Never had a car that took so much to get comfy with. But still some questions. So #1. The engine fan seems to run way too often. Besides being noisy, it takes some power to run. We just had the GX out for a week. Down some mountain passes, so no load on anything. Engine could not have been needing to cool, like if you were pulling a grade. outside temps in the 60's. but the fan kept coming on. Cycled on and off all the way down the grade. Often using compression to keep speed down. Ridiculous to have it come on so much.
#2........We had a small load in the back. Small cooler, a few suitcases, and my 27 yr old son. But it would bottom the suspension regularly in the rear. Felt like no suspension travel. I think the pump was working to keep it level, just not adequate. My pickup might do this, but its just hitting the overload springs, still has plenty of travel left. Is the gX just hitting overloads, or hitting bottom?
#3 the cooling seats........I feel no cool air coming through the holes in the seat. I can feel cool air coming out under the seat, but pretty worthless for cooling my arss.
When cold, you back out of the driveway. When you start out forward, if you let off the gas for a moment, then press the gas pedal again, it slams into gear with major whiplash clunk. Same if you are on a hill, and it trys to roll back a little. When you apply the gas to go forward again, it slams into gear. Very abruptly.
This is a new 2017 Luxery with 2500 miles on it. Had it since Feb.

Comment please...........................

 

I have a 2017 Premium purchased mid April 2017. I have almost 6,000 miles on it. Drove a BMW 5 series prior to that and an Audi Q5.

1. My fan comes on often, especially during first 5 minutes when pulling away from the home. Im used to it. I do find it to be a unique feature of this car but deep down I know the reliability of this truck trumps anything in the BMW line-up and probably most other cars so Im good with the fan. Sounds pretty cool on this truck.

2 I have not experienced this at all but also have not loaded it up.
3. Yup, the air cooled seats are very overrated. Sometimes they do ok, other times they are not worth it.
4. Yup, mine is a bit harsh, abrupt and slams into gear at times exactly how you describe it. I noticed this within the first week. I tried to see if it was driver error, such as shifting to forward while the car is still in rolling reverse but its not me. Even when i come to a full stop, and shift to forward and full stop, it is harsh and abrupt, at times.

 

Thanks for that input. I'm glad its not just me. WE like the GS. The more we have it the better we like it. I wasn't really too sure after a month or so of having it. In many ways its not as much car as I thought it was, in others ways, I think it will prove itself over time. I certainly expect it too. And it better!!!!!!!! Had it on a rocky mild jeep road this last week. Our old 98 Cherokee didn't even flinch on that road. Drove up it like it was paved. The GX struggled in several spots, and I took a small chunk out of the plastic running boards. They are sacrificial anyway, and more rugged than I expected. But its much better at high freeway speeds, more stable. ok trade off for us. Doubt we will do the rock stuff we did with the Cherokee anyway, and I think the GX with a little carful spotting will get us where we like to go, while giving us better highway manners. Still concerned about it bottoming in the rear so easily.

 

The old Grand Cherokee is completely stock, except for load range C tires. Open diff's at both ends. It just keeps the tires on the ground, where the GX couldn't. Some of it might be the poor throttle response on the GX as well. Being electronic, instead of cable, its harder to be smooth with it. I needed to use constant throttle and modulate the brakes much sooner than I am used too. We don't have the crawl control on ours. The larger size of the GX makes it a little harder to pick a good line as well.

I need to crawl under it, and see if it might be just hitting some sort of extra overload, or something. We have a small drainage ditch on our road. It's actually intended to keep the idiots from speeding so much through our quiet neighborhood. So its about 4 inches wide, and probably 6 inches deep. Its pretty abrupt. So I crawl over it, like you should. The gX even at a crawl will hit what feels like its bottoming out. Then almost top out, before settling down again. I have not seen that with any other vehicle. My pick up, if loaded will do something similar, but its just hitting the over load portion of the secondary springs, and still has several inches of travel left.

I guess the fan is normal. I'm just not used to it running so much, doesn't seem necessary, but they must figure it is.

 

I have 2014 GX Luxury. Had few time with pretty heavy load with second seats folded. Have not notice bottom out. Have you checked shock setting? if that might have influenced a bit. As far as the cooled seat, just remember it is just a small fan blowing airs. not the air conditional flow, therefore, if the car had be baking under the hot summer sun, the air that blowing into the seat is about as hot as the interior environment. That is why sometime you just don't feel it does anything at all.

 

For the ventilated seats to work you must have:
1- Fan speed higher than medium
2- Mode (where the air is blowing - for the lack of better word) must be Face & Leg.

I have the same issues as you listed for my '15 Premium.

 

Can't say the fan on my GX bothers me in the slightest, but to each their own I suppose.

No clue on the bottoming out issue, as mine is a Premium with coil springs and it's never bottomed out once. I specifically chose the Premium over the Luxury as I plan to lift my truck and saw no sense in paying for and then removing the rear air springs.

Like others have said, they aren't technically "cooled" seats, they're ventilated. They just blow air, that's all. It's 100% better than nothing, but I had actual cooled seats in the '15 Escalade I got rid of for my GX and those things were quite amazing I must say.

The clunky transmission seems to be a common complaint, and I too have noticed the clunkiness on many occasions. A lot of guys with the older GX470's replace their "lifetime" transmission fluid with something better (AMSOIL seems to be preferred, but seen a few use Royal Purple as well) and claim it works wonders. Wonder what the results would be for us 460 guys???

 

I was told by my dealer to turn on the A/C airflow on the feet, for the air off of the A/C to blow the cold air to your back. The Cooled seats are ONLY a fan taking the inside car temp air and directing to the seat, it is not coming directly off of the A/C unit.

 

I thought there was a post on here somewhere.... I'll look around where someone did a simple and temp mod to redirect the underseat hvac duct upward to increase cooling to the seats.

 

My biggest gripe is the transfer case droning in 5th gear around 2000-2200 RPM...
This is hill climbing RPM on the freeway, and you feel it as an annoying vibration in the gas pedal/floorboard.
Cheapens the overall feel of the ride...

Oh, and I hate the painted plastic trim... and having to use the screen to adjust fan speed....

 

Good point about the seat. I didn't think there was a shock setting on this. Just the air suspension, and it goes to normal at 18 mph. is there something else I missed?