Ohhh! Denied!! And it was sooooo close!! The Jeep Commander had manged a nearly flawless performance from the West Coast to Upstate New York and back again...
Sure, the climate control fan hit a snag (literally) and was making grinding noises, but that was fixed during the 18,000-mile service by re-aligning some insulation under the dash. So the Commander makes it "home" to California and need only transport me from my house to the Edmunds.com office one last time. I go out to start the car this morning and...NOTHING! Not even the digital odometer lights up. The battery is completely dead, and after confirming that neither headlights nor interior lights were left on I can only assume some switch in the electrical system made a bad choice and remained "on" after the Commander was turned off the day before (at which point it was running perfectly). Bummer for the Jeep -- it came this close to delivering over 7,000 trouble-free (though admittedly thirsty) miles. Oh well, there were far less convienent places it could have broken down over the last three weeks than in my own garage... A jump start got it going, but it took about 15 minute of recharging before the engine even tried to crank over. We'll let you know the diagnosis when we get one.
Karl Brauer, Editor in Chief, Edmunds.com @ 21,050 miles
rsholland says:
08:17 AM, 07/18/06
I bet you're happy it didn't happen at a desert stop-over on the way home. There's nothing like a broken car to ruin a vacation, especially in some backwater location...
editor_karl says:
12:38 PM, 07/18/06
Yeah, luckily nearly new SUVs (especially dark green ones) never break down in the middle of no where -- with your entire family aboard.
editor_karl says:
12:40 PM, 07/18/06
Forgot to add the link:
http://www.edmunds.com/news/column/carmudgeon/100237/article.html
jerrywimer says:
11:31 AM, 07/19/06
I had a similar experience with my 2007 Avalanche last Wednesday morning. But I'm not ashamed to admit that I was at fault ;-) for leaving the key in the ignition at at the 'ACC' position all night (in the garage, of course). It happened when I had just finished programming some destinations into the nav system and was distracted by something that required me to exit the vehicle. I closed the door behind me (silencing the chimes), took care of the issue, forgot I'd left the key in and on, and proceeded to bed.
Oops.
lmyers92123 says:
10:30 AM, 07/23/06
OK Karl, The world is perfect and you have your choice of engines. Would you select
A. 3.7
B. 4.7
C Hemi
D Diesel