The Jeep Renegade, the bouncy little cute-ute from Chrysler that is essentially a Fiat 500X with a butch side, is going to visit the State Fair of Texas as part of a rolling exhibit showcasing new vehicles. Raise your hands if you see this ending very, very badly for Chrysler. I can hear some of the snickering from the crowds now.
Texans and trucks just go together, in a way that defies comparison. I could make cracks about it, but it’s truth. Silverados, Rams, and F-150s are bread-and-butter vehicles. Some are for play but a good amount of those vehicles get worked. Jeeps are nice toys, but even they are expected to live up to a certain image: CJ-7, good; Liberty, not so much. And trying to get Texans interested in the Renegade at the state fair, the largest in the United States, that sees three million visitors over is the winning idea? I don’t know about that. The Renegade has almost nothing that would appeal to any Texan I’ve ever met. It’s tiny and cute. It’s got “easter egg” details meant to keep Millenials entertained, I’m not sure. It’s made in Italy, for Pete’s sake! It isn’t even American! It might have had a starting chance if it came with one of the diesels that are available in the world market, but currently the Renegade is only getting the same four-cylinder engines that we get in the Dodge Dart.
Chrysler is bringing other vehicles as well. The Dodge Charger and Challenger Hellcat should be hits, as well as the Ram 1500 EcoDiesel. The Ram ProMaster and ProMaster city might stir up a few looks since they are new. The Chrysler 200 is a decent enough looker that it should hold it’s own, and the other vehicle: A Fiat 500 1957 Edition. I have no words for this one.
I understand that Chrysler is getting out there and showcasing the new models to a large audience. But am I the only one who is wondering if they could possibly benefit from a study of regional tastes. The vehicles that they brought seem more in tune for the Northeast: One truck, two work vans, a midsize sedan, two musclecars (one coupe, one sedan), a compact car and a …I hate calling it this…a compact crossover. Doesn’t seem appropriate for the land of wide spaces and 80 MPH highways, does it? The EcoDiesel, the Charger, Challenger, 200 and maybe the ProMaster work out. But it’s Texas…instead of the two compacts, maybe instead bring some of the Ram Heavy Duty lineup and the Grand Cherokee or Durango? Because I’m pretty sure that the only place in Texas the Renegade will do well at are the rental lots at the airports.
The only thing genuinely worse than anticipating Ferrari becoming American … has been watching JEEP rapidly becoming Italian . Rebadged Dodges masquerading as JEEPs in the past was bad enough . Rebadged FIAT/Alfa built Suzuki SX4’s pretending to be JEEPs in any way shape or form being a step too far and an abject travesty not worthy of the JEEP logo .
BWTM – The truly sad thing about JEEP these days is the fact that there is only one genuine JEEP left in the entire lineup . That being the 2dr/4dr Wrangler . Everything else being either a Mercedes ML Class [ Grand Cherokee ] or as mentioned above a rebadged and re- bodied FIAT/Alfa built Suzuki SX4 .
Whats even sadder though is the abject lack of quality from stem to stern with the only remaining genuine JEEP left . Keeping the likes of myself from even considering one and spending our money elsewhere
About the only way I could see this NOT being an epic fail is if the Renegade turns out to have much better off road capabilities than anyone has suspected, and if they set up a course to prove it.
Chrysler: Build a full size SUV based on the ram 1500 and 2500. Make a short wheelbase and call it the Wagoneer (should look like an update 90s wag), Make a long wheelbase one that looks like a Ram version of the Suburban. I don’t care what the bean counters say, they will sell like hot cakes. I’d drop 60k or so on a Cummins powered, 4×4 version today!
Flame suit on but I like the little bastard. It would make a sweet daily driver. Anyone who thinks anything non-Wrangler is “not a real Jeep” need to realize that Chrysler couldn’t build the Wrangler if it didn’t have things like the Liberty, new Cherokee, etc in their lineup.
The Cute-ute segment is HUGE – without those profits I doubt Jeep could survive. I’ll be honest I’ve never been a Jeep fan. I think they’re over rated and over priced. CJ7’s are cool due to factory V8 power but other than that…meh.
That being said, the wife just bought a new Cherokee. I’ll agree the looks are polarizing but it really is a nice vehicle. Good mpg, good ride, tons of features, best off road capability it its segment, etc. I didn’t buy it because it said “jeep”…I bought it because of the aforementioned reasons!
The best Jeeps were from the AMC era. IMHO, but I agree a car company has to sell a million crap boxes to soccer moms to make a few cool vehicles for us car guys. We’ll complain in a heartbeat that every car isn’t a manual v8 street beast, but very few of us will line up to buy a Hellcat.