I bought my Jeep Liberty brand new 6 years ago. It currently has 19,740 miles on it (I live 1/4 mile from work). A few weeks ago on a camping trip my transmission failed on a one lane dirt road up a hill to a tourist spot. Unable to turn the car around, I was forced to drive in neutral backwards for 2 miles with a cliff on one side of the road, very nerve wrecking! I had no cell service, thankfully a cop was on his way up the hill to service another person who locked their keys in their car. He called a tow truck for me and advised me to continue down to the main road and he’ll return to assist me. I was in a state park, the closest town had only 2 mechanics in it and no Jeep dealership nearby (closest one to the town was 45 minutes away). I had I towed to the auto shop the tow truck came from where I also had it repaired. The mechanic advised me of the transmission failure which surprised me considering I only had under 20k miles on the Jeep, and it would take a week to fix. I was leaving to go home in 2 days so this definitely put stress on my only vacation of the year! We hitched a ride back home from a friend which was 2hours away to retrieve my friends car, and drove back another 2 hours to camp so we can get our gear back home. When I finally got home the nightmare became worse, thanks to Chrysler Jeep. I called the corporations help center and initially talked to a gentlemen who advised me that I was no longer under warranty but because of the low mileage they would work to reimburse me the cost of the repair, but since it was a Saturday, no supervisors were in the office for me to speak to and I would receive a call from one on Monday. Monday evening and no call back, so I called them. The woman I spoke to stated the systems were down and she would have a supervisor call me back in about 20 minutes. I received no call back. I called on Tuesday, spoke to another woman, she informed me no case was opened and there was no record of me calling with an issue. She gave me a case number finally, and advised me I will have to take the Jeep to a certified dealer; well that’s not an option anymore since it took 4 days for someone to tell me that and the mechanic already ordered the $3,336.00 part. She advised me to call back when I receive my repaired Jeep and they will work with me on paying for the repairs. The following Friday I receive my repaired Jeep. I call again, and the gentleman I spoke to advises me that I will receive a request for reimbursement form which I will have to send back. A week goes by and I call AGAIN! I let them know I haven’t received anything in the mail to begin the reimbursement process. He puts me on hold to speak to a supervisor, comes back and tells me I didn’t receive the mail because they will not help me pay for this since I didn’t go to a certified dealer, nor did I replace the transmission with a Mopar one (the mopar transmission did not come with a warranty, the one I bought did)I remind him I was in the middle of nowhere with the closest dealership 45 minutes away. He apologizes and states they can’t help me. I tell him this is the last Jeep I will ever buy. He said “I’m really sorry to hear that, have a good day” and hung up!!!! FYI, I was on my way to upgrade to a 2019 grand cherokee that day too. Not anymore. I love Jeeps but after this unfortunate mishap and the lack of empathy on the customer service end, I’m currently researching Mazda’s. I wanted to be a Jeep owner for life but if transmissions fail after less than 20k miles it nots worth it!!! After spreading my story around I have found I am not the first person this has happened too, wish I knew sooner about the transmission issue with Liberty’s. Never again!!!!!! Stay away from Jeeps!!!!!

Any mass produced machine will have a few bad ones. And you shouldn't have been surprised that Jeep didn't want to pay for a non-Jeep transmission. What you got for your expense was a repaired Liberty and a lesson in making better decisions if you ever find yourself in a similar situation in the future.


BTW - My 2004 Liberty that I bought new has over 200,000 miles on it. I have had to do a few repairs on it but I've been really happy owning it. I still have it, still drive it, and I'm still happy to have bought it.