here is my comment---
I bought a 2004 Liberty last year and love it. I would buy a new one depending on what it looks like in 2008, but the most important thing is that my next vehicle will probably be a hybrid !!!!!!!!! You really need to start thinking for the future,not just in design alone !!!!!!! The way fuel is now,and will be in the "near" future, I don't hear the phrase "Energy efficency", mentioned anywhere. Please do something about this now !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm in my 50's and don't want to wait until I'm too old.
Besides if making money means something,be the second American car co.to instatute the future to come. I saw the Ford SUV hybrid coming out at the S.F. car show.
I have owned "new" cars in my life; 1972 mustang, 1973 Javelin AMX, 1979 Olds Torinado, 1986 Pontiac Grand Am [hated it], 1986 Lincoln Topaz 5 speed,2002 Mustang, and now 2004 Jeep Liberty. I would like 1 more Javelin-AMC-of any kind, and Another Jeep Liberty if it's a hybrid!!! So Please make this a priority,and make us proud, please.
Sincerely, Mark Lum

When will Daimler/Chrysler/Jeep
wise up and make a v-8 available in the Jeep
Wrangler????? I'm I the only Jeep lover that would buy one ia a heart beat????

I have 2 Jeeps...1 Buick and 1 Vette(92...sounds like all you Jones' are Jealous....I mean worry about a S
ATCH??...Dude my YJ has 138K and my ZJ has 189K and yes we eat ice cream cones in the Vette...DO YOU PEOPLE LIVE?

To Bullet Bob
Thanks for your help, I used to have a 98 TJ, which was great fun, but heavy on gas. But imagine buying new TJ, when a short while later, they bring out a TK that really improves the Wrangler as did the TJ in 1996, then I would regret not having waited, on the other hand the TK could cause the Wrangler to loose its character. I think I should wait until I can confirm What the TK will definetly be, but will I still have the cash to spend by then( which I have in my hot little hands right now).

WHY would you want a four door Wrangler?

completely off the topic here, just had to add it... Yesterday I passed by a Jeep Grand Cherokee(probaby '97) towing a New Heavy Duty Ford F-250 that was pulling a very large and loaded horse trailer. It was towing it with a tow strap. I wish I had a video camera and I'd stoped to film it. It looked like the Ford have given up and was in need of a tow to the shop. There was also a New Ford F-150 following behind providing help with the flashing lights. This would have made a good picture for the Jeep owners magazine.

Leave it Jon to waste more space complaining about the complainers.

Hope to see TJ's replacement soon. Cannot wait 'til 2007! Hopefully Jan '06? And while they're at it-How about some retro stuff?...i.e.
'05 Mustang/ '05 Chrysler 300 styling...in other words bring back the 'ol reliable Grand Wagoneer-maybe run it off the new PowerWagon platform...it would be awesome to see that rig again...The new Mustang redo took..and that 300 Chrysler is selling lot hotcakes...PLEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssseeeeeee>?

Well I for one, feel that Jeeps should always have the Hardtop/Softtop option...I love the change of seasons..in April the Plastic comes off..and the canvas goes on...and reversed in Nov...and as far as Mike worrying about scratches.....???? Come on dude!!! It's a JEEP//////Scratches, Dents and Rust/Rot are part of the whole Jeep Experience....Damn things AIN'T museum pieces.....

I'm still hoping some of the Wrangler experts could give
me their opinion on whether I should buy a new TJ or
wait for the TK to be released. I'm in Australia where we
only get the Sport with 6 cylinder motor, no Unlimited.
Would the TK with V6 be a great improvement in
economy, power and reliability.
All assuming that the TK is a similar configuration to
the TJ. I definitely want full soft top and real 4 wd.
Is it wise to buy a TJ nearing its end of cycle, when I can
wait for the TK which will be new.
I intend to buy the Wrangler for a fun vehicle and to
keep for many years.
Another reason for waiting for TK is the range/options
may be greater for us in Australia, such as the stretch
and 4 door.
Please help me make a decision.
Apparently, Australia has the most Wrangler Sales
outside the USA.
Thanks

Scrambler Ken,

Thanks for putting all the time and effort in forecasting the future for Jeep. I had the opportunity to speak to my mole ( retired Jeep employee ) and he thinks there will be an SUT in the lineup but is unsure whether it will be off the new Wrangler platform or not. As the Jeep and Chrysler divisions slowly merge into one dealership there will be a demand by dealers to have a truck like vehicle on their lot.

