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Hi, and welcome back.
I'm Mike Quincy.
I'm Gabe Shenhar.
And I'm Kelly Funkhouser.
So, on this week's episode of Talking Cars,
we're going to talk about a rather large one.
And that's the 2022 Jeep Wagoneer.
We have our first impressions of Jeep's answer to the larger
three-row SUVs, such as the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban,
and the Ford Expedition.
The styling is unmistakably Jeep.
It's got a big, burly stance, the traditional seven-vent
grille.
We bought a four-wheel drive Series II for the test program.
It has a super-smooth 392 horsepower,
5.7 liter V8 hooked up to an eight-speed automatic.
Ours also has a 10.1-inch touch screen,
leather-covered heated-and-cooled front seats
and second-row captain's chairs.
Safety features include standard forward collision warning,
automatic emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist
detection and blind-spot warning, among other features.
And the price came to a rather lofty $81,630.
This is not small change.
And Kelly, I know that you have an interesting story
about this vehicle.
So take it away.
Yeah, so my husband's co-worker is actually
looking to purchase a large SUV, and so got in touch with me,
because that's what all of the people that
know me or my husband do.
And they were interested in taking a look at this one.
I recommended to also take a look at the Hyundai Palisade
as another option for a three-row SUV.
But once she went and actually saw it in person,
she thought that the rear cargo area wasn't quite large enough
to put all of the stuff that goes along
with having kids and two dogs.
And so she went to the Jeep dealership
and took a look at the Wagoneer and fell in love immediately.
It has all of the creature comforts as well as the cargo
area to also not keep the passengers too cluttered,
but have the dogs in the back, the people
inside, and enough room for all of their stuff.
So they were, they're pretty much sold on this one.
Yeah, they loved the fact that there
was that huge panoramic roof, so they
can feel like they're outside and not closed
in into a vehicle for road trips.
That's what they plan on doing, mostly,
with this car, as they like to travel a lot
with the kids and the dogs.
And so that was one thing.
And then also the heated seats and heated steering wheel
is something that she specifically wanted in it.
And so this was right up the alley.
And the fact that it's a Jeep rather than
even a Escalade or a Tahoe or suburban, kind of
caught her eye.
And she was very intrigued by that.
So this new car may have a market in the, kind of,
millennial age of adults with kids.
Now, you mentioned the Escalade, and Gabe,
I know that you've talked about whether or not
this big Jeep can be a competitor to that really
high-end Cadillac or even the Lincoln Navigator.
What do you think?
Well, first I'll say, what took Chrysler so long,
to introduce a large three-row SUV
to go against the Tahoe and suburban and Expeditions
of the world.
And the RAM pickup truck provides
a pretty sound foundation for a pretty good SUV, so absolutely.
I mean, first of all, there is a Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer.
The Grand Wagoneer easily can cost six-figure prices
to go head-to-head with the Escalade,
and the regular one is still more
expensive than your typical Tahoe and Suburban
and Expedition.
But just to echo on something Kelly said,
there is a certain swagger that goes with the Jeep brand.
There's some kind of a mystique built into it.
And just being a new kid on the block
gives it a certain intrigue quotient.
It's pretty well-equipped and has all the connectivity.
The version we got has the air suspension,
so only high-end GM and Ford get that level of sophistication.
So sure, it's a legitimate competitor.
- But to drive it, it's all nice on paper.
But as I mentioned in the intro, this
is a really big, big vehicle.
Oh, you bet.
There's no hiding the fact that it's big.
But for someone who wants all the room in the world,
all the power in the world, the ability to tow
a big boat or an Airstream, it does certain tasks
that you can't do with a Palisade, or a Highlander,
or another car-based, three-row SUV.
Kelly, is your friend that is interested in this Jeep,
are they towing a trailer on a regular basis?
Or is this just kind of the family do-everything vehicle?
They're mostly using it to haul people, dogs and their stuff.
It is, the capacity of the vehicle
itself is what they were looking for.
And I even noticed how large it feels and actually is
when I took it home and tried to fit it in my garage.
It took up every single inch of that parking space.
I had to make sure I was all the way
in, as close as I could get before I could even
close the door behind me.
And so yeah, thinking of using this
as hauling children and family, what may end up happening
is you have to pull the vehicle even out of the garage
to get those doors open without digging them.
It's quite a large vehicle.
But if that's what you're after, then you're
going to get it with this.
Right, but like capacity, Gabe, I mean,
not that everybody needs something this big.
