Thoughts on the Jeep Liberty?

warning on the jeep diesels, Mercedes parts, Mercedes mechanics, Mercedes prices. Also they are a absolute pain to work on, all the pain of a diesel, none of the benefits. As far as the liberty goes, If you are looking at one with the 3.6L instead of the old 4.0, take a good look under the hood at where things are. The ones I worked on (right when the 3.6 was released) had filters in dumb places, and were hard to do anything with (although the nirto was worse, required a second elbow, and spewed oil into the radiator.... clever) They may have fixed it, they may not have. the 3.6 was built for the wranglers and just jammed into the other vehicles.
 
gadgetgeek said:
warning on the jeep diesels, Mercedes parts, Mercedes mechanics, Mercedes prices. Also they are a absolute pain to work on, all the pain of a diesel, none of the benefits. As far as the liberty goes, If you are looking at one with the 3.6L instead of the old 4.0, take a good look under the hood at where things are. The ones I worked on (right when the 3.6 was released) had filters in dumb places, and were hard to do anything with (although the nirto was worse, required a second elbow, and spewed oil into the radiator.... clever) They may have fixed it, they may not have. the 3.6 was built for the wranglers and just jammed into the other vehicles.
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I don't know what they were putting in them right before they got discontinued, but the first gens had a 3.7, not the 3.8 or the later 3.6 they stuck in the JK's.

The 3.7 isn't bad as far as filter locations, driveway oil changes are no problem. They are known for sludging up though, so be religious about you maintenance.

EDIT: I'm pretty sure all Liberty's had the 3.7, both the KJ's and the KK's.
 
gadgetgeek said:
warning on the jeep diesels, Mercedes parts, Mercedes mechanics, Mercedes prices. Also they are a absolute pain to work on, all the pain of a diesel, none of the benefits. As far as the liberty goes, If you are looking at one with the 3.6L instead of the old 4.0, take a good look under the hood at where things are. The ones I worked on (right when the 3.6 was released) had filters in dumb places, and were hard to do anything with (although the nirto was worse, required a second elbow, and spewed oil into the radiator.... clever) They may have fixed it, they may not have. the 3.6 was built for the wranglers and just jammed into the other vehicles.
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Nope. These are Italian VM Motori motors. They're a 2.8 liter design that's been around for a long, long time. Probably one of the more reliable automotive things to come out of Italy.
 
I've always been skeptical of buying rental cars considering when I rent a car I beat it like a...rented mule.
 
could be that there a few variations between what got sold in Canada vs the US. Anyway, I do rememeber the new 3.6 being a pain to work on in anything other than the wrangler, and hopefully that was fixed. I don't recall working on too many older liberties, and what was under the hood. I think they were far less popular in alberta than the grand cherokee, and if memory serves, those were mostly 4.0s. But then again, that is getting to have been a while ago. My main concern with any of the "new" jeeps(wrangler generation) was less about the reliability, and more about how painful they were to work on. I think I only worked on one diesel compass(or maybe a patriot), and it took so long, the guy just took it to another shop after that where he could do a drop off, instead of a sit and wait. the wranglers (4 and 2 door) were super slick to do, and were only a little slower than the old 4.0 jeeps, which we could generally get in and out in just a few minutes, if we didn't do diffs.

Farmboy, which were the 2.8s in? Its entirely possible they were not sold in Canada, and I don't recall seeing them.
 
gadgetgeek said:
Farmboy, which were the 2.8s in? Its entirely possible they were not sold in Canada, and I don't recall seeing them.
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I'm not sure if the diesels were sold in Canada, but I'm pretty sure they were sold in Europe long after being discontinued here, thanks to our "beloved" EPA. (Environmental Protection Agency)

I don't believe the the Liberty model name was sold there, however. I think over there it was the same vehicle labelled as a Wrangler.
 
