Jeep Dealership Mishap

As an avid off-roader I have owned all sorts of vehicles built for the terrain of the Colorado Rockies.

I live near Prestige Dodge, Jeep, Ram of Longmont and I frequently used the dealership to perform oil changes and warranty repairs for me. One day while waiting on an oil change for my Jeep JK, I observed an absolutely stunning Jeep Gladiator on the showroom floor.

Long story short, two weeks later I was signing papers on the new vehicle. We are a Jeeping family, two of the four Jeeps we purchased came though this dealership and the sales team was exceptional both times.

A few days after the purchase of the Jeep, we observed the third brake light on the tailgate was intermittently working. We immediately scheduled a repair with the dealership — though it was several weeks out due to the busy nature of dealership repair shops post COVID.

The dealership claimed that the camera wire had been cut or severed and they saw evidence of tampering; Initially they were going to charge me for the repairs, however the sales team immediately stepped in and took care of the cost because the vehicle had been purchased and the issue identified in a reasonable amount of time; there was hardly any time for me to drive the vehicle, let alone cause any damage.

Fast forward a few months we began to observe the drag link was slipping, causing the steering wheel to shift several degrees. While I’m no mechanic, Jeeps are easy to work on and I know how to fix the issue. I quickly adjusted the steering link and tightened the retaining bolt. However as we put more miles on the vehicle, the drag link continued to slip, requiring me to re-allign it several more times in the first 5000 miles. I felt this might be due to the lift and tire kit installed by the dealership. The vehicle is running 37 inch tires and these things are heavy and hard on stock components.

As the dealership performed the lift and tire upgrade before I purchased the vehicle, I had hoped they would add a beefier drag link and tie rod as part of the official MOPAR Lift/Warranty.

Following a trip to Sedona Arizona we noted that the vehicle began having a host of issues:

• A leak on the rear passenger side tire appeared to be brake fluid, and the breaks were very soft.
• The steering wheel was >30 degrees off and at one point the vehicle went into limp mode (at 60 miles an hour) due to the misaligned steering wheel.
• The front and rear camera system was simply a blue screen with the text “Camera System Unavailable”
• Following a run through Schnebly Trail, the TMPS sensors no longer worked.

Again, no stranger to Jeeps, I took a look under the rear bed and found the TMPS controller was no longer plugged in. I was able to seat the plug, but it popped out again after a mile or so. I thought perhaps the retaining clip was broken or could not engage fully. It was a dusty, bumpy trail.

On June 14th I was notified by Uconnect via Email that an update had completed on my vehicle, and sure enough the camera system was working again. Software update error.

On June 16th we had an appointment to have the items repaired by Prestiege Dodge. I checked the vehicle in after hours and made mention to the service advisor who took the keys that the Camera was working again.

We were fortunate enough to get the technician, Roger, that did our lift on the vehicle working on it again. Roger is a Jeep guy, through and through. He explains that he’s from the Moab area and loves the off-roading life.

On June 18th I received a call from Jason, the Service Advisor that our cost for repairs was $420.06.

I was utterly surprised and shocked at the bill. When I asked what I was being charged for, with under 6000 miles on the vehicle, he claimed they had found a damaged wire. It had appeared that I flexed or caught a branch on the trail and ripped a wire causing the Camera and TPMS system to fail. Its obvious I’m an off-roader. I hit every Jeep Badge of honor trail I pass, and the badges are lined up the side of the Jeep. What the advisor didn’t realize is that those badges were all from the old two door, we’d only seen a few trails in this new vehicle due to a mixture of COVID restrictions, fire damage in our area and heavy snowfalls. I just transferred the badges when we changed vehicles.

When I told him the camera system was working when I brought it in, he claimed it was no longer functional and this damage was likely causing intermittent issues.

Knowing the Uconnect update was likely the cause of the camera issue, I protested and asked for pictures of the damage. Here are the images that were sent to me through the companies service app:

I further protested, stating that the wiring shown was clean cut, and obviously not related to trail damage. There is no signs of stretching or tearing. Furthermore, there is absolutely nothing between the frame and the bed of the vehicle that would shift on flex. I asked Jason to have the Service Manager review the issue as a second set of eyes, as well as provide shots from the other end of the cut connection.

The service manager, Steve, immediately returned my call. He launched into a tirade about how my communication was accusatory (it was). He stated his staff had been with him for many years and would never be dishonest in a repair. The most they’d achieve is an extra hour of time and none of his staff was short on hours. He acknowledged he did not personally look at the vehicle but that he trusted his staff and that I should come get my vehicle, he did not want my business any longer.

Now, I have a great relationship with the sales team at the dealership. Frankly, Randy and Nancy are excellent and highly recommended. We’ve purchased two vehicles from Nancy and are eyeing another.

