Jeep's 5 Year Plan

12KK SFD · **Posted:** Tue May 06, 2014 10:56 am

Interesting bit of information released today. I, myself, am curious about the Grand Wagoneer and refreshed Grand Cherokee. The Wrangler update will be interesting, too.

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/05/06/jeep ... ew-models/

Bmxer524 · **Posted:** Tue May 06, 2014 3:38 pm

The way Fiat is changing Jeep I have a feeling the new Wrangler won't be liftable.... BUT they might be smarter than that. Let's face it, if they continue this "unliftable" trend to the new Wrangler the Jeep brand will be killed. Sure you'll have the soccer moms buy them, but the wheelers and Jeep lovers will most likely never return to the brand.

12KK SFD · **Posted:** Tue May 06, 2014 3:53 pm

I would hope they would keep certain vehicles (ie. the Wrangler) true to their core while also offering vehicles that appeal to the masses. They seem to have a good direction in mind with Dodge, Ferrari and Maserati. Hopefully they have the same mindset with Jeep.

LKWJeeper · **Posted:** Tue May 06, 2014 8:21 pm

Idk Jeep seems to try and become a luxury brand. I think if Jeep still makes wheelable vehicles very few will actually do it. How many people would wheel a 35k vehicle.

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silverkk · **Joined:** Mon Feb 04, 2013 12:27 pm **Posts:** 637

I'm excited for those three also

Bmxer524 · **Posted:** Tue May 06, 2014 9:53 pm

LKWJeeper wrote:

Idk Jeep seems to try and become a luxury brand. I think if Jeep still makes wheelable vehicles very few will actually do it. How many people would wheel a 35k vehicle.

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Every JK owner that wheels their JK does, we wheel our KKs and they come in at 30k. I think Fiat is doing great things for Chrysler....I just think they fail for Jeep. I understand what they're doing and they're doing great, but Jeep is known as being offroad capable. They still are in their own way, but that offroad look comes with the wheeling territory. Even if you don't wheel, you want to get the look. That means lifting and bigger, more aggressive tires. That is where I believe Fiat is failing Jeep. Why build a "Jeep" when you can't lift it and give it a more aggressive look?

LKWJeeper · **Posted:** Fri May 09, 2014 4:05 pm

Fiat is turning Jeep into Subaru.. Something that is good in bad weather, but thats about it..

JeepCoMj · **Joined:** Fri Feb 22, 2013 11:54 pm **Posts:** 161

You people are all so far from average jeep people you cant compare.

Jeeps are worthless until they are years old as far as lifting...at least to more than half of the people who lift them. That gives enough time for lifts to become affordable.

Even wrangler guys qant them used. This is a brand historically associated with "cheap". As such, people on the whole do not buy a new jeep with intentions of lifting.

Frankly, unless you have money to buy a vehicle up front, modifying it before you have paid off the loan and actually own it is far from reasonable.

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Thu May 15, 2014 1:53 pm

It's only going to get worse and there is nothing you can do about.You can not blame Fiat,like everyone else they are making and selling to turn a profit and attract what the majority wants.Sorry but us 1% group that mods and wheels is far from the majority and they could care less since loosing 1% of our sales is nothing in the big picture.

Nobody to blame but us the consumer since we could not check our tires air pressure(TPMS),learn how to drive(ESP,ABS,traction control),"must have" those power heated and air conditioned seats and steering wheels,blue tooth,ipod intergration,navigation,and something to tell you that your oil needs changing.The stuff the more that will go wrong,sorry but that is a fact and will never change.

Besides real Jeeps are built not bought.

JeepCoMj · **Joined:** Fri Feb 22, 2013 11:54 pm **Posts:** 161

darn right

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Fri May 23, 2014 12:16 am

The new Jeeps may not "look" more off-road friendly, but they have the same, if not better, approach and departure angles as the KJ/KK. The 2014 Wrangler can do more off-road out of the factory than the TJ, YJ, CJ could out of the factory. 4 wheel drive systems have improved. I agree with tjkj2002 in that people also want creature comforts, so Jeep has done a good job offering creature comforts and still remain faithful to the off-road crowd.

jjohnson1892 · **Posted:** Tue May 27, 2014 4:59 pm

tjkj2002 wrote:

Sorry but us 1% group that mods and wheels is far from the majority and they could care less since loosing 1% of our sales is nothing in the big picture.

The only thing I don’t necessarily agree with in your statement (the rest is spot on).

