There are so many ways this could have been wrong, or terrible, or downright embarrassing to watch. But Tag Sethi’s YouTube rap about buying a Jeep Grand Cherokee that turned out to be a lemon is actually hilarious, and I’m having trouble getting it out of my head.
It’s also absolutely scathing, and judging from the hits it’s getting, something Jeep will not be happy about.
Sethi is Australian, and in the video description he says he bought a brand new Grand Cherokee in 2013 for $60,000 Australian. He says he’s had “a number of issues” and that the Jeep has been towed several times. He claims his dealership, and Fiat Chrysler Australia, “basically told [him] to bugger off.”
Unable to redress his claims through official channels—and Australia has no lemon laws, unlike the United States—Sethi did what any normal, rational person would do in 2015: he made a YouTube rap about it.
A surprisingly catchy and well-produced one at that. (The background music comes from this song by Redfoo, one of the guys from LMFAO, if you need to give yourself a flashback to 2011 for any reason.) My favorite part is the bridge around the 3 minute mark:
TECH:
It’s the road condition, sir, that made it pull to the left
Potholes, speed humps and all of the rest
Sir, there’s nothing we can really do about it
SETHIL
But in your TV ad it’s driving up a fucking mountain!
Ouch.
Jalopnik reached out to officials from Fiat Chrysler in the U.S. to ask if they have any information about this case, or a response to Sethi’s video. We have not heard back yet and will update this story when and if we do.
Catchiness aside, it’s not clear whether Sethi’s claims are true, but it wouldn’t be surprising if they were. Recently Jeep was ranked toward the bottom of Consumer Reports’ reliability rankings, again, and Fiat Chrysler’s profits just took a huge 90 percent hit thanks to recalls. The company’s been having a tough time in that department, even if you wouldn’t know it from the record-breaking sales numbers.
Contact the author at patrick@jalopnik.com.