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
A lot of Wisconsin references in the opening. Were you by any chance eating cheese while writing this? 😉
I won’t lament the death of the Escape. The Bronco Sport is what the 3rd gen Escape should have been. Every Escape sold after that is an embarrassment to the name. Had them as rentals (even a Titanium once) a couple of times and “underwhelmed” is probably a charitable way to describe my feelings.
– Iacocca Jeep Grand Cherokee – Started the SUV Craze or the Carvan, but since Minivan have fallen out favor, I go Jeep.
– DaimlerChrysler PT Cruiser, again started the Retro Styling Trend, although the 300C is pretty darn close, as closes as I ll ever get to driving a Phantom.
– Cerberus/Nardelli Dodge Challenger SRT 8.
– FCA another tough one but I think I go Ram Promaster. It should have been more popular but small and useful is not enough to sell cars
– Stellantis- Well, this one is probably the hardest, but in the Year of our Lord 2025 you can still get a 2 door Wrangler, and Ford brought back the Bronco, and Chevy, nevermind. The Plucky Jeep Wrangler that has been around and seen the fall and return of competitors.
It turns out PHEV hardware doesn’t run so well upside down. You’d think Stellantis would have tested for that.
Jeeps are notorious for electric problems. Anyone who bought a Jeep that proposefully relies on more electrics deserves whatever pain they are put through. If people would stop buying the things Jeep would have to get serious about fixing their quality issues.
Those original Ford Escapes were so great, it was the first non crap car we bought for my wife our of college. Built on the old Ranger platform, it had true 4 wheel drive and was more than capable of some narly midwester blizzards I had to drive it though. The square back meant it held way more stuff then it looked. We kpt ours for 12 years before finally moving on, we loved it so much
I’m pretty sure the first gen was built on a Mazda 6 platform. In fact Mazda had a lot of input in the vehicle, which could explain why it was so good, but also rusts so fast.
Maybe you are thinking Explorer? I think that was Ranger based.
What rangers were FWD based?
– Iacocca – Best was probably the minivan replacing station wagons so succesfully, but my favorite was the Viper.
– DaimlerChrysler – Some would say the Hemi anything, but I think the Merc 5 speed auto and the pentastar Jeeps are what stood out. heck even the Journey was tolerable with a pentastar and AWD system derived from a merc.
– Cerberus/Nardelli – I don’t think those guys did squat – though they did axe the PT Cruiser before its welcome was fully wore out.
– FCA – Helcat powered anything. SOme may cry about this, but none can deny that this one engine option seemed to float the brand for a decade or so.
– Stellantis – They have not done much to speak of, though I guess they at least made the Electric Charger look OK, even if they massively missed the mark by going cold turkey on EV only production.
there’s a Grand Cherokee 4XE that drives around my town with the vanity plate “4XE SUX”. I figured these things must be pretty bad for someone to go to the lengths to get this plate.
Sadly they had the same things going for them that Erevs do today. And really any Plug in Hybrid. the difference is the thing is supposedly still offroad capable. Just sadly the Name 4Xe will go down in the trash pile of ‘Member berries along with AFM/DFM, 5.4 Triton, and Nissan CVT.
Best car from the company in these eras?
– Iacocca: the minivans
– DaimlerChrysler: Neon
– Cerberus/Nardelli: SRT Viper
– FCA: Alfa Romeo Guilia
– Stellantis: Citroën Ami, I guess?
I always thought (since the intro of the Bronco Sport) that the Sport and the Escape were basically fraternal twins in the eyes of most buyers. One looked more truck-like and the other was more crossover, but there was a lot of overlap.
My guess is that the Escape was less profitable, so it’s the one that got the axe.
Aren’t they more than just fraternal twins in the eyes of buyers, but also mechanical twins (or brothers at least)? It’s interesting that Ford would kill one while still making the other given they are basically the same underneath.
It’s because the Bronco Sport is made in Mexico (with the Maverick) and the Escape was made in Kentucky. Far cheaper for Ford to pay shit wages in Mexico.
No offense, but your badge looks like an upside down uterus.
None taken, thanks for making me laugh out loud at my desk! It’s auto generated by the Autopian and I have no idea how to change it, but now I can’t unsee it
Go to “Account”. Scroll down to “Avatar”. Change it to a graphic on your phone/computer you want. See my DeSoto with two chummy guys…
Excuse me, it’s called an Australian uterus.
We’ve had Jeep 4XE repair jobs where we had to store them outside away from the body shop because of the fire risk.
I’m also a former Mercedes-Benz guy and the dissatisfaction is real. They’ve been prioritizing bling and panache over substance for a very long time.
