[pbiancardi]

I believe I may have located a Renegade with the options that I am looking for. My question is what things should I look out for during test drive before I sign on the dotted line for a specific Renegade? I have read some issues and quirks that some people have reported, can anyone give me kind of a checklist of what to look for and make sure my specific one doesn't have? I kind of get the impression that overall this thing gets great reviews and is well accepted but there may be some floating around with questionable build quality - I want to make sure I don't end up with one of those.

1. Cross wind issue? Will this be apparent if I cruise down the road or highway?
2. Transmission (automatic) issues? At this point should everything be updated and corrected or should I be on the lookout for anything?
3. Electrical gremlins? I have read about weird radio / power door lock issues, anything specific I should look for?

What else? Any help is appreciated.

I will be getting a Trailhawk with Cold Weather and Popular Equipment Group.

 

[codev]

I believe I may have located a Renegade with the options that I am looking for. My question is what things should I look out for during test drive before I sign on the dotted line for a specific Renegade? I have read some issues and quirks that some people have reported, can anyone give me kind of a checklist of what to look for and make sure my specific one doesn't have? I kind of get the impression that overall this thing gets great reviews and is well accepted but there may be some floating around with questionable build quality - I want to make sure I don't end up with one of those.

1. Cross wind issue? Will this be apparent if I cruise down the road or highway?
2. Transmission (automatic) issues? At this point should everything be updated and corrected or should I be on the lookout for anything?
3. Electrical gremlins? I have read about weird radio / power door lock issues, anything specific I should look for?

What else? Any help is appreciated.

I will be getting a Trailhawk with Cold Weather and Popular Equipment Group.

Wind
Yep, cruise down the highway. I don't want to advocate speeding, but in the absence of crosswind, we could get ours to howl around 85MPH. In moderate crosswinds, it doesn't matter what speed you go...you could be stopped and you will hear it. I also managed to create the situation with a leaf blower..

Drainage
Make sure the drain holes are free and clear. They may have tape over them with little holes, I guess that is fine according to STAR tech as long as it drains. Be careful what you believe though, because perforation/rust is very real.

Check for paint defects and blemishes. We had scuffing on the hood and the top of the trunk. Dealer buffed it out.

Transmission

Mine was pretty good, except for the harsh shifting, which seems pretty normal compared to some of the others we drove. Try two situations..

A. Give it pretty good amounts of throttle from a stop, it should be pretty crisp, not too slippy, but not too "clunky"

B. Slow down as if you're coming to a stop for a red light, then get back on the gas. This situation happens a lot in traffic, and obviously traffic lights. That's when I was getting the worst type of clunkiness.

Under carriage
Also, take a peak underneath the vehicle to make sure the underbody sealant is there and you don't see any visible rust.

Last but not least, test the drive the actual car you are purchasing and take delivery in the day time :nerd:

-codev

 

[royalblue]

The points above are excellent. The only thing I can add is to drive the car and expect it to perform like a normal car. If anything jumps out at you as peculiar you will know it.

 

[pbiancardi]

So does the wind issue exist with all Renegades or are some ok? Do we know if the 2016's will have this solved?

 

[codev]

So does the wind issue exist with all Renegades or are some ok? Do we know if the 2016's will have this solved?

Some are "okay". But it will most likely be relative and completely subjective. Ours bothered us quite a bit because it howled, and all of our other cars are incredibly quiet. We expected nothing less than that.

 

[pbiancardi]

Some are "okay". But it will most likely be relative and completely subjective. Ours bothered us quite a bit because it howled, and all of our other cars are incredibly quiet. We expected nothing less than that.

See that kind of scares me, I am currently driving a 2000 Cherokee with 176,000 miles and all kinds of noises so I might think the Renegade is good just based on what I hear now....

 

[codev]

See that kind of scares me, I am currently driving a 2000 Cherokee with 176,000 miles and all kinds of noises so I might think the Renegade is good just based on what I hear now....

We cross shopped to see what would be acceptable. Unfortunately, we didn't take the Renegade up to a speed high enough and it actually developed more after ownership and got worse. We didn't think to roll the window down a few times and back up and listen at high speeds.

The CX5 was the noisiest to us, but pretty fun. The Renegade was a novel car to us, so we went with that not knowing the wind noise would get worse.

As always, see what that much cash can buy you and go test. That puts things in perspective pretty fast unless you're daft like me :-D

 

[royalblue]

Hey codev you said to "make sure the drain holes are free and clear". I don't know where to look exactly to see if mine are clear. Can you give some detail please on where to look ?

 

[codev]

Hey codev you said to "make sure the drain holes are free and clear". I don't know where to look exactly to see if mine are clear. Can you give some detail please on where to look ?

There are some holes at the bottom of the door. They have little holes in the tape to allow drainage. If there was no tape, we were hearing whistling during crosswinds, as the wind would enter the holes ...

 

[royalblue]

There are some holes at the bottom of the door. They have little holes in the tape to allow drainage. If there was no tape, we were hearing whistling during crosswinds, as the wind would enter the holes ...

Are you saying that if we have the tape and no holes in the tape we should be poking some holes in the tape or removing the tape ?

 

[codev]

If you have tape, but no holes, the door will most likely NOT drain correctly. I would poke holes first, and wait for a big rain.

Go for a drive after a rain and if you hear sloshing, it probably is not draining fast enough. You can open the holes up a bit more.

 

[royalblue]

If you have tape, but no holes, the door will most likely NOT drain correctly. I would poke holes first, and wait for a big rain.

Go for a drive after a rain and if you hear sloshing, it probably is not draining fast enough. You can open the holes up a bit more.

I am curious if this was a production problem and the tape should be removed. Do you see any problems in just removing the tape entirely ?

 

[codev]

I am curious if this was a production problem and the tape should be removed. Do you see any problems in just removing the tape entirely ?

We removed the tape entirely, and we had a very subtle whistling noise while driving. Hard to notice unless you listened for it, but we kept hearing it cause we have much quieter vehicles.

 

[pgm888]

So does the wind issue exist with all Renegades or are some ok? Do we know if the 2016's will have this solved?

I experience no wind noise on the highway.

 

[royalblue]

We removed the tape entirely, and we had a very subtle whistling noise while driving. Hard to notice unless you listened for it, but we kept hearing it cause we have much quieter vehicles.

I found out the tape should have been removed by the dealer during PDI. Some dealers are not very good at completing the PDI properly.

 

[pbiancardi]

Well pulled the trigger today, so far no issues (had a 1.5 hour highway drive back from dealer that had one I wanted). No tape on my door drains and no abnormal noises so far.

 

[Terri Doney]

I experience no wind noise on the highway.

Me either, just got back from a long highway trip, between 77 to 80 mph most of the way and no noise at all. 2015, purchased August 3rd