Are all 2014 Grand Cherokees lemons or just mine?
If you search the CarTalk website you will find a LOT of Jeep, Chrysler and Fiat products with problems. So yes, a lot of Grand Cherokees are lemons.
I just traded in an 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee, 3.6L, 8 speed tranny, Limited. I had 100K on it. The only problem I ever had, was a right rear bearing at 87k miles. That was my 4 jeep GC. I thought it was the best one. I got great gas mileage at 21-22 overall and many times of 26-27 on the highway. I don’t tow much but like them cause I can tow up to 7500lbs, with many SUVs won’t do anymore. I traded it for a new 2019 model, same set up.
I don’t consider that at the high-end of reliability.
My 2014 Highlander has over 110k miles and have had ZERO issues. Expect to easily get over 300k miles. My wifes 1996 Honda Accord when over 220k miles before an issue arose. $4 radio knob. Now that’s what I call reliable.
In general the grand Cherokee is not considered very reliable compared to other vehicles in the same class.
My sister leased one, was advised to come in every 6 months for reprogramming and checkup, lease is over, and she never had a problem.
Much worse than average reliability says Consumer Reports. But better than average owner satisfaction.
Even below average reliability nowadays is better than average reliability of days gone by, and it doesn’t mean the model is a lemon. Most folks buy a car that they like, and less than average reliability is not a deal breaker for everyone.
I am glad you’ve had some good experiences. My point is it can be hit and miss. I’ve owed Hondas and on one I had to put a tranny in at under 10k miles and another at 110k miles. On my Acura I had to replace the tranny at 20k miles. Stuff happens sometimes. I looked at the highlander and considered it, it was higher priced and won’t tow as much. My 98, 05, and 14 GCs treated me well.
Best Regards,
Bill
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Feeling snarky tonight…so the answer to your question is “No”
The original post is from 11/2018;
So far we have one 2014 Jeep that is a lemon and one that has been good to 100K miles. So with an n=2 we have a 50/50 shot 
Cars have gotten better but even then probably Toyota is more reliable than Jeep. If you don’t like a Toyota, then buy something you like though. Because if you get a lemon from Toyota, you will really hate your life.
That vehicle has a lot of optional configurations. It can also be driven off paved roads, which is hard on any vehicle. So how reliable a specific example will be is going to depend on its configuration and how it is used. Expect reduced reliability w/ the more complicated 4wd options, the height adjustable suspension option, and the engines that have the variable displacement function. A version with a smaller engine, no variable displacement, and front wheel drive will likely be more reliable especially if it is driven gently, on paved roads for the most part.
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Designing a vehicle to do a multitude of tasks requires a lot of design compromises and complexity. It is no surprise that the two vehicles with the most off road capability , Land Rover and Jeep have less reliability and don’t handle on road driving as well as cars with no off road ability. Yes, I know some trucks have great off road capability, but a true off road truck has even less on road manners.
It amuses me when some mags test Jeeps against soft road CUVs and downgrade the jeeps because they are not as good at mall crawling as the cute utes.
Yup hit or miss…but no where near the same rates. Grand Cherokee has had far more problems per 1,000 then most. So consider yourself lucky.
My brother-in-law is a retired Chrysler Plant Manager. When Chryco removed the executive lease program shortly after he retired he then had to buy his own vehicles for the first time in a couple decades. Because of all the repairs he had on the 4 Grand Cherokees that he got in the lease program he’s bought nothing but Honda’s and Toyota’s. Yup…really reliable.
Yeah, Jeeps have always had pretty poor reliability. 100% lemons? Of course not. But significantly worse than average, they’re typically in the bottom of most rankings, like this:
I don’t consider and Uni-body vehicles (aka Grand Cherokee) good at off-roading. I’ve seen uni-body vehicles that tried to go off-roading…came back with door alignment issues because of body twist.
The Grand Cherokee is equivalent to my Highlander. Light off-roading, but mainly a people mover on all type of road conditions (dry, wet and snow). The Highlander (and most others) do it far better more reliability then the Grand Cherokee.
There are all types of off roading’ A Wrangler will certainly be a better rock crawler than a Grand Cherokee. A friend of mine had a Land Rover had a trailer on some hunting property aboyt 50 miles southwest of Buffalo with no road access. it was an uphill grassy right of way and easy to get to in the summer and in the dead of winter when the ground was frozen but in the spring and fall the Wet grass or mud would defeat his land Rover and he would have to hire a local farmer with a tracked backhoe to get him out. He even tried different tires but to no avail. The Rover was costing him an arm and leg in repairs. I don’t remember what model it was, but it had a BMW V8. He bought a new Jeep Compass and the much lighter Compass just walked up that hill no matter the season.
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The Jeep Compass is built on a 4 cylinder car platform shared with the Dodge Caliber, these vehicles are geared toward those looking for a general transportation vehicle with AWD being optional. I think the tires on each vehicle probably made the most difference in the grassy hill climb.
It did have the AWD drive option, the tires on the Compass were stock, he tried new tires pn the Land Rover. Not the result I expected either. I can only theorize that it is a lot easier to get a lighter vehicle up hill. I am certainly not suggesting that a Compass is a great off road vehicle, just that nothing is best for ALL conditions.