Jeep: Cj on 2040-cars

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You probably won't see FCA's famous Easter eggs on an Alfa Romeo

They started in Jeeps, with images of seven-slot grilles showing up on windshield edges, the text "SINCE 1941" appearing in the clear plastic of headlight units, and a relief map of Moab engraved into a rubber cubby liner. Then a Chrysler got a map of Detroit and the outline of Laguna Seca materialized near the Viper's window switch. We've come to call them Easter eggs, but Klaus Busse points out that they were never really meant to be secrets, just ways to dress up what he calls "dead plastic." He's nevertheless cool with the phrase being applied and likes the enthusiastic response these design details get. Busse is intimately familiar with many of them, having signed off on many of them in his time as head interior designer for FCA's US operations. He recently moved to Europe to lead Alfa Romeo, Maserati, and Fiat design there, so when I caught up with him next to the new Stelvio crossover at the Alfa stand in LA, I had to ask: Are we going to see any of those neat design details in Alfas or Maseratis anytime soon? The short answer is no. But he didn't say it's out of the question. Busse said if, for example, a designer wanted to put an Italian phrase somewhere on a car that was in keeping with the brand, he would allow it. Although he didn't come out and say it, it seems like he might feel this type of fun design element isn't necessarily appropriate for a higher-end brand like Alfa. And I get that. But I'm still going to check all the compartments of that new Alfa crossover for a map of the Stelvio Pass. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2018 Alfa Romeo Stelvio: LA 2016 View 11 Photos Design/Style LA Auto Show Alfa Romeo Jeep 2016 LA Auto Show easter egg

Fiesta-sized Jeep coming in 2014

We've heard rumors before about a new, baby Jeep to slot below the new-for-2014 Cherokee (pictured) in the automaker's lineup. Now, Edmunds is reporting that the new crossover will arrive sometime in 2014, and will be about the same size as the Ford Fiesta. This currently unnamed vehicle will effectively replace both the Compass and Patriot in the Jeep lineup.
Speaking to Edmunds, Jeep CEO Mike Manley said that the new, small Jeep will be assembled in Italy and marketed globally beginning sometime next year. Manley did not provide many details on the new model, but did say that it will be 4.2-meters (165 inches) long. The Cherokee, by comparison, is 4.6-meters long (181 inches). Furthermore, Edmunds reports that while the new small Jeep will offer diesel power in other markets, there are no plans for an oil-burning version here in the US.
Many other automakers are exploring this smaller crossover segment here in the US. General Motors recently launched the Buick Encore, which is loosely based on the Chevrolet Sonic subcompact's platform. Ford has already launched its Fiesta-based EcoSport in other markets, and has reportedly been pondering the idea of offering it in the US, as well.

Vile Gossip: My Jeep Wrangler dreams

Jean Jennings has been writing about cars for more than 30 years, after stints as a taxicab driver and as a mechanic in the Chrysler Proving Grounds Impact Lab. She was a staff writer at Car and Driver magazine, the first executive editor and former president and editor-in-chief of Automobile Magazine, the founder of the blog Jean Knows Cars and former automotive correspondent for Good Morning America. She has lifetime awards from both the Motor Press Guild and the New England Motor Press Association. Look for more Vile Gossip columns in the future.The new 2018 Jeep Wrangler's model designation is JL, my original initials, as in Jean Lienert. Don't Google that. You'll find I died in 2014 in Pittsburgh at age 85. I take this JL thing as a sign from God that I am supposed to finally buy a new Wrangler, the very first car of my dreams when my dreams included saving $25,000 and living off the grid in a one-room log cabin with all of my cast iron pots and pans. I did live in a tiny log cabin once, but when I discovered there was no line for phone, fax and printer, I trudged down the dirt road a half mile, knocked on a stranger's door and borrowed their phone to call AT&T. So much for living off the grid. And so much for the Wrangler. I bought a truck, which was useful, but it was not a Jeep, a fact confirmed when I landed a job writing about cars. Among the Porsches and Fords and Ferraris and Dodge Power Wagons were Jeep Wranglers. Wranglers meant adventure. Here are two favorites:1981 — Delivering the Pig of Bronze, Car and Driver's over-accessorized 1978 project Jeep CJ-7 (named for its chrome hood ornament), to the police chief of rural Waterloo, Neb. He got it because he wrote the editor a letter asking for it. It was my assignment to drive it there. I plotted as many miles of dirt roads as possible between Michigan and Nebraska, not wanting to waste my first big Jeep adventure on pavement and never questioning the ability of this denim-trimmed orange Jeep and its aftermarket aluminum wheels to get us there.So naive. Somewhere in deepest Iowa with the windshield flipped down to the hood for maximum coolness, the Pig's rear end began to shudder. As we rolled to a stop, the photographer looked back in time to see one of the five fancy extra-long chrome lug nuts plop into the dust. Two others had vanished. The last two had backed off to the ends of their studs.