Jeep is a very popular automaker that makes a lot of great cars, and Jeep fans can be very passionate about their rides. With that being said, while Jeep fans have a lot of good things to say about their cars, they’re also often aware of the negative sides of owning a one. Here’s a look at the Jeep Wagoneer and what owners don’t like about their Jeep SUV.

An overview of the J.D. Power owners survey 

Just like with many other car critics, J.D. Power gets a lot of help from regular people. The car critic gets that help via a survey that it sends out every year to thousands of verified owners. The verified owners must have owned their car for at least 90 days in order to take part in the survey, and the verified owners answered questions about themselves as well as their cars. 

In terms of demographics for Jeep Wagoneer owners, about 59% of them are men, and that’s actually 1% below the industry average. Their median age is 55 years, which is also a year less than the median age across the industry. The most important part about this survey, however, simply asked owners to rate their cars based on 10 categories.

Overall, Wagoneer owners loved the design of their car. The exterior design category was in first place, and the interior design category wasn’t far behind. Owners also liked the Wagoneer’s powertrain, as well as how it feels to drive the SUV, and how safe it feels to be in it.

These are the areas that Jeep Wagoneer owners don’t like about their SUV

The three categories that the Wagoneer didn’t do well on were its infotainment system, getting in and out of the SUV, and its fuel economy. Jeep gave the Wagoneer a fairly capable infotainment system, as it starts with a 10.1-inch touchscreen and a 10.3-inch digital gauge cluster display. It’s not entirely clear why owners didn’t like this part of the Jeep SUV, as J.D. Power’s experts did like it. 

Since the Wagoneer is a large SUV, it naturally can be difficult to get in and out of one. That said, Jeep helps owners out thanks to the fact that the SUV comes with side steps as a standard feature.

Similarly, since the Wagoneer is such a large SUV, it also comes with a powerful, but thirsty, engine. As a result, its fuel economy isn’t great, and it’s the one part of their SUV that owners are least happy with.

The Jeep Wagoneer’s fuel economy is going to be a tough area to improve on

Jeep gave the Wagoneer a 5.7-liter V8 engine as standard, and it’s actually a mild-hybrid. It gets 392 hp and 404 lb-ft of torque, and rear-wheel drive is standard. This allows the Wagoneer to get an estimated 16 mpg in the city and 22 mpg on highways, for 18 mpg combined. All-wheel drive is a very popular option though, and adding that will cause the Jeep’s fuel economy to drop to an estimated 17 mpg combined.

Although that’s a very bad fuel economy compared to the most eco-friendly cars, the Wagoneer’s fuel economy is actually about average for the segment. As such, Jeep isn’t necessarily doing a bad job with the Wagoneer’s fuel economy.

It’s just a problem that is inherent to the full-size SUV segment. Jeep can solve this issue by giving the Wagoneer a true hybrid option, or by making the SUV smaller. However, most Jeep fans aren’t buying Jeeps for their fuel economy to begin with, so that may not be necessary.