With the prior article on the changing face of Jeep ,as the new Compass and Patriot illustrate, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at Jeep with a wider panoramic lens. One look at the Jeep of today as opposed to the Jeep of just five years ago shows a company that seems to be going in many different directions at the same time without a common direction. On one path you have the new car based ute's we just reviewed. On another path you have the Grand Cherokee that didn't seem to evolve enough during it's last change to pull costumers away from crossover imports. In another direction you have the large "Land Rover" like Commander that upon release two years ago had all Jeep fans hoping for the return of the highly beloved Grand Wagoneer only to be disappointed with a vehicle that was far too big for the Grand Cherokee chassis while at the same time creating far too little interior room to drive customers away from new 7-passenger offerings. In yet another direction Jeep has begun offering a performance edition of the Grand Cherokee the SRT-8 that is a rather weird mix of muscle car and off road vehicle that really compromises both endeavors while eating up vast amounts of fuel. In many ways this is not so unexpected, after all Jeep has turned 65 and as many analysts insist, or those commercials for retirement funding suggest, today's retires are not fading away but reinventing themselves in their golden years. Jeep is trying to "find itself" after so many years of doing the same thing so well. What is apparent however after this journey of self discovery is that Jeep is really in the end, Jeep, that little off-road vehicle that came out of the smoke of World War Two, that open air go anywhere no nonsense truck that proudly wore a name that stood for "general purpose" vehicle, the GP, the backbone of our war victory! This could be no more apparent than in the brilliantly executed Jeep Wrangler, new for 2008. The new Wrangler needs to be seen in person to give you the pure sense of it's reincarnation. On paper the new Wrangler looks very evolutionary, but in person that notion is thrown out the window. What is first evident is the increase in width that gives the Jeep an almost Hummer like stance. This increased width is genius as it provides a passive manor to stability beyond active controls. Nothing will keep a vehicle on all four wheels better than a wider stance than it's height. Jeep has enhanced it's on road ride and handling characteristics substantially while providing the same Jeep "trademark" off road ability. The nicest attributes of the new Wrangler is the fact that Jeep has answered the complaints of actually Jeep owners, namely an easier opening top and the availability of a first ever four door. In four door form it looks down rite forceful, very reminiscent of the now deceased four door soft top Hummer Alpha. So it should be Duly Noted that the many directions of Jeep currently, has not deterred it from excelling at it's "God given" mission of always providing the finest off road fun machine under the sun, We can now rest with the knowledge that these many tangents will not dilute the purity that is Jeep.
