Quote:
Originally Posted by fielderLS3
I am just as irked about the Explorer turning into a glorified mini-van. At least with the trailblazer, they didn't try to recycle the name. It's worse for Jeep, though. That brand has a 70 year history behind it that is being sold short. Explorer and trailblazer were only around for about 20 and 10 years respectively, and those were just individual model names, not an entire brand.
I don't see why they need to do this to the Jeep brand to keep it alive. Why can't the Grand Cherokee and Wrangler survive on their own? How does the existence of a badge engineered Dart as a Jeep, which shares nothing but name alone with those vehicles make them more viable as individual models?
CAFE applies to all of Chrysler in general, not individual brands. So why not sell the Dart as just a Dodge instead of diluting Jeep with it and forcing Chrysler's individual brands to compete against each other? I know all companies badge engineer, but this is one of the worst forms of it. If they want another brand to badge engineer with that badly, why not make a Chrysler version of these FWD Dodges...(actually Fiats).
It should be called the Compliance....or the Surrender.  |
LOL, some good points, but 1 high mileage car would not cover all the Chrysler brands and the more they have the more High performance cars (Charger, Challenger, Viper, 300) and SUVs (GC, Wrangler, Durango) they can continue to build. It is alo mrketing too. They could have made it a Dodge, but it wouldn't carry the SUV name recognition Jeep does. It is very possible that some versions of this may be extremely capable offroad. Heck my Patriot surprised me MANY times when taking the dogs in the hills for a nice run and it was just the basic 4WD/AWD. It's kind of like how the 84 Cherokee and then Grand Cherokee bucked trends going unibody, and the newest Range Rover/Land Rover models have much more in common with cars than trucks and they still do great offroad and no one says they don't live up to their heritage. It's a changing world and manufacters that don't change with it will be left behind. Yes the looks leave something to be desired in the CHerokee, then the Nissan juke doesn't seem to have a problem finding customers. They are all over the place here..