Looks like the Grand Cherokee as we know it is going away.

[Stephen]

The rumor is that they are going to be basing it on a car platform come 2010.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/08/13/chrysler-expanding-detroit-plant-for-car-based-grand-cherokee/

 

[grandmaster]

 

[I Lean]

It's been IFS for a while, so this isn't really much of a jump.

 

[Cherokeester]

This doesn't really surprise me. They will keep the JK for their "hardcore" off-road vehicle and make the Grand more on road friendly. I bet you see the hemi go away with the current gas situation. We might even see some sort of Grand hybrid or something weird.

 

[Caleb]

The rumor is that they are going to be basing it on a car platform come 2010.

...and it's not already??? Wait, right now it's based on a minivan platform

 

[Cody]

I agree it's deffinately not built to be a truck, but you would be surprised at how well the new quadradrive or whatever it is they call it now works. We've had 4-5 WK's at the last couple Grand Slams and they do surprisingly well offroad.

 

[mbryson]

Lame, but it's been pretty lame as a WK already. Why not extend the lameness and totally neuter it?

I was hoping they'd see the light and make it more WJish, but...

 

[Stephen]

I agree it's deffinately not built to be a truck, but you would be surprised at how well the new quadradrive or whatever it is they call it now works. We've had 4-5 WK's at the last couple Grand Slams and they do surprisingly well offroad.

I have no doubt. I've run into Land Rover LR3's in places I would never have thought them capable. The downside it that the more 'car based' they become, the less people use them in the way that we would like to see them used.

 

[Caleb]

I agree it's deffinately not built to be a truck, but you would be surprised at how well the new quadradrive or whatever it is they call it now works. We've had 4-5 WK's at the last couple Grand Slams and they do surprisingly well offroad.

I don't doubt hat one bit but whenever I drove my 05 it felt like I was driving a car...even more so than when I drive my 07 Civic.

 

[Houndoc]

The downside it that the more 'car based' they become, the less people use them in the way that we would like to see them used.

Compared to now? We all know how few Jeeps and Rovers hit the trail.

So long as they keep making a true trail rig (JK), then if some softening of the others helps keep Jeep afloat, I have not problem with it. They can not survive as a company just by selling to the off-road crowd.

I feel that way even more now that a 4 door, 5 seater Wrangler exists.

 

[waynehartwig]

This doesn't really surprise me. They will keep the JK for their "hardcore" off-road vehicle and make the Grand more on road friendly. I bet you see the hemi go away with the current gas situation. We might even see some sort of Grand hybrid or something weird.

Actually they are talking of a 6.4L Hemi for 2010