Need help buying my first Jeep Wrangler

[Victor Socaciu]

Hello everyone,

First of all, it’s really great to be part of this community. I’m looking forward to joining your off-road events, once I buy my Wrangler.

The Jeep Wrangler is a very impressive and masculine car, which I had the chance to do a test drive with and from that moment I fell in love with it. 😍

I will be mostly driving it in Dubai, with occasional off-road sessions, somewhere between 3 to 8 times per month.

My criteria is the following

- JL model, any year

- 2 door, as it’s more compact and I don’t need the extra size

As far as my budget goes, I’m thinking to spend around AED 100K, financed via bank. 

I don’t know much about cars in general, so I cannot trust myself when assessing the condition of the car, so my plan is to do a full comprehensive technical inspection with RTA, prior to buying it.

I have some specific questions to begin with

- Should I buy from owner directly or from dealer? My only concern buying from owner is that it may be more complicated to get financing from the bank. The dealerships are making this process very easy, without much involvement from my side.

- Is a technical inspection, such as the comprehensive one from RTA, enough to assess if the car is in a good condition?

- I recently saw a Jeep Wrangler, yr 2020, with 150kms driven in those 3-4 years. The dealer said that the last major service was done at 80k km, but oil changes were carried every 10k km. Should that be a concern? Would the technical inspection reveal important information?

Besides these questions, I would greatly appreciate all your help and tips for buying a trouble free car while securing a great deal.
 

I’m super excited to be joining soon the great Jeep family.

 

Many thanks!

[Gaurav]

150K for the wrangler must be end or close to the end of its time around 200 or 250K, where it will require constant maintenance. Rem, it's US manufacture and not Japanese.

Ideally, buy the lowest km driven possible even if it is 5-10% expensive, so you will have much less trouble and have a more usable life to enjoy.

Always buy a used car that has a full-service history shown to you in either invoices or a stamped booklet. A slight delay in service interval is acceptable, but if some long gaps are there, look for another vehicle. Have patience while buying, so that you can filter lemon and scammers with phone calls. Only go to viewing for the car that has sent you the service record over WhatsApp. This one approach will filter over 70% of cars instantly.

Buying from the owner will be slightly cheaper than the dealer, but again search for both as many dealers scout diamond and price it slightly higher, which will save your time and future trauma for a little extra cost. I once bought a 6-year-old car with 67k on the clock with FSH from a used car dealer with a 10% extra premium.

For inspection RTA comprehensive check is not bad (and not great either), but if you know some garages, ask them to inspect, they might do a better job.

Last but not least, buy stock condition Wrangler and not modified, not even slightly modified, as that will give you a LONGER usable lifespan for off-roading.