Just went yesterday to test drive a W212 and a W211 with a friend, and I’m still amazed at how much better the W211 held up after 20 years than the W212 after 10. Ride on that E350 was fantastic, the interior looked new and the naturally aspirated V6 was plenty capable. The W212 rode like an economy/sports car and had various cracking and peeling bits of interior, and the twin-turbo engine made more power, but didn’t feel any more compelling. He’s looking at 5.5L W211’s and C209’s now, and nothing newer from MB is on the list.
And don’t even get me started on the W213.
Huh, after reading this I realized that neither Ford nor Stellantis offers anything that competes in the 25k or less vehicle category. I guess I just assumed that all/most mass market manufacturers had something is that range.
Not anymore. Everyone is adopting the Porsche (I think) strategy of “our entry level is the used market”.
Looking at a list of cheapest new cars, it’s just the Koreans, a couple Nissans and the Chevy Trax.
Its ram truck / ram van then ram truck. But if that’s disqualifed because of a technically I don’t want to play.
The Ford dealers did the same thing with to Taurus then thought they would make a killing when it came back and they didn’t sell that well. The escape basically took the place of the Taurus and now the bronco sport will take its place. I find it strange the dealer went to maverick then mach e when the obvious replacement is the bronco sport.
I was about to say something about Ford discontinuing their affordable vehicles, but it escapes me right now.
*Excapes
CarMax is struggling because a “price is the price” semi-premium experience isn’t cutting it with the current market, and what their customers wants.
Their customers are becoming increasingly price-sensitive, and used car prices are up as it is. You should see the lots that specialize in fighting to get the $5000 – 7000 slightly-rough diamonds — they can empty their lot of inventory every. Single. Week.
People have less to spend, labor market continues to tighten save for healthcare and education, and there’s no end in sight in that regard. People don’t want to spend. So CarMax’s “pay a bit more to not deal with haggling” is incompatible with people absolutely willing to haggle down and price shop.
To be fair, CarMax’s sales were going to decline regardless. It’s rough out there.
I’m admittedly biased as a repeat CarMax vehicle buyer. I adore the no-haggle system. I can (and have) come in with a pre-approval on a vehicle I saw on their website, do a test drive, and leave with a new-to-me car in under an hour. Does it cost more? Maybe. Is it worth my time and effort not to mess around with other dealers? Yep. Plus their vehicles all come with a 90-day/4K-mile warranty, which itself can outweigh the price premium.
I will criticize them (or rather the companies that back it) on the price of their [Doug DeMuro-approved!] MaxCare extended service plan. It’s gotten much more expensive (what hasn’t?) and the deductibles now range much higher than they did (which doesn’t affect me as much since I tend to go for the lowest deductible option, which has been $50 for me, so $0 if I take it to them with their $50 discount program). The backing companies also seem to be a lot stricter about things than before, but not to the point where I haven’t been able to get claims approved. They need to remember that MaxCare is/was? one of the biggest draws for buying from them.
Can confirm,I am in the 10k and down business, it is brutal finding nice/able to make nice Honda/Toyotas. Used to buy some other brands, but they have became such disasters that you would hate to retail them.
The best vehicle that Chrysler has built since they bought Jeep is the basic Wrangler. It’s not perfect, but it always does what it says on the tin, extremely well, for a mostly reasonable price (until very recently). That people often buy them for stupid reasons is neither here nor there.
How they managed to stuff up the 4XE so badly is beyond me. I fail to see how an EREV will be any different – I don’t believe many or any of the issues with them have anything to do with the bits that directly connect the ICE to the wheels on occasion. All the things that have caused havoc will be no different in a series hybrid. Crap software, crap wiring, crap batteries, etc.
I have never understood why Ford bothered with both the Escape and the Bronco Sport in the first place. All then need to do is add the hybrid drivetrain to the Sport and make a cheaper entry-level version, and the one can replace both. People seem to really like butchness in their soft-roaders.
I was excited when Jeep announced the 4xE, at the time I had a Volt and thought if it worked the same way would be great. What they released was a half measure worse than the Kia plug-ins. Barely enough power to crawl , less than 20 miles ‘pure ev’ actual range, and now these recalls. I feel like the 4 cylinder e-torque offering they had for a couple years before was miles better, plenty of power, a decent mpg for a Jeep, and you could even get it in the 2-door.
For best Chryslers I’ll go with:
Iacocca – Viper
DaimlerChrysler – 300/Charger/Magnum
Cerberus – I guess just what they got from Daimler, 300/Charger/Magnum
FCA – Hellcats and Demons and such
Stellantis – I guess the Hornet? That’s like it right? Other than the EVs they’re discontinuing, and the overpriced Wagoneer.
Lets be honest, anyone buying a Hybrid Jeep that expects a reassuring experience has clearly done zero research.
