I'm really glad to hear that you are safe following that scary ordeal. It's good to know that the Wagoneer has a strong body. Unfortunately, it also has a lot of downsides - both in performance and in customer relations. We lease our 2022 Wagoneer and just had a very serious complete brake failure. We’ve reached out to the highest levels at Jeep and Stellantis, but they’ve attempted to sweep this under the rug. They refuse to take responsibility for the additional damage caused by the brake failure and have been unable to explain why the brakes failed in the first place. See below for more details. Definitely something to keep in mind for those in the new SUV market.
The facts are as follows: the car experienced a complete brake failure while in motion, causing it to go past our driveway, into our backyard and through our kid's playset. According to the Jeep mechanic, the car had no brakes due to an internal failure of the brake system hydraulic assembly. That diagnosis was echoed in a report from the mechanic at our town Highway Department. The Jeep mechanic referred to the incident as a “catastrophic brake failure” and said he’d not seen anything like that before.
At this point, the issue has been clearly diagnosed – it was a manufacturing failure. The consequences of that failure are also clear – in addition to the failed brake system, there is damage to the body and wheels of the car (~$3-4K), and to our property (~$3-4K).
The problem is that Jeep is attempting to avoid responsibility for the additional damage caused by this catastrophic brake failure and has been unable to explain why the brakes failed in the first place. On the latter point, my wife and I have had many sleepless nights since the accident, replaying different scenarios and the horrors of what could have happened if this brake failure had occurred on a highway or if our children were playing on the play set when the car crashed into it. We are legitimately scared. My wife wasn’t sure that she’d ever be comfortable getting into this Jeep (or any Jeep) again. But Jeep is forcing our hand -Jeep advised that it fixed only the brakes (again, without explaining why the initial catastrophic brake failure ever occurred), cancelled the loaner car, and forced my wife to pick up the 2022 Wagoneer. Unfortunately, we are a family of five and this was our main car used to transport the family – absent a loaner or ability to get out of this lease, we do not have any other options.
Over the course of this ordeal, we’ve reached out to Jeep, MOPAR and Stellantis’ leadership team, including the CEO and members of the Board innumerable times on this matter – in total we have made or sent 30+ calls and emails on this matter. The responses have been shocking as Jeep / Stellantis has been unwilling to take responsibility for the damage caused by the accident, or to provide a reason for the failure. The latest Stellantis position is that “since the vehicle had been repaired” and Jeep “did not have the opportunity to inspect”, they will not take responsibility for the additional damage. This explanation makes no sense - Jeep is the one that inspected the car. Jeep is the one that diagnosed the issue as a mechanical failure. Jeep is the one that repaired the car. Jeep is the one that retained the failed brake parts for further investigation. How, after all of that, can Jeep (or Jeep’s parent) claim that it did not have the ability to investigate and/or that it cannot confirm the cause of the problem? Jeep’s argument collapses on itself - but, at this point, my family (the victims of this brake failure) are the ones continuing to pay the price for Jeep’s failed product – we are going to have bills for repairing the car and replacing the play set, and we are going to be forced back into a car that had a catastrophic brake failure only 3 weeks ago (without any explanation as to why the failure occurred).
We're exasperated over this process, and scared about the prospect of having to drive this very same car that had a catastrophic brake failure just 3 weeks ago. We’re reasonable hard-working people. We’re not in this to punish Jeep (though that would probably be justified given the gravity of the failure) – we were just looking for Jeep / Stellantis to do the right thing. Ideally, we would like to get out of this lease and move on.
Has anyone dealt with something like this? Does anyone have any recommendations? My hope in writing this to your team is to (i) generate awareness about this incident, and/or (ii) seek help and guidance as to how best to get out of this lease or at least, get Jeep to take responsibility and compensate us for the damage caused by the brake failure.
