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Jeep goes off-road for inroads
By David Kiley, USA TODAY
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Striding amid seven new Jeep models the public has never seen, in a workshop deep in the bowels of Chrysler's design center, Chief Operating Officer Wolfgang BernhBut it's more than just giving someone from outside Chrysler a peek at the new Jeeps that has Bernhard squirming. He and his boss, Chrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche, were sent by DaimlerChrysler (DCX) headquarters in Germany three years ago to straighten out the American outpost. But they are in danger of showing no profit this year after promising that their turnaround plan would bring in $2 billion.
Now they are counting on 25 new vehicles in the next 36 months to breathe life into the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands. ard is tense.
Aiming high with new products
Since the current Grand Cherokee was introduced in 1999, more than 35 SUV models have been launched. Jeep is on track to sell 430,000 trucks this year, down more than 100,000 from its peak in 1999. The reason is simple. Not enough product. But by 2005, sales should be back to well above 500,000, Zetsche says. Those sales will be built on:
• An updated Liberty that goes on sale next spring along with an all-new Liberty Renegade. Renegade has skid plates and fender-flare covers for real off-road driving, as well as a tougher roof rack, light bar and a more squared-off military look than the standard Liberty. The current Renegade is mostly a looks package, basically identical to Liberty except for a roof-mounted light bar, Bernhard admits. The new Renegade "is more of a genuine can-do package," he says.
• An all-new Grand Cherokee that goes on sale a year from now. It has a longer and wider wheelbase for more front-and rear-seat room and wider doorways, plus a more powerful 5.7-liter Hemi engine, all addressing consumer complaints about the current model. But it doesn't have a third-row-seat option, a popular feature in sport-utility vehicles these days.
• Four Jeeps coming in 2005 and 2006: a boxy, Land Rover-like Jeep larger than Grand Cherokee and obviously long enough for three rows of seats; an all-new Wrangler built on a new engineering platform; an SUV priced under $20,000 whose design is not yet finalized; a four-door, Wrangler-inspired answer to General Motors' planned downsized Hummer H3.
Bernhard and Chrysler chief designer Trevor Creed know they must update and revolutionize Chrysler and Dodge designs to be competitive again. But the two also understand that Jeep "must stay a Jeep," Creed says. "Jeeps ought not to be styled at all."
Bernhard's passion for Jeep is on display as his hands run over aggressively flared wheel wells covered with tough plastic to ward off tree branches and rocks
