"Jeep is about capability off-road"

sleeve84028 · **Posted:** Thu Oct 11, 2007 3:37 pm

Jim press speaks to the crowd at the national dealer event in Las Vegas and he mentions:

Quote:

Chrysler's entire model range will be rationalized, but not necessarily made smaller. "We have models that overlap. That's not very efficient. But we also have markets where we don't have products."

* "I was just kidding about hybrids all that time [at Toyota]." Actually, he wasn't. Chrysler will introduce two-mode hybrid versions of its large SUVs (using the same technology as GM) and he wants more. "Eventually everything will be a hybrid."

* More diesels are coming, too. "Mercedes-Benz will continue to supply us with diesel engines."

* SRT is an important piece of the business. "What Chrysler gets is there are some people who don't want to drive an appliance." But the company needs to focus on the mainstream, too. "A lot of people do [want to drive an appliance] and we have to build better appliances for them."

* Jeep is not about crossovers. "Jeep is a bulletproof brand. Jeep is about capability off-road, so there should be less using the Jeep brand name to pass off less-than-Jeep product."

The whole story can be read here

Discuss.... (with civililty the possibilities of those words)

hyedipin · **Joined:** Thu May 11, 2006 10:20 am **Posts:** 1667

KJ CRD has Benz engine? :shock:

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Thu Oct 11, 2007 4:33 pm

hyedipin wrote:

KJ CRD has Benz engine? :shock:

Nope - the Benz engine is the V6 Diesel in the Grands

chefdab · **Posted:** Thu Oct 11, 2007 4:53 pm

sleeve84028 wrote:

Jim press speaks to the crowd at the national dealer event in Las Vegas and he mentions:

Quote:

Chrysler's entire model range will be rationalized, but not necessarily made smaller. "We have models that overlap. That's not very efficient. But we also have markets where we don't have products."

* "I was just kidding about hybrids all that time [at Toyota]." Actually, he wasn't. Chrysler will introduce two-mode hybrid versions of its large SUVs (using the same technology as GM) and he wants more. "Eventually everything will be a hybrid."

* More diesels are coming, too. "Mercedes-Benz will continue to supply us with diesel engines."

* SRT is an important piece of the business. "What Chrysler gets is there are some people who don't want to drive an appliance." But the company needs to focus on the mainstream, too. "A lot of people do [want to drive an appliance] and we have to build better appliances for them."

* Jeep is not about crossovers. "Jeep is a bulletproof brand. Jeep is about capability off-road, so there should be less using the Jeep brand name to pass off less-than-Jeep product."

The whole story can be read here

Discuss.... (with civililty the possibilities of those words)

Your link to the article took me to the post new topic page on this board.

jason thompson · **Posted:** Thu Oct 11, 2007 6:03 pm

sleeve84028 wrote:

Jim press speaks to the crowd at the national dealer event in Las Vegas and he mentions:

Quote:

* Jeep is not about crossovers. "Jeep is a bulletproof brand. Jeep is about capability off-road, so there should be less using the Jeep brand name to pass off less-than-Jeep product."

WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP
if they were "about capability off-road" they would have NEVER made the 2wd wrangler
they are about the all mighty dollar end of it
this is what they are in the business of making

Albert · **Posted:** Thu Oct 11, 2007 6:28 pm

jason thompson wrote:

sleeve84028 wrote:

Jim press speaks to the crowd at the national dealer event in Las Vegas and he mentions:

Quote:

* Jeep is not about crossovers. "Jeep is a bulletproof brand. Jeep is about capability off-road, so there should be less using the Jeep brand name to pass off less-than-Jeep product."

WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP
if they were "about capability off-road" they would have NEVER made the 2wd wrangler
they are about the all mighty dollar end of it
this is what they are in the business of making

I guess we will see....I never understood why they make 2wd wranglers and I have never seen one. The last time I was at the dealer he pleaded with me to know if anyone I know was looking for a 2wd p/u truck. They have a couple on the lot for 6 months and can't sell them while they can't keep a 4wd one on on the lot. They just come in and are sold. And those are not Jeeps. Nobody wants a 2wd p/u never mind a 2wd Jeep. Why, up here (Upstate NY) you would get laughed out of town with a 2wd Jeep anyway.

