2020 Jeep Gladiator
Complaints about this year name cluster far more often than the model's other years — 19% of them, about 49× the usual rate of 0.4%.
First year of a new generation. The Jeep Gladiator was redesigned for 2020. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 479 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 22 |
| Involving a crash | 11 |
| Involving a fire | 7 |
| Recalls | 7 |
| EPA combined | 19 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- wanders — 7.5% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the model's other years (37.6×). Owners wrote it as: wanders, over road.
- gauge — 9.4% of this year's complaints, against 0.9% across the model's other years (10.8×). Owners wrote it as: gauge, odometer, gas gauge, temp.
- play — 13.2% of this year's complaints, against 4.3% across the model's other years (3×). Owners wrote it as: play, box, steering box, requires.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
Also unusual this year
- instrument — 24% of complaints, 7× usual
- instrument cluster — 12% of complaints, 30× usual
- display — 9% of complaints, 23× usual
What owners wrote
* Instrument cluster screen went black *unable to see any safety lights, fuel, mileage or anything else displayed here. My Jeep Gladiator was not part of the recall 30B but should be.
Driving and center instrument cluster went blank. I can no longer see any digital display including but not limited to; gas, mileage, warning lights, digital speedometer, tire pressure...
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V636000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 20V580000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V191000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 21V028000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 20V124000 POWER TRAIN
- 23V116000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 24V652000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Jeep Gladiator was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2020 Jeep Gladiator? What happened to yours?
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