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Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8
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Comments
The last sentence should read, "why would Chrysler Jeep NOT offer this skid plate for the SRT8?"
If the factory did offer an optional skid plate someone (an attorney??) could view this as a defacto statement that you can take the SRT8 off road. Then if they took their SRT8 off-road and damaged their vehicle, they could go sue DCX. I would NOT recommend taking an SRT8 off-road. At the very least you would rip the air dam off in the first 10 feet. And speaking of which......
Two days ago an idiot driving down the shoulder of I-94 pulling an overloaded trailer with a flat tire, hit a construction barrel and shot the hard plastic base into my lane. I braked and swerved, but still hit it at speed. It caught my air dam in the right front and took a chunk out of it and tore off the support arm.
According to the dealer, all of the parts are available except for the air dam itself which shows backordered with no estimated date of availability. Crap.
kec8, that really s*cks...sorry to hear about it.
In other news, only 16 more days!!!!
OK, given that I won't take this vehicle off road, can you (or anyone else reading this) see anything wrong with having the dealer put one on for $49? It seems to me that it would provide cheap protection to the steering and transmission areas from small road debris. If you had this vehicle, would you put one on?
One side note: Other than attorneys, another reason that they may not offer it as a factory option is that the factory "skid plate option" contains a number of other pieces that may cause issues (i.e. tow hooks). I cut and pasted this from jeep.com:
Skid Plate Group $295.00
Front Suspension Skid Plate
Fuel Tank Skid Plate Shield
Tow Hooks
Transfer Case Skid Plate Shield
I will not be surprised if they run across some "issues" caused by the different engine, trans, etc. when they go to put it on. $49 seems awfully cheap. Have they done one before?
While I do not plan on tackling the Rubicon, my wife needs to use the vehicle occasionally to train hunting dogs. She must traverse muddy, rutted roads (usually gravel, sometimes dirt.
Is the SRT-8 capable of doing this? Why do they label it an SUV, or include 4WD if you can't use it other than on paved roads? It is still a beautiful vehicle, but if it can't tow or go off road it's starting to sound like a sheep in wolf's clothing.
PS Sorry about your accident. I had the same problem years ago with a 1974 fiat x19, and they couldn't find spare parts on this planet.
Other than it being a rough ride, gravel or dirt roads should not be a problem. I would most definitely not take my SRT8 on a two-track or off of a real road, but then I wouldn't put a trailer hitch on it and haul anything with it either.
Also, keep in mind that 4WD is not only for off roading. 4WD puts the 420 horses to the ground with barely a chirp of the tires and launches you like no vehicle I have ever owned. Best of all, it is invaluable in rain and snow on paved roads. The SRT8 is one of many non off-road vehicles have 4WD. I live in Michigan and the 4WD is one of the reasons that I chose the SRT8 over other performance vehicles. It was 72 degrees here three days ago, but it snowed here today!
The SRT8 is a wolf in wolf's clothing and it performs exactly as it's supposed to. I haven't seen any advertisements or photos that show it in any type of off-road situation and if anyone tells you that it can be used off-road, they don't know what they are talking about. The GC SRT8 is far more at home on a drag strip than off-roading.
Just think of the GC SRT8 as the muscled, glitzy athlete that can perform spectacularly but in a limited venue and the standard GC as the reliable, plain, consistant provider.
Bottom line is that the Grand Cherokee SRT8 is not the same vehicle as a standard Grand Cherokee. If I were planning on hauling a trailer or going off road and wanted something quicker, I'd get the standard Grand Cherokee with the base hemi.
I hope that helps.
BTW, they did tell me a while back that deliver on my front bumper would be a week and a half, so I should have it in a few days.
My Jeep/Chrysler dealer said that their service department has installed MOPAR skid plates on at least 3 SRT8 Jeeps and there have been no negative feedback from the owners. And, yes, for $49. Chrysler has said that as long as it's a MOPAR item, it does not void the warranty. They also added (as you suspected) that the reason they don't offer it from the factory is that the SRT8 is not "trail rated" and offering the plate might suggest that it is.
Could the skid plate cause any problems on the SRT8 that would not be a problem on the other jeeps? It seems most unlikely. It might increase the acceleration times by 0.01 s. OK, it might trap heat above it but that seems unlikely. All in all, I plan to have one installed as a precaution against road debris.
