I've gotten over 55K mostly hard street miles out of mine and it's still going strong. The clutch is a definate weak point though, most heavy offroading I've done on trails found in my Wrangler years has smoked it. Now I don't even try to run those trails, that whole "know when to say when" dealio.
But dead at 17K, that's terrible. As for the dealer you're SOL.
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If a man is standing in the middle of the forest speaking and there is no woman around to hear him...is he still wrong?