Gladiator, Green Light?!!

[JeeperjohnfromPA]

Don't hate Jeep.

Hate the JERKS at DODGE CHRYSLER who took over the Jeep brand. :mad:

 

First thing they did was stop the production of Jeep trucks.

Seems they didn't want jeep trucks cutting into the sales of thier Dodge pick ups.

 

I realy hate Dodge! stop making jeep trucks, but why??? every jeep truck sold, was still $$ in thier pocket.

The reason why is there was a better profit margin selling crappy dodge dakotas instead of the J and MJ series.

 

Ok, on that note why didn't Dodge stop making SUV's, after all,every Durango they sell is cutting into jeeps market share of SUV's?? Dodge sucks thats why. :headpop:

Lets face it, Jeep was a pretty good company under :bowdown: AMC, :bowdown: Kaiser and :bowdown: Willys.

 

Dodge would have gone bankrupt had the governement not bailed them out with massive contracts back in the 70's and 80's. :nuts:

 

BEST thing that could happen now would be for Jeep to become a stand alone company, and cut back on the number of models they make.

 

First just scrap the entire Jeep line up, excluding the wrangler and grand cherokee.

there is no point in trying to build many different SUV's to please the market.

Go for the "nitch" market.

They should make a Wrangler model, with three options,

a tough little 4wheeler like the rubicon, a standard 4wheeler like the TJ, and a pickup type model like the scrambler.

This wouldn't be so hard.

Now make a midsize Jeep, like the XJ, and make a pickup version of it too.

Granted by just having a few models, they will be letting the other auto manufactures capture other segments of the market, (like the behemoth SUV, and the OVERLY LARGE pick ups. but that would be ok, as they would have less expense of designing and producing and marketing them.

 

Jeep needs to concentrate on makeing REAL sport utility vehicles, ones that ARE strong and durable. If they don't do this, it's just a matter of time before they aren't considered the standard setters of off road vehicles.

 

Once Jeep looses the mystique of being the best 4x4 vehicles,,, who is gonna buy them, at the pricesthey ask?

Jeep needs to concentrate on this nitch market, and not the over all market share.

 

Man do I hate DODGE/Chrysler.

[DirtyComanche]

Over-priced SUVs are a statement. They'll always sell.

 

 

I hate almost all of the new jeeps. Really. Even my mom's WJ is sadly lacking off-road (it could be fixed at least). And it's all been down hill from there. Compass ugh. Liberty ugh. Commander, hmm, I've actually ment to test drive one but I'm not welcome at the dealership. Off-road it would still be ugh. JK or whatever it is (new wrangler) - looks decent. I checked one out pretty good because a friend bought one. It has promise. The little 3.8L V6 (or whatever it is) actually seemed to be alright.

 

 

If I had it my way, jeep would be producing period accurate CJ2As. Period accurate as in EXACTLY how they'd have come at the time. @#$% safety standards, I'd rock one as a DD.

 

I actually like a lot of the gladiator concept. It could have been better, but close enough. They should get in bed with cummins and put 4BTs and 6BTs in everything. The mechanical ones. While they're at it, they should come up with an aluminum block and head for those things. That'd be cool.

[DirtyComanche]

Oh, and while I'm at it, I want a period accurate willy's pick-up on the assembly line.

 

 

They're cool too.2

[CEThomas]

"Jeep needs to concentrate on this nitch market, and not the over all market share."

 

Jeep could never just concentrate on the nitch market and make it alone. To many auto co's have done that over the past 100 yrs and never made it. Just look at Jeeps history and how they started when Overland could not make payroll and Mr Willy's got into building Autos.

[jared]

that truck isn't even that great. the jt brown jeep truck concept is waaaay better looking and i am sure a lot closer to production than that ever wil be

[Eagle]

I still wish I had bought one of the original (2-door) Wrangler Unlimiteds when they came out, with the 4.0L engine.

 

DUMB! :wall:

[GirsMJ86]

that truck isn't even that great. the jt brown jeep truck concept is waaaay better looking and i am sure a lot closer to production than that ever wil be

 

most reviews i have seen on that ugly hearing-aid tan "concept" was that it was junk. nothing more then a newer style scrambler. which is NOT a truck. those of us that actually need a truck (i live on a farm, it needs to be able to do truck stuff) could not use that ugly tan thing. which that tan thing was not even a true concept, just a thing that some other company threw together to showoff. the AEV Brute is even far better then that thing and that is basically what this Gladiator is based on. the side spare is the smartest thing i have seen in a long time, who wants to crawl under their truck in the mud to get a spare down?

 

all in all, i think it is time this post is shut down. seems to me it turning into one big thread about why we hate this truck and hate jeep and it just seems like its sort of out of what i was trying to go for here. I'm sorry but three pages of bickering about what has gone wrong with the jeep brand in the last few years (ok, since CDX got em) is not what this thread was for. you want to do that then start a debate thread, I'm sure that could go on for 1000s of pages.

 

Alex

[DirtyComanche]

I actually have to agree on the side mount spare. IMHO it isn't the BEST location, but it sure beats being under the truck. Or in the case of many SUVs, under the cargo area in the back. There's been a few times where I've changed a tire (or helped) that it was made far less enjoyable by it being hard to access the spare. A rear mount on the tailgate would be great if they could swing it.

 

Unfortunatly production vehicles often have a lot of things done to them more for 'styling' than function. So, I'd imagine that unless there was a large favorable reaction to it being side mounted (or anywhere else readily visible) it would be far more likely to be stuffed under the bed or somewhere else fun. In this day and age, it seems everybody would rather call a tow truck than change a tire.

