ttutko
Member
I purchased a velvet red/sea salt Wagoneer Series III 4x4 with the premium package, the 2nd row seating group, rear seat entertainment group, and the front passenger interactive display 3 days ago (Saturday). I had to drive 3 hours to a location where I had some family just to get it at MSRP because most places in the Northern Virginia area are adding some ridiculous "Market Demand" amounts above MSRP. This is going to be a post of my initial impressions, initial experiences pros/cons, etc. Sorry if it gets too long. I'm coming from a 2014 Grand Cherokee Overland 4x4 that now has 163,000 miles on it.
Initial Impressions:
- This vehicle looks AMAZING
- Did I really just spend this much money?!
One of the first things that happened at the dealership (I had purchased remotely so most of the process was already done when I got there to pick it up) was I got a text message and an email inviting me to the Wagoneer app for the Wagoneer connected services. I clicked the link, got the Android Wagoneer app, and tried to complete my registration. After choosing a password and then checking the boxes to accept the terms of the agreement I would get an "Error loading info" red error message every time I would click to proceed. We were not able to resolve this issue at the dealership before I left and I figured I would call the support number provided in the app when I got back to my aunt's house. Eventually I did leave the dealership with the vehicle, drove 5-10 miles to my aunt's house and put the Wagoneer in the driveway then began playing with getting all of the tech setup. I did call the support number for the Wagoneer connected services and was immediately told the wait was "less than 20 minutes" which sucked for having just bought the vehicle. In addition to that, when I would go into the wifi hotspot screen, I could not get the hotspot activated and it was stuck on the screen that gives instructions on how to activate it which mentioned buttons that I didn't see. The screen was acting very laggy and I was pretty disappointed. I stayed on the line and eventually spoke to a tech about the Wagoneer app/connected services issue and spent probably another 20 minutes going through steps with the woman on the phone which was basically repeating everything I did over and over and getting the same result. Eventually she escalated me to tier 2 tech support but that is a separate call that she said can take up to a couple days for them to reach out. (I'm still waiting for them to contact me.)
I called my salesman and told him I wasn't super happy at the moment and he asked if I could drive back over for them to see what they can do. When I went to do that, the vehicle wouldn't start. I called the dealership and the salesman drover over with a tech who brought a portable jump starter and jump started the vehicle. He then said they would replace the battery and they took it back to the dealership to do so and to also talk to their Wagoneer rep about the technology issues.
When the brought the vehicle back about an hour or so later, I can say that all of the technology stuff was no longer laggy and the wifi hotspot was working. I am guessing the bad battery was causing issues with all of the screens. Later that night, I randomly tried registering in the Wagoneer app again and to my amazement it worked! The activation "app" within the vehicle still errors out though so my problems aren't fully resolved yet. Hopefully tier 2 tech support contacts me soon and we get it resolved.
First 3 days of ownershp Pros:
- Looks great, the style really can't be understated how well they did with it albeit style is subjective
- The ride is smooth and feels great
- When the technology is working, it's great
- There are pretty much none of these on the road. I have been trying hard to see another one over the past few days and haven't.
- I've had 2-3 people randomly ask me "Who makes Wagoneer?" and then following that up with very nice compliments on it. One couple in a Hummer and one guy in an Escalade.
- Visibility is really good.
- Usb ports everywhere you would want them
- Excellent sound system
- The power running boards are perfectly engineered to hide into the trim of the vehicle to remain completely disguised until needed.
First 3 days of ownership Cons:
- The technology is buggy. Aside from the Wagoneer connect/wifi hotspot issues I initially had and mentioned above, I've had multiple times where Android Auto gets stuck in a disconnect/reconnect loop every few seconds. Rebooting the UConnect system or my phone usually solves this and it's hard to know where the problem actually lies. It can't be entirely blamed on the vehicle.
- The battery was bad
- No power folding mirrors.... extremely disappointing at this price point as my 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee has it and I use/used it all the time.
- Despite the window sticker option saying "2nd Row Seating Group" which contains "2nd-row Captains Chairs with Power Tilt/Slide" and "Floor-Console with cupholder", the 2nd-row captains chairs appear to only slide/recline manually. The power tilt/slide either refers to only the folding forward to make more cargo space which is powered or the slide forward tilt for people to get in the 3rd row. This too is pretty disappointing considering that the 3rd row has power recline. How do you put power recline in the 3rd row but not have it for the 2nd row?? I'm also not sure if the floor console that is in mine is what it's supposed to be (Jeep doesn't seem to provide pics of what all the options actually add or should look like) as I was expecting something more like what I've seen in grand wagoneer pictures. This is more like cup holders that are connected to the backside of the center console/armrest between the driver/passenger seats. Is this correct?
