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.