I have struck a rich vein of news this morning, and I’m going to spend it all Beverly Hillbillies style. The end of the year is when companies traditionally like to dump unflattering information, hoping no one is paying attention, and The Morning Dump is here to collect it Katamari Damacy-style.
Is this too many metaphors about me writing about things going wrong? Maybe! But like the Jeep 4XE drivetrain, modern automakers have a lot of problems to disclose. That’s an apt reference, given that Jeep’s CEO is out here handing out bucks like Herb Kohl
Jeep would probably kill for something as popular and affordable as the Ford Escape, but Ford is cancelling it, much to the chagrin of dealers. You know who else is chagrined? Mercedes employees (the ones who haven’t been laid off yet).
The used market is tight, which is helping companies like Carvana. The OG national used car chain CarMax? It’s hurting like Giannis Antetokounmpo.
‘Please Accept Our Sincerest Apologies’ And $100
In the video above, Wrangler4XEFans talks about the difficulty of owning a Wrangler 4XE and of getting his Wrangler fixed. The video is titled “320,000 Compensated Guinea Pigs,” and that’s a great way to talk about the technology.
If you’re not aware, 4XE is the name that Jeep gave it its line of plug-in hybrid models (PHEV). The Wrangler 4XE and Jeep Grand Cherokee 4XE are two of the most popular PHEVs ever sold and, at the same time, are absolutely cursed objects.
These are vehicles that are recalled so often that owners are making recall merit badges. And these are serious recalls that involve the potential for Jeeps to just randomly go up in flames in a way not dissimilar from the last three weeks of any Mets season.
It’s so bad that Jeep bricked a bunch of Wranglers while pushing a different fix.
This is a bad look, and The Detroit News is reporting that the CEO is apologizing for all the difficulties:
Bob Broderdorf said most of the brand’s Wrangler and Grand Cherokee 4xe hybrids aren’t affected by the battery problems but acknowledged the recalls — which most recently have asked 320,065 owners to stop charging and park away from structures — could be “unsettling.” He asked owners to “Please accept our sincerest apologies.”
“As a valued member of the Jeep family, you deserve a reassuring ownership experience, and we are truly sorry if this situation caused any disappointment or concern,” the email said. The brand is offering $100 Mastercard gift cards to “cover unexpected fuel costs since you are being asked to not travel in EV mode,” the CEO confirmed, while also providing loaner vehicles and extended warranties for the Samsung SDI-made high-voltage batteries.
The whole existence of Jeep’s PHEV effort can be seen as a way to get tax credits while, at the same time, attempting to get around emissions-related regulations without building EVs. Now that credits are disappearing and regulations are changing, I’m not sure why these vehicles should even exist.
I’m a fan of PHEVs in theory, although in practice, the products we have are a bit mixed. Perhaps EREVs will overcome some of the challenges. Or, maybe, I feel like PHEVs are problematic because the biggest maker of PHEVs is Stellantis.
Jeep needs to be a good comeback story if Stellantis is going to overcome its issues. This isn’t a great story.
Dealers Are Going To Miss The Escape
My mother-in-law had a first-generation Ford Escape, and I still think it’s one of the best vehicles modern Ford has built. Compact. Attractive. Affordable. In hybrid trim, they can go forever while offering performance that rivals the V6. I’d argue that the Escape is a good example of a product that’s been watered down with each new generation.
With the Maverick and Bronco Sport now occupying that space, the Escape has been axed, and the last one was probably built yesterday. According to this Automotive News report, not all Ford dealers love losing this product:
“The biggest thing we’ve been stressing at dealer council is affordability, and in my opinion, this takes it in the wrong direction,” said Nick Anderson, general manager of Chuck Anderson Ford in Excelsior Springs, Mo. “Getting rid of the Escape is a huge mistake.”
Anderson said the Escape makes up almost one-fifth of his store’s annual sales volume, behind only the F-150. It’s traditionally been a popular option in his market, near Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant, where the Escape was built before moving to Louisville Assembly early last decade.
It’s also been a favorite of budget-focused buyers at Downtown Ford of Sacramento, according to Nathan Meckley, the California store’s general manager. He worries what will happen next.
“My fear is that these people who are already in Escape or Edge don’t have a vehicle to come back to,” Meckley told Automotive News. “You could put them in a Maverick, but maybe they don’t want a truck. You could put them in Mach-E, but maybe they don’t want electric. Where do they go?”
I don’t have the same warm feelings for the new Escape that I did for my MIL’s, whereas I’m infatuated with the new Maverick. Still, it might have been nice for the company to continue production for another year or two while the $30k affordable EVs rolled out. The issue? The plant that builds the Escape is the plant that’s going to build those next-gen electric vehicles.
