Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Jeep: I Don’t Want More. I Want Less.
Jeep (and Your New Overlords):
I don’t need leather seats, power windows, power seats, or an automatic transmission. I don’t need the most sophisticated, the most quiet, or the most flashy car on the road. Not when I’m looking at Jeeps, anyway. It doesn’t have to be the fastest, but it has to go wherever I tell it to.
I want Jeeps to be rugged, utilitarian, and rock solid. It needs to be able to take scratches, bumps, and, occasionally, a road filled with some super-sized rocks and streams. It needs to be reliable, easily fixed when it gets in a fix, and sure footed in a snow storm.
When I think about driving a Jeep, I want to shift for myself and feel like I can mount a Ma Deuce in the cargo bay and head off into a combat zone. A Jeep is, in its soul, a perfect expression of every American man’s sense of independence and strength (even if that self-assessment is more hope than reality).
And it has to look like a Jeep. Jeep fans will know what I mean, but it breaks down like this: Jeep Grand Cherokees only bear a passing resemblance to real Jeeps, but the original Cherokee was near perfect. The Patriot is close, Liberty isn’t what I’m looking for, and the Compass is just wrong. The Wrangler has an eternal appeal, of course, and the Wrangler Unlimited is pretty damned nice.
But the Jeep JT concept is what I’m really looking for. Keep it simple, keep it Jeep, and keep the cost down--this is all Jeep needs to do to catch my attention. Even the dull paint color on the concept truck is perfect--it has that tough, almost military look. The solid white wheels and the overall design are retro in a good way, calling to mind all the warm, fuzzy feelings I have about Jeep, but also promising the kind of utilitarian brilliance that made Jeep such an icon.
Here’s the deal: build it simple and build it at a decent price and I promise to put it on the shortlist for my next new car.
Comments & Trackbacks
The Unlimited could be a lady’s Jeep. Toss up if I had the money, the Rubican or Mecedes SLK280. Olive drab would be my preferred color instead of the olive metallic.
Ah, cars ... something about which I’m passionate.
Dead on with the Jeep thoughts. Daimler has revved Jeep right into the ground, watering down the name with its car-based badge engineered products of late. That concept looks like a modern interpretation of a Jeep Scrambler. My uncle had an ‘83 that was exactly what you describe: bulletproof 4.0 I6, carbureted, manual 4 speed, the only power-assist to be found was on the brakes. Even had manual steering. The interior amenities consisted of a vinyl bench with a vinyl mat over the subfloor. Translation: you could open up the doors and hose it out. Tough as nails for off-roading, smaller footprint than your standard pickup, but with better ground clearance and approach/depart angles, so it was great for narrow, rough trails. He just got rid of it about 2 years ago, too many salty New England winters had taken their toll on it.
If the roof on that concept is a removable shell (as the one on the Scrambler was), I’m sold. Problem is, the original wasn’t a spectacular seller ... they only made it for a few years, and made less than 30,000 of them. But I tend to think there’s a lot of market space for downmarket offroad toys and utilitarian pickups with upgraded running gear. Pickups today require too many expensive add-on / luxury items and electronic doodads to be ordered in order to get a model with the best engine/trans combination.
That is kind of what I thought when I saw the rubicon. Why not just push a button and the machine will go up the trail. Takes all the sport out of it. I have an 88 MJ 4x4 pickup with no frills that I intend as a toy truck. It will be capable of tough roads but some skill will be required, and that is the way it should be
What’s pushbutton about it? The 4 x 4?
I had a full size Jeep Grand Wagonneer that I still miss.
Because it seems to me that in order to be a sport that the vehicle has to have some limitations, I suppose you could use a tank and get over anything in your way, or you could actually drive. If you can buy a vehicle and point it in any direction and go through/over/around anything by pushing a button, then it is not challenging and not sporting.