Cost of Ownership

rancherwillie · **Joined:** Mon Mar 15, 2010 10:48 am **Posts:** 2

Good Morning! A newbie here to inquire about a recent article posted on Yahoo. In essence it listed 5 suv's that have high 5 year cost of ownership. They said the jeep liberty was the worst of more than 20 plus suv's. The evaluation included purchase price, depreciation, maintenance and repairs.

Can anyone think of any reason repairs would be high on 08-09 liberty's?

Thanks, Bill

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Fri Mar 19, 2010 10:37 am

Nope, unless they are figuring in the price of the lift kit :ROTFL:

But really, they must be talking about maintenance cost, specifically in regards to the t case and diff's. I know there are a few KK with 50K+ on them with out issues. Other then that, the only other thing could be rear brakes. They only seem to have a life of 30K to 40K...

Do you have a link to the story?

haulin5 · **Joined:** Tue Sep 29, 2009 2:53 pm **Posts:** 116

http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_c ... oney-pits/

I read it the day it came out, and was a bit miffed. I think it's mostly poo-poo, since they're recommending the Patriot as a more economical SUV to wheeling enthusiasts. They also state that Libby's have rotten depreciation. Can't agree with that; my observation locally is that they used Libby's have a much higher price tag than other SUVs in their weight/size class with the same birthdate & mileage.

As far as repair bills go, I think it's because lots of Liberty owners treat their Jeeps like a JEEP. They do things & go places people wouldn't go in a Honda CRV or GMC Terrain.

Boiler · **Posted:** Fri Mar 19, 2010 11:08 am

I can buy a high cost of ownership to some degree. In general, the Jeep Liberty gets pretty bad gas milage. Milage is included in the cost of ownership.

In my case, I was getting 15-17 miles per gallon stock mainly driving in town and on frequent 10 mile highway drives. Then I lifted it and dropped to 14-16. Then I got bigger heavier tires and it dropped to probably 13-15. The more I do to it and the worse the milage gets, the more I love my Liberty. It is a great vehicle, but it does suck some gas. Some people will tell you they get 20 mpg and I don't doubt it, but many people are stuck around 15.

I am of course talking about the older models, '02-'07. I believe the newer ones get better milage but I can't say from personal experience. I have an '05.

That said, most people I know love their liberty. It is a unique thing in todays age, to truly love your car or truck. People buy because of milage, perception, whatever, and end up with a practical vehicle that they don't particularly care about. With Jeeps and the Liberty there is a good chance you'll fall in love with it, want to do things to it, even if it is waxing it or rotating the tires. In a nutshell, you'll take care of it better than you would the vehicle with the "lower cost of ownership". Also, like many of us, you'll decide you want to learn to do a lot of the work yourself, due to it being easy to work on and more cost effective, not to mention fun and gratifying. The cost of ownership goes down when you become more self-reliant.

Be careful and excited: buying your first Jeep can be a life changing experience. Lots of people on this website went from buying transportation to getting a new, all-consuming hobby when they weren't expecting it. When people say JEEP stands for Just Empty Every Pocket it is definitely true. If you don't maintain them properly they'll get expensive, just like any vehicle. But if you take care of them and learn to love them like most of us, they'll get expensive because you won't stop buying them new toys, improvements, mods, etc.

haulin5 · **Joined:** Tue Sep 29, 2009 2:53 pm **Posts:** 116

X2 everything Boiler said.

The 2006 that is lower & has no light bar gets 20 mpg.
The lifted 2003 with the light bar & skids gets only 14-15 mpg.

Less-than-stellar MPG is my one big beef, but I really, really love this model. I have an 80 mile per day round trip commute, and I had to find something that made my drive not only fun, but reliable in ice and snow. I have more than found it.

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Fri Mar 19, 2010 11:19 am

Normally I don't take a stand like this, but IntelliChoice can blow out their :furious:

Now, the things that bug me about IntelliChoice

1. Competitors: WTF!!!!!!!!! http://www.intellichoice.com/reports/ve ... ep/Liberty
2. A Wrangler rates better then the Liberty??? First the Wrangler's Depreciation value is worse and all of the other catergories are higher except for insurance... How is it it is cheaper to insure a wrangler????????

http://www.intellichoice.com/reports/ve ... ep/Liberty
http://www.intellichoice.com/reports/ve ... p/Wrangler

3. The fuel cost bug me:

Fuel
U.S. Government EPA mileage figures. Mileage is 60% highway driving, 40% city. Fuel cost per gallon is $3.04 for unleaded regular, $3.17 for unleaded mid-grade, $3.30 for premium, and $3.62 for diesel (subject to inflation of 10.72%).

4. Transmission choices????????? WTF???

The engine is mated to either a standard five-speed manual transmission or an optional four-speed automatic transmission. :dizzy:

OK, rant over

DirtyKK · **Posted:** Fri Mar 19, 2010 11:29 am

ive got almost 50k on my kk and have only had to replace a idler pulley and the rear brakes need replaced, beside regular maintenance. as said gas mileage is killer but my insurance is cheaper then my old car. idk how they figured its expensive but ive enjoyed this jeep more then i have any of my other 11 vehicles, except my motorcycle. :mrgreen:

haulin5 · **Joined:** Tue Sep 29, 2009 2:53 pm **Posts:** 116

Yeah, come to think of it, my insurance rates went down as well. Went from a 1996 Grand Prix and a 1993 Blazer to the 2 Jeeps. Total combined rate for 6 months went DOWN $30. Go figure.

wecwbe · **Posted:** Sat Mar 20, 2010 3:07 am

First, welcome to the forum Bill! :JEEPIN:

As for the cost of ownership, I don't really believe it and I also don't care if it is right. I agree with Boiler, it isn't just transportation, it is a Jeep, a vehicle you can really grow to love because of the options it can open up for you.