I'd like to thank you guys for your input. After a very long day,I drove home in a new 2014 Toyota 4Runner with 4WD.
 
skyhorse said:
I'd like to thank you guys for your input. After a very long day,I drove home in a new 2014 Toyota 4Runner with 4WD.
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You'll like it. My wife's 8 year old 4Runner now has 202,213 miles on it. Ours is just a good reliable truck, and reliability is our #1 criterion for any vehicle. The last Toyota truck I had (sold it two years ago) had over 434,000 miles on it when we sold it. Buyer changed the oil in my driveway then drove it home.

I offered to take my wife's 4Runner and buy her a new vehicle this summer. She was adamant about not lettimg me have her 4Runner, so I had to buy myself a new car instead.
 
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skyhorse said:
I'd like to thank you guys for your input. After a very long day,I drove home in a new 2014 Toyota 4Runner with 4WD.
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Smart move but be careful loaning it. I let my son drive it and he rolled it right over cause he drove it around like his Honda Prelude! Don't go there! My 4runner was nice! Didn't have it ten months before it was totaled out when he rolled it. Would have been restorable then but when they flipped it up on its wheels it took off down the hill and well, its still there! Way down there!

Anyway, I've owned a Jeep Liberty since we got one of the first Limited with everything models available in the country when it first came out! My wife fell in love with the thing and was looking at the Highlander or the Jeep. I liked the Jeep if I was going to be driving it so we went with that. I ordered it. Got all we wanted and they knocked out every single detail and spec not missing a thing I wanted or asked for. It was perfect when we got it. So nice none of the dealers in the area had even seen a Limited yet and were coming around to view it. The dealer begged us to let them keep it a week to sell more! We didn't.

I ordered it mid 01. The Libby came out in 02. I got a 02 Limited pre-lowered so mine has more ground clearance than the others after it, and all the options and they delivered it in Oct of 01. Still got that sticker from the window too. Today it has 28,900 miles on it and is near mint! One of these days I'm going to make my money back with this Jeep! Just watch.
 
leghog said:
You'll like it. My wife's 8 year old 4Runner now has 202,213 miles on it. Ours is just a good reliable truck, and reliability is our #1 criterion for any vehicle. The last Toyota truck I had (sold it two years ago) had over 434,000 miles on it when we sold it. Buyer changed the oil in my driveway then drove it home.

I offered to take my wife's 4Runner and buy her a new vehicle this summer. She was adamant about not lettimg me have her 4Runner, so I had to buy myself a new car instead.
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I ended up getting it for 5K under mrsp after an entire day of negotiation.I could hear another salesman giving the boss flack because he had been turned down by the manager for a better offer last week.My wife said she felt bad for our salesman.I apparently caused some incident.
 
Yeah STR,some years back I loaned my daughter a 4wd ranger and she rolled it.This one won't be getting loaned out for sure.
 
We got our daughter a used 06 Limited. Fits her fine and loaded with extras. Bad issue with fuel filling overflow. Something's wrong with them that allows backwash no matter how careful you are when filling the tank. It's a know issue and we are going to have to find a fix soon.
 
Slidetechnik said:
I've always been skeptical of buying rental cars considering when I rent a car I beat it like a...rented mule.
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They had a 2013 with 39 K miles that I liked.The salesman told me they had just got it at an auction the day before and it hadn't been cleaned up. I took it for a ride and asked if it was a rental,it was.Turned out I got my 2014 for only 5 thousand more.
 
dawgfan said:
We got our daughter a used 06 Limited. Fits her fine and loaded with extras. Bad issue with fuel filling overflow. Something's wrong with them that allows backwash no matter how careful you are when filling the tank. It's a know issue and we are going to have to find a fix soon.
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Thanks for the heads up on the fuel overflow issue.I honestly hate buying a new vehicle knowing I've lost money before my signature ink on the sales contract is dry.:eek:
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Now I'm shopping for a brush guard,possibly one with a mounting plate for a wench. What passes for a front bumper nowadays is ridiculous imho.:eek:
Any suggestions?
 
My gf has one that's a few years old - she loves it....I find it terribly uncomfortable I have to drive over an hour.
 
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