Jeep Problems

They will most likely offer you the current trade-in value, which is $27,000 to $30,000, although you might get more for yours given that it has done so few kilometres. The only thing you can do in the circumstances is to negotiate hard and try and get as much as you can for the car. Unfortunately the company has the upper hand, because it can simply refuse to deal.

It's you against city hall, I'm afraid.

It would seem that you had a good case for a refund or a replacement engine or vehicle, but that won't happen without a fight.

You have to reach a resolution with Jeep, it won't happen at dealer level.

You could try and reopen negotiations with Jeep directly and try to reach someone at a high level in the company rather than simply dealing with the customer assistance people who have little or no power to do anything. If you feel that isn't going to get you anywhere go back to the Dept. of Fair Trading and enlist their help.

It isn't going to be easy, you have to be persistent.

You haven't given us the weight of the caravan you want to tow, which goes a long way to determining the best car for you. We'll err on the side of caution and go for cars with a towing capacity of at least 2500 kg that fall within your budget. It's always best to go for the latest model you can afford, which means around 2103 in your case. I'm guessing you're over the Pathfinder given your experience with the holed piston in your current car, but the Nissan is an option for you. So too are the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Mitsubishi Pajero, although the Pajero's rear suspension is prone to sagging when heavily loaded and I would rule that out on that basis. If you can stretch your budget a little you could consider the Landrover Discovery 4, which does everything you want well, but is the most expensive of this bunch. For me the pick of the bunch for me is the Toyota Prado, for performance, economy, and reliability. The only issue for you could be that the Prado's towing rating is 2500 kg, the lowest of the cars we mention here.

The current run-out deal is pretty good. If it suits your needs, why wait?

Range Rovers are great, but they can be expensive to run and service.

I would strongly recommend the Sorento, particularly if you find it gives you the comfort and support you need.

If the warning light is in the shape of an engine it's telling you something is amiss within the engine management system and you should take it to a mechanic to find out the reason it's coming on. It's probably a faulty engine sensor, or something similar in the engine management system.

Your need for low maintenance rules out the Europeans, Jeeps are popular but aren't as reliable as I think they should be, leaving you with the Japanese and Korean brands. The cars I would suggest you look at are the Kia Sportage, Mazda CX-5, Subaru Forester and Honda CR-V.

There are companies in America that make extra dickie seats for your Cherokee. You can find them on the net.