The last time I posted something about the upcoming Jeep Renegade cute-ute, I made it clear that it was the furthest thing possible from what a Jeep stood for. It’s tiny, underpowered, low, plasticky…the list goes on and on. It looks like a newer Tonka toy instead of the Jeep that we all picture in our minds. Even so, somewhere in the back of my mind, I had hope: maybe, just maybe, I was wrong enough. Maybe instead of catering to a hipster crowd, or to college girls, or whoever buys cute-utes, maybe the little bastard will actually surprise me. Last time it happened, I saw a Jeep Liberty rock crawling with a mild lift kit. Didn’t say it’d be great from the factory, just that there would be hope.
This is the first commercial I have seen for the Renegade. Does it go off-road? Yes, but let me assure you, I’ve done more hard-core off-roading in my Imperial than that little squirt will EVER do. Dirt roads? Yawn. Snow? Meh. Hell, the Renegade didn’t even get sideways when it tried to do a donut…and if that isn’t an epic fail, I don’t know what is.
Judge for yourself. I’ll be in a quiet spot using the kind of language I can’t print here.
jeep officially died the year my grand cherokee was built. 2004. end of the four liter, end of jeep. indy front and rear axles? nah im good. fwd platforms? shared platforms with sedans? german and then italian takeovers? ill keep mine alive for another 150k before i buy a new anything with the jeep name on it.
did I read correctly??? 9 (NINE) speed automatic? uh… why? nothing to do with the car, its like everything else in this ad (and so many other new car ads these days) its just bullshit to impress hipsters who couldn’t give a rats ass about actual car stuff… theres a Ford Focus ad they show here ( Aust) and the ONLY feature it talks about is that you can voice command the stereo to play a track. That’s it. Nothing about the engine, trans or anything else to do with the car – it could have a 1 cylinder air cooled motor for all you’d know….
If it can get 35+ mpg , park in a compact car parking spot in the parking garage and be powered by a turbo diesel, damn Skippy I would drive one
Thats cause you’re more concerned with the Badge and the Status you’re hoping for it to impart upon you rather than reality . Which is …. that everyone that does KNOW will think you’re a wanker of the first order for being dumb enough to have paid good money for a genuine POS .
e.g. Not only will that JEEP badge on the snout Not make up for your perceived anatomical lacks ….. In fact it’ll be proof positive to everyone that you are ….. somewhat lacking in the family jewels department that is .
#1 Its not even a JEEP . What it is is a rebadged FIAT which in fact is a rebadged Suzuki SX4 built by FIAT for the EU market in a former Soviet Block country
#2 So in light of those facts . Why in the ___ would you or anyone else Mr McT even so much as assume Off Roading would be a part of FCA JEEP’s marketing campaign ? Simply put ….. it aint [ a JEEP ] …. it can’t [ go off road ] so they’re not [ marketing it as an Off Road vehicle ]
#3 Ahhh … but so y’all think this is an abomination of the JEEP brand ?
Ha ! Y’all aint seen nuthin yet ! Just wait’ll you see what Stronzetto [ look it up ] Marchionne has waiting in the wings . Like a quick preview ?
Errr ….. Sure y’all can handle it ? The Truth that is ? Try a Unibody JEEP Wrangler based on … you guessed it … the very same FIAT/Suzuki .
Better yet ? Assuming Stronzetto gets his way ? All JEEP production and manufacturing …. and I do mean ALL … to leave the US within the next 5 – 10 years . Assuming that is Marchionne and FCA still even exist .
Best [ and only ] hope ? Pray to whatever god you bow down to that FCA’s financial difficulties will force them to sell off JEEP to someone who’ll actually give a damn
Ecco . Va bene . Basta . Ciao
From one who actually Does Know 😉
PS; Ahhh … but if its any ” Small Source of Comfort ” to y’all ….
TATA [ Jaguar/Land Rover’s owner ] is doing the very same to the Land/Range Rover brand . Off Road becoming a thing of the past . The Hipster , Suburban Soccer Mom , Chelsea Tractor crowd , Urban Off Road Wanna Be bunch being who their cars designs and engineering are aimed at as well .
So for those wanting Off Road ? Buy up them there JK’s new and used despite all their reliability woes ASAP . Cause in truth . Off Road JEEPs days are severely numbered
Welcome to JEEPs Soft Roader future … or not ….
Fellow BangShifters, very few people (some, but FEW) actually take a new Jeep off road. I don’t care how many of you reply to my post stating how much you off-road your brand-new Jeep. You are the minority. The numbers are the numbers.
So, to make FCA’s business case, and, frankly, make the Jeep brand stronger which makes the company stronger… they are going to build 1 million Jeeps per year. Some of them will be Jeeps that you don’t like (like this one). But you DO want young people “liking” the Jeep name and being familiar with the brand. Trust me, you want this. Even if it makes you whine like… a hipster.
What happens when there are millions of Jeeps being made every year? More aftermarket companies focus their attention on them (besides just the off road parts crowd). When that happens, your voice as an enthusiast means more, believe it or not. They will be like Chevys. You can get anything you want for a Chevy. Owning a Camaro does not mean you have to like the Volt.
Just kind-of a disappointing dilution of the brand name. They could call whatever-they’re-building anything, but to help sell vehicles and get the college girls into the Jeep-labelled showrooms, they’re calling these “Jeeps”. As if the way to sell a million four-door econoboxes would be to call them Corvettes, and then they could also say they sold a million Corvettes and that was good for the brand. Of course when a foreign group with no respectable U.S. history owns the place, anything can happen.
But then, remember Oldsmobile? ‘Cause they sold a bunch of Cutlasses in ’78 (perhaps because they were great cars), for the rest of Olds history every new plastic-“cladded” p.o.s. that the college-educated GM brand-engineers hoped to move from showrooms had to be called a Cutlass. The whole ‘way down…to nothing.
Hope “Jeep” doesn’t go the same way.
JEEP? Sorry, should be call SHEEP.