There’s a lot of Jeep apologists. Dozens of people suggested this was just a ‘rogue dealer’. Keep watching because I’ve got the smoking gun on that - it’s not a rogue dealer. It’s an entrenched rip-off strategy with Jeep. Smoking gun coming up: the evidence - shocking.
This suggestion that $47,500 is just a rogue dealer, and Fiat Chrysler head office had no knowledge of such abhorrent practices: What a load of shit, in my view.
Here’s the smoking gun. Two years ago, a guy named Michael e-mailed me, upset. His cup over-ran when his diesel Jeep shat itself at 58,412 kilometres, in an eerie prequel to the Lawrence’s recent meltdown.
The Caroline Springs Jeep shitheap dealer dealt with that. The two dealerships (Newcastle and Caroline Springs) are separated by 1000 kilometres. These events are also separated by almost two years in time.
Those shitheads in Sunshine quoted the following: $8900 for the high pressure pump. Six injectors at $2500 apiece - that’s $15,000. Left and right fuel rails at $2163 each. That’s $4326. Fuel injector lines $1267.
Sundry parts: $1970. The total is a staggering $31,464.
The Sunshine dealership was far more reasonable about the labour - at just $1820, which (I imagine) is around 15 hours at about $120 per hour. That’s only 50 per cent higher than it should be.
Those pricks in Newcastle were proposing to fillet the Lawrences to the tune of $7000 for labour. An epic touch-up.
But the parts … $31-and-a-half grand in Victoria, two years ago, versus $39-and-a-half in Newcastle, today. They’re similarly blown-out, I think you’d agree.
And there’s no way head office could not know. Like, no way. Not that I can see.
These are just two ripoffs we know about. How many poor bastards just copped it on the chin and coughed up because they needed to get their Jeep shithawk back on the road?
This ‘rogue dealer’ suggestion is about as likely as the alleged ‘rogue engineers’ mooted at one point by those arseholes at Volkswagen, when all the time, the fish was rotting from Martin Winterkorn’s head down.
There is no way senior people at Fiat Chrysler Australia can be unaware of dealings such as this. Consumers would be arcing right up to head office about repair cost, don’t you think? I’d love to see the AFP knock on Fiat Chrysler’s door with a warrant and test this hypothesis.
Before I let you go: FCA did intervene a couple of days ago. They bowed to the media pressure and they turned the Lawrence’s $50k frown upside down by offering to repair the shitheap for free.
In other words, they agreed to do somewhat less than obey the consumer law. Because make no mistake: Had they rolled the dice in court and lost, it could well be Princess of Poshtovia 2.0 - they get their $50 grand purchase refunded and make an application for costs.
FCA is getting out of this one for about $10 grand - minus the media fallout, which I sincerely hope is unpleasant, and costs them sales. They deserve that.
To Kevin Flynn, who runs FCA in Australia I’d suggest: you did try very hard to spin this up in the news to appear as if you were bending over backwards to be magnanimous, but in fact you do not deserve a standing friggin’ ovation, any more than the rest of us deserve pats on the back for no knocking over the National Australia Bank again today.
You arseholes did less than the law requires for a breach of the ‘acceptable quality’ guarantee. And in that sense, you’re still getting away with it.

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