There's a reason why our site claims to bring you the best "Jeep news, information, and rumors" - today we'll show you the "rumors" part of our claim. We ran across this tidbit on our favorite newsgroup (rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys) the other day, and it is too juicy for us to ignore. Keep in mind that we have no information if the source of this rumor is on the level...

I have been in the Jeep studio several times in the last year and haven't heard anything about the Dakar going into production, it costs too much and is too heavy. There was an article in Open Road (Road and Track) in the spring about the Dakar saying the KJ was was going to be the Dakar. This is also worng, I am currently working on the KJ and it is not the Dakar although there are some similarities. The KJ is a 2002 model and believe me it will turn some heads but don't expect it to look similar.