$100 is hysterical. Actual owners of these Jeep 4xes are spending so much of their time dealing with dealers and phone support who are either unable to help or incompetent.
One of my good friends is living this hell now with a Wrangler 4xe. He comes from VW/Audi-land and has a high tolerance for vehicular nonsense… and is actively figuring out if he can Lemon Law this thing. Gas engine won’t come on, whole vehicle won’t power on, random bricking while driving, vehicle powers on but has no power steering, etc. Just a nightmare. Jeep telling customers to run in “gas only” mode is not really accurate as it uses E-Save, which still charges the battery (aka what they say not to do) but using the gas engine. It just doesn’t deplete the hybrid battery much once charged.
Stellantis needs to offer to buy these things back because they have no real fix ready to go.
I learned to drive on a first-gen Escape V6. They were stellar cars minus the paper-maché transmission borrowed from the Contour and burdened with another 1,000 pounds and more horsepower.
A buyback is what they’d do if they were a decent company. $100 is a nice little goodwill gesture, but it’s ultimately kind of laughable in the grand scheme of things. Owners stand to lose a huge amount in depreciation, and that’s assuming they can even find someone willing to buy the thing.
Came here to say this. Jeep royally screwed up execution of the 4xe’s, their reliability metrics are single-handedly making people think that PHEVs in general are unreliable, and the whole thing is a laughably bad experience for the people who bought them. And they think a $100 goodwill gesture is even going to come close to making anyone feel better about all this? Honestly, I’d be surprised if that $100 gift card didn’t come with some sort of “you’re not allowed to sue us” strings attached. I would not put it past them at this point.
Best car from the following Chrysler eras:
– Iacocca: Viper
– DaimlerChrysler: 300
– Cerberus/Nardelli: Ram 4th gen
– FCA: Hellcat everything
– Stellantis: Nothing I can think of….
I don’t know about the other eras, but during the Stellantis error, the Ford Maverick has been the best vehicle.
I would go as far as to say that the best recent Stellantis vehicle is the Maverick.
I remember reading Stellantis laid off A LOT of their engineering staff in Michigan a few years ago. Replaced them with Indians who worked for 10 cents on the dollar.
I wonder who designed the 4xe drivetrain/electronics.
Hey, they have good degrees in Indiana too, you know?
“‘Please Accept Our Sincerest Apologies’ And $100”
From what I’ve heard, this is a drop in a bucket compared to what actually needs/needed to be done. An apology with a $100 pittance doesn’t even begin to compensate owners for all the time wasted caused by the problems.
Stellantis released a half-baked product. And they need to get their shit together.
“Dealers Are Going To Miss The Escape”
Not to mention consumers who just need a practical and affordable daily driver with good hybrid options.
It’s absolutely asinine for Ford to cancel a popular vehicle like this.
Ford has gone back to the old habit of disregarding the low end of the market and assuming they can get anyone who wants a cheap vehicle to pay more for what they actually sell. If they can’t convince you to stretch the financing terms enough to buy a Bronco Sport instead then you can pound sand for all they care.
It’s like Ford still doesn’t realize that 21st Century buyers aren’t going to blindly walk into a dealership and be convinced to spend more. They’ve already checked things out online and will simply drive past the Ford dealership on their way to one that does offer what they want.
Yep. They’ll cruise right on down to the Koreans and away in a Seltos or something.
Cancelling their 2nd most popular Hybrid vehicle in North America, when the brand is allegedly shifting resources to Hybrids is beyond stupid
Hey my namesake is the song of the day hell yeah. Cypress Hill rules. I actually think in the grand scheme of things they’re slightly underrated. Don’t get me wrong, every oldhead like me gives them their flowers, but man…they were way, way ahead of the curve when it came to production and sampling and some of their later career genre bending stuff that brought more rock influences into the fold was actually really good, which is hard to do because mixing rock and rap comes out irredeemably cringe more often than not…although I do unironically love Limp Bizkit.
Anyway I assume the Escape is dying an undignified death because it’s a decent affordable car and we can’t have those anymore because they make it much harder for the finance guy to suddenly run in with an F150 or Expedition for *only $100 more a month*! But if we don’t have any cheap cars or the ones we do have intentionally suck mondo ass we can easily get more asses in 6,000 pound body on frame seats, and for only $1,099 month a thanks to Ford Financial’s 96 month financing! Line go UP! STONKS!
Regarding Ford, they haven’t really had good small engines since the breakup with Mazda. The first few gens of the Escape all had input from Mazda, leading to those nostalgic feelings. The “modern” engine people really like in the hybrid Maverick is….an Atkinson cycle variant of the Mazda L engine, which is well over a decade old at this point.