And you and I, we've all spent some time driving it.
So on the road, how does it compete?
Well, it goes without saying that for most situations,
this is a major overkill.
So I mean, this is a huge vehicle.
Maneuvering it, parking it, seeing out of it,
getting in and out of it, it's quite a step up.
So yeah, if all you need is the functionality
of a three-row SUV and you want some luxury,
and you can do that for $20,000 less with an Acura MDX
or any other such competitor.
And I would add that, actually, another issue related
to the size is the fuel economy.
I was surprised, even though knowing
how large the vehicle is, that it really still gets
sub 20 miles per gallon.
And in this day and age, we're kind of expecting more.
So that's definitely a downside of the size and the V8.
Yeah, well that V8 is pretty sweet, actually.
It's very smooth.
It has a great sound to it.
But it, and you use almost all of those horsepower
to move that heft around.
And Gabe, you had some very entertaining comments
in the logbook of this vehicle.
This does not handle like a Porsche, now does it?
Well, I said about, it was in the context of the powertrain,
because our car has the 5.7 liter, which is a little less
muscular than the 6.4 V8 that you get in the Grand Wagoneer,
but still, it will move this thing
as fast as you want to go with such a whale.
That was it.
Yeah, it was the whale.
And it's funny, because our test car is bright white and stuff
like that.
Looking at the logbook, I noticed a lot of people
were commenting on the seats, the fit and finish.
I personally thought that the fit and finish was pretty nice.
I wasn't sure that it was $80,000 nice.
Yeah, it's nice to have the electronics in the rear seat.
You can get it with screens and things like that.
So if you're using it for the entertainment
of your passengers, then it's a good idea.
But if it's more for the luxury type of a large vehicle,
then I think it falls a little bit short.
And I'm sorry, go ahead Gabe.
Yeah, I think it also needs to be
said that the third-row seat is a legitimate third-row
seat, that actual adults can sit in it without being cramped
at all.
So kudos for that, and not to mention that it also
has its own sunroof.
So third-row passengers can feel like they're not relegated
to some third-class status.
Or dogs.
Yeah if you have dogs in the back, they like that.
They're literally not sitting in the dark.
But one of the things I also wanted
to bring up about this new Jeep is the controls.
I mean, Consumer Reports has been a big fan
of Chrysler's Uconnect system.
It really was the industry standard.
But I'm getting the sense that the one
that we have in our big Jeep here
has taken a few steps back.
What do you guys think?
Yeah, while the system is still Uconnect,
the fact that it has all of these extra bells and whistles,
has buttons and screens and just lots of stuff everywhere.
So the system itself, Uconnect, and is familiar,
but finding a button, specifically,
while you're driving does kind of become distracting in a way,
because you have to search among all of the bells and whistles
to find a specific button to do a task.
Yeah, just add a finer point to it,
sometimes the gauges become, the small gauges format
and then going back and forth to a large format,
is kind of confusing.
And also, another thing that, using the cruise control.
There isn't enough of a distinction between activating
the adaptive cruise control and the regular cruise control.
And we mentioned that to Chrysler already.
It's the same thing we found in the Grand Cherokee L
and in the Grand Cherokee.
Yeah, and in a number of Chrysler products
over the years.
And it's a weird thing, because most car makers just have
one button for cruise control.
Exactly.
That just is another example of the clutter
of having too many buttons right on that little panel
on the steering wheel.
You have a button for regular, traditional cruise control
and for adaptive cruise control.
Generally, if cars have both of those, you go into a menu
and change the setting there.
But now we're just like more buttons everywhere.
Right, right.
And a few people noted, actually,
that the infotainment system actually
crashed on them, whether they were using
Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
It immediately came back.
But, and we need to make a point to say that the issues
that Consumer Reports might have with our particular test
vehicle, that's in no way indicative
of the overall reliability of the data
that we gather from our annual auto surveys.
But it is kind of telling that already, we're
having we're having some problems
with this new infotainment system.
Brand new car, there's likely to be issues,
a new model of any vehicle.
It's typical.
And our regular practice is to suggest to consumers
to wait the first year until all the bugs are worked out.
Yeah, unfortunately, we can't do that.
We can't take our own advice.
I always thought that was kind of funny.
No, we have to get right in line to buy them
as soon as they come out.
And we will have more on this Jeep Wagoneer
as we put more miles on it, we put it
through our full battery of tests.
So check back with consumerreports.org
for the final word on this new and large Jeep.
And that brings us to our question of the day.
We love your questions.
