2008 KK gasser personal review: Sucks

BiodieselJeep.com · **Posted:** Mon Mar 10, 2008 4:07 pm

So, I was out in Cali for a week with the full family and assorted gear (paragliders, other neccesities). Naturally I rented a KK, why not try it?

Review: C-

First, its ugly. The whole thing looks bettter as a Nitro: a trucky SUV. It ain't Jeepy. The wheelbase is set too far forward, and the tire under the back makes sheds years of jeepy tradition. The front end is lowerlooking, kinda buyck-toothed.

It is more roomy inside, but at what cost? It is, if you can believe, even cheaper plastic inside. The door handles seem more durable, if not kinda romper-room big. There, see, I'm impartial, I can say nice things.

But the most damning thing is the suspension. It has a mushy, unstiff feel, and almost waivers on the road! Since the thing is newer, I expected the opposite, actually. I often felt it was slightly dangerous how, on Cali groved roads and poop highways, it would follow the ough groves and holes and almost drift lanes! I went to fill up the tires, I was so worried (no fix). Took it onto some beach and it was just horrible. My 05 KJ CRD has a certain, unique Jeepy stiffness that feels "sure-footed" if not "car-comfortable". Same with my friends 05 gasser KJ. This 08 KK was as connected to the road as Ozzy Osbourne is to reality.

Oh, and the tranny shifts late and limp with short gears. A seeming paradox that they have managed to hideously overcome. And that does wonders for the fuel consumption, which is crappy. Nice touch.

Anyone who has driven both gasser KJ and KK must surely hate the new one unless they are longtime fans of minivans. If they put a diesel in the KK, I absolutely would NOT buy it. And that says something. I'll buy almost anything with a diesel. Sorry, it blows.

End of Rant.

List

Run

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Mon Mar 10, 2008 4:39 pm

BiodieselJeep.com wrote:

So, I was out in Cali for a week with the full family and assorted gear (paragliders, other neccesities). Naturally I rented a KK, why not try it?

Review: C-

First, its ugly. The whole thing looks bettter as a Nitro: a trucky SUV. It ain't Jeepy. The wheelbase is set too far forward, and the tire under the back makes sheds years of jeepy tradition. The front end is lowerlooking, kinda buyck-toothed.

It is more roomy inside, but at what cost? It is, if you can believe, even cheaper plastic inside. The door handles seem more durable, if not kinda romper-room big. There, see, I'm impartial, I can say nice things.

But the most damning thing is the suspension. It has a mushy, unstiff feel, and almost waivers on the road! Since the thing is newer, I expected the opposite, actually. I often felt it was slightly dangerous how, on Cali groved roads and poop highways, it would follow the ough groves and holes and almost drift lanes! I went to fill up the tires, I was so worried (no fix). Took it onto some beach and it was just horrible. My 05 KJ CRD has a certain, unique Jeepy stiffness that feels "sure-footed" if not "car-comfortable". Same with my friends 05 gasser KJ. This 08 KK was as connected to the road as Ozzy Osbourne is to reality.

Oh, and the tranny shifts late and limp with short gears. A seeming paradox that they have managed to hideously overcome. And that does wonders for the fuel consumption, which is crappy. Nice touch.

Anyone who has driven both gasser KJ and KK must surely hate the new one unless they are longtime fans of minivans. If they put a diesel in the KK, I absolutely would NOT buy it. And that says something. I'll buy almost anything with a diesel. Sorry, it blows.

End of Rant.

List

Run

I think thats funny, most of what you are saying is similar to the same sort of thing I heard when the KJ come out from XJ owners.

same thing happened when the nissan 350z came out from the 300zx owners. It's inevitable, it will probably happen again when the KKs replacement comes along.

Reflex · **Joined:** Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:48 pm **Posts:** 567

Sounds to me like the typical symptoms of a rental. Poorly maintained, rarely aligned, etc etc...

Going to the KK section of this forum those complaints don't seem common at all.

BiodieselJeep.com · **Posted:** Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:29 pm

Reflex: Good point on the rental. But the thing only had 2 k on it! I even asked the guy about the cars as I dropped it off. He said they only keep them 6-7 k and sell them at auction.

But a fair point: people drive rentals like they are in a monster truck rally.

Anyhow, hold on to your KJ's...

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:31 pm

Some companies buy the excess inventory and put it in the fleet. So what you get is what there is an excess of; Avis, Hertz, Thrifty, and Dollar do this a bunch. Enterprise is not afraid of buying cars that can not be sold as new because they have been too up close and intimate with another car, truck, tree, or building. As far as upkeep goes, they get the factory recommended what ever and nothing more. Alignments never happen, they go to the auction or their unload lots.

Steve

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:18 pm

warp2diesel wrote:

Some companies buy the excess inventory and put it in the fleet. So what you get is what there is an excess of; Avis, Hertz, Thrifty, and Dollar do this a bunch. Enterprise is not afraid of buying cars that can not be sold as new because they have been too up close and intimate with another car, truck, tree, or building. As far as upkeep goes, they get the factory recommended what ever and nothing more. Alignments never happen, they go to the auction or their unload lots.

Steve

Uh, generally enterprise ditches cars as soon as they get ANY amount of body damage, this seems somewhat contradictory to what you say.

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:27 pm

Enterprise buys fixed wrecks and will sell then instead of renting them, all their high line cars are fixed wrecks. I have had to return a car because they sold it out from under me when I was using it, PITA. I use Avis & Hertz now for work, I can't check my CRD as luggage it weighs more than 50 pounds.

Steve

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:34 pm

if you get some real tires on it, and not the passenger rated ones, it totally changes it. The good years that come on it have a lot of sidewall flex

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:37 pm

Diggerfreek wrote:

if you get some real tires on it, and not the passenger rated ones, it totally changes it. The good years that come on it have a lot of sidewall flex

http://r33b.net/

vtdog · **Joined:** Fri Sep 30, 2005 11:27 am **Posts:** 640

It would have run much better if it had been filled with Amsoil (sorry, couldn't resist)

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:16 pm

Sir Sam wrote:

Diggerfreek wrote:

if you get some real tires on it, and not the passenger rated ones, it totally changes it. The good years that come on it have a lot of sidewall flex

http://r33b.net/

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:18 pm

synthetics make a difference

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:25 pm

Diggerfreek wrote:

Sir Sam wrote:

Diggerfreek wrote:

if you get some real tires on it, and not the passenger rated ones, it totally changes it. The good years that come on it have a lot of sidewall flex

http://r33b.net/

Hadn't seen that yet?

Also, I got this cool little widget:
(ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD)

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:47 pm

where did you get that? oh and is the fan speed widget for your computer?

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:54 pm

Diggerfreek wrote:

where did you get that? oh and is the fan speed widget for your computer?

I dont remember where I got the hypnotoad widget, apple has a website with many, that or a google search would probably net it.

The fan widget is something called iSTAT NANO, has a bunch of neat things like CPU temp, fan speed, local/external IP, memory, processes, etc. should be able to get it off of apples widget page no problem.

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Mon Mar 10, 2008 11:07 pm

Thanks

2008 KK gasser personal review: Sucks

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