I keep vehicles a long time so I really don't care about resale value. I do find it interesting that where I live an old CJ-7 sells for more than it originally cost. That sounds like pretty good resale value to me.

The problem with some of these analysts is they don't know their stupid from their elbow when it comes to off road vehicles so their analysis is based on ignorance and what they write only proves this.

Years ago, there were Jeeps and a few worthy competitors in the off road category. Then 20-30 years ago (in the 80's I think) somebody coined the term Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV). It sounded cool. Everbody likes sports and utility just made it sound so versatile. It was the in thing to have an SUV becaue it made you sporty and having one made it look like you had an active lifestyle even if you didn't. Hey disco was dead, people needed a new way to act cool.

Manufacturers of SUVs sprang up everywhere. All the manufacturers wanted to have SUVs and they associated their products with Jeeps by including Jeeps in the SUV category just to steal some of the Jeep cache. Then they started adding "creature comforts" and over time they ended up with so many compromises that thier vehicles really were nothing like Jeeps.

Since there were so many SUVs that weren't Jeeps and the vast majority of them did not pay attention to the concept of off road driving, performance-based criteria eventually were not used to any degree to rate SUVs any more. That meant that cup holders and "ride quality" took precedent over off road capabilities like clearance and low range transfer cases. Once this happened, real off road vehicles started to get lower ratings in the SUV sector.

Throughout all of this, Jeep built Jeeps. They actually performed off road. They always have, and I hope they always will (I hope Fiat reads this!). Sure Jeep has added creature comforts, but they still sell very capable off road vehicles.

To help save face for these ignorant writers that know nothing about off road vehicles, I suggest we give them a new term for the vehicles they understand. Let's get rid of the SUV term. We can replace it with two names. The first can be off road vehicles (we don't need no stinkin' acronym

) and this will cover Jeeps and the few worthy competitors out there. The writers won't write about these because I'm sure they will find them "icky" or some term they like that we don't really get. The other term for the category of vehicles the writers really understand can be CDGGWBUVs. Of course that stands for City Dwelling Grocery Getting Wussy Boy Utility Vehicle. I think they'll be right at home with that.

When it comes down to it, comparing Libertys to CRVs is about as sensible as comparing lug nuts to pomegranates. Afterall, imagine what the true cost of ownership would be for a CRV that tried the Rubicon trail. :ROTFL:

Hey, that's just my opinion. I'm sure they won't listen to me... I drive two Jeeps. I must really be crazy. :jester:

rickm · **Posted:** Sat Mar 20, 2010 4:37 am

I have almost 49,000 on my 08 Liberty and the only thing I've had to do to it was replace the rear brake pads and replace the front struts. Since I purchased the lifetime bumper to bumper warranty, the struts were replaced under warranty, so I only had to pay the $100 deductible.

Heck, I know this will shock some of you guys, but I still have the original tires on the thing! Granted, they are getting pretty thin, and I'll be replacing them within the next couple of weeks, but that's not bad for OEM tires.

JEden8 · **Posted:** Sat Mar 20, 2010 10:21 am

I have a 2008 Liberty and love it. I went from a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo Freedom Edition and loved that as well. The Liberty is a little smaller but I love it that much more. The gas mileage was a little better on the highway than my other Jeep. My wife and I drove it down to Florida from Michigan shortly after we bought it and averaged around 21-22 mpg. Granted that is bone stock but still. I'm looking to lift it and get all new shocks as it has 42k miles on it. I've only had to replace the brakes but that's typical. It's my best investment yet in a vehicle and am glad I bought it.

rancherwillie · **Joined:** Mon Mar 15, 2010 10:48 am **Posts:** 2

Just wanted to give you all A BIG THANKS for the responses. Its very obvious that the folks who wrote the suv comparisons NEVER owned a Jeep.

Thanks again for the education..

Bill

E2 · **Posted:** Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:10 pm

no issue here with my 2008 KK.

MtnLuvr · **Posted:** Sat Mar 20, 2010 10:49 pm

Boiler wrote:

I can buy a high cost of ownership to some degree. In general, the Jeep Liberty gets pretty bad gas milage. Milage is included in the cost of ownership.

In my case, I was getting 15-17 miles per gallon stock mainly driving in town and on frequent 10 mile highway drives. Then I lifted it and dropped to 14-16. Then I got bigger heavier tires and it dropped to probably 13-15. The more I do to it and the worse the milage gets, the more I love my Liberty. It is a great vehicle, but it does suck some gas. Some people will tell you they get 20 mpg and I don't doubt it, but many people are stuck around 15.

I am of course talking about the older models, '02-'07. I believe the newer ones get better milage but I can't say from personal experience. I have an '05.

That said, most people I know love their liberty. It is a unique thing in todays age, to truly love your car or truck. People buy because of milage, perception, whatever, and end up with a practical vehicle that they don't particularly care about. With Jeeps and the Liberty there is a good chance you'll fall in love with it, want to do things to it, even if it is waxing it or rotating the tires. In a nutshell, you'll take care of it better than you would the vehicle with the "lower cost of ownership". Also, like many of us, you'll decide you want to learn to do a lot of the work yourself, due to it being easy to work on and more cost effective, not to mention fun and gratifying. The cost of ownership goes down when you become more self-reliant.

Be careful and excited: buying your first Jeep can be a life changing experience. Lots of people on this website went from buying transportation to getting a new, all-consuming hobby when they weren't expecting it. When people say JEEP stands for Just Empty Every Pocket it is definitely true. If you don't maintain them properly they'll get expensive, just like any vehicle. But if you take care of them and learn to love them like most of us, they'll get expensive because you won't stop buying them new toys, improvements, mods, etc.

Nicely said Boiler.

Cost of Ownership

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