Got new Trailhawk last week!

[Trailfirst]

Hi all. So we got our new red TH last weekend and are loving it so far - tho I'm havin a bit of heartburn about the tranny stories that keep cropping up from time to time (of course I only started hearing about all this stuff AFTER we bought it!!! - no excuse tho as clearly the info has been online for all to see for some time - I just didn't...).

We'd been looking at getting a Territory or Ranger or perhaps Santa Fe but as I poked about I tripped over info on the new Cherokee and one thing led to another. Actually, my wife and I fell in love with it as soon as we saw the first picture.

We ended up buying on spec from long distance - my first view and hands on of the real thing was when I flew to the dealer to take delivery and drive it 1280km home.

As I say, we're loving it so far and just have fingers and toes crossed. It didn't miss a beat on that first trip - and even better, I realised when I got home and actually read the manual that I ended up more or less accidentally following the run in procedure fairly closely! - ie. for the first 100km I was fairly careful - then at about an hour and a half into the trip I actually slowed to about 50kph every now and then and pedalled reasonably hard back up to the 100kph limit - ie. not exceding 4000 or so rpm. Did that every 20 mins or so for the next couple of hours - more to keep awake than anything as it was wee hours - then did the rest of the trip thru the day steady steady but not babying it - or thrashing it - each time I stopped and got under way again (did several overtakes during the course of the day as well). All seemed sensible way to handle it - I'm an aircraft mechanic by trade.

The only things I have observations / criticisms of - and still trying to figure out how to actually tell Chrysler / Jeep themselves - is there a feedback system? are:
1. No left footrest (what?!?!) - on that initial long trip this had me venting rather noisily and often - tho in the privacy of my own company in the car.
2. Disappointed at the "lazy" RH Drive conversion - ie. leaving the transmission select on the now passenger side - and indicator / washer stalks on the "wrong" side for RHD.
3. Trans etc. settings don't stay where you had them on last shutdown (means a sort of "preflight" checklist before you go anywhere).

Otherwise, like I said we're loving it and only hope it lasts!! - in fact we're in the can if it doesn't as we've REALLY extended ourselves to get it!!

[BLUE09]

Originally Posted by Trailfirst

1. No left footrest (what?!?!) - on that initial long trip this had me venting rather noisily and often - tho in the privacy of my own company in the car.
2. Disappointed at the "lazy" RH Drive conversion - ie. leaving the transmission select on the now passenger side - and indicator / washer stalks on the "wrong" side for RHD.
3. Trans etc. settings don't stay where you had them on last shutdown (means a sort of "preflight" checklist before you go anywhere).

1. No cars I have owned for many years have had a footrest.
Sad but you will get used to it, its normally a safety thing in a crash. (that is how it was when ford removed it from the BA)
2. I prefer the near selector being slightly further away (in my wranglers case) as i don't hit it with my knee!
Indicators are VERY NORMAL for Euroboxes/American cars

[Treebreakerbob]

All computer settings go back to default on shut down. I would think that is a safety issue and part of ADR's . Imagine if you left cruise control on set at 110 k's and your driving through a school zone and accidentally bump the on button, not likely but possible.

There has been no problems with the 8 speed box, the 5 speed has had 4 failures that I know off towing 3 tonne and over for 60,000 + k's

Sorry just read that you bought a Cherokee not a Grand Cherokee, didn't realise they did a Trailhawk in that as well

Bob

[lujabe]

Congrats on your purchase, I'm sure you'll love it.

I tend to agree with the above though - I don't miss the footrest at all - my foot rests on the floor just fine!

Indicators on the left is almost normal these days - Asian and Aussie built cars are on the right, pretty much everyone else on the left. You'll get used to it in no time.

Re the 9-speed - like you, I had some apprehension... But i did some research and found the failure rate to be relatively low, and seemed to be a software issue more than a mechanical one - subsequent software updates seem to have improved it. It also seemed to be more of an issue with earlier builds (they went into production in 2013). So I weighed it up and took the gamble, and so far, no issues to report in 8000km.

[Trailfirst]

Thanks lujabe - that's encouraging - we're looking at just over $1000 and a week just to get it back to the dealer on a transporter if there's a warrantable breakdown - starting to realise local availability of mechanical backup prolly should have been a factor in what car we chose - but I'm loving the heck out of the Trailhawk!! - and there are LOTS of other very new looking Jeeps around here - tho all Grands.

With the other stuff - good points guys, tho I'm definitely going to end up doing something about the footrest (wont be anything like a velcro'd block tho - would need to be solidly attached).

I'll always support the practicality of having the indicator opposite the shift - even in auto vehicles - so it goes beyond just being used to having it that way in aus vehicles until recently. The reason for it being on the right in all those other makes is that likewise to the Jeep they're natively LHD vehicles - so they too are actually originally DESIGNED with it opposite the shift and being lazy in the conversion process (would be very expensive too I realise to make left and right stalks - at least transplanting the whole column to the other side is still using existing parts).

Thing that really scares me is seeing my wife reach across the wheel with her right hand to use the indicator... (I have spoken to her about it).

I'm of course not talking about leaving things like cruise control active - that'd be ridiculous - but things like the Auto Start and trans select I think are reasonable to have come up in their previous selected state. Ideally make it an option...

[SeaComms]

Where's the pictures!!

Friends of ours recently bought a Cheroke Trailhawk in white and their first trip away was from northern Victoria (Dederang to be exact) to us in Noosa! They loved it. Drove like a dream and have had no problems at all with it. Took it for a spin when they got here and very impressed with the way it drove.

Oh and where are you? Just use your closest dealer for any warranty issues.

[spoondog]

And if you do have any problems (which I'm sure you won't) call jeep assist, they travel to you and I've heard of a case where they paid the trip on a flatbed back to the dealer.