[Silvarbullit]

Hi AJOR Community,

First time poster so please forgive my n00bness.

I'm seriously thinking about buying a used MY14 or 15 GJC in probably Limited spec but have a few questions/concerns so would love to hear some opinions from other WK2 owners. I've ruled out the older WKs out of reliability fears and the 5 speed auto for fuel economy reasons, as far as I can tell except for the occasional lemon horror stories, the WK2 are fairly mechanically reliable once the various recalls were done but are more often let down by weird electronics gremlins and crap dealer network.

The GJC would be a daily driver but the end goal would be to use it as an Overland Tourer for going around the country or through the middle such as Simpson desert crossing or Canning stock route etc more than a hardcore trail crawler. I don't intend to ever tow anything that would needs trailer brakes.

Most of my concerns stems from the Diesel vs Petrol question. Interested in the oiler due to the apparent driveability due to the torque, the better fuel economy and the issue of fuel availability of premium petrol in the outback (if it's even really still an issue?) plus the safety advantages of carrying Diesel over Petrol off road.

I'm still not sure if the price premium on the 2nd hand diesels (while better than new) is worth it over the petrol given the $/L of diesel and the fact that most of the diesels available here have much higher KMs than most of the Petrols available so are probably closer hitting more expensive maintenance intervals soon. As a rule I typically only do 10-15k KMs a year in normal city driving with my current car averaging 12k per year since new.

1. There doesn't seem to be many 3.0 Diesels available in my city at my preferred price range and the ones that are usually have much much higher kms for their age than the equivalent 3.6 petrols. There are a lot of Petrols with 80-90k kms available too with a few in the 50-60k km range. All around that 2013-2015 build year.

Should I be concerned about buying a 3.0 with 100-120k km's in the 2013/2014 years? Did the earlier years of the WK2 have any known issues with the Diesel (or petrol) that were fixed in later MY's so would be good to avoid? Are there any known reliability issues around that km's to be aware of?

100 or 120k doesn't seem to be much for most older diesels however I'm not so sure with newer turbo diesels with high pressure injection or DPF's which concern me much more.

2. Most of the reviews say the Diesel is much better for driveability around town with the extra torque, is the Petrol really that bad for city driving? I might find it difficult to back to back drive the 3.0 and 3.6 to get a good comparative feel given how few of them seem to be available in the same MY and price ranges. I've mostly driven petrol sports sedans around home and diesel 4WD's at work so I don't really have any feeling for what to really expect from a more than 2T Petrol 4WD.

3. Are there any simple obvious known issues with the earlier MY WK2s to look out for? I've researched a couple of potential cars by slipping the VIN number into the recall search on Mopar.com which suggest that they have each had various recalls done, are there any other obvious/simple things to watch out for? Seems most of the issues are electronics problems which would be difficult to replicate during a short test drive.

4. What is the state of iPhone integration in the UConnect 8.4's going back to MY14/15 ? Are they able to be updated to use Siri hands free or did Jeep stop providing updates to those radios years ago?

5. Are map updates on the the MY14/15's still easy to get? Assume the Uconnect 8.4" can still get sat nav mapping updates but are they only available through Dealers or are you able to pay and update the maps yourself at home etc.

6. Are there any tips anyone can offer on what might indicate if the GJC has been abused other than looking under the car for obvious dents and dings from off roading, full sets of under body skid plates or armouring and things like electronic brake controllers from towing heaving trailers or vans. Are there any body or structural issues which might also show signs of a hard life or should simply be checked like faulty door or window seals etc? I haven't seen any really consistent lists of genuine known issues on WK2's to look for, it all seems to be random stuff compiled by owners over the years but not consistently known issues.

For example some Prados had cracked inner guards or broken engine chasis mounts from offroading or bull bars.

7. Did all of the WK2 3.0 Diesels have DPF's and need Urea/Adblue or was it only more recent MY's say MY16 or 17 onwards?

8. Is there any truth to the suggestion that late 2014 build or MY15's had better build quality and assembly QA than the earlier 2013/14 MY14's so should ideally be looking for a 2015 build to get a better quality machine?

9. What's with the CD or DVD drive in the centre console which seems to take up half the space? Was that an option on some cars or is that common to all of the UConnects with the 8" screen? Seems a bit ridiculous!

Any opinions on all of that would be greatly appreciated. I think the GJC is a great mix of comfort, technology, styling and off road capability which most of its competitors really don't match.. if only they had the reliability and build quality reputation to go with!

Cheers!