Mercedes Employees Reportedly Unsatisfied With Mercedes
To clarify, Mercedes (the company) has employees who are unsatisfied with Mercedes (the company and its products). No reasonable person is unsatisfied with Mercedes (our writer), who is wonderful.
This comes via Manager Magazin, and it’s pretty rough:
More motivation for the team, “that’s the most urgent thing now,” commented a member of the supervisory board on the results of the Gallup poll conducted among the entire workforce in the fall. According to information obtained by manager magazin, the responses to the twelve key questions were below average compared to other companies.
Overall satisfaction with the company? Below average. Materials and equipment? Below average. Mission/Purpose? Poor. On a scale from red (bad) to green (top), the boss saw red twice, a lot of yellow, and only once, at least, light green.
Mercedes itself views the result positively, stating that “compared to the last survey in 2023,” the company sees “continued very high overall satisfaction,” especially “in a phase of profound change.” They maintain that their performance was no worse than in 2023.
I gotta say, the subscription we have to Manager Magazin (one of many subscriptions we have) is money extremely well spent, given that the publication spills tea like the Sons of Liberty.
CarMax Saw A Drop In Sales, Missing Estimates
You’d think that CarMax would be the one company that would be doing well in this market, given that new cars are getting expensive, but it seems to be getting squeezed by dealers who have the benefit of trade-ins and online retailers like Carvana, which have better online infrastructure.
The company missed estimates in Q3. Per Bloomberg:
Comparable used-vehicle sales shrank 9% in the third quarter, the company said in a statement Thursday, a bigger contraction than the 8.4% decrease analysts polled by Bloomberg anticipated, but between the range of the 8% to 12% decline the company had warned in November.
The company said it expects to lower retail used unit margins in the fourth quarter, and will increase its marketing spend from a year ago, focusing on investing in acquisitions.
Based on recent results, “it is clear CarMax needs change,” interim Chief Executive Officer David McCreight said in the statement. The Richmond, Virginia-based used car retailer terminated its former CEO William D. Nash at the start of December as sales have slumped.
CarMax needs to be better at getting its story out there.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
If you were curious if Cypress Hill still had it, here’s them performing “Insane In The Brain” live a couple of years ago. This one is for Adrian.
The Big Question
Lemme take a break from dogging on Stellantis for a minute. What’s the best car from the following Chrysler eras:
– Iacocca
– DaimlerChrysler
– Cerberus/Nardelli
– FCA
– Stellantis
Top Photo: Jeep; DepositPhotos.com; iOS
I’ve been a car guy since I was 4 in 1970. There is NO vehicle Dodge or Stellantis has ever made since the malaise era that holds any interest to me. Frankly, I find it incredible that it can build such unreliable crap for so many generations and still survive.
The only one that has had a bit of a siren song for me recently is the Challenger.
I absolutely loved the first generation Neon, and rented them whenever I needed a rental. I’d still entertain owning one if it was well preserved (ha!).
Otherwise they are all to be avoided like the plague. I have horror stories of other rentals from whichever company they were at the time.
My son’s mother and I bought a used 2G AWD Escape for my son from a CarMax dealership near New Orleans (of all places!) back in the summer of 2018 and it still runs well today, although some distributer part in the HVAC system has gone toes up and to tear the dash apart to fix it costs more than the car is now worth, so it’s relegated to fair weather duty and he and his wife bought a CX-5 for day to day duty.
Does this dealer not sell any Bronco Sports? They should be sitting right across from the Escapes that they sell. For roughly the same price. Sure, there isn’t a hybrid or a PHEV Bronco Sport, but that should easily be adaptable if there is a market for them (which I think there is), since they are on the same platform.
Plus, the Bronco Sport looks more like the actual descendant of the 1st generation Escape.
Roughly is a bit optimistic in describing the price difference.
> What’s the best car from the following Chrysler eras:
A Ford.
Good answer, but I’ll vote for Honda.
I had an 01 Mazda Tribute as my first car that I bought myself. It was a great ride! My neighbor has a newer one and if I could find one that was still taken care of for cheap, I would be all over it. Car was peppy with the V6, handled great and fit everywhere because it was built before everything got so damn big.
I think the weirdest thing I remember about it was you had to lift your leg up over the door sill and then dropped down into it. Was a weird quirk
Wranglers are the same way. I always figured it was because all the side impact protection had to be below the door because the doors were removable. Maybe the 1st gen Escape was the same way.
It definitely helped with headroom and gave you that feeling of sitting in the car versus on it if that makes sense
My ’17 Accord is not that different. About a 2-3-inch lift over the door sills.
