1988 Jeep Wagoneer on 2040-cars

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Next Jeep Wrangler to get hybrid option?

This may the year a Jeep hybrid is officially announced. Really. The Chrysler division may finally be making plans for its first gas-electric powertrain to help boost the group's fuel economy, says UK's Auto Express, citing Mike Manley, CEO of FCA's Jeep division. The guinea pig of sorts may be the Wrangler, which moved almost a quarter-million units in the US last year. The Wrangler could get a hybrid drivetrain by the 2017 model year, as Jeep executives look to maintain the model's feel and torque while boosting its fuel economy. The Wrangler gets a pretty paltry 18 miles per gallon combined out of its six-cylinder mill, so the bar's set pretty low. Of course, we've heard this talk before. In late 2013, Chrysler Asia-Pacific product planning manager Steve Bartoli told Australia's Drive that a Jeep hybrid was pretty much inevitable, though not much has been mentioned since. FCA could use all the help it can get in the fuel economy department. The group brought up the rear among automakers when it came to fuel efficiency, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in its EPA Trends report released last October. The FCA models combined for a 21.1 miles per gallon average for the 2014 model year, compared to the 24.2 mpg overall industry average. The group's only electric vehicle in the US is the low-volume Fiat 500e, though the company may start selling a plug-in hybrid version of its Chrysler Town & Country by the end of the year. Featured Gallery 2014 Jeep Wrangler Polar Edition View 9 Photos News Source: Auto Express Green Chrysler Jeep Fuel Efficiency Hybrid

Excavator in China bashes BMW and Jeep out of the way

This Chinese construction site apparently has a zero tolerance policy towards obstacles getting in the way of work. When blocked by a Jeep and a BMW, the operator of this excavator pushes the two vehicles out of the way like they're toys. The Bimmer gets the brunt of the abuse, with the sedan getting lodged up against a fence. The exact context of this clip isn't entirely known, but The Mirror in Britain speculates the vehicles are illegally parked. But that doesn't explain why the excavator crashes through a gate later in the video. Also, this doesn't appear to be the case of a rogue operator taking out some frustrations, because a man with a walkie-talkie is leading the way and seemingly directing the destruction. Nonetheless, getting permission to knock these cars around was probably the highlight of this driver's day. News Source: The Mirror, AOL On BMW Jeep Crossover Videos Sedan

Junkyard Gem: 1983 Jeep DJ-5L Mail Dispatcher

When it comes to putting mail in boxes, a simple and reliable vehicle works best. Say, a zero-frills steel box on wheels, with right-hand-drive, a fuel-efficient four-cylinder engine, no-hassle automatic transmission, sliding doors, and a big mail-sorting table instead of a passenger seat. That's what the AM General Mail Dispatcher DJ-5 was all about, and these bouncy little trucks were everywhere for decades. Here's a late-production example, still in USPS colors, spotted in a Denver-area self-service wrecking yard. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stayed this courier from the swift completion of its appointed rounds. Note the "Sonic Eagle" USPS logos on the doors; this became the official USPS logo in 1993, nearly a decade after the final Jeep DJ-5s were built. Plenty of these trucks stayed in service into our current century, and a few are still being used by private mail-delivery contractors in rural areas. During the American Motors era of Jeep DJ production (1970 through 1984), a bewildering assortment of engines went into postal Jeeps. This is a 2.5-liter GM Iron Duke four-cylinder; before that, DJ-5s came with Audi power (more or less the same engine used in the Porsche 924, in fact), AMC straight-sixes, and Chevy Nova four-cylinders. The 1984 DJ-5Ms ran the AMC 2.5-liter four-cylinder. The earliest DJs were equipped with three-speed manual transmissions, but the American Motors-built postal-delivery versions all had automatic transmissions. This one has a three-speed Chrysler Torqueflite A904, a weird engine/transmission combination that should help you stump your friends during car-trivia debates. Check out the ultra-bare-bones heater/ventilation controls! These trucks were badged as AM Generals, not Jeeps (I couldn't find a single Jeep label anywhere on this one), just like the original HMMWV. However, you'd have to be a real hair-splitter to refer to this as an AM General DJ-5 instead of just Mail Jeep or Jeep DJ-5. Next time you complain about your subcompact rental car lacking driver-comfort features, consider this vehicle. I had a few high-school friends who owned DJ-5s, back in the early 1980s when they were available for a couple hundred bucks at government-surplus auctions. The first thing civilian DJ-5 owners always did was tear out the mail-sorting table and replace it with a random junkyard bucket seat (or an aluminum lawn chair). These trucks were very noisy, very bouncy, and very slow, but they always ran.