The "1%” (I would hope more) make the brand and lifestyle, which inspires the “99%” to get Jeeps, maybe get them muddy occasionally, etc. If they lose this small group of Jeepers, the brand will diminish, and Jeep will ultimately need to be bailed/rebranded or just die off. And they say marketing didn’t teach me anything in school :wink:

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Tue May 27, 2014 5:07 pm

jjohnson1892 wrote:

The "1%” (I would hope more) make the brand and lifestyle, which inspires the “99%” to get Jeeps, maybe get them muddy occasionally, etc. If they lose this small group of Jeepers, the brand will diminish, and Jeep will ultimately need to be bailed/rebranded or just die off. And they say marketing didn’t teach me anything in school :wink:

Jeep hasn't lost that 1%. Jeep is making more off-road capable vehicles today than ever before. I think some people (including myself) struggle with styling, not so much "capability". From the 2014 lineup, the Wrangler and Patriot are about the only two Jeeps that I'm attracted to in terms of styling.

jjohnson1892 · **Posted:** Wed May 28, 2014 12:47 pm

[quote="dieselenthusiast”] Jeep hasn't lost that 1%. Jeep is making more off-road capable vehicles today than ever before. I think some people (including myself) struggle with styling, not so much "capability". From the 2014 lineup, the Wrangler and Patriot are about the only two Jeeps that I'm attracted to in terms of styling.[/quote]

I didn’t mean it to say that Jeep lost the crucial 1%. I was just pointing out how important they are to Jeep and cannot be ignored, etc.

I’m struggling with the styling, too. Still really interested where technology will come into play in terms of performance and creature comforts in future models though. At this point, I’m happy with my KK as is and probably won’t “upgrade” to a newer Jeep anytime soon (actually missing my truck a lot more nowadays, which isn’t good).

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Wed May 28, 2014 12:59 pm

I'm happy with our '07 KJ and have no plans to sell/trade it. With that being said, I love our Ram Cummins and can't wait until we buy our next 2021 Ram Cummins.

We've been putting away $500 per month so we can pay cash for it!

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed May 28, 2014 2:23 pm

I'll just start buying 02-04 KJs and stock piling them. :wink:

New ones after 05 have too many electronic nonsense devices on them for me. Now if I just needed something to run to the local gas station / convenience store then any of the new ones would work.

carlosburitica · **Joined:** Sat Jan 05, 2013 1:07 pm **Posts:** 309

new wrangle may have a ifs with 14" of travel. i am trying to find the article,

http://blog.bushwacker.com/7461/news/op ... -wrangler/

Bmxer524 · **Posted:** Wed May 28, 2014 3:51 pm

If Jeep makes the new Wrangler have any sort of independent suspension I'll probably be going out to buy a 2016 JKU(new wranglers seem to come out every 10 years). When I think Wrangler I think solid axles.

I won't deny it, I settled on the KK mostly because I couldn't afford a JKU. I've come to love my KK, but it isn't the Wrangler I wanted. I love not having doors or a roof. I like the freedom of it. My problem now is the fact that I don't want to get rid of my KK for a Wrangler. Part is due to how I want to build the JKU(37s) and the fact that you can't run tires over 33x12.5 on our beaches. I could always keep a spare set of tires for the beach, but that gets annoying in the summer. Could you imagine the power you would have when geared for 37s and run 33s? lol

Anyways, JJohnson knows what I mean when I was mentioning the whole offroad look. People see these big built up Jeeps and want that look. Will they ever need what that entails? Probably not. Will they ever wheel the Jeep built like that? Again, probably not. When you start making these "Jeeps" that aren't liftable(ie: KL, WK2 and whatever new Jeeps they might build like that) they lose the ability for that 1% to build a mean rig. When that 1% can't build that rig, people won't see that look they come to like. That will stop people for going to Jeeps.

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Wed May 28, 2014 5:23 pm

I'm not saying it's likely, but it's possible that Jeep could put an IFS in the majority of the Wrangler models, but keep the SFA in the Rubicon or other higher end packaging. Or, they might drop the SFA completely. Generally speaking, IFS rides and handles better. The majority of Wrangler buyers would prefer the on-road comfort that IFS offers. With that said, the majority of Wrangler buyers probably don't know the difference between IFS and SFA. If the Wrangler has plenty of clearance for taller tires, the IFS can be modified and extremely capable on the trail.

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Wed May 28, 2014 9:37 pm

dieselenthusiast wrote:

I'm not saying it's likely, but it's possible that Jeep could put an IFS in the majority of the Wrangler models, but keep the SFA in the Rubicon or other higher end packaging. Or, they might drop the SFA completely. Generally speaking, IFS rides and handles better. The majority of Wrangler buyers would prefer the on-road comfort that IFS offers. With that said, the majority of Wrangler buyers probably don't know the difference between IFS and SFA. If the Wrangler has plenty of clearance for taller tires, the IFS can be modified and extremely capable on the trail.

They'd still complain about death wobble even though you can't get death wobble with IFS.

Jeep's 5 Year Plan

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