No V8, but a two door Jeep ute is a possibility
Wednesday, 10 April 2019
Jeep has created a one-off two-door concept as part of its annual Easter Jeep Safari fleet, and says it will gauge interest as to whether there is demand for such a vehicle from the tens of thousands of off-road enthusiasts that attend the event in the Southern Utah town of Moab.
Speaking to media during a preview of the Safari concepts at the company's design headquarters in Detroit last week, the head of Jeep brand in North America, Tim Kuniskis, said the Jeep J6 is 'just a concept at this stage.
'But that doesn't mean we're not going to gauge interest from it.'
However, he downplayed any immediate possibility of it becoming a production reality as making it viable appears 'tough'.
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'The thing that [would] preclude us from doing it is that the segment is [predominantly] four-door, five-foot-bed vehicles,' he said.
'And if you look at the segment and displace it down to the two-door versions, the segment is tiny… so how do you make a business case out of that?
'The viability of making a business case out of that is tough. But it is totally lifestyle and is it totally different in the segment? Yeah, probably is… because Wrangler two-door sells pretty well too.'
Kuniskis also watered-down any possibility of high-performance versions of the Wrangler and Gladiator, potentially powered by the company's fire-breathing Hellcat supercharged V8.
'Everybody always asks me that question: it fits. You know that. It fits like a glove,' he said.
'But the problem is that it fits like a glove and there is no air space around the engine and the whole external space of the vehicle so you have no crush space; you have nothing that can be used to absorb energy in a crash.
'It is not a problem to put it in - other than emissions and fuel economy - except it would never pass any crash tests, and that's a problem.'
Jeep also announced New Zealand pricing for the new JL Wrangler, the vehicle the Gladiator is based on.
Pricing is up significantly on the outgoing model, with the two door Sport S (that replaces the current Sport) starting the range at $67,990 or $10,000 up on the current asking price for the Sport model, while the two door Overland model lands at $84,990.
The four-door Wrangler Unlimited range starts with the Sport S for $72,990, while the Overland will cost $89,990. The Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon tops the local range at a whopping $92,990.
But while the money asked is up significantly, so is the technology and equipment on offer.
A 209kW Pentastar petrol V6 engine hooked up to an eight-speed automatic transmission is standard across the range and Jeep says the Wrangler will be available with 'more than 70 standard and available active and passive safety features' including auto emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring and rear cross traffic detection and electronic roll mitigation.
A lack of a lot of these features on the vehicle crash tested by the Euro NCAP organisation led to its getting a dismal one star rating, however from Overland trim up, most of the safety equipment comes as standard.
It has yet to be tested by the two major US crash safety bodies - the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) - and while it will do better there (highlighting the differences between the US and European ratings), it still won't be spectacular.
The JL Wrangler will go on sale in New Zealand in June.