The Wrangler 4xe was Jeep’s first plug-in hybrid. Released back in 2021, it’s been a solid seller for the brand, but it hasn’t been without its issues. The 4xe has been recalled no fewer than 14 times over its five-year life, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
A few of these recalls, like the malfunctioning side marker lights recall from 2022 or the non-functional reverse lights and camera from 2023, are more inconvenient than serious. But most are pretty serious, with some posing a stall or fire risk.
If I were a 4xe owner, I’d be pretty angry about having to take my Jeep into the dealer 14 times for recalls over five years. It seems some owners are taking the constant recalls in stride, though, because they’re making entire sets of merit badges for their SUVs to show off the recalls they’ve completed.
Wow, Is It That Bad?
If you’ve spent any time in the Subaru community, you’ll know the company does this thing where you can order “Badges of Ownership,” little badges with symbols of stuff you like doing with your Subaru, like camping, off-roading, or driving with your pet. They’ll even ship them to you free of charge, whether you bought your car new or used (all you need is a VIN).
This is sort of like that, but for Wrangler 4xe owners. Loot Designs, a company that makes all sorts of custom badges for Jeeps, has an entire section dedicated specifically to recalls of the 4xe, each with the manufacturer’s recall number and a little graphic representing the reason for the recall.
There are 10 different designs to choose from, meaning not every recall is covered. But all of the big ones are present and accounted for. There are badges for recalls B9A, 95B, and 68C, which are all recalls for the high voltage battery that could fail and cause a fire (the most recent of which was issued earlier this month). For the first two, the badges show a battery with flames on either side. The third one is a bit more tame, with a battery and a flammable symbol paired together.
There’s also Y46, which corresponds to a recall involving faulty seals for 4xe charging cables. That one shows a little charging symbol with bolts of lightning coming from the charging insert. My personal favorite has to be the badge for recall campaign Y94, which discovered that certain first-year 4xes simply stopped displaying their odometers in their digital gauge clusters. This badge shows a four-digit odometer with a bunch of question marks, which is pretty hilarious.
Posted by Chris Hall on Wednesday, November 19, 2025
The main difference between these badges and the Subaru Badges of Ownership is that these aren’t free. Loot Designs wants $20 per badge, or $17 per badge if you buy two or more. A small price to pay to let the car behind know you’ve done your due diligence with required repairs.
Owners Seem To Like The Idea, At Least According to Facebook
The whole reason I found out about these badges is thanks to a post by a user who goes by Ken Powers in the Jeep 4xe Enthusiasts Facebook Group. Powers designed a “badge of honor” of his own for the latest fire warning recall, complete with raised lettering. If you have a 3D printer, you can download and print the design right now.
I expected most of the comments to be unsupportive of Powers’ idea, as it highlights flaws in the 4xe’s design. But everyone in the comment section—most of whom are likely other 4xe owners—seemed to love it. “God, what a great idea,” said one commenter. “I will absolutely buy one if you get this to finished product,” said another.
I guess 4xe owners have a pretty good sense of humor. If you managed to hold onto your car even after all these recalls, you must.
Top graphic images: Loot Designs; Jeep
This is the humorously-jaded car adornment the world needs right now. Helluva’ lot better than the half-assed “mea culpa” decals on Teslas.
See also Tested/Adam Savage’s “Demerit Badges” for workshop mishaps.
These match the Jeep badges you get when you complete a Jeep Badge of Honor trail.
Here’s the most recent addition.
https://youtu.be/Gxh_nCwvAQk?si=az59ds7_-4mRuBjj
I worked with Loot to have those badges made. Here’s the video: https://youtu.be/Qjt-_VvN9BM?si=I7ik2_S9a821YrEG
Such a brilliant idea!
Jeeps have always had a complicated relationship with quality, but they used to be pretty darn simple to fix. The absolute mess they have made out of the 4Xe models, the Wagoneer and the Grand Cherokee feels like they hate their customer base.
I hope someone at Stellantis realizes that being involved in winning a war 80 years ago won’t carry the brand another generation unless they make some decent, reliable vehicles.
Some take it in stride, others take a bath to get out of it. I took the bath.
Mistakes will happen. There’s a fine line between a manufacturer doing responsible recalls for honest mistakes, and too many recalls to trust a vehicle anymore.
On a scale of one to ten, where one is “I trust and will buy any vehicle Stellantis makes” and ten is “I’d rather staple my private parts to a moving bus,” the 4XE Jeep gets an eleven.
Jeep people and Land Rover people are unique in that they’re aware they’re being actively fleeced by a terrible company with terrible engineering and terrible quality control and somehow taking pride in that.
Yeah, they are morons.
Too bad there aren’t “RELIABILTY” badges but that really should be a thing.
With the Ford guys and their transmissions (and my (3) 3.5 V6 engines in 160k miles company-leased F150)…
and the GM Manly Man truck engines crap out at 14K miles with their three feet of clearance between the top of the tire and the fender…
and the Jeep guys have to put up with their vehicles BRICKING themselves for chrissakes…
me and my family bask in calm and penetrating strength-through-reliability.
