'05 Pathy or a Jeep Grand Cherokee

[shodog]

The wifey has been buggin to get an SUV. I have been doing quite a bit of research and have narrowed the field to either a Pathfinder or a Jeep Grand Cherokee. did anyone cross shop these two vehicles. Obviously since this is a Pathafinder board I will get biased answers but they will also be answers from people who obviously love their truck. if you had to do it over would you get a Pathfinder again?

[FoFiddy]

I had a 97 Grand Cherokee Limited. Nothing but problems. Granted it's the 3rd generation Grand Cherokee and the second under Daimler ownership. But keep in mind they are both First model year vehicles. I plan on owning my SUV for a pretty long time for that aspect alone I went with the 05 Pathfinder. Good luck with your decision.
MY ZJ lasted 120k before being totaled. In that time it went through :
3 transmissions
2 rear diffs
3 front diff
1 Master cylinder
1 fuel pump
1 steering column (failed)
2 sunroof motors
Don't get me started on the heated seats
And a HVAC ATC that didn't work for other than room temp after 60k and regardess of the work done on it:
2 thermostats 2 heater cores and 1 water pump.
I bought an extended warrenty when I bought it... THANK GOD
all I had to pay for on that list was rental upgrades. No Joke the thing was in the shop on average once a month. mostly for tranny issues.
Oh yeah it's a Jeep thing for sure! http://forums.freshalloy.com/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
Would I buy another Pathfinder if I had to do it again?
Without hesitation. 5,300 miles so far and looking forward to many many more.
food for thought: reliabilityand value aside, the only Grand Cherokee that can perform alongside the Pathfinder is the 5.7l "Hemi" and it only outpreforms it marginally. Which price wise Nissan owns the comparo. IF nissan were to offer the 5.6 Endurance from the Titan in the pathfinder...
But let me run a few questions by you:
1) will this vehicle go offroad?
2) do you have a body on frame or Unitbody preferance (want a truck or a car)?
3) is towing a factor if so how much?
4) lease or own?

[swdude987]

Jeep is junk - had a 1994 & 1999 before my 2005 PF

I owned a 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo 4x4 V6 and had my engine rebuilt at 20,000 under warranty for a piston problem - this came back again at 25,000 and then I got a new 1995 engine. 100 miles later my jeep stopped as I was passing a truck on the highway - the dealer pinched wires when the replaced the engine and the snapped. At 29,000 my transmission died. Had it rebuilt under warranty - it died less than 5 miles from the dealer it died again. They put a 1995 transmission in it. Less than 1000 miles later it had a shifting problem and they had to rebuild it.

Then from 30,000 to 100,000 only had AC motor problems 2 times other than that it was great.

Then I traded it in for a 1999 (newly redesigned) Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited 4x4 V8 (decided I did not want to repeat the V6 problems). Lets say I had no less than 50 problems up to 36,000 miles - no engine no transmission problem just fuel system problems and HVAC. The fuel pressure was dropping out and I turned out to the test subject for the US. They were having these problems everywhere. Once 36,000 came the Jeep settled down. Then at 94,000 miles I spun a rod bearing. Yes a rod bearing. The dealer told me I needed a new engine (rebuilt of course for $4500) - I said open it up. The lead tech said the engine was in perfect condition inside - really shocked it had 94,000 miles on it. He did not understand how I spun a bearing since the oil level was great and very little sludge. They did and fixed the bearing for a tune of $2300. I drove the vehicle until 109,000 and then bought the 2005 PF November 5, 2004. I currently have 7200 miles on it and so far so good.

I complained to Chrysler (Jeep's Parent) many times and when I called about the spun rod bearing asking for an engineering review of my situation the Customer service rep. was rude telling me I had no warranty and no right to request anything. I asked for a supervisor. He said no. I asked to be transfered to someone else he said no. I then asked him for another number I can call - he said he would be happy to transfer me to Hyundai. WHAT!! I bought a $38,000 Jeep and he wants me to talk to Hyundai. I got his name - id number and then wrote a letter to Chrysler and to every Jeep dealer withing 50 miles (6 in all). Only one dealer responded and tried to help me. But Chrysler only wrote me a letter telling me they have disciplined the worker and were sorry but there was nothing else they would do for me.

Once I saw the look of the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee I was happy I was never going to buy it.

That is why Jeep is junk!!

