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Impressions after 1200 miles of ownership

2K views 14 replies 8 participants last post by  WA 2 FST 2 
#1 ·
I've had my '15 (purchased new, as a left-over) since September. I don't put a lot of miles on any of my vehicles because I office from home, and I have several cars to drive, so it took me awhile just to get to the 500 mile mark (Launch Control!). These miles were almost all around town miles...no extended highway time. I recently took a ~500 mile trip down to see my daughter at college, so that was a nice highway-laden trip.

First a little background to offer some perspective about my driving experience over the past 30+ years. Since college, I have had at least one RWD, V8 American-made sports/pony car in my stable, and almost always had a truck as well. For the last 16 years, I have been driving 2-seat sportscars and several performance sedans (300C SRT8 and Cadillac CTS-V). I sold my modified Ram SRT-10 truck for the Jeep SRT8. Literally everything I own gets modded to some extent. At the point I actually take the plunge to make a purchase, the aftermarket has been researched ad nauseum. On several occasions, I've had hot-rod parts sitting on my workbench _before_ the new car has arrived. I do not drive like a crazed lunatic, but enjoy having additional power on-demand, and stretching the legs of the machine every now and then, regardless of which set of keys I pick up on my way out.

I expect my vehicles to perform well, and flawlessly. I have been down the road of "over-modding" things to where reliability goes by the wayside, and the car ends up on jackstands every other weekend (especially when I used to track a vehicle often). So I'm done with the game of trying to be the fastest out there... but I want whatever I'm driving to have extreme performance capabilities.

With all this being said, the Jeep fit me where I am with my business. While I truly enjoyed 6 years of SRT-10 ownership, I found myself with three 2-seat vehicles...which made little practical sense, even though both my kids are driving and in college. The "utility" of the Jeep was very attractive, and I had a good experience with my 300C SRT8 and the Ram truck, so when I found a leftover '15 loaded for a great price, I took the plunge.

Interior: Fit and finish seems to be very good. It's not as nice as my wife's Audi, but it is light years ahead of the '08 GMC Yukon Denali and various SUVs we've owned as a couple in the past. The seating is extremely comfortable and easily adjustable to fit various-sized drivers. I would say the seats are on par with the Recaros that were in my '12 CTSV, and are certainly better than my Corvettes (but that isn't saying a lot, admittedly...LOL). Only 1200 miles, so no real time on the car to see what is going to start rattling yet. I was a bit concerned because this thing sat on the lot for a year in Texas heat, but so far the only obnoxious noise that has reared its head is the "slider" at the base of the shifter. It's plastic, and if I don't move it slightly after putting it in Drive, it will rub up against the shifter stalk and make a little noise. Otherwise, I'm very happy with the fit, finish, and comfort. Some may feel this is a rougher ride than expected, but to me, with my driving tastes and types of vehicles I've owned (SRT-10 Ram rides like a covered wagon), this is perfect for me.

Gauges and instrument layout is great. For a guy in his late-40s that grew up with turn-dials and not a ton of buttons and certainly no touch-screen, it is literally a perfect combination. I really like the fact I can EITHER turn a knob or use the touchscreen, but I am not confined to JUST using a touchscreen to navigate audio and climate controls. This is what bothers me most about many new vehicles. Knobs are gone. I realize it is a generational thing, so I applaud DCJ for marketing something to us middle aged people who can twist a knob much easier than we can find something on a touchscreen while driving a highway speeds. The steering wheel controls are laid out well, and most of all, easy to use. And the same goes for the touchscreen, too. It is much easier to use than what was in my CTSV as far as Nav goes. I am not typically a fan of lots of "gadgets" on the dash to play with, but find that the various options for dash layout is beneficial. I do wish the SRT Apps on the touchscreen was a little easier to access quickly, but I'm just probably getting used to it. I think I would use the gauges more, though, if it was 1 click away, instead of what seems to take 3-4 steps to get to.

Navigation... my ONE and only complaint. It sucks. At least on my Jeep, it is too slow. If I'm in an area you are not familiar with, I will miss my turn because it tracks the vehicle too slowly. Disappointing, but I guess that is what my Samsung phone is for.

Creature comforts... the Jeep has more than I will ever really need or use. Heated rear seats is nice...we don't have bad winters really in N. Texas, but this is the vehicle I will use on bad weather days, so it will come in handy for passengers. Vented/cooled front seats and a heated steering wheel (it gets HOT!) is nice.

