Chrysler’s Product Onslaught Starts With Jeep
May 14, 2010 by Colin Bird
Chrysler is investing nearly $4 billion to renew 75% of its lineup by the end of 2010. As D-Day for this major product onslaught nears, the first products to reach the beachhead will come from Jeep.
Over the next eight months, every Jeep will be heavily overhauled or refreshed, according to Chrysler’s VP of Product Planning, Joseph Veltri. The rollout of the new Jeep Grand Cherokee started over the weekend, to be followed by a new Wrangler, Patriot and Compass by the end of the year.
Below you’ll see a chart with Jeep’s product cadence for 2010; all models are assumed to be 2011 model years, though it’s possible that some might be marked as 2012’s.
Read below the bump for detailed updates to the Jeep lineup:
2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee:
The new Jeep Grand Cherokee features a completely new exterior, interior, chassis and powertrain that have all been pretty well documented already.
The Grand Cherokee will get a starting price of $30,215, which is very price competitive for a mid-luxury, full-sized SUV.
Earlier this week, the new Grand Cherokees went into production at the revamped Jefferson North Assembly. According to Sergio Marchionne, the automaker will build up supply of the Grand Cherokee at Jefferson North for the next four to five weeks.
The Grand Cherokee, Chrysler’s only totally new product for 2010, will go on sale at dealerships in mid-June in conjunction with a marketing campaign.
2011 Jeep Wrangler:
The Wrangler is Jeep’s most successful product. In fact, for the month of April, it outsold the Grand Cherokee, Commander, Patriot and Compass combined. Really without the Wrangler there is no Jeep and Chrysler knows that. That’s why the Wrangler will receive an extensive update in Q3 2010. According to Veltri, the Wrangler will get a brand-new interior and a heavily updated exterior. The Wrangler will also get stop/start technology and a Fiat diesel, but that powertrain setup will not be sold in the US.
In 2011, the Wrangler will get a powertrain makeover, receiving the new 280-horsepower Pentastar V6. A “70th Anniversary” variant will also be released in 2011.
2011 Jeep Patriot/Compass:
The Jeep Patriot and Compass already received a fairly robust update to their interiors and to ride quality in 2009. For Q3 2010, expect significant exterior modifications to both models. A new 2.4-liter, 190-hp, four-cylinder with Multiair is planned for production sometime at the end of 2010. If that plan is still in place, expect to see the Multiair powertrains on the Compass and Patriot for the 2011 model year.
2011 Jeep Liberty?
You’ll notice that the Liberty is eerily absent from the above chart. In the original product development plans released in November, a heavily refreshed Jeep Liberty was scheduled for release in 2010. Either Chrysler overlooked this when developing this chart; or the Liberty got pushed back to a 2011 launch; or Chrysler decided to forgo the update and kill the lackluster model.
Jeeps of the future:
Besides upcoming refreshes, Chrysler Group has some pretty significant updates planned in 2013 for the brand. 2013 will see three completely new Jeep vehicles. The vehicles will be based of Fiat platforms but will be designed and engineered in-house by Chrysler.
In 2013, the Patriot and Compass will unite to form one mass appealing compact crossover, hopefully able to take on the Ford Escape, which nearly outsold the entire Jeep brand last month by itself.
The Jeep Liberty will migrate to a unibody, Fiat derived platform. The new Liberty will be renamed “Cherokee” according to Fiat’s April’s product presentation. Jeep will also introduce a subcompact crossover that’ll compete with the Mini Cooper Countryman and Nissan Juke.
Jeep has always been one of the most profitable, well known parts of the Chrysler lineup. With Jeep products coming before Dodge or Chrysler products, I’d say that Chrysler understands where their priorities lie. Fiat seems to have gotten the memo too: starting in 2011, Jeep will be the only Chrysler brand sold in Europe.
