Model years › Jeep Wrangler

2018 Jeep Wrangler

Complaints about this year name steering far more often than the other years of this generation — 55% of them, about 3× the usual rate of 19.1%.

First year of a new generation. The Jeep Wrangler was redesigned for 2018. 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.

What the complaints were about

• steering — 55.4% of this year's complaints, against 19.1% across the other years of this generation (2.9×).
• wheel — 29.7% of this year's complaints, against 9.6% across the other years of this generation (3.1×).
• play — 10.6% of this year's complaints, against 1.2% across the other years of this generation (8.9×). Owners wrote it as: play, play steering, inches, inch.

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

• steering wheel — 26% of complaints, 3× usual
• bump — 16% of complaints, 3× usual
• play — 8% of complaints, 14× usual

What owners wrote

STEERING WHEEL LOOSE AND HAS A LOT OF PLAY. ALSO WHEN DRIVING ON THE HIGHWAY OVER 50 MPH AND HIT A POT HOLE OR A SMALL BUMP, VEHICLE REAR WOBBLES AND ALMOST HAVE TO COME TO A COMPLETE STOP.

AT 11,500 MILES MY 2018 JL HAS A LOT OF PLAY IN THE STEERING WHEEL WHERE IT FEELS I DRIFT A LOT AND HAVE TO MAKE MULTIPLE CORRECTING TO STAY IN THE CENTER OF THE LANE. ALSO WHILE DRIVING AT HIGHWAY SPEEDS AND HITTING A BUMP, THE STEERING WHEEL SHAKES FOR UP TO…

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

• 19V680000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
• 18V675000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
• 18V231000 STRUCTURE
• 18V786000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
• 18V280000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
• 18V332000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
• 19V320000 EQUIPMENT
• 21V028000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.

Showing 8 of 14. The rest are on NHTSA's site.

Own a 2018 Jeep Wrangler? What happened to yours?

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How this was worked out

Every year of the Jeep Wrangler 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.

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