I’m new here having just bought the car and I don’t want all my posts to be just questions. So I wrote this, I hope it will be useful to some.
I just bought a 2024 Wilderness. I had thought about ordering the car so it would have all the options I wanted, but the potential wait time didn’t match what I had planned for it over the summer. So I bought the green one in Chicagoland as is and then installed the missing options myself. And the accessories I bought were 20% off at another retailer for a Memorial Day sale, so I ended up saving a lot of money.
First the options I wouldn’t install myself could be done, but that was more work than I wanted to do on a new machine.
1) Factory link. I have installed aftermarket hitch on 3 other cars now. But after watching a video of what was needed to install it in the desert, I decided to pay the dealer to do it and do it right. One of the things I didn’t want to do myself on a brand new car was where you have to cut the bumper cover and then drill holes in the bumper cover and mount a fascia cover over the cut out. A great chance to mess it up on a brand new car. And guess what, the dealer messed it up and has now ordered a replacement bumper cover and will try again next week. I’m glad I spent the money
2) Auto-Dimming Exterior Mirror with Approach Light – again I have installed heated mirrors in other cars but didn’t want to do all the work on a new one.
Now options that anyone can do themselves, saving money and not having to look for a car that has them installed
1) Rear Seat Back Protector – works a little differently in the wild than other models because the velcro it comes with doesn’t attach to the improved material on the back of the back seat in the wilderness, but to it really only holds on with Velcro and bungy cord. Read my thread here on where to put the three loose velcor drives that come in the package and it’s a 10 minute install
2) Cargo sidewall protector – these literally just Velcro on – 5 minute installation
3) Desert mud flaps – I was disappointed that the design on them wasn’t embedded deeper and it really doesn’t stand out like in the picture, but installation is easy. There are no holes to drill, you just need to drill some push type clips (pins) and then put the clips in place and push the new clips that come with them. There, the rear comes with a small brace, but it’s just held in place with the push clamps – all four in less than half an hour if you figure out which pins go before starting.
4) The cross bars – I’m putting it on today – did a little prep work inside the house yesterday and I expect it will take about 15 minutes to put them on today. – The factory ones were expensive and I did a very small amount of research on other options, but when they went on sale for 20% off for three days only, I wasn’t done researching what else would fit, so I just i got the factory ones as i knew they would fit, were quality parts, would look good and now on sale would be in the same price range as everything else.
So again my advice as I have just been through it myself, don’t waste your time ordering your car or looking for one with these options on it, just buy the color you want that is on sale and has the exterior mirrors (they all did what I saw), then order the other options you want (lots of discounts online) and install them yourself.