That could be a slogan… “Strength Through Reliability” has a nice ring to it.
Not knowing my service managers’ wife and children on a first name basis is nice too.
I love my Subaru badges. I couldn’t wait to add the 200K badge in place of the 100K badge. When I bought back my WRX from the friend I sold it to in 2020, I ordered a couple (incl that one) & it took forever.
Months later I finally called someone, they said the order was in process but thanks to some TikTok video they were WAY behind on production.
The recall badges are quite funny. I also find it quite telling that the Subaru badges only go to 200k when Volvo had ones that go to 300-400k decades ago, haha.
I just put a 300k decal on my Lexus GX. Things are cockroaches.
Oh yeah Lexus should have them up to a million!
Ford must be kicking itself. Even at $17 a badge, they could double their profit on most cars they sell.
You can laugh, or you can cry. This is a great idea.
So Subaru’s Arbor Day, bicycling, animal, and hiking badges are not for having driven into trees, hikers, bicyclists, or animals?
Well, that’s certainly a relief. I thought maybe Subaru had expanded from niche marketing to lesbians and was going after the sociopath market.
I’m pretty sure the domestic pickup manufacturers have the sociopath market sewn up anyway.
Kind of reminiscent of how the 1967-1977 NSU R080 had Wankel rotary engines that were plagued in the first few years by issues with apex seals wearing out (though the last few years saw great improvement) where the manufacturer honored warranties by replacing engines. Famously, drivers of R080s passing each other in the street would hold up fingers showing how many engines they had gone through; there were actually drivers who had to use both hands, with nine being the highest number known.
Very few early RO80s have survived with their original engines intact but numerous later RO80s are still rocking their original engines.
After NSU folded (after being acquired by VW) some owners would replace their kaput Wankels with V4 engines sourced from Ford Taunuses. Given how renowned Wankel rotary engines were for their smoothness while Ford’s V4s were notoriously poorly balanced these owners would lament that they had gone from the world’s smoothest running engine to the world’s roughest running engine.
I traded in my 2022 Grand Cherokee last weekend on a 2026 Silverado 1500. The amount of issues it had was maddening and the dealer just couldn’t seem to fix a few of the worst ones.
-Creaking and groaning suspension that the dealer replaced the front suspension twice. Didn’t fix it.
-Infotainment center randomly resetting itself to Italian and disabling front impact sensors and paddle shifters. Happened 3 times. Replacing a ton of electronics including the whole infotainment system didn’t fix it.
-Hatch latch got stuck a few times locking me out of the rear. This happened in a downpour once and I had to shove a dripping wet stroller into the front passenger seat.
-Swaybar bracket sheared itself in half from regular street driving.
-Doors groaned and creaked when body flexed.
-Driver seatbelt randomly locked up and I couldn’t get it unstuck.
-Rear hatch actuator was sounding like it was gonna fail any second.
It was by far the worst vehicle I’ve ever owned. And it wasn’t even a 4xe! I had no complaints about the Pentastar engine. The dealer offered me just enough to cover the remaining balance on the loan so I bit. We’ll see how this new 2026 Silverado does. I’m done with Jeep and Stellantis.
My dad rented a grand cherokee in 2017 with like 50 miles on it. By the time he’d driven it a few hours every piece of electronics on the right side of the vehicle had gone dead, all the windows stopped working, the infotainment was dead, and the air system (controlled by the infotainment) was stuck on high heat. In July.
That’s quite a list, but the swaybar bracket is frightening.
Infotainment randomly setting itself to Italian is a hilarious bug.
The betrayal to Paulie with this is painful.
I thought about trading my 4XE GC on a Pentastar to try to minimize the hit I took getting out of it, but decided a clean break was a better idea long term.
Can we not have video that is on repeat with out an off or mute button? This video is very annoying in particular.
If you have a video that’s playing with sound, you should probably email Matt. All of the videos that I get are muted and are off to the side.
Thank you usually they have mute but the one on the Jeep video doesn’t. Have a great Holiday.
I think they should make recall ducks instead.
I hate trinkets in general, but were I to be a 4xe owner I would totally waste money on these.
I crudely made a quick badge 3d-printer file for you to take on your road trip: https://discord.com/channels/1111431722442170408/1118296447067107419/1442647448743972875
(70x35x2mm and I think TPU would be the best material. Spray paint the whole thing black, then once dry spray a LOT of white onto a flat surface and place the raised embossing onto it)
“A few of these recalls, like the malfunctioning side marker lights recall from 2022 or the non-functional reverse lights and camera from 2023“
I’d argue these last couple are pretty important.
Relative to catching fire in your garage and burning down your home, I’d put them at a medium priority.
how are these not called badges of dishonor.
They totally are, they are just trying to laugh at their sadness. I get it.
Nice ribbons….
THEY ARE RIBBONS OF SHAME!
I’d wear em on the inside if I were you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykk5Zoll46Y
This is hilarious, and awesome. Anytime you can learn to laugh at something unfortunate.