"Jeep Renegade 1.6 MultiJet 2WD Longitude – Frontansicht, 9. November 2014, Düsseldorf" by M 93. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 de via Commons.
2014 Jeep Renegade. Going all the way back to 1987, when the first Jeeps rolled off the assembly line under the auspices of Mopar, folks were skeptical of the pairing. Gone were the iconic round headlights, replaced with soulless square lights (that would be mercifully retired a mere 10 years later to restore the prominent Jeep grill). Would Chrysler maintain Jeep's rich heritage, or would they use the marque to hype an ever-increasing number of mediocre vehicles?
Yeah. It was a foregone conclusion...
Fast-forward to the 'teens, when pretty much every Jeep nameplate is a rebadged Fiat or Dodge. The vaunted Grand Cherokee is a Durango with a different body; the Cherokee itself is no longer a capable off-road machine but a sad little micro-SUV; even the Wrangler is starting to show signs of bloat with the four-door version and assorted extras.
But this? Yeech.
That is all.
5 comments:
My brother loved his off road Jeep so much he named his son Christopher Joseph, AKA CJ.
Gerry
A few months ago I was passing an auto carrier truck on the interstate. I thought it was a truckload of Kia Souls. I was wrong. They were Renegades. A butt-ugly waste of sheetmetal, plastic and castings.
And like the previous poster's brother, I too love my '76 CJ.
A sad end for a great Marque...
did that one ever come with that little diesel like the Compass did? that was a decent combo if you were not looking for real off road power, but wanted a soccer mom jeep.
Hate to burst your bubble, Jay, but pretty much ALL the Wranglers from the last decade, 15 years or so, have been absolute junk off-road, unless one did some significant modifications to them.
Guy I knew at a local dealership used to work for Jeep. The Border Patrol had to pull all their Jeeps from the field and send them in to the shop - Chrysler, in their "infinite wisdom," had run the brake lines under the hollow frame, instead of inside them, with the result that Jeeps were losing brake lines on rocks, branches, you name it. Then there are the electrical "gremlins," the mechanical breakages, and the anemic fuel range. I know there are fixes to all of these, but unless you're willing to spend the cost of a second Wrangler fixing Chrysler's screw-ups, don't even bother.
Even with modifications, unless you're doing certain, very specific, low-speed maneuvers on extremely rough terrain, the Wrangler's out-classed by an average pickup truck. The short wheelbase makes it incredibly squirrelly and prone to roll-overs, while your fillings pop out and your teeth crack from the overly rough ride; a longer wheelbase alone ameliorates both of these failings.
I will say this for them: The roll cage works. But that shouldn't be something that's regularly tested... yet it is.
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