It is unfortunate that they have killed the Escape. The smarter thing would have been to switch the new plant to build the “low cost” EVs and kept the Escape soildering on for at least a few more years. They claim they are going to focus on Hybrids and PEHVs so it makes no sense to me that they are discontinuing their only PHEV they currently have while the standard hybrid version is pretty popular too.
It does leave a second big hole in their line up in an important segment. As the one dealer mentioned they have former Edge owners that you might have been able to move into an Escape, but of course that is no longer an option.
I don’t thing they will be successful in switching large numbers of current Escape and Edge buyers into a Bronco Sport, Maverick, or going up in size and $$$ to the Explorer. Even if they could switch all those buyers the plant that makes those doesn’t have enough capacity to support a large increase in sales.
On the plus side this means they have excess capacity for the HEV & PHEV battery packs. When the Mav was introduced they did say they protected the space for the PHEV battery pack. So maybe if we are lucky there will be a Maverick PHEV in the near future. It also means we might even get a Bronco Sport Hybrid.
Those options could mean increased margins, but certainly not enough to make up for the loss of the revenue from the Escape.
A Maverick PHEV…. now we are talking.
We tried Camax a month ago, but were turned off by their lowball offer on our trade-in. We ended up selling it to WeBuyAnyCar.com, instead (for 40% more!), and are now looking for a replacement. A “premium” buying experience only goes so far until the actual “deal” makes no sense.
I’m still astonished carvana hasn’t gone under yet. What they claim to be sounds great, but what they actually do is a missing-paperwork-dmv-nightmare.
They are at their highest value ever. As the past decade+ has shown, the stock market is stupid and nothing makes logical sense.
TBQ: best products from each of the following Chrysler eras:
– Iacocca: Minivan
– DaimlerChrysler: LX cars in general, Dodge Magnum in particular
– Cerberus/Nardelli: Dodge Challenger
– FCA: Durango/Grand Cherokee
– Stellantis: uhhh…
Dodge Magnum. I thought I was the only one who liked it.
I like it so much I still have my 2005 RT after 17 years and 185000 miles of ownership. 🙂
Nope… the Magnum has a dedicated fan base. I had an 06 MSRT8 for 10 years, finally sold it with 230K miles on it when I got my 300C.
There are dozens of us!
I’ve been lusting after an SRT8 Magnum for years now. Can’t seem to find one in the condition and price that would make me pull the trigger.
Stellantis deserves every bit of misfortune that falls about them. I’d say this is a karma thing, but they literally created all these problems themselves.
Chrysler was at its best when it tag-teamed with Mitsubishi in the Diamond Star era. Eagle Talon for the win!
That said, their current state of electrification is, as Steinbrenner would say (at least the Seinfeld version), “IN-EX-CUSE-A-BULL!!”
They’ve been talking about such innovation for the better part of two decades and still have to send out apologies like Dominos.
That’s a hilarious statement
Chrysler was best when other companies made their cars for them
Best car from roundheels Chrysler:
Iacocca: K-derivatives. All of them. They weren’t great cars but the K-platform is THE factor that saved an entire corporation, and Lido was behind all of that.
DaimlerChrysler: Neon. It actually debuted before Daimler jumped in, but really hit its stride when Daimler was holding the purse.
Cerberus: Nothing that deserved to live escaped the hell of Chrysler Corporation under Cerberus’ leadership. I seriously thought this would be the end of Chrysler.
Fiat: With FCA calling shots, they used that opportunity to start moving Fiats into the US again. It’s like having an STD flare up again after you’ve finished the first round of antibiotics. I seriously thought this would be the end of Chrysler.
Stellantis: Who? What? This is the unholiest of orgies, the doors are locked and nobody is having a good time and the whole place is starting to smell. I seriously think this will be the end of Chrysler.
I’m starting to think that Chrysler is in fact cursed, doomed to live no matter how badly injured and infested it may be, lurching from one host to another, shambling into the future, yearning for the surcease and silence of death, damned forever to never be allowed to rest.
Upvoted for the use of ‘surcease’.
My non-4XE 2022 Grand Cherokee was an absolute pile of shit. It was in the dealership for warranty work over a dozen times and several of the biggest issues couldn’t be fixed even after multiple visits. I do not miss that pile at all.
I grew up in my mom’s first gen Escape. First year, yellow, V6, FWD. learned to drive in it. It was a great car. Did 200k miles and over 15 years with no major issues, but rust and leaky valve seals were taking a toll by then. Killing the Escape is a terrible idea unless they also make a cheaper trim of the Bronco Sport and give it a hybrid option. Even then I think it’s dumb.