[arudlang]

Are you sure its going to matter? Very few people who are in the financial position to even consider buying a new car actually keep one for more than 60-100k miles so what kind of car buyer are you? Have you personally put more than 200k on any car, ever? Not many can claim such a thing, few do it on purpose. If you have like a 10-year-old kid and you're thinking you are going to pass it on to them when they get their license... I think the landscape of cars is going to be a lot different in six years, as will the price of traditional gasoline, and likely incredible advancements in computer-based safety measures you would want your kids to have. Given Jeep's reputation the idea of "passing one on" to another family member when you've gotten the good miles out of it is... highly unlikely, at best.

The engine is the least of your worries, lots of other things can fail before the engine does.

Yep!

I have an unproved theory that doing a factory order results in a better ownership experience.
Don't buy anything off the lot, by my definition it is a used vehicle from just sitting around in the weather.

At our local dealership everything on the lot is the dealership staff's personal playthings until sold, too. Both of the "new" Jeep's we bought there had close to 1000 miles on them already when we were handed the keys, and both were dirty as could be inside and out. Bits of french fries in the cupholders, sunscreen smeared on the armrests, cobwebs around the mirrors... one of our two was a dealer trade and still came in the same condition so perhaps most Jeep lots operate that way. Not a fan of having to vacuum and wash my brand new cars the day I get them, never going to let that happen again no matter what brand we go with.

 

[arudlang]

you should have never had the pay full new car price for, and if you did, that's on you because you let them.

Oh, don't worry about that. We've never paid anywhere near full-price for a car, we assumed that's why we receive them from Jeep in such dirty condition (and also why we never said anything about the condition) On our Compass we worked them down to 17% under the sticker price over the course of several agonizing days and afterwards our salesman mysteriously got switched to working in the parts & service department 😁

 

[arudlang]

the stalling issues were due to crappy relays being installed at the factory on all engine option Cherokees

Yep, our 3.2 had the bad relays and stalling issues last winter. Very easy warranty fix and all good now. There is nothing like these vehicles that money can buy which will also give you perfect reliability guaranteed. It's just not there anymore, due to the fierce competition between manufacturers they are all more or less riding the knifes edge to remain price competitive.