Randy is the sales manager and was the highest ranking person at the dealership when I arrived. I worked with Randy to secure an opportunity crawl under the vehicle with the shop foreman and the tech working on the unit.

Roger claimed that the service advisor, Jason, actually found the damaged wiring after I requested the images, that he had not seen it before. I took the following image while I was under the vehicle:

The wire and plug in the upper right side of the screen runs to the TPMS controller, which sits on top of the crossmember, protected from the elements. It is the wire I originally thought Jason sent me images of. However, that was not the case. The picture he sent only contained this rogue wire which had not been observed when I crawled under the vehicle to plug it back in on the trail.

The lower wire pictured is the same one noted in the original images sent by Jason, and he had no images of the TMPS wire.

I asked the tech repeatedly what this new, previously unobserved wire controlled, and he couldn’t answer, but that repairing the clip would take about an hour of labor and he’d have to figure it then.

Another tech in the area heard our discussion and left for a bit. When he returned he stated that he went and looked at another Gladiator Rubicon on the lot and there was no such wire. I watched several people in the shop shoot him a glance of disapproval.

The tech, Roger, concluded this must be left over from the previous third break light repair that was done, since we could not find any components this wire would connect with, and there was no opposite end to the cut wires anywhere else on the vehicle. The wiring harness has silver heat and abrasion resistant tape wrapped around it in this exact area and that tape was not damaged.

The thought sounded logical, someone simply forgot to clean up after themselves. Heck, I’ve done that before. I left satisfied. The foreman assured me they would simply remove the “left over wiring” and get me on my way the next day. It was already late (around 5:30PM) and I had kept them long enough. I could wait one more day.

After I got home that night the glances sent the direction of the innocent tech who spoke up too soon kept flashing in my mind. My day job is research and intelligence, so I spent some time digging through wiring diagrams for both the 2020 and 2021 Jeep Gladiators and Wranglers.

That wire simply didn’t exist, and the pictures of the wire are not high enough resolution to get a part number from the plug.

I posted images to Instagram and Reddit and asked folks to look under Gladiators for the same wire. No luck, no one had it, and most indicated the wire looked staged.

I shrugged this off as the shop foreman stated they would simply clean up the wiring. I felt vindicated that I dodged a scam, but also acknowledged I would be more cautious with who I let touch the Jeep in the future.

The following day I received a call back from Jason who said the vehicle repairs had been completed, except for a repair to the rear wheel, which turned out to be an axle leak. The parts to repair this leak would take six to eight weeks to get in due to slow shipments. This is post-COVID reality for sure. He stated that they had to order a whole new axle shaft to replace the seal. I was a bit skeptical, but research shows others have the same problem (on the same wheel even):

https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/leaking-axle-seal.42026/

I arrived to pick up my vehicle and cancel the order for the new axle (I will use a different dealership) and to my shock, the charge for 420.06 was still due. Another advisor, not wanting to get in the middle of the issue called Jason on his personal cellphone. Not surprisingly, everyone in the shop knew who I was and no one wanted to deal with me.

Jason told him that I said to fix the issue at any cost, and the cost was $420, I had to pay it. First of all, I never use such language. I’m very tight with my money. Secondly, the shop still can’t explain what the damage wire controls, their official report says the camera system:

Which, as I noted before was working just fine after the Uconnect update.

Furious I stormed out of the facility and directly to a line of Jeep Gladiator Rubicons on the lot. I took pictures of the area showing no such wire existed on brand new Jeeps on their own lot:

I retreated back into the Sales area to speak with Randy. I showed him evidence and he stated the images did seem to look inconsistent and assured me he would speak with the Shop Manager on Monday June 21st. He said several times that he didn’t feel any of the staff would try to scam us as their techs has been with them for many years and they don’t have a history of similar complaints. I paid the $420 bill and immediately downloaded all communication with the repair team to preserve all historical data.

After I arrived home, I snapped the following pictures of the area post “repair”:

It is my belief that the wire was staged for a photo op and does not belong in the area noted by the service team. No other 2021 Jeep Gladiators contain this wire and wiring diagrams found online do not show any such wire. Since the wire is no longer present, its obvious no repair was done and their scam was a partial success.

I say partial because the company lost future business. So while they may have got me for $420 bucks, which isn’t even worth pursuing through small claims court, they lost out on tens of thousands of dollars in future sales.

I alerted FCA/Jeep and included a copy of all correspondence, the bill and the images.

I’ll be making a full video on the subject for our social media channels, as well as the resolution after getting it reviewed by another dealer as soon as FCA responds. UPDATE: The video is available here: https://youtu.be/vbjH6aYemoI

Some others who’ve had problems with this dealership. To be fair, they have lots of positive reviews too. Make your own choices: