Why so pricey?
 

I understand there's this thing called Inflation and stuff gets more expensive over the years .. but, anyhow, looking online at a 2019 wrangler. My old one was a 2008 Unlimited X, not too many bells and whistles, came in at like $27,000. Building a 2019 online adding the stuff I want and it's coming out to nearly $40,000! I mean, I know it should be more expensive than 11 years ago, but still.. What's so cool about the 2019's that makes them so much more expensive? At this point, I don't think I could afford a new one at all :(

Adding what one wants to a new vehicle has always been expensive. The dealer and manufacturer enjoy a big profit on added options.
The Wrangler is in high demand. The price is driven by that demand. Not much else can be said about that.

Especially because the JL is the newest and shiniest toy. Prices are even more marked up.

FCA has jacked up the price on the Wrangler to subsidize for the poor sales on the rest of their fleet of vehicles. I think I got lucky when I bought mine in 2009. In 2009 Wrangler sales were dipping, so dealers were willing to come down on price. Sticker price on my 2009 Sahara JKU was $34K and I was able to negotiate my way down to $28.5K where I feel their willingness to accept my offer was tied to the sales slump in 2009. See the link I posted below to see what I'm referring to.

At this time, I feel FCA has increased the price of the Wrangler higher than the market will be willing to tolerate and expect that over the next couple years we may see prices drop and/or a lot of incentive rebates being offered on the Wrangler and typically the Wrangler has not had to provide any incentive rebates like all the other FCA "Jeep" branded vehicles.

This is a good reference website I use for vehicle sales.
Jeep Wrangler Sales Figures | GCBC

We don't have enough data currently but as of now it's showing Wrangler sales for the month of January 2019 to be 13,024. Forecast that out over 12 months and it equates to 156K Wranglers per year in the U.S. which is down significantly from the 2018 total of 240K. It's not enough data to make any definite conclusions as I mention but I like to keep a close eye on how well these sales numbers are going. Typically sales will increase over the previous year with a new model launch, just look at the 2007 JK sales numbers compared to 2008. However just after 1 month we're not seeing that same new model sales boost and I believe that has a lot to do with how the 2019 Wrangler is currently over priced. If the January 2019 sales numbers becomes a trend, then I expect we will start to see some changes in price but it may take at least a full year before we start to see that trend establish.

Bottom line....I would recommend to hold off purchasing a new Wrangler JL both for quality reasons and pricing. That's what I'm doing. Plus, I already got burned once by FCA when purchasing a newly launched vehicle when my wife purchased a 2015 Renegade which has been a turd riddled with problems ever since 3 months after we drove it off the lot. My confidence in a quality FCA designed vehicle is at an all time low currently, although I love my JKU and it has been quite reliable....but my 2009 JKU wasn't designed under the FCA umbrella, my wife's 2015 Renegade was and so is the Wrangler JL.

I bought a 2012 in 2012. Nicely configured I paid less than $30k. I feel like the prices jumped after 2012. Maybe the base didn't change much but the price to pay for option went up a lot.

From the link I posted, you can see the upward trend in sales after 2012....thus, FCA started to raise the prices after seeing the jump in sales in 2012 to take advantage of the upward trend. It should be the opposite where they will drop prices if we see a downward trend in 2019-2020.

You're right though, after 2012 not much was added. 2011 the interior was upgraded and in 2012 the engine/drive train was upgraded and those 2 things were 2 of the biggest drawbacks with the 2007-2010 Wranglers. Once the sales jumped in 2012, FCA knew they made the right decisions with those updates and took advantage by raising the price each year afterwards to see just how far they could push the price up and not create a downward trend in sales.

Maybe there will be more incentives in the spring or summer? Like they think more people will buy regardless in winter for 4 wheel drive in the snow?

We have a 2015 renegade though and it's been reliable, no real issues at all and 47k miles so far.

Just playing pricing out a plain old 2019 wrangler sport, 4 doors, automatic and hard top comes out over $36k. Same thing in Sport S is $39k. Was just bummed seeing those prices. Almost feels like I may as well go for a grand cherokee instead. Wait nevermind, those prices are even crazier.

Maybe it's just another sign I'm getting old. Back in my day we had to zip windows open, and we loved it!

They only offer incentives based on their forecasted sales vs actual sales. When they sell below forecasted sales, their stock drops and their investors get upset. It doesn't have anything to do with seasons, and more to do with quarterly financial reports.

Do you have the 9 Speed auto ZF trans? If so have you received the class action lawsuit notification for that trans? We just made our 5th visit to the dealership at 34K miles to fix that trans problem. Fingers currently crossed again, they keep throwing software updates at it.

Considering you can get special editions to creep up on $60k nowadays...NOT worth it. I'd buy a Rover and a TJ. One for work and one for play. I know a bunch of people would bash on that as well. But to each his own.

I definitely don't have a problem with that. I was considering purchasing a JL but with these prices I've just decided to keep my JK and am now considering a Corvette instead and when it comes time to replace my engine on my JK I will look into getting an LS corvette engine so I can learn how to work on one engine and be able to repair both vehicles. :D

Yeah, the JL is now caught up to my wife's 2015 Renegade as far as technology is concerned. Still shouldn't put it's price into Land Rover area.

Interesting read. Like I said, I expect JL prices to come down.
https://www.autonews.com/sales/jeep-...en-sales-climb

you can buy JL's in the low 30's and rubi in the high 30's and low 40's all day long. I guess i don't understand why people complain about prices either you want one or you don't. There is nothing that says just because you can option a JL out at $60K that is all that you can get.

https://www.dennisdillon.com/new-veh...limited&page=1

The link I posted above tells a different story from a dealership's perspective in regards to prices.

It has always been that way.
I recall my parents sweating and wringing their hands while in the bank setting up a mortgage for an $8,000 house. A new car was out of the question at $2600.
To go from an I-6 to a V-8 on a new car was the outrageous sum of $100.

Seems people struggled back then just as we do now.

Agreed. And with consumer confidence so high and the love for SUVs so strong, dealers are enjoying huge hike ups. They’re raking it in right now. It’s a seller’s market so if you’re a buyer you’re going to have to pay up. Imagine what those payments will feel like when the economy turns and you’re stuck with that payment as your Jeep death wobbles on your way to work lol. No thanks.

I had been shopping for a while, the jl coming out I believe lowered the price of some of the newer used jks, I got a used 18 jk the the dealer was asking 29,000 and I got it quite a bit cheaper when they got a load of jls in.
i had been looking at new, but all the dealers only had loaded down Jeep's with all the options, I was looking pretty much three options, track lock, a/c, and hard top.
no dealers around here had them and looked at you funny when you said you didn't want the other stuff

I don't remember getting anything about a class action lawsuit for our Rengade, but it does have a transmission issue. Basically if I hit a tight corner too fast, the traction control light goes off and then it feels like it wants to stall, then the engine kicks back into gear a few seconds later. It's annoying, but I made a habit of just turning the stupid traction control off as soon as I do the parking break so I don't notice it anymore. One day when I'm in for service I'll try and remember to get the next software update too.

I was just a little pissy seeing the "low end" 2019 sport coming in at $36k just adding in automatic and a hard top. But yeah, looking at other brands all SUVs have cranked up prices. I guess it just is what it is. It's a conspiracy by the banks in bed with dealerships to get us to start leasing more, I tell ya.

Makes me wonder if we should look into something else like maybe a cherokee trailhawk? I like the newer look a lot better. Then I start thinking why not just spring for a lower end Grand Cherokee instead.

Spending my tax return already before I even have it.

We have that same problem when turning that you described with our Rene. Waiting to hear my wife's feedback if it's fixed or not with the latest s/w updates they threw at it. What I learned from the dealership when the vehicle is new and after they perform an update, afterwards the trans adapts to how you drive and makes adjustments. That learning process takes about 2 months. So the last time we brought it in, the update seemed to fix the trans problems but 2 months later the problem came back. So the problem seems to be within the transmissions learning and adapting to how you drive algorithm. They just need to turn that crap off, if you ask me because the only thing it seems to be learning is how to jerk the gears around.

I would avoid the Cherokee. The new Cherokee came out 2 years before the Renegade and that's where I initially read about a lot of others having the same trans shifting problems. I duped myself into believing it was fixed 3 years later when we purchased the Renegade and when I test drove the Rene, I made sure to pay particular focus on how the trans shifted. How was I to know that the problem starts to happen 3-4 months after? The Cherokee, Renegade, and Compass all use that same 9-Speed ZF auto trans. My mother just purchased a 2018 Compass...waiting to hear if she runs into the same trans shifting problem.

Here's the letter.
https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1Nfd1...HU1F8DZAzkEhgw

The main problem is that they sell every freakin one of them. So they can.

Happy with my paid off '11. It isan't going anywhere but I would like to add a JL to the garage one day. But I don't know if that day will come...I'm with everyone on the high prices. I've looked at them in the real world on the dealer lots and what they want for "plain" sport models let alone Saharas and Rubis is out of this world. FCA is sticking it to everyone in the market for a Wrangler...and both parties are loving every minute of it. Otherwise they wouldn't be selling. :dontknow2:

I don't feel JL's are selling as well as expected. This is the 1st year where we can finally see a break down of sales numbers between the JL and JK since they coexisted in 2018 and FCA didn't break those numbers out separately. The messages I posted earlier seems to indicate the JL isn't doing as well as FCA had forecasted. Only time will tell at this point but since there seems to be a large quantity on the dealership lot inventory, that is currently our best indicator to go by.

With my wife not enjoying her Renegade purchase where I originally suggested to her she should get a JK instead, she is now considering trading in the Renegade and getting a JL. I've told her to hold off for now until we can better see where the price of the JL goes as well as gain some better insight of the reliability. No reason to jump out of one FCA troublesome vehicle into a potential other which is currently overly priced as well. I've also considered purchasing a JL but am going to continue to ride it out with my 2009 JKU for now. I can afford to purchase a JL and I want one but I don't like to make purchases where I feel I'm getting ripped off even if I can afford it, and that's where I feel FCA is at with these JL prices. Just like I could have afforded to purchase JW Speaker LED headlights when they were $800 for a set, and I'm sure they're great lights. Common sense just told me headlights, no matter how great they are and how much I wanted them were not worth $800 for something that cost $100 for the previous gen technology headlights....now we're currently seeing JW speaker LED headlights coming down in price once they realized they weren't selling as many lights as they could be due to the high prices.

Been looking around at other options... I don't think I'd ever consider a range rover, but was just looking online and saw you can get a sahara for the same price. Never really been into wanting to drive a status symbol. Hopefully there will be some good deals this spring, and even though I hate haggling, my fiance doesn't and used to work in a dealership so she knows all the tricks, can usually get a good deal when I bring her along. Even though she hates it when I wave to other jeeps, she doesn't understand :)

Also looked online at the new honda passport, they seem nice. I liked the honda element I had before my wrangler, no issues at all with it. But I just personally like the jeep brand best. I don't ever drive off road at all unless someone tells me to park on their grass, but just something about a wrangler...

Don't settle, get the Wrangler...:cool:

I just did a build out of boredom and curiosity. I own a '14 Sport S 2 door with no upgrades except the bluetooth/U connect package. 6 spd manual. Roll-up windows, no power anything. Soft top. I just built a '19 with the same options and it tallied up at about $7k more. Un-freakin-believable. I feel like FCA was so paranoid about tampering with the legacy that they kinda pussed out on the JL. All they did was up the ante on the computer-run shit and add 2-3 mpg? Sorry. I'm keeping my JK until I die. Buy a used stocker from a soccer mom who didn't realize what they were getting into and have your way with it.

And the problem with that is that you're only looking at the price increase from 2014. As the article I linked stated they went up $3k per each model year. From my 2009 Sahara to a 2019 I'm seeing closer to a $15K+ increase. ;)

I've done the same thing..build a JL on the Jeep site. I also have a 2 door sport S, my only option was A/C. Purchased new in 2011 it was just under 25,000. The JL version came out just over 30,000.

I just did mine.
2009 JKU Sahara with following options added.
Automatic Trans, Dual Top, Remote Start, Premium Alloy wheels w/ AT Tires, Premium Audio, Premium Paint selection (Blue)
Sticker Price: $33,800

2019 JLU Sahara with exact same options as above
Sticker Price: $47, 445

Price Difference:$13, 645

FCA can kiss my arse.

I just found this which shows well what we've been discussing. This is the average purchase price for the JK wrangler over it's life-time

Original Article here with the graph which provides more detail:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...al-for-detroit

https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1nCzz...cfsa3hHTgkkLAu
Average purchase Price 2008: $26.7K
Average purchase Price 2018: $42.5K
Price increase difference: (42.5K - 26.7K)= $15.8K :eek2:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is gonna fix everything!!!!
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jk-...12352f4871.jpg