Hi guys and girls,

im looking to buy a new 2012 Outlander GT in white from a dealer near me. my current ride is a 2008 jeep patriot that i also purchased new. when i bought it i loved the look and the ride of it, but since then its become a money pit. in the 2.5 years and 61k miles that ive had it ive replaced the brakes, the ball joints, tie rod ends, and have had several leak issues. ive fallen out of love with it. i was planning to run the truck into the ground but its not worth it at this point.

main question is this; how is the reliability in general on the outlander? I dont mind doing some routine maintenance on it, but i dont want to be looking at another pit too.

Thanks in advance!

 

I've owned my 08 Outlander for 45 months now with no reliability issues. I subscribe to Consumer Reports and they rate the Outlander as above average on reliability. You don't say whether your in Canada or the US, but the US warranty of 5 yrs/60,000 miles and the powertrain warranty of 10 yrs/100,000 miles has you covered if any problems do occur.

 

Yeah i guess that would help. I live in NJ. The warranty sounds a lot better than jeeps. I got screwed with them.

 

I have an 07 outlander xls and i love it, other than maintenance i have had no mechanical issues what so ever, except for the 2 minor recall problems it had. one was for the brake light switch, and other was a wire connecting terminal had to moved from original position. love the truck.

 

Welcome to the forum.
Like yourself, I am looking at the same model Outlander to replace my 07 Grand Caravan.
With the exception of the leaking, the rest of the repairs are pretty normal wear parts on any dodge/jeep product. Particularly if the roads are rough.

From what I have heard from actual owners (a few co-workers have them) and what I have read/watched, the Outlander looks pretty solid.
I'm still waiting for someone to tell me what they don't like about it. None will say what they don't like about it. The best I got was the emergency seating is not comfortable on long drives.

 

Im not worried about the 3rd row seats. I planned to take them out to reduce weight and have an extra storage spot for random things.

 

The biggest complaint on the Outlander by the media is it's cheap interior materials. I myself don't have a problem with this and I like the layout of the controls as they're easy to reach from the driver's seat. Some owners have complained about the paint job on the the darker colored Outlanders, especially black, being of poor quality and prone to swirls and scratches. , Also some have complained the exterior design is such that it's prone to having rocks hit the lower part of the vehicle chipping the paint.

 

I kind of like the third row seat idea. With a young family (2 boys under 3yrs old), I can say that we rarely use more then 4 seats in our 7 seat minivan, but when we need them, it's great to have. With our current van (which this is replacing), we are using it in a similar manner where the seats are stowed until we need them.

Thanks for the input. I can see how the black or darker colors would be a pain for marks. My 08 SRT4 is brilliant Black and it's a pain to keep looking good.
As for the stone chips, are you talking about the lower rocker panel or as far up as the lower doors? I am for sure putting on some small mud flaps and may consider fender flares depending on how they look. I do plan to do some light off roading myself.

 

I think Canadian (maybe just Ontario?) child seat laws have ruined this plan for you. You can't use a booster seat or regular child seat with the rear fold down seats.

I have installed mud flaps and 3M tape on the doglegs - up the lower rear doors around the wheel wells.

Another thing to note is that FM reception is horrible on my 2009 - CD, SAT and AUX are fine. I think that is vehicle and listener dependent.

 

I have the '07.

I've had one warrantied issue. One of the rear wheel sensors died early and through the system into limp home mode. That was annoying.

Just in the last few weeks, we've noticed that the padding that is supposed to keep water out from inside the door has hardened. So if you roll the window down, it makes a popping sort of noise.

i'm sure others are tired of hearing this, but the transmission fluid really burns my ****. there is no easily available aftermarket transmission fluid. So you have to go to the stealership to buy it. If you have them do it, you spend the same amount of money and they only get 1/4 of the old fluid out.

As far as the interior plastics...I had a '93 eclipse and the plastic in the trunk area is the same stuff. Mitsu just really likes that stuff. I heard though that they made the interior nicer for the '09...so by '12 you should be good.