Trying to buy new Jeep (hard)

[georgelesley]

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.

[georgelesley]

wbwood wrote:
You should be able to have any salesman at any Jeep dealership find you what you are looking for exactly. We just bought a new 2018 Jeep Wrangler Umlimited JL and told the salesman exactly what we wanted. He did the work and Alfonso numerous options and sent us the stickers and photos. Ours was at anotgeee dealership and they went to go get it. Don’t make it harder on yourself than you have to. A salesman is gonna get a commission no matter what, make them earn it.

True, it should work that way. The lack of salesman knowledge about what we need to make it towable was problem one. Towing requires several specific options the salesman and us were both unaware of until I did more research myself. The Jeep website did not help as it was hard to figure out exactly what was required as well. (For me at least). All of this led to much confusion for us to know exactly what to buy.

After a two hour drive each way only to find out the vehicle was not equipped for towing we gave up on dealer info and thru this and other forums I was finally able to figure out where to look on the window sticker and what to look for, and how to use the Jeep website and determine exactly what we needed equipment wise. From there a search of dealers within 150 miles was easy using the Jeep website.

Our local dealer which is a large nationwide outfit, kept steering us to cars within their dealer network which had options or were colors we did not want or like. I suspect they made more $$$ that way. Three other dealers I contacted never would return my calls. I guess they are selling all the cars they want to.

In the end, I suspect we got a pretty good price but not the greatest. A bit of $$$ was stuck in at the end but by then I knew the exact car we wanted was hard to find and this car was not far away, right color and options, etc, so relented just to solve the problem

The good news is that so far anyway, we love the car and see many good years coming from it.

[wbwood]

You should be able to have any salesman at any Jeep dealership find you what you are looking for exactly. We just bought a new 2018 Jeep Wrangler Umlimited JL and told the salesman exactly what we wanted. He did the work and Alfonso numerous options and sent us the stickers and photos. Ours was at anotgeee dealership and they went to go get it. Don’t make it harder on yourself than you have to. A salesman is gonna get a commission no matter what, make them earn it.

[Community Alumni]

I used a Demco tow bar and baseplate on a couple of vehicles for years and was very pleased with the products. Easy to connect and disconnect tow bar.

https://www.demco-products.com/rv-towing/tow-bars/


I also used a portable BrakeBuddy supplemental braking system that was very easy to use.

http://www.brakebuddy.com/

[georgelesley]

Picked up the new Cherokee Lattitude Plus yesterday. DW loves it so naturally so do I. It is a nice vehicle. Now to get the towing setup on it. Looks like Roadmaster baseplate hooks up the highest off the ground so will probably go that route. No sure about the supplemental braking yet, maybe Invisibrake. Have to look into the wiring more.

[mike_brez]

GeoBoy wrote:

mike brez wrote:
At the Jeep forum in the wrangler section their is a fellow Craig Benner from Koons Jeep he is the Internet guy. It has to be ordered but he can get you some great deals. Not sure if he does anything with the Cherokees though. They have a few in stock on their lot I just looked up. Here is one of them. I'm partial to white so I chose this one
Koons

Koon’s looks to have great WOW pricing, as they call it, but read the fine print, doesn’t include freight, which is inflated and their paperwork charges are way out of line. Be careful.

Ok just looked around some more.Searched the web at random states and dealers. Everyone's freight that I happened to look is now $1495 can you explain how theirs is inflated?
This sticker is from a dealer in Illinois were the final assembly was guess how much the destination charge was. Yep. $1495

[mike_brez]

GeoBoy wrote:

mike brez wrote:
At the Jeep forum in the wrangler section their is a fellow Craig Benner from Koons Jeep he is the Internet guy. It has to be ordered but he can get you some great deals. Not sure if he does anything with the Cherokees though. They have a few in stock on their lot I just looked up. Here is one of them. I'm partial to white so I chose this one
Koons

Koon’s looks to have great WOW pricing, as they call it, but read the fine print, doesn’t include freight, which is inflated and their paperwork charges are way out of line. Be careful.

Not sure about anything but the wranglers but in March they went up $500 in msrp and transport to $1445. As far as paperwork charges that's were negotiating comes in.
My local jeep dealer takes nothing off sticker take it or leave it.
Craig at Koons orders the wranglers by the truck load and you pay no transport/destination charge. I had him build and price a couple for me but purchased a used one locally.

[dubdub07]

mike brez wrote:

georgelesley wrote:

dubdub07 wrote:
If you want anything other than the Trailhawk, I can see where it might be a challenge. One reason we went with the Trailhawk is the 4WD Trailhawk comes with the transfer case that shifts to neutral for towing.

WW

It was a challenge, but thanks to the help here I finally figured it out and we just made a deal on a Lattitude Plus that has the active drive II. Will pick up next week.

Happy you found what you were looking for.

And I hope you like towing it, ours is a great TOAD. Much, much better than our Wrangler....but I so like the Wrangler, LOL!

[georgelesley]

GeoBoy wrote:

mike brez wrote:
At the Jeep forum in the wrangler section their is a fellow Craig Benner from Koons Jeep he is the Internet guy. It has to be ordered but he can get you some great deals. Not sure if he does anything with the Cherokees though. They have a few in stock on their lot I just looked up. Here is one of them. I'm partial to white so I chose this one
Koons

Koon’s looks to have great WOW pricing, as they call it, but read the fine print, doesn’t include freight, which is inflated and their paperwork charges are way out of line. Be careful.

I got a quote from them and was seriously considering a trip to them, but when that issue came up in the final out the door price, i backed out. A bit deceptive I thought. To be air their out the door price, all in, was still good, just did not warrant driving to D.C.

[GeoBoy]

mike brez wrote:
At the Jeep forum in the wrangler section their is a fellow Craig Benner from Koons Jeep he is the Internet guy. It has to be ordered but he can get you some great deals. Not sure if he does anything with the Cherokees though. They have a few in stock on their lot I just looked up. Here is one of them. I'm partial to white so I chose this one
Koons

Koon’s looks to have great WOW pricing, as they call it, but read the fine print, doesn’t include freight, which is inflated and their paperwork charges are way out of line. Be careful.

[mike_brez]

georgelesley wrote:

dubdub07 wrote:
If you want anything other than the Trailhawk, I can see where it might be a challenge. One reason we went with the Trailhawk is the 4WD Trailhawk comes with the transfer case that shifts to neutral for towing.

WW

It was a challenge, but thanks to the help here I finally figured it out and we just made a deal on a Lattitude Plus that has the active drive II. Will pick up next week.

Happy you found what you were looking for.

[Farmboy666]

georgelesley wrote:
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.

I doubt they will drive it 2000 miles, it will get put on a truck.

[georgelesley]

dubdub07 wrote:
If you want anything other than the Trailhawk, I can see where it might be a challenge. One reason we went with the Trailhawk is the 4WD Trailhawk comes with the transfer case that shifts to neutral for towing.

WW

It was a challenge, but thanks to the help here I finally figured it out and we just made a deal on a Lattitude Plus that has the active drive II. Will pick up next week.

[dubdub07]

If you want anything other than the Trailhawk, I can see where it might be a challenge. One reason we went with the Trailhawk is the 4WD Trailhawk comes with the transfer case that shifts to neutral for towing.

WW

[Heisenberg]

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