My unfortunately difficult, exceedingly painful, and extremally lengthy journey to 392 ownership...

YukonCornelius

Moderator 🛠️
Staff member
Founding Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2021
Messages
1,539
Reaction score
2,524
Location
San Antonio
Current Rides
A Quarter Horse Named "Lex"
Been on this forum for a while and salivating at every delivery posted on here, wondering IF I'd ever actually see mine. So now I have renewed hope.

Here goes... So, last year in June while watching the Bronco reveal and getting my reservation in for a First Edition, Jeep snuck in that HEMI teaser... I was intrigued since I'm a Jeep guy for more than 3 decades, but I got sucked up in the Bronco Hype. Nonetheless, I followed the HEMI announcement. So in November, when it was official, I was first "in person" reservation at one of Texas' largest dealerships. I was told I was number 2 on their allocation (of 9) but my salesguy gave me the "wink" that since I was the first to come in, I was #1. Cool! Over the next 5 months, I pinged them almost weekly to see if they had pricing information, ETA even if just a guess, ANYTHING and I'd either not get a returned phone call or at best, I got the canned dealership response of "no, no news at all." Long story short, my original dealer never cashed my deposit, never gave me a VON let alone a VIN, and kept stringing me along for months with zero info. Well, come late March, I got a text from my salesguy's "replacement" that my Jeep should be in soon and he asked me when can I come in and pay. At this point, they STILL never gave me a total, so I asked about sticker price. He said $78k and change, plus $7k market adjustment. I told him previous sales guy guaranteed MSRP. I was told "management is doing 10-15K on all 392's. We are doing a deal for you since you ordered so early." (which, since they never cashed my deposit check, I questioned how that was an order?) Anyways, at this point, I had already converted my First Edition Bronco to an order and it was supposed to be in by June (Hah! Foolish me!) so I basically told them where they can stick their "deal." His response? "We'll get $20K over once it hits the showroom floor." So I walked.

Now, getting close to summer, news of the first 392's hit, and the news of the Bronco failures begin to surface. I was in immediate "regret" stage. So I started searching... and searching. Found that anything not already sold had ADM on it - which I refuse to pay. So enough time was wasted in my search that Jeep had now announced the XR package. Figuring I'd have to order anyways, I'd wait until June to order with the Xtreme Recon package. I decided to go with a smaller dealership this time. Placed my order 6/14. Paid a deposit, got a VON. All good. So I thought. After a week of no updates and no email from Jeep, I started asking about status. No updates. Kept reading folks on here had their VINs in a couple days, week tops. Still kept asking, but no emails no updates. But given today's car climate, I knew LOTS of folks were in the same boat, so I didn't harass but did "ask" every week or so...

Well, it got to a point that I requested to meet face to face and have a look in their system. First meeting, the salesguy and sales manager brought out "my" build sheet (I say "my" because, yes it was my specs, but still had customer listed as dealer.) It was BE status. I was like "dude, that means something is wrong with the order..." They replied "no, it just means schedule is still pending." Whatever... guess they don't believe I'm capable of simple look up tasks. Told them it was an error code, not a standard "pending" code. The next words from the sales manager's lips were "Oh, there was a supply problem with the gorilla glass on all Jeep orders, but Jeep fixed that. It's actually a good order now but our system hasn't updated yet." No lie. THAT'S what he told me - you know, because it's not like this system is connected to a LIVE data set that's pulled on the fly! Anyways, I was pissed that I couldn't get a straight answer so started pulling the "can you give my the number to call for customer complaints on the dealership" card. Sales guy excused the manager and told me "there's a corporate meeting Thursday and the General Manager is supposed to get updated on supply chain issues and order status. I promise I'll have some news for you then." This was Tuesday. I called at noon on Thursday. Told that they were still in a meeting. Called back at 3:00. Told my guy was with a customer. Called at 7'ish. Told my guy had left for the day. So I called at 9:00 Friday. He told me his team hadn't been briefed by the GM yet, and he'd get back to me. I let it go until Saturday morning. Now the next event sent me over the top - and if anyone wants to know THE south Texas dealer to avoid, PM me and I'll tell you... This is exactly what I was told: I'm so sorry to be the one to tell you this, I feel sick to my stomach having to. But the GM told us that they were only allocated 2 and he put the 2 orders in back in May for dealer inventory for $20K ADM because they are LIMITED EDITIONS" WHAT???? Okay, we all know they won't be made forever, possibly ending with the '22 run... but NOT limited editions. I even asked HOW they could do that to me with my order IN HAND??? He said GM said it's what the market demands right now. I told him to tell the GM do go duck himself. And remember autocorrect: It's never duck.