I guess I can understand (sorta) a 2wd KJ or XJ but they don't sell those here either, but a 2wd Wrangler is a sacrilege..........just my opinion..

But that said, they do need to have other products to sell to make money and stay in the market.

sleeve84028 · **Posted:** Thu Oct 11, 2007 6:34 pm

Sorry about the link.. it's corrected.

Fulltimer · **Posted:** Thu Oct 11, 2007 6:49 pm

Here in NE Florida I tried to buy a 4WD Liberty. There wasn't any anywhere! All the dealers had was 2WD. This was in 05 and I was still going full time with the motorhome. We stopped in Texas for a couple of weeks and they had tons of 4WD and no 2WD!! They told me that they couldn't sell a 2WD Jeep product. Myself, I don't think Jeep should even make anything in 2WD. That isn't what people envision when they hear Jeep. But, I'm sorry to say that MOST of the KJ's here are 2WD.

Terry

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Thu Oct 11, 2007 6:56 pm

What part of Texas had 4wds??? - Austin it's mainly 2wd

Guest · **Posted:** Thu Oct 11, 2007 7:26 pm

Albert wrote:

jason thompson wrote:

sleeve84028 wrote:

Jim press speaks to the crowd at the national dealer event in Las Vegas and he mentions:

Quote:

* Jeep is not about crossovers. "Jeep is a bulletproof brand. Jeep is about capability off-road, so there should be less using the Jeep brand name to pass off less-than-Jeep product."

WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP
if they were "about capability off-road" they would have NEVER made the 2wd wrangler
they are about the all mighty dollar end of it
this is what they are in the business of making

I guess we will see....I never understood why they make 2wd wranglers and I have never seen one. The last time I was at the dealer he pleaded with me to know if anyone I know was looking for a 2wd p/u truck. They have a couple on the lot for 6 months and can't sell them while they can't keep a 4wd one on on the lot. They just come in and are sold. And those are not Jeeps. Nobody wants a 2wd p/u never mind a 2wd Jeep. Why, up here (Upstate NY) you would get laughed out of town with a 2wd Jeep anyway.

I guess I can understand (sorta) a 2wd KJ or XJ but they don't sell those here either, but a 2wd Wrangler is a sacrilege..........just my opinion..

But that said, they do need to have other products to sell to make money and stay in the market.

First 2wd Wrangler is the '07 Unlimited. the 2 door JK's are all 4x4s...but there IS a market for a two-door four-door Wrangler. if you don't believe it, go down south. How many people wheel SUV's, even Wranglers? pretty much 1% , and I'm betting 1/2 of that 1% are Wrangler owners. I bet that 75% of Wranglers will EVER go off road in their entire lives. there are 20 year old YJ's and 30 year old CJ's that have seen no more dirt than a gravel driveway...why do they need 4wd? they don't! Heck, I RARELY see a fullsize 73-91 (box style) Chevy pickup with 8 or more inches of lift that even HAS a front driveshaft! what's the point?

Also, do you have any idea how RARE a 4wd ZJ, WJ, or XJ is in the south? seriously! nobody buys them because there's NO SNOW, which is the reason 99% of people buy a 4x4 in the first place. A girl I dated when I lived in Memphis gave me crap for driving a "girls Jeep". Know what she had? a 2wd 2.5L XJ. With an auto.

the 2wd Wrangler is so people can buy a pavement pounder in which to look cool and offroady and trendy, and then in 10 years you and I can go buy it for dirt cheap, and snag a D30 front and a t-case and transmission from a wrecked 4x4 and have a SUPER CLEAN shiny JK to beat the hell out of.

Gopher · **Posted:** Thu Oct 11, 2007 8:52 pm

There's a lot of 2wd Jeeps down here in Houston. I was talking to a fella at my local dealership and he said we can pretty much blame Toyota for Jeep making 2wd Wranglers. Toyota had so much success with their Prerunner package that the auto industry took notice. Toyota made a killing selling vehicles that look 4wd machines, but don't have all the extra weight to carry around and get the better gas mileage of the 2wd. That's pretty much it. Thunderbird hit it on the nose: they look cool and trendy. The other day on campus some girl put her Grand Cherokee into the ditch outside the gas station. She had to get pulled out by a bunch of the corps. Why? Because it was 2wd and she couldn't get traction. Talk about effin sad.