Keep them coming: text, videos, 30-second videos.
Send them all to TalkingCars@icloud.com.
That's TalkingCars@icloud.com.
And we're lucky to have a video question today.
This comes from Babacar from Kansas City,
and I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly.
My question today is about EV fees.
I was reading your article on how sometimes registration fees
for EVs are double or more compared
to somebody who pumps gas at a station and fills up their car.
And with more and more states adding, or starting to work on,
provisions for EVs, I was wondering of this idea of,
why don't we just do it in the same way we do it right now.
Meaning, we charge you for the fee
when you charge your vehicle, i.e.
but instead of charging you at the gas station,
we charge you at your charging station,
whether that's at home or at a Electrify America,
or any public charging station.
This way, if you're an individual who
travels across the country and will go to other places
across the country, I'm going to be
paying for taxes in the areas that I pass through.
This way, I'm benefiting the economy
that I pass through, because I'm using the infrastructure.
I think this could be a better way to go moving forward.
And I wanted to get you guys as opinion
on it from everybody on the team, if possible.
And hopefully, if it is something
that you guys think is good that you
can push for it through legislation
with your safe and fair, equitable legislative movements
that you've done, such as safe cars and all that kind
of stuff.
But again, thank you so much for the show,
and I hope you keep on talking cars
for another 300-plus episodes.
Now, Gabe, you in particular have
done a lot of studying, a lot of following
of what's going on in the electric-vehicle industry.
These were, I thought these were really intriguing questions,
and it kind of brings up a point of discussion
when it comes to buying an electric vehicle
and its effects on state and local municipalities.
I think there is a broader picture here.
And he brings up a really sore point
of national infrastructure, which is kind of deteriorating.
Just a few days ago there was a bridge in Pittsburgh
that collapsed, and so and EVs these days are,
I mean, they're a small portion of the market,
although they're growing, and they grew from 2.1% in 2020
to 2.8% in 2021.
They're going to continue to grow.
The road tax is built into the price of gas.
It's a small percentage, about 5%, and it varies by state.
But that money goes into road infrastructure.
And EVs don't fuel up, so they don't spend that.
I mean, you can say the same thing about hybrids.
I mean, you have a hybrid that consumes 50 miles per gallon,
instead of 25 miles per gallon.
You're also contributing less to road infrastructure.
And so states have legislated something
to compensate for that lost revenue,
and have doubled the registration fees for EVs
for instance.
And of course, you have toll roads and bridges,
where everybody pays the same toll, no matter what you drive.
So I think the whole issue of building it
into the cost of electricity is a little questionable,
because the utility company doesn't really
care if you charge your EV at home,
or if you power your refrigerator.
But it's basically, the main problem
is a problem of infrastructure that needs to be taken care of.
And some mechanisms need to be built into addressing that.
So Kelly, it's like we take some steps forward
and some steps back when it comes to automotive technology
and helping out the environment.
But this is kind of a conundrum, because when you're not buying
gas, you're not adding taxes.
Exactly, yeah, the additional fee at registration, I think,
is the easiest method of recuperating
some of that lost revenue.
And just to add on to what Gabe said,
we know that the large majority of charging
of electric vehicles is done at home.
And so essentially, there's no tax being added.
So even if you do go to a public charging
station, that's a small percentage of the time
you're doing that.
And I think it's important to have
that tax added, specifically to electric vehicles,
because they're heavier.
They have those batteries that are really weighing them down.
And a lot of the damage that's done to roadways
is done by heavier vehicles.
And so I think, absolutely, owners of electric vehicles
do need to pay their fair share.
I'm huge on sustainability.
So I don't like the idea, necessarily,
of having to pay that if I'm doing good to the world
by buying an electric car, but unfortunately, it's
the reality.
And the money has got to come from somewhere.
And so putting it at the registration and maybe even
in local charging stations is probably also a good idea.
So we've got steps forward and steps
backward and a continuously changing field
of automotive technology.
And luckily, we are doing the job
where we get to study this and report back
to you, our loyal listeners and viewers.
And electric vehicles are always a hot topic
here on Talking Cars.
And so we love these questions, and especially stuff
that makes you think.
You're like well, I'm helping the environment, right?
But there's also downsides to it.
Got to do the responsible thing sometimes.
Right.
well, that'll about do it for this episode.
As always, check the show notes for more information
on the vehicles and topics that we've discussed.
Just a reminder, keep your questions
coming TalkingCars@icloud.com.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
We'll see you next week.
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