Karla

Hi all! I'm new to this forum and am excited to be here!

I'm looking to order a Unlimited X in Detonator Yellow in the VERY near future and was wondering if you all could give me some information and/or tips on how to order. I've never ordered a vehicle before and want to know what to expect at the dealership.

Will I need to pay a deposit...or should I have to? What is involved in the ordering process? Will I get to test drive the vehicle to ensure there are no problems when it arrives?

Regarding financing....do I take care of that when I order (if obtaining a loan from someone else other than DaimlerChrysler), or wait until the vehicle is complete?

As you can see....I'm a total newbie to this process and could use any help from you guys I can get! I've also never owned a Jeep before, and am excited about trading in my Chrysler Sebring for an Unlimited X!

Thanks in advance for your help! Take care!

Karla

kaffeene

Welcome... of course I'm new too.
I'm curious of some of the same questions you have.
I hope you didn't rush back here to read the reply for your thread only to find out it wasn't useful information to your questions.

superboo

hi and welcome

a lot of this is up to you and your dealer. i didn't pay a cent on my order until it went to KZ status (already built and released from factory), though a lot of people DID pay $500 or more to secure the order in their name. the ordering process is simple. you go to the dealership, tell them what options you want, they input it into Dealer Connect, and it's ordered. that's the short side, which of course means there's a long side:

currently, there's some restrictions from Jeep. that is to say that WHAT you order (trim level/options) and with WHICH dealership you order and WHEN you order play a big part in determining HOW SOON you get your order. some dealers are just dealers, others are 5-star dealers. if you go to a 5-star dealer, you're supposed to get better care. but more importantly, a 5-star dealer probably cycles a higher volume of DCX vehicles than a non 5-star dealer. this is important to you because the more volume they process, the more they get rewarded with a higher "allocation". allocations are like order slot rations for dealers. a dealer with a higher allocation is more likely to get your order placed, built, and delivered faster than a lower allocated dealer. in short, you want to order with a 5-star dealer that moves a LOT of jeeps - don't be afraid to ask them about this.

so once you've found your highly allocated dealer and know which options you want, i'd suggest going in and negotiating your price. i'd say more about this, but that's another novel waiting to be written. i highly suggest reading:

http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying...2/article.html

it opened my eyes and prepared me for battle.

once the negotiating is done, they should be able to input your order right away. pending their allocation, it might go through right away or perhaps you'll be waiting a few more weeks until some of their order slots open up again. then there's the other thing i mentioned - restrictions.

first of all, detonator yellow isn't available yet. i think it's sometime in april/may for that color. then, due to demand outweighing supply, certain other options can slow your order down. the biggest ones have been the MyGig Infotainment system option, Freedom top (hardtop - to include the dual top option), and lastly, the Rubicons. so in your case, if you order an X with a soft-top and no MyGig from a dealer with a high [(or at least with some open slots in his] allocation, then your order should fly through similar to mine and some others. though currently, there's people waiting on Rubicons with hardtops that have been waiting for months, and will likely (unfortunately) continue to wait for more months.

almost immediately after you order, you should be able to get a Vehicle Order Number (VON) from your dealer. with this, you can call directly to DCX @ 1-800-992-1997, options: 5, 2, 1, 2, pause...3 (sad, i know). the first time you call, you can give them your VON and they'll tell you your current status. they'll also assign you a reference number to make things easier for them to look up your order in the future.

once your order hits status D, you can no longer make changes to it. shortly after, it should go to D1 - meaning that your jeep is scheduled to be built. D1 is kinda the magic status code around here. once you've hit that point, it's like being able to see the promised land over the horizon; you've still got some waiting, but at least you can see the end. once it hits KZ, it's out the door and waiting to get a train ride from Ohio to your nearest huge city. then it gets put on the back of a truck and delivered to your dealer.

this url has a list of status codes and their interpretations (and a lengthy 1000+ comment discussion): https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-talk-26/check-status-your-jeep-jk-wrangler-order-status-codes-161/

meanwhile, i've found this place to be a wealth of information with friendly/helpful people. i came here as a complete newb...now i'm only a partial newb

good luck. like everyone says (and i should be confirming soon), it's worth the wait.

p.s. i'm sure i missed some stuff, it being 2am and all. but i'm sure me and the others won't mind cleaning up if you have more questions.

Karla

Wow! Thanks for all the great information! It shouldn't be a problem to find a 5-star dealer as that's all that's available in St. Louis (for the most part). As for being treated better....well....that remains to be seen at any dealership I've been to.

