Whenever I get a call or make a call while connected to the ICE, the AC blower goes to the lowest level, thereby reducing the noise generated.
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2 year and 12,000 km update:
Did not manage to run much the last year and had to take the car this Aug for 2 year / 30,000km service (had run ~3k kms the last year). Service person was not too happy when I was bringing in the car for 30k service with just 12k on the ODO and advised me to drive more
The items covered were over and above the standard service were:
Wheel rotation & alignment
Replacement of the right side ORVM – A biker hit the glass housing area and the glass popped out and cracked. Luckily, there was no damage to the harness. So, I popped back the cracked glass.
Later, purchased a replacement from Amazon for ~350 INR. But they were plain. Missed the progressive convex tapering at the extreme ends of the original part. So, decided to later get the OEM part. That costs ~780 INR + 300 labor (I could have simply got the component and fixed it later myself) to save on labor.
Replacement of the rubber cowl that covers the drain area between the windshield and bonnet area (driver side). A small portion had come off. Service person indicated that it must have been a rat (as they seem to like the taste of the Jeep rubber parts). This part was quite expensive at ~3.3k INR + labor.
Rat repellent spray to ensure that our rodent friends do not find the newly replaced cowl savory and the engine bay unwelcome for a daily huddle
Auto-start stop feature was not working
Lost Jeep app connectivity since last Dec (2022)
Overall, service was done in a day, but auto-start stop battery was a blocker and VTK had to claim warranty to replace the battery. They took ~4 days as it required that they recharge the existing battery for a day and the request Jeep for a battery replacement. As I understand, battery was readily available for fitment, but they were waiting for the remaining 3 days to get approval from Jeep India to do the replacement. Post service, auto-start / stop seems to work fine. It had been acting up since the 5th month of purchase and I could not afford to wait a similar duration during the 1st year service as I had planned to travel at that time. But with the auto-start properly working, I find that it is annoying every time I stop at an intersection. The compressor cuts off in this state and it starts becoming quite hot with the weather at Chennai.
Service alone with wheel alignment and balancing, interior cleaning and rat repellent was quoted to ~22k. With the extras, came to 27k for the 2nd year service.
Another observation was, the steering seemed lighter post service, which is good.
Did notice a couple of paint chips in the driver from side panel.
Elsewhere already (kids at the apartment showing off their prowess in squeezing through narrow spaces, preparing for the future real-world traffic conditions) and decided not to pursue this, grateful to get hold of the car.
Jeep app was reactivated again. The service person switched off the car, unplugged the dongle and after some time, plugged it in and called the Jeep customer support call center to reactivate it. It seems to work now and has started lecturing me whenever I accelerate or hard brake.
Not sure if there were any software updates, but the sound seems to be more bass heavy after service. Maybe the service people fiddled around with the equalizer settings. But I still feel that there is a positive difference even if I reset the equalizer settings back to normal.
A nice thing about the service was, on dropping the car at the service station, they created a Whatsapp group with the service advisor and upto 3 levels of escalation points along with me. So, was not at loss when I was unable to get hold of the service advisor as I had someone else to reach out to. Atleast I got an update every start and close of day, on what was done and where they were blocked. Had not experienced this in any of the other car service centers so far, which is positive. But still had to follow up a couple of times…
General observations not related to the service:
Whenever I get a call or make a call while connected to the ICE, the AC blower goes to the lowest level, thereby reducing the noise generated so that I can focus on the call. I think it is a nice touch, as I mostly stopped relying on the auto AC mode as it seemed too feeble and mostly set the blower to level 3 or higher to get a good breeze
Driving on highways still as good as it was and the family is always ready to go for a drive on the Chennai bypass to Tambaram and back (~35km), just to experience the car and ride.
Do get some slight noises when I go through rough patches. But this happens occasionally. Solution? Just jack up the music volume
About the battle scars, any advice if there are simple ways to minimize the scratches on the car rather than paining the doors? Was thinking off TurtleWax Color Magic and cover the scratches with a coat and finish up with a ceramic polish.
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