News

Life with my Jeep Meridian diesel 4x4: Updates at one year & 13500 kms

20th July 2023, 11:02 by Dev Shah

The car really is a very comfortable chauffeur driven car both for my city usage where I’m driven as well as on longer highway journeys.

BHPian Axe77 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

ONE YEAR OWNERSHIP UPDATE

Odometer: 13,500 kms

The Jeep is just about tipping over its first year anniversary - I got her around the second week of June and I thought this is as good a time as any to record major updates during the course of the year. These include a minor incident that led to some D&P work, an incident involving non recommended AdBlue, one warranty replacement and the first service.

The minor shunt:

It was literally our first fortnight with the Jeep and we were happily on our way to Lonavala for a long weekender with some friends. We hadn’t even left the city and were at the Mankhurd bypass that leads up to Vashi bridge, stuck in fairly tight traffic (in a heavy downpour) in the middle lane. A truck on the right lane, coming a bit faster than it should merged in and brushed badly against the front right of my car taking with it the right mirror, and the grey plastic cladding over the front right wheel well.

The result was an inevitable insurance claim and a visit to Jeep’s D&P workshop at Turbhe (IIRC, it was Turbhe).

Overall, I was quite pleased with Landmark’s support during the entire process and nothing extraordinary to report in the insurance claim process either, which went as smoothly as can be expected. My first experience with Landmark Jeep A.S.S - a lot sooner than I’d have wanted but absolutely no cause to complaint from them on any front. They were excellent throughout. This has also been consistently my experience with them in later interactions as well - more on that below.

The DEF incident + fuel pump replacement:

I lent my car to some family members at really short notice (like literally overnight) for a trip to Ratnagiri. My AdBlue reading at the time was hovering just a smidgeon below the halfway mark. Ordinarily I’d have topped up the AdBlue and then sent the car for such a long trip but for unavoidable reasons the decision to take the Jeep was literally taken overnight with an early AM departure the next morning. I knew there’d be enough in there for the car to come back to Mumbai over its intended 1000 km journey so I didn’t stress too much on it. So far I had always topped my AdBlue level up by the time it came to half so I hadn’t really witnessed the readout dipping below that mark. I’ve also always purchased only the Jeep recommended yellow can before this, purchased in fact from Jeep A.S.S. itself.

During the return journey the readout gauge turned red and this caused some concern to the travellers. They checked in with me - I in turn checked in with my Jeep contact and seeing the level he assured me that the car will comfortably return till Mumbai (the vehicle was somewhere around Satara at that time and on its return journey). Unfortunately, even I was on the bike returning from my own weekender at Panchgani on that day so I had limited availability on my phone.

I told them to simply come home and ignore the warnings and not to put any AdBlue other than the image I had sent them of the one Jeep sells. Sadly at some point, they took advice from a local pump who further created some panic in their mind and despite my request to leave it be, they topped up some Tata AdBlue purchased from a highway petrol pump. BIG MISTAKE!

The car reached Mumbai fine and I discussed the incident with my SA, showing him a picture of the can from which the fluid was filled. He advised me that they really do not recommend any DEF other than what’s recommended and asked me if the car had stalled at all. I replied that it hadn’t but if he feels so strongly about it, I’ll bite the bullet and have the tank drained and refilled with the correct DEF just to be on the safe side. I thought maybe its extreme but better safe than sorry.

The next morning, when the car was to be driven to the service centre, as the SA had predicted, it refused to start on the crank and started throwing up some error messages.

The Jeep had to then be put on a flat bed and sent to their Andheri workshop. By some mercy, the vehicle actually cranked up when the truck came an hour or so later so we could thankfully just drive the car up the ramp on to the truck, instead of towing it up.

Weak fuel pump | warranty replacement:

When the DEF tank flush and injector cleaning was taken up, the SA mentioned that they have also detected a “weak fuel pump” during their general diagnosis. This had nothing to do with the DEF incident itself. They promptly took the necessary permissions from Jeep and replaced the part under warranty.

