There’s a chance of rain in your Grand Cherokee SRT.
We got a good amount of rain last week, but we didn’t expect it to make its way into our 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT. The alarm went off when we braked and heard the slosh of water under the front seats. Then upon acceleration, we heard the sound of water ….gallons of water…running to the very back of the SUV. I removed the spare tire compartment cover to find there was water standing there as well. We had a big water leak in our Grand Cherokee SRT!
What to do? Of course, take it to the dealer to find the problem. And to the dealer we went. To their surprise, they found the battery compartment under the vehicle and the spare tire compartment in the vehicle filled with gallons of rain water. Four days is the shop later to our surprise, we were told they couldn’t find the source of the leak even after they water tested it. It was an inconvenience, but more concerning was the response ‘If it fills with water again, bring it back and we’ll take a look’.
For real?! Drain the water, dry it out and send it back to the customer to deal if or when it happens again.
But then I remembered…This is the same vehicle that’s been the shop for nearly 80 days in the first year and a half. New transfer case but same grinding sound in the front end, new seat belt retractor when the seat belt stopped working (No big deal, only my kids sit in that seat anyway), all four wheels replaced from paint finish coming off, dash bubbling, carbon fiber trim coming off, exhaust/burning smell in cabin under hard acceleration (you supposedly do that in an SRT), storage bin fell off, rear view mirror vibrates and is blurry when idling, annoying drone when overdrive kicks in, and the navigation system stopped working.
Is it a blast to drive? Yes, and we really wanted to love it. The Grand Cherokee SRT has great electronics, power, size, and all in a very attractive package. But there comes a time when a lemon is a lemon and reliability wins. A daily driver should perform day in and day out, and this SRT does not.