By the way, I agree that the Jeep SRT8 is not meant to be driven off road and I don't plan to do so. However, if I had to go off road, I think it would handle it far better than say a Toyota Prius! And, the engine has a torque of 420 and it is rated to pull up to 3,500 lb.
As far as pulling a trailer with the SRT8, power and torque certainly isn't the issue. I realize that the SRT8 has plenty of power to pull a trailer. However, mainly due to the exhaust arrangement, the GC SRT8 certainly wouldn't be high on my list for a vehicle if I was going to pull a trailer on an ongoing basis.
To those ends, we will be shutting down the general make/model discussions and work exclusively with specific issues. This requires us to populate the make/model subsections with relevant, interesting and timely topics. Rather than having the hosts simply create boilerplate topics for each make/model, we feel that you, the owner, the make/model enthusiast and the prospective buyer can best judge what those topics should be.
You can help by adding a discussion (it's easy!) or suggesting one here.
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Your help and continued participation in the Forums is greatly appreciated! Thanks.
On a different subject, I attended the SRT track experience at MIS last Friday and had a great time. It's really worthwhile and I recommend it to everyone. The Skip Barber people do a great job and it's a first class operation. You do get a lot of seat time....although not much and not at high speeds in the Vipers. Met htron, one of the posters from this forum while there. Good meeting you Ron!.
What’s the community experiencing with their vehicles? Should I be worried?
John
Burbank, CA
TUFSRT8
Congrats on your new beast!!
I will echo the comments about the srtte...definitely not enough seat time in the viper!
(p.s. I sent you an email to one of your accounts, I think before I left, did you get it?)
Any thoughts? THANKS!
Having said that, the srt8 is WAAAAAAAYYY more fun!! (it's certainly way faster, no question.) It's an awesome machine, and I don't think you'd regret getting it! It is rated to tow 3500 pounds, so you should be okay there. Also, for what it's worth, about 90% of the trailblazer ss' I've seen on the road have been driven by women...and...I've only seen one other srt8 on the road (exclusivity)!
Ron
You have an SRT8? How was the construction/quality? I have read a few bad things. And snow tires? They are a must for me (currently have an Infinity FX, and needed snows for that - TireRack had 'em) and I've read that NONE exist for SRT8? Or is that just nothing for the 20" rims, and I could always put a regular GC wheel/tire combo on?
Wife has a minvan, so I only need decent back seats for kids. I really want this, but just want to make sure it'll work for me.
Thanks again!
1. There is no aftermarket 18" or 19" wheel that will fit the GC SRT8 due to the size of the brakes.
2. blkhemi's statements notwithstanding, they said that there is no currently no standard 20" aftermarket wheel for the GC SRT8.
3. The only possible option is to mount a 20" snow tire on the standard rims and that choice is apparently very limited. I was also told that there is no 20" runflat snow tire (the GC SRT8 has runflats and no spare).
As I said, all of this information was told to me yesterday by Tire Rack and Discount Tire people. I sincerely hope that someone will provide information to the contrary, as I would like nothing better than to be able to purchase a snow tire and wheel package for my GC SRT8!
As far as your decision of which vehicle to purchase goes, although the construction and quality of mine has been good so far (I have 14,000 miles on mine), I agree with htron that you may want to go with the Tahoe. It will not be nearly as much fun, it will not be as exclusive, it will not handle as well, nor will it be anywhere near as fast as the GC SRT8. However the truth of the matter is that the Tahoe will probably be roomier and will tow a trailer better.
Have fun, drive safe (not really) smoke some people who think they have fast cars, and I hope to join up with you again in a year.
Thanks again,
Ben
They advise that I contact the Goodyear Tire Rubber Co’s Consumer Relations Department at 800 321-2136 to locate m nearest certified Goodyear Run-Flat tire retail outlet to make an appointment for them to inspect my tires to determine if they qualify for free replacement. They also indicate if my tires are found to be qualifying tires they will be replaced at no-charge.
The letter indicates that this free replacement extends through April 30, 2007.
I curious to know if anyone knows why Goodyear is conducting this inspection and what types of problems they might be looking to find ? Anyone else received this notice ?