- Opening the doors may require a little adjustment as it's more of a two step process in my experience. 1. Grab the handle and wait for the unlock 2. Pull open. If you try to grab and pull, you'll get stuck and it won't open until you release it and slow down the process a bit. (this of course only applies if you didn't unlock with the key fob ahead of time)
That's all I can think of right now. I'll update with any changes. I know this was long but I hope it's useful to someone. Overall I'm still really happy with this vehicle and think Jeep did a fantastic job with it. I just hope they work out some of these early issues and maybe make it feel more like the VIP experience they are marketing it as.
Initial Impressions:
- This vehicle looks AMAZING
- Did I really just spend this much money?!
One of the first things that happened at the dealership (I had purchased remotely so most of the process was already done when I got there to pick it up) was I got a text message and an email inviting me to the Wagoneer app for the Wagoneer connected services. I clicked the link, got the Android Wagoneer app, and tried to complete my registration. After choosing a password and then checking the boxes to accept the terms of the agreement I would get an "Error loading info" red error message every time I would click to proceed. We were not able to resolve this issue at the dealership before I left and I figured I would call the support number provided in the app when I got back to my aunt's house. Eventually I did leave the dealership with the vehicle, drove 5-10 miles to my aunt's house and put the Wagoneer in the driveway then began playing with getting all of the tech setup. I did call the support number for the Wagoneer connected services and was immediately told the wait was "less than 20 minutes" which sucked for having just bought the vehicle. In addition to that, when I would go into the wifi hotspot screen, I could not get the hotspot activated and it was stuck on the screen that gives instructions on how to activate it which mentioned buttons that I didn't see. The screen was acting very laggy and I was pretty disappointed. I stayed on the line and eventually spoke to a tech about the Wagoneer app/connected services issue and spent probably another 20 minutes going through steps with the woman on the phone which was basically repeating everything I did over and over and getting the same result. Eventually she escalated me to tier 2 tech support but that is a separate call that she said can take up to a couple days for them to reach out. (I'm still waiting for them to contact me.)
I called my salesman and told him I wasn't super happy at the moment and he asked if I could drive back over for them to see what they can do. When I went to do that, the vehicle wouldn't start. I called the dealership and the salesman drover over with a tech who brought a portable jump starter and jump started the vehicle. He then said they would replace the battery and they took it back to the dealership to do so and to also talk to their Wagoneer rep about the technology issues.
When the brought the vehicle back about an hour or so later, I can say that all of the technology stuff was no longer laggy and the wifi hotspot was working. I am guessing the bad battery was causing issues with all of the screens. Later that night, I randomly tried registering in the Wagoneer app again and to my amazement it worked! The activation "app" within the vehicle still errors out though so my problems aren't fully resolved yet. Hopefully tier 2 tech support contacts me soon and we get it resolved.
First 3 days of ownershp Pros:
- Looks great, the style really can't be understated how well they did with it albeit style is subjective
- The ride is smooth and feels great
- When the technology is working, it's great
- There are pretty much none of these on the road. I have been trying hard to see another one over the past few days and haven't.
- I've had 2-3 people randomly ask me "Who makes Wagoneer?" and then following that up with very nice compliments on it. One couple in a Hummer and one guy in an Escalade.
- Visibility is really good.
- Usb ports everywhere you would want them
- Excellent sound system
- The power running boards are perfectly engineered to hide into the trim of the vehicle to remain completely disguised until needed.
First 3 days of ownership Cons:
- The technology is buggy. Aside from the Wagoneer connect/wifi hotspot issues I initially had and mentioned above, I've had multiple times where Android Auto gets stuck in a disconnect/reconnect loop every few seconds. Rebooting the UConnect system or my phone usually solves this and it's hard to know where the problem actually lies. It can't be entirely blamed on the vehicle.
- The battery was bad
- No power folding mirrors.... extremely disappointing at this price point as my 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee has it and I use/used it all the time.
- Despite the window sticker option saying "2nd Row Seating Group" which contains "2nd-row Captains Chairs with Power Tilt/Slide" and "Floor-Console with cupholder", the 2nd-row captains chairs appear to only slide/recline manually. The power tilt/slide either refers to only the folding forward to make more cargo space which is powered or the slide forward tilt for people to get in the 3rd row. This too is pretty disappointing considering that the 3rd row has power recline. How do you put power recline in the 3rd row but not have it for the 2nd row?? I'm also not sure if the floor console that is in mine is what it's supposed to be (Jeep doesn't seem to provide pics of what all the options actually add or should look like) as I was expecting something more like what I've seen in grand wagoneer pictures. This is more like cup holders that are connected to the backside of the center console/armrest between the driver/passenger seats. Is this correct?
- Opening the doors may require a little adjustment as it's more of a two step process in my experience. 1. Grab the handle and wait for the unlock 2. Pull open. If you try to grab and pull, you'll get stuck and it won't open until you release it and slow down the process a bit. (this of course only applies if you didn't unlock with the key fob ahead of time)
That's all I can think of right now. I'll update with any changes. I know this was long but I hope it's useful to someone. Overall I'm still really happy with this vehicle and think Jeep did a fantastic job with it. I just hope they work out some of these early issues and maybe make it feel more like the VIP experience they are marketing it as.