I assume the dealers are talking about not having products for old people. They were probably selling Escapes to the same people that are buying GMC Terrains. A commenter here once described GMC Terrain buyers as people who “don’t put ketchup on their fries because it’s too spicy” which is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. Those people may dislike the styling of the Bronco Sport. Perhaps they’d be willing to go a class down and pick up a nice, new, imported Puma?
I’ma think Escape buyers don’t want the extra 10K needed to get into a Bronco Sport.
Bronco Sports are also inexplicably tiny on the inside. Hard to fit a rear-facing child seat into one and have any person of actual height sit in the seat in front of it. Oddly enough, the Escspe has (had?) more rear seat space.
Ditto.
To some extent this is true, but that’s still a non trivial number of sales. My mom, who is definitely in the demographic, loved her escapes, put 170k on one and 210k on her second. She would have grabbed another, but with no escape available, she got a Tucson phev.
In theory she could still get a brand new Escape
Oh I’m not discounting older buyers at all – they’re a huge part of the market. The dealership guy didn’t explicitly say that so I’m just speculating here.
I’ll start by saying we’re a grand cherokee family. Between my wife, kids, and I we’ve bought four over the years (three are still in the fleet). You can imagine our excitement when we were presented the keys to a 2024 Grand Cherokee 4XE at a rental counter last year. Cool…we’d get a chance to drive the latest in the line and see if we might be in line to buy one when my wife is finally ready to give up her 2013. We drove it extensively through the costal plain of North Carolina last September. First impresions were decent…seemed like a more spacious interior, more doodads than the 2013 (not a selling feature with my wife who likes her cars spartan), overall a quiet ride, but way more shifting and transitioning that we were used to. Problems presented themselves fairly early on when we got a few dashboard warning lights that came and went. OK, it’s a jeep…as a longtime owner, we’ve come to expect such things. Please note that during this time, we were running on the gas engine – the battery had no charge for hybrid and I wasn’t about to charge it.
Then the fun started – we came into a bit of stop/go traffic for a while. After things cleared up, I accelerated but noticed that it didn’t shift out of first gear. I verified that I hadn’t hit anything and it was still in drive, so there was no apparent reason for this. I quickly pulled to the side of the road and did what anybody with a tempermental computer would do…shut it off, waited 30 seconds and started it up again. It shifted thereafter. It was unsettling that a new vehicle would do something like that, and I thought afterward that someone who wasn’t as in tune with cars could have easily done some real damage to the thing, or caused an accident for someone else.
After further reflection, I thought more about what that thing was. The thought of trying to do a 4WD hybrid..basically a jeep that did absolutely everything…was a bridge too far on this vehicle and it was half-baked.
The end result is that when my wife finally decides to part with her ’13, it will probably be for a later edition of the same in the pre-owned market, or something else entirely. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
I was never a big fan of the looks of the WK and WK2 GC’s (like yours), but they sure do drive nice.
A couple years back my brother-in-law asked me to drive his (2014 or so), he said there was a weird vibration he was feeling. At the time I owned a ’13 4Runner. First thing, we got on the highway and I was doing almost 80 before I realized (that Pentastar is great with the 8 speed trans!), which is not something any 4Runner owner will ever do. After I slow down to cruising speed, I tell him that I’m sorry I can’t help, this feels WAY smoother than my 4Runner, I’m not feeling any vibes at all.
I can’t imagine how nice one is to drive with the Hemi.
Side note, they really need to put the 3.0 Hurricane in the GC, that engine is so smooth and quiet, it would be a great fit for the GC.
Unfortunately, Jeep has already come out and said that the Hurricane doesn’t fit the new GC. How that made it past product planning is beyond me.
First experience was with a company-owned WJ 4.0. Really liked it, so I got my wife a WK. She loved it, but I never really liked it as much as the WJ (noisy, unrefined, lack of torque). When my kids were old enough, I got another WJ for them (4.7 H.O.). Fun to drive, but consumed or leaked every fluid (besides brake). I got the 2013 WK2 for my wife and she absolutely loved it – it’s better than the WK in every way – smooth, quiet, reasonably powerful, much better quality overall – even got 27 MPG highway (once). We have had it for almost 6 years/60K (120 overall) and it’s been a great ownership experience – absolutely no issues. We still have the WJ…kind of our beater now with 250k. It’s certainly not a great vehicle, but it runs/shifts, most things still work (with persuasion) and owes us nothing.
I’ll never get having random warning lights popping up and going away as no big deal, but I guess that’s a Jeep thing and I’ll never understand.
The difference between “eh…that’ll clear up” and “woah..that’s a thing” is a subtle but learned art form.
Jeep/Mopar and most of the Europeans. Also Subaru, Nissan/Infiniti, honda/Acura, gm… Well, I guess it’s much of the industry.
I also found this statement to be…WTF?