Jeep Cherokee 2001 Xj Great Condition, Lifted, Road Ready on 2040-cars

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The Apple of the auto industry isn't Tesla, it's Jeep

Whenever Apple is going to have a new product for sale in its stores, the fanboys line up in such great numbers that it's surprising Ticketmaster hasn't figured out a way to capitalize on the multitude of anxious buyers with credit cards ready to go. When Elon Musk talks about a new car being added to the lineup, there is an analogous group of people, and Musk has cleverly set up a model in which people place deposits for their place in line. The number of deposits (two per customer only, it should be noted) for the Model 3 is some 400,000. Because Tesla is a Silicon Valley company that has a highly desirable, highly designed suite of products for which there is demand the likes of which is completely uncharacteristic for the category, it is often compared to Apple. After all, has anyone gotten into line to buy a Windows phone? Do you even remember the Zune? So it must be that Tesla is like Apple. But there is one nontrivial problem with this comparison: Apple sells its products in mass quantity. Tesla, even though it just had its best quarter ever, delivering a record 25,418 vehicles - up 69 percent over the first quarter of 2016 - is still, when compared to the car industry in general, selling a specialized product. No, the automotive brand most like Apple is Jeep. Just as with Apple's quickly identified design language - either for the physical phones and computers or the interfaces for same - there is no mistaking a Jeep. Like Apple's legion of fans, there are people for whom a Jeep is not merely a form of transportation, but a statement about one's way of life. Like the companies that wish they could have designs that are Apple-like and do their utmost to have a similar objects or appearances (sometimes landing them in court, a la Samsung), is there a single automotive company that wouldn't like to have some of Jeep's magic? While there aren't people who are lined up outside of dealerships when a new Jeep goes on sale, there is probably more interest in the forthcoming Wrangler than in the accumulation of interest in a half-dozen other vehicles from other companies. And like Apple, Jeep is a comparative volume play. Last year FCA US LLC delivered 926,376 Jeeps. Walter P. Chrysler and the Dodge Brothers must be spinning at high velocity in their graves, because the U.S. total for Chrysler brand was 231,972, and Dodge was 506,858. The sum of the two - 738,830 - is well shy of Jeep's sales. On a global basis, Jeep sold some 1.4 million units in 2016.

Chrysler accelerates Jeep recall repairs from 2018 to March

You may remember that Jeep's unusual fix for this recall involves fitting a trailer hitch.
The recall of about 1.5 million models of the 2002-2007 Jeep Liberty and 1993-1998 Grand Cherokee over fuel tanks may finish far sooner than originally estimated. In a new filing from Jeep's parent, Chrysler Group, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the company says that it can complete the repairs for the affected vehicles by March 2015, much sooner than the previous estimate of sometime in 2018. Jeep predicts the total cost of the campaign will be around $151 million.

Researchers who busted VW cheating say FCA's diesels dirty, too

The Wall Street Journal today reported on an upcoming report from West Virginia University's Center for Alternative Fuels Engines and Emissions, which is the same lab that investigated Volkswagen emissions cheating. The report, which will be released in a matter of weeks, alleges that 2014 and 2015 model year Jeep and Ram vehicles with diesel engines emit excess pollution. But it does not specify whether the company used defeat devices. Since the report discusses Jeep Grand Cherokees, and that engine is also available in the Ram 1500, it's safe to assume that one of the implicated engines is the EcoDiesel V6, a unit actually produced by VM Motori. It's unclear whether the report covers any of the Cummins engines used in heavier-duty Ram pickups. This report comes on the heels of a federal investigation into FCA's diesel vehicles. That investigation focused on the EcoDiesel engine used in 2014-2016 vehicles. The feds were seeking a fine of up to $4.6 billion. The EPA and the State of California also previously accused FCA of using a defeat device on the same vehicles back in January. FCA, for its part, alleges that the WVU study might have been commissioned by people interested in suing the company, and disputes the testing methodology, according to the WSJ. We've reached out to WVU to confirm which engines are implicated in its study and will update this post when we have more to share. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. News Source: The Wall Street JournalImage Credit: REUTERS/Gary Cameron Government/Legal Green Jeep RAM Diesel Vehicles ecodiesel