So I started calling dealerships all over REALLY hard. Was getting a lot of hot air, but several had quite a few similarities: MY '21 orders close on the 7th and 2022 is open to order on the 8th. So I called a friend my local Toyota dealer and asked him if he had any contacts in the Jeep world. He gave me a number of one of his buddies and I called him Thursday the 7th. Asked him about the 22's. He said absolutely, and they open at 9:00. I was there at 8:45!!! Got the order submitted and a copy of the build. Sweated bullets for the next eight days waiting for a VIN and priority to change from 99. The following Saturday I got the VIN and a build priority of 01 AND my name is actually listed as customer. Finally! Some HOPE!

Thanks all for reading my book! Just figured I'd share my horror story. Maybe it'll make some of your bad experiences seem a little less horrific!
 
Last edited:
WOW!!!! Okay I feel a little better about my own situation. I am floored by your story, but none of it surprised me. I hate dealerships (who doesn’t), and Jeep is the worst. This will be my 8th Jeep overall and I’ve been burned a couple times in the past. My last Jeep (16 Rubi) turned out to be a nightmare with the dealer. In fact, I said I’d never own one again. Damn V8 😋 I went down the same rabbit hole as you with the Bronco; boy Ford blew that. If my 21 392XR doesn’t get built as a 21, I may order another Raptor. I’d like to think I could order a Bronco Raptor, but i bet ADM will be north of $25K on those. Good luck to you - I hope you’re finally on the right path.
 
Good luck to you - I hope you’re finally on the right path.
Thank you Sir! I'll be following the Bronco Raptor as well... but it's no Jeep and it's certainly no HEMI!!!!
(Ford publicly said no V8, but I believe the 392 HAS to have them reconsidering!)
 
Been on this forum for a while and salivating at every delivery posted on here, wondering IF I'd ever actually see mine. So now I have renewed hope.

Here goes... So, last year in June while watching the Bronco reveal and getting my reservation in for a First Edition, Jeep snuck in that HEMI teaser... I was intrigued since I'm a Jeep guy for more than 3 decades, but I got sucked up in the Bronco Hype. Nonetheless, I followed the HEMI announcement. So in November, when it was official, I was first "in person" reservation at one of Texas' largest dealerships. I was told I was number 2 on their allocation (of 9) but my salesguy gave me the "wink" that since I was the first to come in, I was #1. Cool! Over the next 5 months, I pinged them almost weekly to see if they had pricing information, ETA even if just a guess, ANYTHING and I'd either not get a returned phone call or at best, I got the canned dealership response of "no, no news at all." Long story short, my original dealer never cashed my deposit, never gave me a VON let alone a VIN, and kept stringing me along for months with zero info. Well, come late March, I got a text from my salesguy's "replacement" that my Jeep should be in soon and he asked me when can I come in and pay. At this point, they STILL never gave me a total, so I asked about sticker price. He said $78k and change, plus $7k market adjustment. I told him previous sales guy guaranteed MSRP. I was told "management is doing 10-15K on all 392's. We are doing a deal for you since you ordered so early." (which, since they never cashed my deposit check, I questioned how that was an order?) Anyways, at this point, I had already converted my First Edition Bronco to an order and it was supposed to be in by June (Hah! Foolish me!) so I basically told them where they can stick their "deal." His response? "We'll get $20K over once it hits the showroom floor." So I walked.

Now, getting close to summer, news of the first 392's hit, and the news of the Bronco failures begin to surface. I was in immediate "regret" stage. So I started searching... and searching. Found that anything not already sold had ADM on it - which I refuse to pay. So enough time was wasted in my search that Jeep had now announced the XR package. Figuring I'd have to order anyways, I'd wait until June to order with the Xtreme Recon package. I decided to go with a smaller dealership this time. Placed my order 6/14. Paid a deposit, got a VON. All good. So I thought. After a week of no updates and no email from Jeep, I started asking about status. No updates. Kept reading folks on here had their VINs in a couple days, week tops. Still kept asking, but no emails no updates. But given today's car climate, I knew LOTS of folks were in the same boat, so I didn't harass but did "ask" every week or so...

