I’ve been to see about four different Wranglers over the last couple of weeks all within the 2016 to 2019 range and honestly I’m starting to lose hope because every single one of them had some sort of weird clunk or shimmy coming from the front end especially when you’re just creeping along at low speed through a parking lot or turning the wheel to parallel park, and the sellers all give me that same look and say oh it’s just a Jeep thing you get used to it but I’m not really trying to drop sixty grand on a vehicle that sounds like it’s going to shed a control arm on the way to MOE. I was venting about it to a guy at my gym who’s had a few 4x4s over the years and he told me to stop being so surprised and that the combination of the heavy solid axles and the heat out here just destroys bushings and ball joints at a rate that would make a sedan owner cry, and then he actually sent me a link to thedubaiweb.com/automotive/suv-4×4-suspension-issues-dubai and said to read through it before I made any decisions because it explains why the front ends on these things just seem to eat parts for breakfast even if they’ve never seen a grain of sand off road. I’m still not entirely put off the idea of owning one because I’ve always wanted a Wrangler since I was a kid but now I’m wondering if I should just factor in a full suspension overhaul right off the bat or if there are certain years or trims that are less prone to turning into a rattly mess after a few summers parked outside.