KJ4ME · **Posted:** Thu Oct 11, 2007 10:55 pm

the hybrid technology that chrysler will use on their durango/aspen is also shared with BMW as well as GM, however BMW has no intentions on using the technology in the short term. would be cool to see an X5 Hybrid i think!

Guest · **Posted:** Thu Oct 11, 2007 11:17 pm

I do think he is talking about where Jeep will GO unser new ownership & his leadership. Yeah, there have been 2WD Jeeps in the past, but they also just put out the compass... & he just made a HUGE admission that Jeep has no place for cross-overs. It's about the future, not the past or even the present.

JL Rockies · **Posted:** Fri Oct 12, 2007 12:39 am

I am not down with hybrid technology. A lot of companies are spending a lot of time on this because of the high price of fuel. One statistic says that Hybrid technology can cut our consumption by 1/3. The problem is, they expect the amount of vehicles on the road will increase by 1/3 in 10 years. Basically, we will be right back where we started from because of the amount of cars on the road.
I wish we can get more diesels on the market and use all this Hybrid time and money developing some non-fossil-fuel alternative.

JHCRASH · **Posted:** Fri Oct 12, 2007 1:25 am

I agree they should consentrate hybrid money on hydrogen vehicles or something not a hybrid that doesent help anymore than a diesel.

wildrussian · **Posted:** Fri Oct 12, 2007 6:24 am

jason thompson wrote:

sleeve84028 wrote:

Jim press speaks to the crowd at the national dealer event in Las Vegas and he mentions:

Quote:

* Jeep is not about crossovers. "Jeep is a bulletproof brand. Jeep is about capability off-road, so there should be less using the Jeep brand name to pass off less-than-Jeep product."

WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP
if they were "about capability off-road" they would have NEVER made the 2wd wrangler
they are about the all mighty dollar end of it
this is what they are in the business of making

I think KJpilot nailed it right, Chrysler guy was talking about the future, what they are going to do. They will quit using Jeep brand for crappy vehicles and concentrate on offroad capabilities.

sleeve84028 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 12, 2007 6:51 am

KJpilot wrote:

I do think he is talking about where Jeep will GO.

Jim Press is the new President of Chrysler. He hopes, IMO, to return Jeep to it's former glory of off-road / adventurous vehicles without being too watered down. Mind you, I love my Liberty but it would have been awesome if Jeep truely did offer a SFA version of it right off the showroom floor.

Instead of trail rated - maybe Jeeps can just be Jeeps. And all of them will have to handle their own degree of "trail difficulty."

I think if we all wait for a couple years, this guy could really save Jeep from Chrysler

Tokyojoe · **Posted:** Fri Oct 12, 2007 11:36 am

Jeep is not about crossovers. "Jeep is a bulletproof brand. Jeep is about capability off-road, so there should be less using the Jeep brand name to pass off less-than-Jeep product."

Ummmm....so why did they make the COMPASS?

KW AV8R · **Posted:** Fri Oct 12, 2007 11:52 am

I totally agree that he was talking about where Jeep will go in the future. The Compass came out after it was too late for the new ownership to stop it (if not before the new ownership took over). I have high hopes for Jeep in the future even if that opinion is based solely off of the new Jeep ads (the ones promoting Jeep's heritage).

We shall see ....

Joe Jeep Owner · **Posted:** Fri Oct 12, 2007 12:38 pm

All smoke and mirrors, they will come out with what is popular at that time or what is selling best...I agree wildrussian, it's all about the mighty dollar in the end. They will have the Wranglers for those who want to offroad (including 2wd based on geo location) and continue to make whatever is "hot" or "trendy" at the time (or lean towards that market). Sales drop off on a particular model, they will change/re-design it or come up with something new. It is what it is, they are in business to make money.

"Jeep is about capability off-road"

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