Well, it got to a point that I requested to meet face to face and have a look in their system. First meeting, the salesguy and sales manager brought out "my" build sheet (I say "my" because, yes it was my specs, but still had customer listed as dealer.) It was BE status. I was like "dude, that means something is wrong with the order..." They replied "no, it just means schedule is still pending." Whatever... guess they don't believe I'm capable of simple look up tasks. Told them it was an error code, not a standard "pending" code. The next words from the sales manager's lips were "Oh, there was a supply problem with the gorilla glass on all Jeep orders, but Jeep fixed that. It's actually a good order now but our system hasn't updated yet." No lie. THAT'S what he told me - you know, because it's not like this system is connected to a LIVE data set that's pulled on the fly! Anyways, I was pissed that I couldn't get a straight answer so started pulling the "can you give my the number to call for customer complaints on the dealership" card. Sales guy excused the manager and told me "there's a corporate meeting Thursday and the General Manager is supposed to get updated on supply chain issues and order status. I promise I'll have some news for you then." This was Tuesday. I called at noon on Thursday. Told that they were still in a meeting. Called back at 3:00. Told my guy was with a customer. Called at 7'ish. Told my guy had left for the day. So I called at 9:00 Friday. He told me his team hadn't been briefed by the GM yet, and he'd get back to me. I let it go until Saturday morning. Now the next event sent me over the top - and if anyone wants to know THE south Texas dealer to avoid, PM me and I'll tell you... This is exactly what I was told: I'm so sorry to be the one to tell you this, I feel sick to my stomach having to. But the GM told us that they were only allocated 2 and he put the 2 orders in back in May for dealer inventory for $20K ADM because they are LIMITED EDITIONS" WHAT???? Okay, we all know they won't be made forever, possibly ending with the '22 run... but NOT limited editions. I even asked HOW they could do that to me with my order IN HAND??? He said GM said it's what the market demands right now. I told him to tell the GM do go duck himself. And remember autocorrect: It's never duck.

So I started calling dealerships all over REALLY hard. Was getting a lot of hot air, but several had quite a few similarities: MY '21 orders close on the 7th and 2022 is open to order on the 8th. So I called a friend my local Toyota dealer and asked him if he had any contacts in the Jeep world. He gave me a number of one of his buddies and I called him Thursday the 7th. Asked him about the 22's. He said absolutely, and they open at 9:00. I was there at 8:45!!! Got the order submitted and a copy of the build. Sweated bullets for the next eight days waiting for a VIN and priority to change from 99. The following Saturday I got the VIN and a build priority of 01 AND my name is actually listed as customer. Finally! Some HOPE!

Thanks all for reading my book! Just figured I'd share my horror story. Maybe it'll make some of your bad experiences seem a little less horrific!
Man,... what you have gone through... I feel your pain. Your story is worse than mine. Back in November, I placed my order with a local dealership. They never cashed my deposit, 6 weeks later I was told the sales manager made it a "dealership" order so they could sell it to the highest bidder..... I walked.
I called every jeep dealership within 500 miles looking for a "first tier" dealership with a allocation. Found one out of state. By May Jeep was bogged down and almost no movement on my order. BUT my local dealership (the one that hijacked my order) had a ETA on a 392. (I had stayed in contact with the salesman) he went to bat for and got his management to sell me their 392 for the same deal I was getting at the out of state dealership. 5k over. I had already sold our 07 Rubicon so I was eager. I canceled my out of state order (at Lithia Dodge, they were good enough to refund my deposit)
Thank you Lithia.
And by the end of June we had our 392 .
All in all, it was worth it.
 
Got the order submitted and a copy of the build. Sweated bullets for the next eight days waiting for a VIN and priority to change from 99. The following Saturday I got the VIN and a build priority of 01
Yukon that is crazy. I am glad you finally got it settled. I hope I don’t have to go through what you went though.
I placed my order last Saturday (Oct 16 2022) for a 2022 392 with:
- Half doors with premium uppers
- Sky one-touch top
- Tow hitch
- Front trail camera
- Gorilla Glass
The dealer (a major volume dealer where I have seen lots of 392 sold) and I came to a good price that was below MSRP. They printed a generic build sheet which I wrote the agreed price onto and then I put down a $1000 deposit with my credit card which they cashed.
So I was told they would process my order and create a build sheet with my name on it and email me this week (currently the build sheet has their name on it as the customer)

It’s coming up on 1 week and no email yet. How do guys know your order status? And where do you get the VIN number from?

This is my first Jeep (first new car ever in fact) and I am hopping everything is fine and I like the sales guy but I would appreciate any tips.
 
Heres my whacky story: Back in August I spoke to a salesman about buying a 392 at MSRP. I told him all the other dealers around were charging 10k over or more, and I wasn't paying it, he was my very last hope. He quickly said sure, no problem, MSRP. So he calls back later that day and gives me a total price of about 8k over MSRP. I said wait, whats up with that? He told me it was due to taxes, etc… so I told him forget it. He got pissed and said he already placed the order! I was very surprised he jumped the gun like that, without me giving him a dime or any signature or authorization. So I told him to cancel it. Tough.