TL;DR:

Please fill only the Jeep recommended DEF. I have heard divided opinions on this with some indicating that any DEF is fine - but I’ve learnt first hand that that is NOT the case. Jeep owners please note.
On any long trip, its worth keeping a 5 ltr can handy which you could purchase off Amazon or your local A.S.S. This is stating the obvious of course and something I’d have also done if I’d had the chance.
If for any reason you’ve put questionable DEF in a pinch, dont turn off the car. If you keep it running, the car will at least get you home. Your issue will more likely be if you turn the engine off - in which case it will refuse to restart. I’m not technically gifted - just parroting what the SA explained to me.
For those who haven’t experienced it yet, the DEF level indicator turns red VERY EARLY on. Do not let that create panic. It will continue reducing and at some point start indicating how many kms more it can travel before a refill is a MUST. You have all that time to sort the issue out. At the time my family topped up the DEF, it was still only red - it had not even started a “kms remaining” counter. If they’d just come home without bothering, I could have just done the refill peacefully at home base after buying the correct DEF from Landmark / Amazon.

Top two images. The recommended AdBlue by Jeep. Bottom two images are the Tata DEF that was put on the highway. Please AVOID THIS!

The evident damange to the front right panel, the broken mirror. Minor damage extended to the front right door and bumper as well so all these parts had to be painted.

One of the error messages that was throwing up when the car refused to crank. Finally, we sent it on flatbed to the workshop:

Top two images: The replaced “weak fuel pump”.

Bottom two images: Taken while undertaking the flushing of the DEF tank and injector cleaning.

The first annual service:

Done around the end of May and at about 13,330 kms.

An uneventful affair. The car was sent late morning with my driver and came back home the same night. So all in a day’s work. The various job works carried out have been detailed in the attached bill.

While on the point of service, through my various visits to Jeep I have more or less zero’d in on a senior SA by the name of Michael and his deputy Abhishek who look after at my vehicle whenever it goes for anything. Michael came strongly recommended by a couple of Jeep Compass owners who are good friends and I’ve ensured my car only goes to this duo. Till date they’ve never disappointed and I’ve always been more than happy with the service I’ve received from them. Jeep A.S.S. horror stories are something I’ve dreaded since I’ve purchased the car but touch wood, I’ve never been at the short end of the stick on this front. I hope the experience remains the same in the years to come as well.

The final bill - totally around INR 15k. I opted out of some optional stuff like 3M which they had thrown into the initial estimate. My car had already undergone a comprehensive detailing pretty recently. Note that the bill displays the extended warranty period. There is also a general note on the DEF to be used. One that I’m not gonna forget in a hurry.

Some pictures of the car at the workshop before it was sent back home.

Random observations from one year of ownership:

The AC: Definitely leaves a lot to be desired. Performance is barely par for course (maybe even under par), specially in peak summer months of April and May. Nothing compares to the AC we had on our Hondas. Even the BMW AC has not been as good.
Fuel efficiency: Consistently dismal. Admittedly I’m in the worst travel conditions in my office commute but getting 5 - 7 kmpl is not unusual at all and even on highways the usual range ends up at 10.5 - 11.5 / 12 max over an entire journey. I just checked my Trip B meter which is hovering around 3700 kms - the avg FE against it shows at 7.7 kmpl.
Comfort: The car really is a very comfortable chauffeur driven car both for my city usage where I’m driven as well as on longer highway journeys. No complaints on this front whatsoever.
DEF: This is my biggest pain point of owning a modern BS6 diesel. I am definitely not too hot on this whole DEF rubbish and I suspect by the time this car is 3.5 - 5 years old, I’ll most certainly want to flip it for a strong hybrid petrol, EV or maybe even a performance oriented petrol. Anything but Diesel. Don’t be surprised if this car is replaced sooner than even the GT, despite the GT being of 2015 vintage.
Service experience: Another big watch area and thankfully no negative experiences so far.
General reliability: Excellent. The car has never left me stranded on account of any reliability shortcomings. Even the weak fuel pump issue was timely and proactively diagnosed by the service centre and promptly replaced under warranty.
Build quality: The car is aging well although that should be par for course given its just a year and 13k kms. Hopefully this remains the case over the years although my gut feel is it definitely won’t match the utterly solid build quality of the BMW in comparison. (I know they’re not competing with each other but just as the only other point of reference I have in my garage). I haven’t found any squeaks or rattles creeping up over the last one year.

If anyone has any questions from my one year experience with the Meridian, happy to take them up as best as I can.

A final parting shot to conclude the update.