Used car running cost: Jeep
Published: 29 November 2018, 10:50
By Martin Pretorius
Lifestyle products are generally bought on the strength of their image – a fact which fits very neatly into Jeep’s strongest suit. The fashionable types who buy this kind of vehicle (or the traditionalists, who still prefer the venerable Wrangler) know what they want, and what their choice of car should say about them. In this scenario, running costs are of lesser importance, but once these vehicles hit the second-hand market, it takes on much greater significance. We’ve investigated some older Jeeps, and arranged them from the highest running cost to the lowest.
Jeep Wrangler
While the Wrangler is still an uncompromising off-road champion, many people have also bought into the lifestyle it promotes. It’s an open question as to whether these people have thought through their purchases carefully enough, however, as a Wrangler is pretty expensive to run.
Yes, their mechanical components are tough as nails, but if something goes wrong, it costs a relative fortune to repair. (All Jeep parts are imported, and with somewhat limited availability, even on the aftermarket.) Combine these steep repair costs with maintenance that’s quite labour- and parts-intensive, and then add its gluttonous drinking habits to the mix, and it becomes easy to see why a Wrangler obviously has high running costs.
Jeep Commander
This was Jeep’s response to demands for a 7-seater SUV. Essentially a stretched and widened Grand Cherokee, the Commander used the same selection of V6- and V8 engines as offered in its smaller sibling. However, due to its larger size and blockier styling, it consumed quite a bit more fuel, without losing any of the Grand Cherokee’s expensive maintenance procedures.
In combination, this makes the Commander a very expensive vehicle to run – but if you need all those seats and really want a Jeep, this is still your only option... The most economically feasible variant is the 3.0 CRD, but they are quite difficult to find in the pre-owned market.
Jeep Grand Cherokee
As the second salvo in Jeep’s 1990s recovery plan, the Grand Cherokee has been a very important part of this manufacturer’s model range right from the outset. In its first generation, the Grand Cherokee still offered some seriously old-school V8 engines, along with the epic fuel consumption they enforced.
However, when the second generation rolled around in 1999, the engines were updated to include some new-tech (down-sized) V8s, and even a VM Motori-sourced turbodiesel variant. This was, in turn, later replaced by a Mercedes-Benz-derived 5-cylinder diesel, which brought useful efficiency- and output benefits.
The same applied to the third generation Grand Cherokee, which introduced the “Hemi” V8, along with new V6 options. Even when the current (third) generation arrived with a V6 petrol base engine in addition to a new V6 turbodiesel, you could still specify one of two Hemi-branded V8s.
Given this wide array of engines, it makes sense that the fuel consumption of a Grand Cherokee will vary widely: diesels can return low-8 litres/100 km average figures in careful hands, and the highest-output SRT could easily guzzle its dinosaur juice three times as enthusiastically when driven with gusto.
They’re not exactly cheap to maintain either, and spare parts are quite expensive. All of these factors conspire to make a petrol-engined Grand Cherokee very expensive to run, although a diesel-engined example will be significantly more affordable in the long run.
Cherokee
Let’s leave the current model out of this analysis for the moment, as it’s a very different kind of vehicle, compared to the older, rougher Cherokees. As launched in the 1980s, the downsized Cherokee (the first Jeep model to be officially released in South Africa upon the brand’s return around the turn of the millennium) was a roaring success in the USA. It’s easy to understand why: the Cherokee was tough, practical, and inexpensive to run.... in American terms, that is.
Seen in a South African context, the early Cherokee wasn’t all that easy on the pocket, because its 6-cylinder engine had quite a serious drinking habit. This tradition has continued with the subsequent generations, until useable turbodiesel engines (in 2.5-litre and 2.8-litre sized) arrived with the 2002 redesign.
These diesel units turned the Cherokee into a surprising economy champ, even though the larger petrol engines still kept up their profligate ways. If you want a frugal Cherokee, you should opt for one of the excellent diesels, and just grin and bear the parts- and maintenance costs.
New Cherokee
Unlike its older namesakes, the current Cherokee is more of a crossover than a “real” off-roader. Sure, there’s a Trailhawk derivative for those who insist on Jeep-like 4x4 abilities, but the bulk of the sales volumes have gone the way of the simpler, urbanised variants.
Because it’s based on a passenger car platform, the latest Cherokee is quite a lot more efficient than its older namesakes, but seeing as it’s still a pretty big, heavy vehicle, fuel efficiency isn’t exactly amazing. It is however a fair bit cheaper to run than the heavy-duty older Cherokees.
Jeep Compass and Patriot
The brand purists shook their heads in dismay when these twin Jeeps were launched in 2006. “How could any Jeep worth its name have front-wheel drive as an entry point?”, they cried. But the buyers didn’t pay any attention to these traditionalists, and the Patriot and Compass became one of Jeep’s great modern success stories. In fact, they served as inspiration for a whole expanded family of soft-roaders, which now includes the new Cherokee and the Renegade.
Just like the new Cherokee and Renegade, the Patriot/Compass twins are based upon a normal car platform, so they’re not really made for seriously tough stuff. However, this “softer” build has resulted in nicely compact dimensions and the shedding of some weight, which means that these anomalies became the most fuel-efficient Jeeps in the model range at the time. As a result, they’re surprisingly inexpensive to run, especially when compared to the rest of the Jeep range.
Jeep Renegade
As the smallest Jeep in many decades, the Renegade is also the least expensive to run. It has the smallest engines in the Jeep line-up, and the most-compact dimensions – both resulting from being based on the same platform as the Fiat 500X. These Fiat engines are quite frugal, and not even the Renegade’s blocky styling could force excessive drinking habits.
Just be aware that the 2.4-litre engine, offered with an automatic gearbox and AWD, is significantly thirstier in the real world, so if low running cost is your priority, stick to the cheaper, more frugal FWD variants.