 

And ditto on the truck being a truck thing. A truck has to have the bed detached from the cab, IMHO. I'm not a fan of the ridgeline for many reason, and the unitized everything body is one of them. That won't last during 'real' use.

 

 

 

In all fairness to Jeep/DCX/Whoever owns them now, I am not what they would consider a target customer. The newest vehicle I have ever owned is my dodge, a 94. And I don't look at new vehicles with ANY intention of buying them. And certainly not with the intention of wheeling or modifying them. I get chicken enough playing with things on my dodge. Hence, my opinon on what they do or sell is really void, as it won't make them any money. And similar can be said of a lot of people who do not like the turn the jeep brand has taken.

 

And you have to remember how unhappy everyone was when the cherokee came out. It was unibody! ACK! Or even the YJ with its 'square headlights'. A buddy of mine still gets flak for that. And there's those 'old timers' who thought the CJ5 was way too luxary, and that real jeeps had the gas tank under their seat.

 

Things change.

[Oizarod115]

what dirty said :bowdown:

 

and the spare location :bowdown:

 

i remember getting the spare from under my truck for the first time, (first time i needed it obviously) i spent 45 minutes with tin-snips and a hacksaw underneath my jeep (stuck in the mud) trying to get the darn thing out..

[JeepcoMJ]

ooh! can we have a Jeep target customer countdown!?

 

ok...I will start.

 

 

number 1 bazillion on their list....Jeep offroad enthusiasts.

number 1 on that list....soccer moms and ghey hippi peace corps partakers.

[CEThomas]

spare location :cheers:

 

That is what I always liked about my K-5 and Jimmy. Tire mounted where you could get to it easy and check the air in it.

 

JeepcoMJ

 

If they built a Jeep for offroad enthusiasts, would you go out and drop $30,000+ on it next week??? They are building what the new vehicle buyers want and thats reality :chillin: Like Alex said, let this post go back to what is good about Jeep ;)

[JeepcoMJ]

spare location :cheers:

 

That is what I always liked about my K-5 and Jimmy. Tire mounted where you could get to it easy and check the air in it.

 

JeepcoMJ

 

If they built a Jeep for offroad enthusiasts, would you go out and drop $30,000+ on it next week??? They are building what the new vehicle buyers want and thats reality :chillin: Like Alex said, let this post go back to what is good about Jeep ;)

 

problem is there is nothing good about the new jeep.

[JeepcoMJ]

and no offense, I do think that this discussion is about quality and capability.

 

it's green light on the gladiator concept. well, it's NOT being built as that article was from 2005. it's a piece of un-productable garbage until they do many, many improvements.

 

don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE to see it produced, but only if it's good and capable work which is something that jeep is lacking in.

[Pete M]

Aw, you guys whine too much. :D I have renewed hope for Jeep now that Daimler no longer owns Chrysler.

 

Also, very, very few vehicles have ever been produced that meet my specifications. I always look at a vehicle with mods in mind. Admittedly there are some things that are out of my talent base, like good bodywork and fiddling with the engine wiring in the newer vehicles. Heck, I didn't even buy my Dak R/T until I was confident that I could convert it to a manual transmission.

 

Also, I've driven a Pacifica with that 4.0 v6 and I would be very happy with it in a Jeep. :D It's wicked peppy! We have a minivan with the 3.8 and I'm not impressed (although it could be that lousy tranmission, or the fact that it's in a minivan).

[GirsMJ86]

Aw, you guys whine too much. :D I have renewed hope for Jeep now that Daimler no longer owns Chrysler.

 

:cheers: Same feelings EXACTLY. Daimler was the ones that ruined Jeep for the most part. They are the ones that overall said yes or no to concepts even if they got great public reaction (Gladiator). And Dodge had some pressure on Jeep to not make it also. The head guy at Jeep when they said "no" was that there is always the Dakota instead. And all the Jeep fans were like, Is it called Dodge Easter Safari? Do Dakota owners buy em to go mod and take off-road? NO!

 

Just look on forums and stuff about this thing, you will hardly see any negative to it being made, yet they passed it up claiming it was niche. go fig.

 

And like I stated before, the reason I posted that article, was because it was VERY close to what was said in this months Jp Mag. The head guy at Chrysler was just quoted as to saying that same thing almost in some interview about the way jeep will be heading and if there is any chance for a true jeep truck being built for those that wanted this to be built 2 years ago.

 

Alex

[rockhardzj]

Remember when the retarded Commander was in the design stages?

Probably not, Hell, I didn't know, until I saw a commercial that it was "now at your local dealership".

Well, thats what made an old friend of mine snap, and quit his job as the head or senior of design at Jeep. He didn't like the way that it was going, but all the designers did, so there were mis-agreements. He quit, and got a job here in Buffalo at Fisher Price, designing toys, making even more then Jeep offered for him to come back, and his kid even gets free day care at his work.

Maybe thats why we have dumb @$$ designs now... I wish he still worked there....

[jared]

I don't know about a gladiator but now that they have the four door JK. I would love to see another scrambler with removable top and doors. If I had photo shop I would mock one up, becouse I think they would look sweet. My buddy has a four door JK and I firmly believe a hemi could fit in it easily.

 

a hemi can and does fit into it. aev is gonna do them

[Bacon]

A rear mount on the tailgate would be great if they could swing it.

 

Intended, or un-intended, excellent pun!! :cheers:

[Kenosha Warrior]

abluh!.

 

All I can say is when that Gladiator hits the showrooms, I'm definately taking my dad's offer of a loan for a new car.