2010 WH Grand Cherokee vs 2013 Toyota Prado

[mikey61]

As an EX military aircraft tech you would be surprised how unreliable aircraft can be. On one 4 week exercise in Cape York with the chinook chopper we changed 4 engines on one aircraft alone. All technical issues. Aircraft have redundancies as opposed to cars which have mostly none.

[Benn0]

What I have found so far is that Jeep problems tend to be more niggles, whereas toyota failures are major. I had a 100 series sahara, and yes it was far more comfortable off road, on road it was a noisy truck. And when it failed it hurt, I got burnt by what turns out to be a common issue. toyota recommend changing the fuel injector pipes at 150k, but unless the mechanic is experienced resealing the pipes tend to be not as good as from the factory. And with a bit of vibration they will let go, spewing diesel everywhere. And driving it wasn't much fun, bad brakes, had to plan overtaking a long time ahead, if at all and cornering.... forget about it. The jeep craps all over it on road, and still handles my off road destinations as well (except for clunking suspension).

My father inlaw has the 200 series, lots of problems with fuel filters, but otherwise it has been solid so far. Still a lot of money though. If you are towing I guess it makes sense.

[DownSouth]

Just spoke to my dealer who said my 3 year old WK2 needs a NEW FECKING transfer case and its out of warranty.
It went offroad ONCE 3 days ago.
Yeh Im pissed to say the least.
Yeh it drives great on the road but one drive on a tourist track that a crappy 4wd ute could drive up just destroyed it.... I have know idea what this will cost yet, but you can bet your aspen tree it involves part of my kids inheritance....

[chris0375]

Originally Posted by DownSouth

Just spoke to my dealer who said my 3 year old WK2 needs a NEW FECKING transfer case and its out of warranty.
It went offroad ONCE 3 days ago.
Yeh Im pissed to say the least.
Yeh it drives great on the road but one drive on a tourist track that a crappy 4wd ute could drive up just destroyed it.... I have know idea what this will cost yet, but you can bet your aspen tree it involves part of my kids inheritance....

That's definitely something to follow up with consumer law. Have you serviced it as suggested?

[DownSouth]

Full service history at the same dealer - To be fair the dealer is going to appeal to jeep for me considering the situation. It all comes down to what Jeep Australia will do with it.

[chris0375]

Originally Posted by DownSouth

Full service history at the same dealer - To be fair the dealer is going to appeal to jeep for me considering the situation. It all comes down to what Jeep Australia will do with it.

I definitely wouldn't be paying for it. That's definitely something that would be covered by consumer law.

[fester]

Originally Posted by Benn0

Good point, if you are in the bush, then its either toyota or nissan. But the toyota diesels aren't as bullet proof as they once were, and if they do ever get around to putting modern tech in them, then they will likely have all the problems the GCs do. But as others have said, at least you can get someone to fix it.

Still I can't bring myself to pay thousands more for a car that is so crappy to drive.

Yeah that's the problem everywhere. I too think Toyota's are overrated when it comes to dollars but have to admit I still love my Nissans. Having said that I have to disclaimer that with Patrols built prior to 2007 which is why when we briefly considered the new Grand we bought a Mitsubishi Challenger for our towing/daily and I still have my WJ as my toy/not compulsory daily. The Challenger does all we need, has no real niggles but a couple of recalls. In those cases it's so nice to be able to drive it the 6km to get the work done. Luckily so far it's been done right the first time.

If we went for the Grand the same situations would mean a 140 klm round trip and a day off work and lost pay. Then one of us has to sit around and waste a day or if we get a courtesy car a bit of shopping I suppose. If they need it for a couple of days because of complexity or they stuffed us round with the repair then it compounds. If we don't like that dealer cause they are useless, and I do think little of them, then we add another 30k's each way.

No car is worth that potential hassle anymore, I don't have the patience for it.