Video: We Broke Our Jeep Grand Cherokee Off-Roading, and It Cost $7,000 to Fix

We had that opportunity early in our vehicle ownership when we attended a Jeep Jamboree Event at the Badlands Off Road Park in Attica, Indiana, which is just a 2 1/2-hour drive from Cars.com's Chicago headquarters. We also brought a Jeep Wrangler 4xe to see how the two off-road-capable vehicles tackled the various terrain. We joined the Entry-Level group at the event of around 10 Jeeps, but the trails we took still had their share of challenging terrain and obstacles. And after two days of off-roading, we left the event impressed by our Grand Cherokee 4xe Trailhawk's performance. While it wasn't able to do everything the Wrangler 4xe Rubicon could, it conquered many of the same off-road challenges, and we found that pretty impressive for an SUV that offers luxury levels of driving refinement and interior quality. The Grand Cherokee 4xe picked up some scratches, scuffs, and a dent in its lower front bumper during our off-road adventure, but it otherwise, appeared fine, and our staff drove home to Chicago with no other issues. Little did we know, the repair saga that lay ahead of us. (gentle music) (door slamming) It all started when we noticed a Steering System Warning in the instrument cluster on the 4th of July. That was about a month removed from the Jeep Jamboree at that point, but Chicago had recently experienced some very heavy rain, so we were wondering if the warning was somehow tied into that deluge. The Jeep was still drivable at that point, so we decided to take it to a local dealership for their assessment, and what we got back, was a whole lot more than we had bargained for, to the tune of nearly $10,000. The dealer told us, "The front bumper cover steering rack and the axle beam front crossmember all needed to be replaced." While we already knew the front bumper cover was a bit banged up from the Jamboree, we were surprised that the steering rack and the axle beam front crossmember needed to be replaced. So we asked the dealer, "If we could come take a look and see what they were seeing?" With the Grand Cherokee on a lift, we were able to see the true extent of its off-roading scars. There were visible scrapes on the underside of the Jeep, some of them, on the steel skid plates that had done their job, others though, on aluminum pieces that looked a little bit worse for wear. The thing we were most concerned about, though, was what we saw on the aluminum front crossmember that the dealer had mentioned in their estimate. There was a visible crack on one of the crossmember's welds. The near $10,000 estimate seemed like a lot to us, so we paid the dealer a diagnostic fee and decided to get a second opinion from another dealership. And that second opinion was nearly as surprising as the first because the estimate was as low, as the first one was high. When we scheduled our appointment with the second dealer, we asked for an estimate for them to fix the lower front bumper and to address the Steering Warning in the IP. The dealership called us back and said, "They could pop out the bumper for us and that the Steering System Warning was due to a frayed wire." Total cost for this service, $50.' The second dealer, though, didn't notice the crack in the front crossmember, and when we pointed it out to 'em, they referred us to a body shop, which then referred us back to that same dealership. But once we had that sorted out, they gave us an estimate for the repair work, and it was $7,270. We were initially confused why the dealer's estimate of more than $6,000 for replacing the front crossmember was so much more than the first dealership's, but they explained that the first dealer didn't catch that the radiator support panel was bent and also had to be replaced too, and it was a labor-intensive job. After some parts delays due to the UAW strikes in the fall, we got our Jeep back on December 13th, 2023, after paying a final bill of $7,068. That was a little bit less than our initial estimate, but still, a not small chunk of change. We were glad to have our Jeep back after being without it for five months while we figured out the appropriate route for repairs and had the repairs performed, but we weren't done yet. Shortly after getting the Grand Cherokee back, one of our editors reported that it wasn't tracking straight at highway speeds, so we brought it back to the dealership. The dealership told us that, "The camber was off and that a suspension bushing was cracked," but they later said that, "A suspension bushing was torn, and that one of the lower control arms was actually bent." We can only surmise that this damage, also happened at the Jamboree, even though, there were no issues with driving it on the way home. The dealer replaced both front lower control arms as a courtesy because they said, "It should have been identified as an issue when we originally brought the Jeep in for repairs." But they said, "If we were to pay for that work out of pocket, it would've been an extra $2,500." We were a little shocked to say the lease that our Grand Cherokee 4xe Trailhawk sustain this much damage on the entry-level of trails of the Jeep Jamboree we had attended, especially because this is a Trailhawk, this is a vehicle that Jeep touts is crossing the Rubicon Trail. So we sent Jeeps some photos of the damaged front crossmember for their assessment, and this is part of what they wrote back in an emailed reply. "The damage shown here is not indicative of what we've experienced over thousands of miles of off-road testing. We can only conclude this damage is the result of a unique event that included a significant strike. Jeep Jamboree USA has no recollection of a significant strike of this magnitude during Cars.com's guided drive at the Attica, Indiana off-road park. We can't say for certain what caused the front crossmember damage, but the most likely culprit is an obstacle that the Jeep struggled with most, a slippery climb up into a tunnel, that even after repeated attempts, we weren't able to complete. Now that our repair odyssey is complete, we're going back to living with the Grand Cherokee 4xe and reporting on our experiences with it. We'd have to think long and hard before attempting even moderately challenging off-road terrain in the future, though, and we'd definitely get some off-road insurance coverage if we decide to. While our editors were impressed with the Grand Cherokee 4xe's performance off-road and its ability to travel silently through the woods on electric power alone, are after the fact discoveries add a big asterisk to our initial impressions. Aaron Bragman, Cars.com's, Detroit Bureau Chief and one of the staffers who were at the event, put it well when he said, "The Grand Cherokee 4xe Trailhawk can go off-road, it just might not survive going off-road unscathed." And we have the bill to prove it. (upbeat rhythmic music)