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Will Jeep ever build a "Car"?

CherBear

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Indiana
It might sound crazy, but hear me out...



Examine the trend that Jeep has been taking over the last couple of years. I think their first big step into this "soft-roader" rut was when they canceled the Cherokee and made the Liberty. It's rounder, bubbly, and looks like a 16 year old cheer leader would love one for her birthday. Then look where we have gone, the Grand Cherokees are loosing their solid axles, and to top it off; Jeep is producing two vehicles that they themselves say aren't "Trail rated".

20 years ago this would seem unthinkable. Jeep was always thought of the utility vehicle, go anywhere, do anything type. Now it has been degraded to cross branded mall crawlers.

You still might think it would seem insane for Jeep to produce a car, but what sort of market segment they are trying to capture? Go watch a few Jeep ads and you will see them driving around the country side enjoying the wondrous views, blah blah blah.

Besides Hummer (which is dead in the water at this point), who else markets to these types of people...?

Subaru.

Yes, rally cars, rally racing. All that cool stuff. How many of you would also want an WRX?

I think Jeep is going to build a Rally Car.

Is it that hard to imagine? Heck, the Compass already has a trim level called "Rallye". Have you ever heard of the Jeep Varsity? That was a concept CAR. Linky

This is what is going to happen. Mopar is going to grab some 4 door sports car from the Chrysler family tree, slap a turbo 4 cylinder SRT type engine in it. Add 4wd, do some suspension work and call it a day. Sounds cool right?

Well it would be, but Im sure it would end up like the Compass and Patriot and turn into some watered down version that no one likes but they sell anyways to expand their market appeal.


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Heck, the Compass already has a trim level called "Rallye".

...

Compass and Patriot and turn into some watered down version that no one likes but they sell anyways to expand their market appeal.
They already did, you mentioned both of them.

Also look at the XJ prototypes from the 70s and early 80s and tell me those don't look kinda like cars.

Nothing new here really...

I've been saying this for a while - unless it has straight axles front & rear and a transfer case I am uninterested. I'll build my own vehicle before I buy the current crop of crap.
 
I think the Compass aberration is close enough to qualify as a car, so I believe that is covered. I'd be surprised if Jeep did not take over the mini van market, however. That might actually be cool if they design it right, taking the practical internal features of a mini van and mounting it to the JK frame....and maybe throwing on a Mall Rated sticker.
 
There are actually a couple of very well built "Eagles" here in town!
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There are actually a couple of very well built "Eagles" here in town!
14338791887.272595896.IM1.MAIN.565x421_A.565x377.jpg

Beat me to it, I came in here just to bring up the AMC Eagle. If Jeep is AMC, and the Eagle is AMC, then surely we can say an Eagle is a Jeep right? :D

I would love to have one of those... all of the standard Jeep stuff swaps into it. Get a 4.0L, AX15, NP231 and go haul ass over some stuff!
 
I was very disappointed that they didn't have a turbo option on the compass, like they did in the caliber srt-4. I don't like the srt-4 because its 285hp with front wheel drive.

NOW... If Jeep offered a compass in rallye trim, with a manual transmission, AWD, and that 285HP turbo... THEN I'd be interested.
 
I think the Compass aberration is close enough to qualify as a car, so I believe that is covered. I'd be surprised if Jeep did not take over the mini van market, however. That might actually be cool if they design it right, taking the practical internal features of a mini van and mounting it to the JK frame....and maybe throwing on a Mall Rated sticker.

haha hell yeah. Something like the SV line of forward control! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeep_FC
 
Also, the Compass and the Patriot are the MK49 and MK74 iirc... what does MK stand for? I think it stands for Mall Krawler.
 
Dunno about that, in ten years when XJ/MJ parts are rare in the junkyards and I'm keeping mine around for fun/history, I can see myself in a decent used JK.
 
I think Jeep started going down that road when they made the XJ :eyes:

First unibody Jeep, designed for soccer moms who wanted/needed some ruggedness built in...Look at it, in stock form it's hard to deny it's intended use on fire roads, snowy pavement, etc etc. Small wheel openings, front and rear sway bars, unibody, first compact SUV available with 4 doors, and so on.
 
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