A couple weeks go by and my regret is mounting. Constantly thinking about it. I really want that Jeep. So I texted the same sales guy to try and patch things up and place an order if we could negotiate down a little. He never responded to my text. I e-mailed him and he never responded to that either. Guess his feelings were hurt and he was ignoring me like a child. So I called the dealership and asked to speak with the sales manager.

This is all happening in September (last month). So the sales manager said ok, no problem, I’ll place the order for you. We agreed on a price but on this new order I wanted a different color. Sales manager says ok. He calls back a few days later and explains that unknown to him the original salesman never cancelled my first order and the 392 would be coming in with the original color I no longer wanted. I expressed my extreme disappointment. He jumped through some hoops, got the district manager involved, then miraculously got my color changed.

Couple days later I get a VIN. Been in “gathering parts” status for a month now. No change in status according to Jeep Chat. My VIN doesn't show up on any of the build lists I see on the Jeep forums. Should I be nervous? Some guy on another forum updates build lists quite regularly but my VIN never shows up on any of them.
 
Yukon that is crazy. I am glad you finally got it settled. I hope I don’t have to go through what you went though.
I placed my order last Saturday (Oct 16 2022) for a 2022 392 with:
- Half doors with premium uppers
- Sky one-touch top
- Tow hitch
- Front trail camera
- Gorilla Glass
The dealer (a major volume dealer where I have seen lots of 392 sold) and I came to a good price that was below MSRP. They printed a generic build sheet which I wrote the agreed price onto and then I put down a $1000 deposit with my credit card which they cashed.
So I was told they would process my order and create a build sheet with my name on it and email me this week (currently the build sheet has their name on it as the customer)

It’s coming up on 1 week and no email yet. How do guys know your order status? And where do you get the VIN number from?

This is my first Jeep (first new car ever in fact) and I am hopping everything is fine and I like the sales guy but I would appreciate any tips.
Try this go to jlwranglerforum.com, then to
JL Window Sticker and Build Sheet Order Tracking look for the thread by "Jay" follow the instructions
 
It’s coming up on 1 week and no email yet. How do guys know your order status? And where do you get the VIN number from?
I had to get it from the dealer. Read folks are getting emails from Jeep, but two weeks tomorrow and nada.
dealer reprinted build sheet that had VIN, D status, and build priority 01.

I’m going to give it a few more days then inquire about the whole email thing….

And dang, that story is pretty sucky too. But hey, we’re now in this together. What’s that saying? Misery loves company?
 
Last edited:
Some guy on another forum updates build lists quite regularly but my VIN never shows up on any of them.
As @Yaak392 mentioned, try the JL forum tool. It took a couple days for the specs to populate but they did. No build date nor sticker (obviously) but I’ll take what I can get.
 
Been on this forum for a while and salivating at every delivery posted on here, wondering IF I'd ever actually see mine. So now I have renewed hope.

Here goes... So, last year in June while watching the Bronco reveal and getting my reservation in for a First Edition, Jeep snuck in that HEMI teaser... I was intrigued since I'm a Jeep guy for more than 3 decades, but I got sucked up in the Bronco Hype. Nonetheless, I followed the HEMI announcement. So in November, when it was official, I was first "in person" reservation at one of Texas' largest dealerships. I was told I was number 2 on their allocation (of 9) but my salesguy gave me the "wink" that since I was the first to come in, I was #1. Cool! Over the next 5 months, I pinged them almost weekly to see if they had pricing information, ETA even if just a guess, ANYTHING and I'd either not get a returned phone call or at best, I got the canned dealership response of "no, no news at all." Long story short, my original dealer never cashed my deposit, never gave me a VON let alone a VIN, and kept stringing me along for months with zero info. Well, come late March, I got a text from my salesguy's "replacement" that my Jeep should be in soon and he asked me when can I come in and pay. At this point, they STILL never gave me a total, so I asked about sticker price. He said $78k and change, plus $7k market adjustment. I told him previous sales guy guaranteed MSRP. I was told "management is doing 10-15K on all 392's. We are doing a deal for you since you ordered so early." (which, since they never cashed my deposit check, I questioned how that was an order?) Anyways, at this point, I had already converted my First Edition Bronco to an order and it was supposed to be in by June (Hah! Foolish me!) so I basically told them where they can stick their "deal." His response? "We'll get $20K over once it hits the showroom floor." So I walked.

