went and got a Cherokee brochure and showed him where the Latitude Plus can indeed be so equipped. He then told us it would have to have the 4 cylinder with turbo or the V-6. That also proved to be false.
We came home and I scoured the Jeep.com site again and attempted to “build” the model we wish with the active II system. Nowhere can one make that selection. Only 4x4 is allowed with no differentiation between the two types.
One more strange note. On the Jeep site on some models two options for the 9 spend tranny are offered one costing $1205 more. Curious, I clicked on the detail description of both to see the difference. Both had EXACTLY the same wording! No explanation of why one is more or what benefit it offers.
Now the local dealer has found one in CO he can get for us. No thanks, we don’t want the first 2k miles on the vehicle to not be us. I suspect in the end we will sit down with someone that actually knows jeeps if we can find anyone and order what we want from the factory. Would prefer not to do that but may be the only way.
