Say Hello to Renny the Red Renegade!!

Cindy and I have been wanting an all new 2015 Jeep BU Renegade since we first heard about the prospect of them becoming a reality well over two years ago. During that time, we had been patiently waiting for them to be released and for a time, it almost seemed like it was never going to happen. Well, just when we were about to give up on ever getting one, they FINALLY made it over to U.S. showrooms and after dealing with a few misfires, we finally found what we were looking for at Sahara Jeep in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Unlike Tobin Prestige, a dealership in Las Vegas who wanted to stick it to me for more than $2,000 over MSRP on a Trailhawk that had ZERO options and claiming they had the "only" Renegade in the State of Nevada or Lithia Jeep in Reno who's idea of Costco Membership special pricing to mean MSRP, Sahara Jeep had an up front, "no-haggle" price and it was a real deal. While Cindy and I had originally wanted an Alpine White Trailhawk with MySky, there simply was nothing available for 800 miles and ordering one would have taken well over 4 months to get, or so we were told. Colorado Red was our second choice and what we did like about the one Sahara Jeep had was that it came with everything else we wanted minus the color and MySky. After giving it a lot of thought and coming to terms with the fact that we will be running a roof rack with this Jeep, we figured we could make this work. Needless to say, I made a call, got talking to Harold Elam, Jr. and got the ball rolling.

Here's a pic of that Harold sent me of our new Jeep Renegade sitting on their showroom floor.


With the exception of MySky, the 6.5 Nav system and leather seats, this otherwise fully loaded Jeep Renegade Trailhawk came up to $29,374.00. There were a few additional charges that Sahara Jeep tacked on including $399.00 for front and rear window tinting, $188.50 for Data Dot DNA and $599.00 for their aftermarket KARR ALARM. This brought the price to $30,560.50 but they were offering a $1,011.00 discount and that brought the final price to $29,549.50. Being that Cindy and I liked the window tinting, we were willing to be understanding about its addition and being that the Data Dot DNA was only $188.50, we were willing to turn a blind eye to it but the KARR ALARM was kind of a joke to us and asked to have it taken off. Fortunately, Harold was willing to do that and that brought us to $28,950.50 and with the addition of a 0.9% for 36 months Jeep financing incentive that was only going on till March 31st, we had a deal.

For those of you who are interested, here's a shot of our window sticker so that you can see what all we got.


Here's a shot of our Renegade sitting outside and ready to go on it's first test drive.


This thing is way more hi-tech than any Jeep we've ever owned and it took some getting used to.


By the time we packed up and headed out the door, it was already noon and we wouldn't arrive in Las Vegas until just after 7:00 PM. But, thanks to getting everything squared away online and by phone ahead of time, it would only take about an hour and a half to get our keys in hand and on our way. There were no surprises, everything went like clockwork and our overall Jeep buying experience was surprisingly good. In fact, I would have to give Harold and his associate George big props for not jerking me around and making the whole process go as smoothly as it did. If anyone in the Las Vegas area is looking for a Jeep, I would highly recommend you give Sahara Jeep a call.

It's a done deal! Getting ready to take Renny home.




After spending the night at the in-laws, it was time to leave Sin City and start our 500 mile trek back to Carson City.



Getting acquainted with some of the new tech on this new Jeep.


Having a BLAST with Rubicat on the way home.


Rubicat taking Renny out on dirt for the very first time.


Perfect together just like ketchup and mustard.





A couple of solo shots.








After driving 194.8 miles into a headwind and with the cruise control set at 77 MPH, Rubicat had to pump in 18.5 gallons of gas where as Renny only had to pump in 8.2 gallons.




While not stellar, you can clearly see that our new Jeep Renegade got more than double the MPG that our JK did going at the same speed and driving into a headwind.


At home at last and over 500 miles later, we were able to average over 25 MPG. Considering we were cruising at just under 80 MPH the whole time and into a headwind, we were quite pleased with the results.


So, after driving our new Renegade around town and on the highway for over 500 miles, here's what I can tell you. Cindy and I LOVE our new Renegade. It is without question a lot of fun to drive, very maneuverable, turns on a dime, corners well, surprisingly roomy inside, very comfortable, crazy quite compared to a JK and the 9-speaker sound system sounds great! While we would have preferred a manual transmission, the new 9-speed automatic that come standard on Trailhawks is really nice. Shifting is smooth and to the point where you can hardly tell it's shifting at all. The BEST part about it is the manual bump shift it comes with as it's way more intuitive than the one that comes on the JK. Once you shift it over to manual, you can drop and climb clears simply by pushing up or down on the shifter. It's very responsive and in a lot of ways, it really does make the transmission feel and perform like a manual. In fact, if you just leave your transmission in DRIVE, it can feel a bit lethargic especially if you're needing to get up and go to pass on a 2-lane highway but with the bump shift, you can really kick the 2.4L Tigershark motor to life.

If there is a downside to the Renegade that I can pick out in a hurry, it would definitely be the color of the A-pillar interior cladding. It really should have been black in color like the rest of the interior instead of white as it's all I was looking at the first time I got in the Jeep. And, being that all new vehicles have to have such big A-pillars for safety, they literally can feel like you're staring at tree trunks until you get used to them. Still, that's just a minor point that I can think of for now. We'll have to do a bit more testing to give you all a better run down on things.

For the little bit of time we spent on dirt, what Cindy and I both noticed is how comfortable the ride was even with the tires running at street pressure. Without question, most of this is due to the very thing that'll hurt it on the rocks and that would be it's IFS/IRS suspension. Of course, for anyone who will be using a Renegade to just get out on forest trails or exploring the desert, I think they will find the Renegade to do all that they need and do it comfortably.

We will be sure to take a TON more pics of everything and try to give you all as much of a detailed run down of anything we find so please check back with us again soon.

 

Looks good. Other than driving it, what are your plans for it?

 

Congrats!! Can't wait to see this. CC S&G for stock SUV's? For once I wouldn't feel like a tool.

 

Congrats on getting Renny!

 

Thanks everyone, we're so excited to have it!!

We definitely want to run a small lift and more aggressive tires. Definitely want a roof rack as well so that we can carry a bit more gear. Looking forward to taking it out on some of our desert exploring trips.

Surprisingly, there's a TON of room in the Renegades especially when it comes to head room. I'll have to take some measurements and post up about it.

 

Okay from seat to ceiling (lowest point to the highest), the Renegade measures about 39" and my JK only measures about 38" so there's actually a bit more head room on the Renegade. From the back seat up right to the back of the front seat, this measurement will differ from person to person based on how they have their front seat set but doing an apples to apples comparison of me in the Renegade and then me in my JK, I measured 1" more space in the Renegade as well. Of course, this is to say nothing about how much more comfortable the seats in the Renegade are.

 

Hmmm. Toss on a snorkel and you'll have an overland rig.

 

LOL!! So true