Now, getting close to summer, news of the first 392's hit, and the news of the Bronco failures begin to surface. I was in immediate "regret" stage. So I started searching... and searching. Found that anything not already sold had ADM on it - which I refuse to pay. So enough time was wasted in my search that Jeep had now announced the XR package. Figuring I'd have to order anyways, I'd wait until June to order with the Xtreme Recon package. I decided to go with a smaller dealership this time. Placed my order 6/14. Paid a deposit, got a VON. All good. So I thought. After a week of no updates and no email from Jeep, I started asking about status. No updates. Kept reading folks on here had their VINs in a couple days, week tops. Still kept asking, but no emails no updates. But given today's car climate, I knew LOTS of folks were in the same boat, so I didn't harass but did "ask" every week or so...

Well, it got to a point that I requested to meet face to face and have a look in their system. First meeting, the salesguy and sales manager brought out "my" build sheet (I say "my" because, yes it was my specs, but still had customer listed as dealer.) It was BE status. I was like "dude, that means something is wrong with the order..." They replied "no, it just means schedule is still pending." Whatever... guess they don't believe I'm capable of simple look up tasks. Told them it was an error code, not a standard "pending" code. The next words from the sales manager's lips were "Oh, there was a supply problem with the gorilla glass on all Jeep orders, but Jeep fixed that. It's actually a good order now but our system hasn't updated yet." No lie. THAT'S what he told me - you know, because it's not like this system is connected to a LIVE data set that's pulled on the fly! Anyways, I was pissed that I couldn't get a straight answer so started pulling the "can you give my the number to call for customer complaints on the dealership" card. Sales guy excused the manager and told me "there's a corporate meeting Thursday and the General Manager is supposed to get updated on supply chain issues and order status. I promise I'll have some news for you then." This was Tuesday. I called at noon on Thursday. Told that they were still in a meeting. Called back at 3:00. Told my guy was with a customer. Called at 7'ish. Told my guy had left for the day. So I called at 9:00 Friday. He told me his team hadn't been briefed by the GM yet, and he'd get back to me. I let it go until Saturday morning. Now the next event sent me over the top - and if anyone wants to know THE south Texas dealer to avoid, PM me and I'll tell you... This is exactly what I was told: I'm so sorry to be the one to tell you this, I feel sick to my stomach having to. But the GM told us that they were only allocated 2 and he put the 2 orders in back in May for dealer inventory for $20K ADM because they are LIMITED EDITIONS" WHAT???? Okay, we all know they won't be made forever, possibly ending with the '22 run... but NOT limited editions. I even asked HOW they could do that to me with my order IN HAND??? He said GM said it's what the market demands right now. I told him to tell the GM do go duck himself. And remember autocorrect: It's never duck.

So I started calling dealerships all over REALLY hard. Was getting a lot of hot air, but several had quite a few similarities: MY '21 orders close on the 7th and 2022 is open to order on the 8th. So I called a friend my local Toyota dealer and asked him if he had any contacts in the Jeep world. He gave me a number of one of his buddies and I called him Thursday the 7th. Asked him about the 22's. He said absolutely, and they open at 9:00. I was there at 8:45!!! Got the order submitted and a copy of the build. Sweated bullets for the next eight days waiting for a VIN and priority to change from 99. The following Saturday I got the VIN and a build priority of 01 AND my name is actually listed as customer. Finally! Some HOPE!

Thanks all for reading my book! Just figured I'd share my horror story. Maybe it'll make some of your bad experiences seem a little less horrific!
Wow! Thanks for sharing. That is quite a journey to your 392. Hope the third dealer comes through for you!
 
I had to get it from the dealer. Read folks are getting emails from Jeep, but two weeks tomorrow and nada.
dealer reprinted build sheet that had VIN, D status, and build priority 01.

I’m going to give it a few more days then inquire about the whole email thing….

And dang, that story is pretty sucky too. But hey, we’re now in this together. What’s that saying? Misery loves company?
So, so true.... misery loves company :ROFLMAO:. I am sure your story will have a happy ending!

I guess I will follow up with the dealer and see if they can give me my VIN. How long has it taken others to get a VIN? A week or two? I figure since I paid a deposit they kinda owe me an order showing a VIN. Out of curiosity when you do get your order/build sheet it should show my name in the SOLD TO section not the dealer, correct?

Thanks helping me figure it all out!
 
My VIN was 8 days - most peole are saying within a week and some had it in a day or two (someone posted same day - only way I see that happening is he bought one already headed to the dealer)

And on the build sheet? Correct. Once you have the VIN it should change to your name from the dealership name. It should also go from Pending Order to Sold Order in D status and drop from a build priority of 99 to 01-10

(never did get an email though. Dealer sent me the info.)
 
Back
Top