Cargo space... I have used it to its fullest already with things that used to fit in the back of my standard bed truck, and it has been great. I got some WeatherTech mats for the rear space and the front/rear seat floormats to keep things nice and pristine.

Exterior ... while I realize it is not a new design, it is still a very good design and classy looking, but also aggressive with the SRT package. I'm not a huge fan of the stock wheels, so I got the black OEM Night wheels and black badges to compliment the silver paint. I think it looks really good with the red calipers. Bottom line is that if I didn't like the looks of the vehicle, I wouldn't have bought it.

Performance...can be summed up this way. From my experience, a vehicle this heavy, shaped this way, should not perform like it does. It seems to defy logic, if not physics (which we know it doesn't). Braking is fantastic, and easy to modulate, regardless of the kind of stopping power needed at a given time. Handling is just absurd. It is extremely confidence-inspiring, and just doesn't seem like it should be able to do what it does, given the sheer heft of the vehicle. I throw it into a corner or a turn and it just holds the road amazingly well. The adjustable suspension is awesome for spirited driving, but also allows for a very compliant ride in Auto mode. I'm sure these summer tires will wear quickly, and yikes they are expensive!!... but they are a great match for a vehicle this capable. Anything less is short-changing the engineering. Acceleration... I read all the tests... low-13 second vehicle, 4.9-5.0 0-60. figured I would be kind of bored with that. I recognize that anything shaped like a brick is not going to be a top-end monster, and I didn't buy it for that. I am pleased with this thing 0-80. It's fun and runs great. My best 0-60 time now that the air has cooled is 4.2 seconds...and my best guess is that is 12.6-12.7 at the worst. I've got a 6psi Arrington blower on the way, but I hope that isn't a mistake. Sure, it will be faster, but how much faster??? Not sure, and not sure it will be necessary. I'm confident the tune will be very conservative, and I don't want to start compromising driveline parts...so an extra 80-100hp will be a blast...if that doesn't compromise reliability. We'll see.

Hope this short narrative helps a prospective buyer down the road. Can't go wrong with this vehicle. It offers a lot of performance, in a package that offers a lot of utility. Truly the definition of an SUV.
 
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#2 ·
Agree on NAV, I use Waze on the phone which is perfect and identifies the Police.

The uconnect system really doesn't offer anything my phone doesnt. I never used remote start more than my key fob does and liked Pandora but my phone does that as well. Cancelled last week after having it 2 months, just not worth the $15 per month.

2014 btw
 
#6 ·
Good post. I love my 16 SRT but would add 2 big gripes:

1) A separate sub-woofer control! I really can't believe anyone would design a stereo with this much capability and not have more than a 3 band graphic equalizer!
2) Better Sirius fidelity! There is an astonishing fidelity drop off when listening to any Sirius channels... thankfully streaming through bluetooth (itself not ideal) provides better clarity.

For 70K these items are pretty unbelievable, but so is the performance factor, which allows me to overlook them.
 
#7 · (Edited)
I'm very happy with my 2014 SRT but would have preferred real rocker buttons for the seat heating/cooling.
I would have put them where the eco traction collision avoidance buttons are.
My Lincoln LS had a feature where if you pushed both heat and cool together it would set to the thermostat and be on when I remote started it.
It would be nice to set the seat/steering wheel heaters to turn off after 10-15 minutes :frown2:
 
#11 ·
It's over at 21CMC right now. Hopefully done this week.

Saw some pics of your Vette at WGF, with my friend Joe (FSTFRC). I need to get my TT C5Z out there at some point.
 
#13 ·
They don't do a lot, but I trust them completely. They are working with Arrington on this, as the blower and canned tune is coming from them (have to unlock the PCM on the '15+ vehicles in order to tune them). We'll see. As you know, they don't have an AWD dyno, so this thing is going to get tuned under load on the street, which should be best anyway. So I won't have any before and after dyno runs ... but how it runs in real life is all that really matters anyway.
 
#14 ·
Street tune is always going to be better than a dyno tune. My Vette is around 700RWHP now, and the last two tunes have been street tune only. Dyno tunes re easy to do and just about the number, street tune is much harder and how you really use it. I'd definitely trust John and Matt with any of my cars, you're in good hands.
 
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