Disappointed with reliability so far...

[carb850]

I picked up an '08 certified used commander with 32K miles this spring. Since then, we have had a number of small problems.

Bad Key
On the way home we went to switch drivers and found the 2nd key didn't work. Took it to my local dealer and tests concluded the key had died. Dealer we purchased the Jeep from paid for the replacement. Took 2 trips one to diagnose and another to program the key.

Faulty Lift Gate Sensor
At some point later the power lift gate quit working. Trip to the dealer found a bad sensor. I don't recall for certain, but I think it cost us about $75.

Bad Button Panel and HVAC door broke
The blower on the AC ran and we can hear it getting louder as you turned it up, but still hardly no air would come through the vents. Trip to the dealer found a flapper door inside the dash broke. While we were at the dealer, we mentioned we couldn't get the rear AC to work. The button panel that has the rear air, tow/haul, etc apparently was faulty. Parts had to be ordered so we made a second trip and this was covered under warranty, still paid $150 deductible.

Bad Button Panel
The very day we picked it up from repair, my wife was trying the rear air button. Once she pushed it in, it would not return back out. They ordered another replacement and this was no cost to us. Still another 2 trips to the dealer.

Random Shutdown
A couple days ago, I went to leave the house. I began to start the vehicle and right after it started cranking I lost all power. No lights of any sort, no starter, nothing, completely dead. I figured it was the battery or computer. An hour later when my ride stopped by I tried starting it again this time it started fine and showing no warning or error lights. To be safe I wanted the dealer to check it out. No codes were showing and the battery tested fine. He did say one battery cable was a little loose and they went ahead and updated the PCM. Total cost $34. I'm hoping the power down was either a one time fluke or a result of that loose cable.



This is my wifes DD and we both love it. We like the looks, all of the features, the power, and how it drives. However, we have already had more problems out of this Jeep than our previous Honda and Subaru combined. We owned both about 6 years and had about 70K miles on them. We want to keep this but if we keep having problems who knows, we might lose our love.

I guess I"m wondering how common the above problems are and are there any others that I should expect to deal with? Knowing how many features this Overland has we did purchase the extended warranty which will shield us from any huge repair bills but we can still get nickel and dimed to death.

[superacerc]

Sounds like you've got some bad luck with the XK. I can't speak for everyone but rarely do that many problems plague one single XK. The Key battery isn't really the car's fault. The other issues i've not heard anyone complain about really except for the HVAC door which has plagued cherokee's and some commanders. Sorry for the Bad luck. All the problems i've ever had with my XK are things i've caused by offroading it kinda hard. Good luck.

The old ones had some random shut down issues and I believe it was an ignition fault. Haven't heard of the newer than 07's really having the issue.

[carb850]

Well, I'm crossing my fingers that we got all the issues out of the way because we do love this truck. Only time will tell. Thanks for the reply.

[Sal-XK]

unfortunately all makes and models will have issues on a certain percentage. I hope you got all your gremlins out of yours now man good luck.

[pjmjr508]

I have an 07 XK Overland. I have had a few issues with mine, but they were because of how hard I have taken it off road. Sorry your having so many issues with it, hope you got all of them fixed.

[Doc in AZ]

certified used is the biggest bunch of horse manure i've heard yet. they are just certifying that it is used and there were no visible problems according to some underpaid "tech" usually. it's a used car and you don't know how it was used. it may have been a rental car for all you know & with that said i'll remind you that buying a used rental car is like marrying a prostitute. car fax is a joke at best, i know guys that have nearly totaled a car and put it back together in their garage, made it look nice and sold it with a clean car fax. if the insurance or department of motor vehicles doesn't know about it then car fax doesn't know about it. my jeep, when i checked the car fax was registered to the same owner 4 times in 3 years... didn't make any sense. it had visibly been wrecked and repainted but car fax was clean. you might check on "lemon laws" in your area. i know my sister had a lot of problems with a car but in california it was a 3 strike lemon law. you would have to take it to the dealer for documented repair and if it wasn't corrected the third time you would be able to claim it as a lemon for an exchange but not for a return. i also had a nice chevy silverado with a clean car fax that i bought used from midway chevy in phoenix. i drove it a couple years and when i was selling it the buyer's financier said they couldn't finance the whole amount because it was officially classified as a "lemon" due to some uncorrected fault.

sad but true.

[carb850]

I called a local dealer about extended warranties for pricing info. This fella was over the dealership and while his dealership didn't offer certified used at this time he said he was a big proponent of it based upon his experience from a previous dealer. He said they really did go through the cars with a fine tooth comb and that was worth a lot in his opinion. His advice was actually working against a warranty sale so he had little reason to suggest it.

Now the out of area dealer I purchased it from told me the certification doesn't mean as much as it used to, he said they made the process easier and thus it lost some of it's value. I will say, looking back I believe button panel was bad and maybe the HVAC flapper door were both issues when we bought it but we didn't notice until later. If they went though it the way they were supposed to that should have been caught. On a positive note, it appeared on the carfax that the dealer replaced the brakes and rotors (@ 32K miles) which I think might of been caught during there certification.

[carb850]

Followup to an old thread. Happy to report no new issues. The first few months were pretty rocky and we became a bit concerned but after that it has been trouble free. ...crossing fingers that luck continues.

[The_War_Wagon]

Biggest issue I'VE had, is the local dealer contesting the WARRANTY on everything. I have 4k miles of warranty left, and HOPE to get the front U-joints and leaky tranny lines covered under it. If you have a good dealer down there, lemmee know. Charleston is close ENOUGH to Pittsburgh!

[carb850]

One reason we wanted Certified used is so we can get an extended factory warranty, we have a 8yr - 80K. Now that I'm looking to put a lift on it I called around to all the local dealerships asking if a 2" lift would effect my warranty. The two closest said they would deny service on a power window if a lift is installed, per Chryslers policies. That is just rediculous and made me not interested in dealing with either. I did find one that seems to be willing to work with me. They said that if the parts are directly related such as suspension or CV joints they may not, but electronics, motor, transmission all would be fine. Unfortunately, they are in the wrong direction for you.