[boogyman]

I agree with the other guys. I had a '94 grand cherokee laredo and they are unpredictable at best. Mine seemed to die on some important days. I closed on my house and the starter died getting dinner that night. Get back from my honeymoon and the thing died getting breakfast, bad ground connection. It went through 2 crankshaft sensors, a camshaft sensor, a waterpump, and a fuel pump. My Dad used to have a old wagoneer and never had as many problems. Who knew Chrysler could mess up a good thing so badly. So far we have almost 7k on the new pathfinder and things are working well. We had the manifold update and sounds great now. One more thing the Jeep had an i6, jeep never had a v6 till the Liberty came out. So I would go with the Pathy. You cna get them for list without any problems. Use Edmunds.com to get quotes from dealers. Saves a lot of headaches in negotiating.

[FoFiddy]

Oh and the Pathfinder has the VQDE (Wards best engine 11 years running) and the 5 speed auto out of the Titan and Armada. Unless they are using the transmissions from the ML's or another Mercedes application I'd run away. Chrysler is incapable of making a transmission for a vehicle that weighs anything over 3,700lbs.

[MikeSable]

Basing an opinion on the new Grand Cherokee on the older ones is nonsensical, since the new one is a reskinned Durango.

[FoFiddy]

Basing an opinion on the new Grand Cherokee on the older ones is nonsensical, since the new one is a reskinned Durango.


Nonsensical to compare a track record notorious for pi$$ poor engineering and abismal quality control?
I think not. http://forums.freshalloy.com/images/graemlins/rolleyes1.gif
Oh and if it is not enought to hear from me that the Durango (Body on frame) and Grand Cherokee (UNITBODY)are two COMPLETELY different vehicles aside to having similar power plants and a 5 bolt lug pattern:
http://www.autobytel.com/content/research/index.cfm/action/showarticle/AID/139428
on that link there is this paragraph:

The Grand Cherokee is 4 inches longer in wheelbase, about 6 inches longer overall, and 2.5 inches wider in track than the previous model, so it will be more stable in both on- and off-road situations.

The all-new Grand Cherokee is built in Detroit using a new steel uniframe construction, a close marriage of a welded steel unit body and underlying front and rear modules, a completely different approach from the new body-on-frame Durango, so although its inside volume and overall size are both similar to the Dodge's, this Jeep is not a clone of the Durango, but a unibody Jeep design through and through.

Let us know what you get, especally if it's the Jeep so we can all laugh at you and say "I told ya so!" http://forums.freshalloy.com/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[swdude987]

Actually you are wrong about the Jeep Grand Cherokee being a rebadged Durango - just because they both have a Hemi does not mean anything. It is based on the Mercedes M-Class that was designed at the same time, but just being released now. Since that is the case - look at Mercedes quality record. It is worse than Chrysler's.

[MikeSable]

Correction duly noted.

[shodog]

well a bit of an update. We have kind come to the conclusion that this vehicle will be more hers than mine and in the process the G35 will become more mine that ours.

We drove the Jeep and Bzzt I didn't care for it and neither did wifey. I was thinking"thank god" I read of horror stories on the Jeep forums.

Last night we went to go drive a used '03 F-150 King Ranch Crew cab. It was sweet and I liked it. Wifey liked it also but I could tell she feels it bigger than what she would prefer to drive. we also test drove an '06 Lincoln Mark LT which was nice but too blingy. We also test drove an Aviator which is lincoln's version of the Explorer. It was nice but I thought over priced for what you got.

We then ventured to the acura dealer and saw that the MDX was grossly expensive and just looked like a tall car.

We finally made it to the Nissan Dealership. it was too late to test drive but by the time we got there, wifey was in love with a green LE with Nav and DVD option. in the next couple of weeks i'll get her to drive one and see if she truly likes it.

Does any one know if any of the rental car companies rents pathfinders? It would be great to use one on a weekend trip to get a feel for it without having a sales jocky run his mouth during the test drive.

[JGreg1]

Does any one know if any of the rental car companies rents pathfinders? It would be great to use one on a weekend trip to get a feel for it without having a sales jocky run his mouth during the test drive.




Here in Dallas, I have seen a handful of Pathfinders with Enterprise stickers on the back. All of them SE's I think. So that's probably the place to start.

When I went and test drove the one I ended up buying, I asked the dealer if they would let us take it out on our own for a few hours, and it wasn't a problem. Same as you, I wanted to have some time with it without the salesman around. Don't know if they'd let you keep one for a weekend, but they might let you borrow it for an afternoon.