The only option I want that'll cause a delay is the freedom top. Other than that, I'm only interested in the power group, 17" wheels and automatic transmission.

As for the wait, I'm cool with that. I was going to get a JK in December, but decided against it since I couldn't find one without the extra options I didn't want. Combine that with the fact that the dealership wanted to short change me almost $3K on my trade in. So...I was planning to purchase a 2007 Unlimited X later this year. Now that they're coming out with yellow....I'm glad I waited!

I'm hoping to place my order some time in April so I can have some warm weather left to enjoy by the time the JK's finished.

Thanks again for the information!

Karla

superboo

no problem. btw, what part of STL? i'm originally from the STL "area" [read: east side ]

kaffeene

Someone would want to know what kind of loan & interest rate they qualify for before they order. Would you just apply for a loan before just to see what you can get and then again when your ready to pay for it? That doesn't seem good cause it would appear as an extra inquiry. How does everyone usually go about that?

superboo

don't hold your breath on this one, but i've heard that if you're searching for a car loan, any quotes you receive within like a 30 or 60 day period (i forget the number of days i read) count as a single quote as long as you close on one.

as for how i did it, i called up my bank and told them i needed a new car loan. they asked me the value of it. then, based on my credit and that particular vehicle, they approved me for a loan well above what i actually needed. they then sent me a blank check that read "must be at least $2,500 and good for up to $39,000" under the 'amount' line. i filled in the amount i wanted to finance, signed it and handed it over to my dealer's F&I guy. knowing that i'd be able to do this helped me in my negotiations. i didn't give my dealer a chance to play number games on me with the "where do you want your monthly payments to be" scheme. instead, i was able to walk in with the confidence of a cash buyer and get a more than satisfactory deal.

i was still curious though. so i asked my salesman, who was always EXTREMELY nice/upfront with me (maybe that's why he doesn't work there anymore). he said that a GOOD interest rate out of DCX is like 7-8%. my bank gave me a hair under 6%. i also traded in my lincoln and put over $3k down in cash. and i repeat, i didn't give them a single, oxidized and crusty penny until the deal was signed, sealed, and on it's way to be delivered (KZL).

Karla

I'll probably call the bank I have my lcurrent oan with to see what kind of rate I can get based on my last credit score. My current loan is at 4.5% (from 4 years ago) so it'll be hard to jump up to a higher rate. :(

Once I place the order, I'll work with my bank to begin financing based on the estimated time to build the JK.

I agree with not letting the dealer play number games. When I was last looking at the JKs, I told them I would pay "x" amount...period. They kept trying to get me to give them a payment amount and I wouldn't budge.

It was really quite annoying.

I really hope I can find a dealership that doesn't require a deposit. I may see if I can squeek out of that as they'd be able to sell my JK with no problems if I couldn't complete the order for some reason.

Superboo - To answer your question, I live in St. Peters (St. Charles County).

kaffeene

So you applied for your loan before ordering... but gave them the check when your JK was being shipped? Not sure what you meant. Those checks usually expire after 45 days.
If it takes months to get the Jeep the check or loan is no longer good.

Oh and it's 30 days for inqiries.


What to know about "rate shopping."
Looking for a mortgage or an auto loan may cause multiple lenders to request your credit report, even though youre only looking for one loan. To compensate for this, the score ignores all mortgage and auto inquiries made in the 30 days prior to scoring. So if you find a loan within 30 days, the inquiries won't affect your score while you're rate shopping. In addition, the score looks on your credit report for auto or mortgage inquiries older than 30 days. If it finds some, it counts all those inquiries that fall in a typical shopping period as just one inquiry when determining your score. For FICO scores calculated from older versions of the scoring formula, this shopping period is any 14 day span. For FICO scores calculated from the newest versions of the scoring formula, this shopping period is any 45 day span. Each lender chooses which version of the FICO scoring formula it wants the credit reporting agency to use to calculate your FICO score.

superboo

take a glance at my signature. i ordered on the 7th and it went KZL on the 19th, that means i handed them my loan check less than 2 weeks after ordering; well within the 45 days my bank gave me to get it done. so ya, the nite we put in my order, we had already settled on my "out-the-door" amount. at that point, my price is protected. i could have paid them at any point in time from there, but we mutually agreed to wait until the jeep had been built and prep'd for shipping for me to pay. this is how i avoided having to pay on 2 overlapping car loans.