Thanks,
John – Burbank, CA
TUFSRT8
http://www.wkjeeps.com/recalls/wk_recall.htm#2006-28
Anyone else lease and willing to share?
Thanks
Lease Term: 39 Months
15,000 miles per year
Based on Gross Capitalized Cost of: $43,404
Due at signing: $2,773
Monthly payment: $835
Hope that helps.
I'll post what happens after I call the dealer on Dec 1 at 10am!
Also, are you happy with your beast? Any probs, or issues? Will you tow anything? This will by my only car, and I'll be towing my bikes and maybe a race car once in a while (it only weighs 1800 lbs) and driving in the snow.
Thanks!
I wouldn't plan on getting any "deals" from DCX on the Jeep SRT8 at all. They're just too limited. The auto companies understandably only give the cash back rebates or advantageous money factors on products that they have a lot of and can't move. Although there are a lot of unsold DCX vehicles piling up in parking lots around Detroit, that doesn't apply to the GC SRT8.
I wasn't crazy about the deal that I got (last February), but I wanted the SRT8. Amazingly, for not much more I could have had a $75,000 Cadillac STS-V, which makes no sense. As silly as it may seem, I just wanted the SRT8. No one (especially me) ever said that when a "car person" chooses a vehicle that it's a clear, objective, rational decision. Only because I have been a very good customer of the DCX dealer, I did get them to (grudgingly) give me a slight discount and throw in the remote start option.
I am happy with my SRT8 and even though (according to the statistics on wkjeeps.com) except for California (7 more) there have been more GC SRT8's delivered in Michigan (where I am) than any other state, it has remained very exclusive. I've only seen two others on the road and one was a test vehicle from the DCX Chelsea proving grounds which is about 10 miles west of me.
With 14,000 miles I don't have any problems or issues with it...other than the lack of an aftermarket snow tire/wheel package. I'm not really looking forward to driving 20" wheels with massive performance "meat" on them through a fresh a 6-12 inch snowfall.
I will not be towing anything with mine, but theoretically you should not have a problem towing your bikes or racecar (there's a terrific old joke about "theoretically and realistically" that I won't go into here).
Best of luck with your decision.
By the way, I ordered a 2007 Jeep SRT8 on September 21. After visiting about 10 dealers, I was able to get MSRP-$500. Most wanted a few thousand over MSRP. So, here, in California, the car is still hot, albeit not quite as much as a year ago. (Keep in mind that if you are willing to buy a nonSRT8 Jeep, you can get a 2006 one of the lot for at least $10,000 off MSRP!)
Now, although the dealer indicated that it would take 3 months to get the SRT8, it looks like I will have it at the end of the month. I can live with that! Perhaps Chrysler Jeep production is starting to recover from the high inventory.
This is a GREAT value - for the dealer and only the dealer. The cost is mostly profit and the "package" is worthless and unnecessary. Don't buy any of the extra add-ons that they try to push in the finance department, they are all tremendously overpriced and for the most part worthless.
(No plastic will be as hard as the paint itself. And, as it wears off, it would need to be reapplied at significant cost.) The only item I plan to have the dealer install will be the skid plate (there may be 2 of them). I will report on this when I get the car and have it done. The car should arrive in about a week.
I have driven it in both wet snow slick conditions and I can tell you that it handles quite well. However, I have not driven through anything more than a dusting of snow. The bad news it that I have not found an aftermarket wheel and snow tire combo yet. I'll write in if it snows significantly soon and I can give you some feedback.
had saturn vue with coating { $ 300.00 } it lasted 4 months not 4 years. it's a SCAM !!!
goodyear tire problem ! got notification been to 3 goodyear tire recommended dealers zip ! nobody wants to get involved.
what a joke.
I was the one with the brake problem guess what, still got it, after my dealership replaced pads and rotors, I have 2k on the new set of brakes, scoring, squeeking, and oh, the dust, dust, dust. finally got a call back from an SRT rep.
what a joke, in short form, DC, will not do anything about it. I told them that the parts on the 300's, magnums, etc.
were interchangeable accourding to another blogger, on this forum, a sub supplier to be exact, well jeep spindles are different, so I guess its true, DC, customer service SUCKS !!!
I understand one of you is from So. Cal. I'm from Oceanside Ca. how about a heads up on my problem.
onebadhemi56