My Unlimited ( non Rubicon ordered November 6th ) is still not here. My dealer is being somewhate cryptic in his responses. I tried the customer service line and they suggested I talk to my dealer. I am most interested in the "Scramber" half top possibilities, please keep the information coming.

To GREG:

Hey, pal, YOU need to make your choice not someone us. After all you're the one paying the freight...

From what you've said, you've laid out things pretty well. Now, make your move.

I own a YJ & a TJ both bought used. Both serve their purposes well in our household.

Our TJ is a 2001 soft-top Sport with I-6 and a
soft-window. In our marketplace it was the best available at the time we needed to buy. We've not had a break-in but we aren't careless either.

It handles heat and cold real well. We even took it on a 6,000 mile trip across the US West with 4 people using a cargo hitch for extra storage. It performed flawlessly in all situations, rode well,
got decent mileage and really sat up during one
horrific thunderstorm in Oklahoma where everyone
was under overpasses or off to the side of the interstate. The traffic left rolling was mostly Jeeps to our astonishment.

The 2001 quality was in a different league above the 98-00 models we'd driven in the months prior to our purchase. Perhaps Daimler made Chrysler
improve the quality and remove the formidable warranty expenses Chrylser had on their bread and butter models.

Buying a vehicle at the end of its production run has the little acknowledgeged benefit of having all the mechanical kinks long ago solved. With as
many TJ's that have been made you won't have a parts problem.

I hope this helps. Have fun making your choice.
It's like choosing between steak and lobster.

Motor Trend on line is forecasting new vehicles through 2009. Here is how they see the Jeep line up:

2006

Jeep Commander (New)
Jeep Scout (New)
Jeep Wrangler (Redesign)

2007

Jeep Wrangler (Redesign) Maybe MT is just covering the bases on the new TK. I think 2007 is more believable.

Motor Trend has no Jeep models
( New or redesigned )forecasted for 2008 or 2009.

My dealer called and I do have an arrival date for my Wrangler Unlimited ( non-Rubicon version ). I should have it before the new year. I ordered the vehicle the first week in November so it appears those of you who are waiting are Rubicon Unlimited only orders.

It sounds like "OnlyOneJeep" has never owned anything but only 1 Jeep!

I hope the new gladiator will make it to production. 3.7L, VM 2.8L crd and maybe a DD 3.0L TD.

Sure hope the wrangler will be offered with a VM 2.5Lcrd and VM 2.8Lcrd in europe and 2.8L crd in USA.

O.O.J. Unfortunately, you are Only One Jeeper, the rest of us have children to put into the back seat, have limited garage space, or mabye no garage space at all,mabye some of us live in apartments, dormiories, or communes, mabye some of us have shoulder/elbow/hand injuries or mabye we are senior citizens and cant maneuver a full hard top,or for that matter, cant get the soft top mounted properly, and mabye some of us DONT LIKE S
ATCHES/DENTS/DINGS in our car, or want our car to last more than 100,000 miles (mine has 137,000+ and runs like it was brand new) because we are not in a position to buy a new car.

Any way you look at it, you may be Only One Jeep, but unfortunately, its not all about Only One Jeeper

I really hope we will see a 4 door version of the new TK. Maybe even a pickup variant like the gladiator concept, but that is still just a hopeful. I do hope the new TK will have better road manners on the highway. The current TJ is not bad, but not what I am looking for in a family road trip type vehicle. The KJ and GC do the job much better. However, I still want to see a SFA in the new TK and maybe some 32" tires with a Rubicon package. The C R D would sure be nice.

I can't agree with Mike more about the integrated rollcage with a 5-panel hard and soft-top system . That would be just what I was looking for and I believe most people too. A place to even store the hard-top panels would be awesome. Just drive up to the trail in the comfort of the hard-top, remove the panels and hit the trail. If it starts to rain, gets cold, or you want a nice sealed cabin just pop the panels back on. Plus I believe the integrated rollcage soft-top will also seal better.

I know some die-hard Jeep will just hate all the new stuff about the TK, but I believe most will see it as a vast improvement over the current TJ. If the TK is build with 4 doors (hell I would settle for just 2) and the integrated rollcage with a 5-panel hard and soft-top system along with some better highway manner I would be sold. Now add the C R D diesel and I will be running to the dealer.

I'm glad everyone is lightening up a little bit on the upcoming TK, Looks like some peoople took my advice and took a MIDOL...

While I have no direct knowledge about what the Next-Gen Wrangler will look like, I can make a pretty educated guess about what is going on.

Here are the facts and some guesses...draw your own conclusions

SFA is cheaper to build, more reliable, more easily serviced and/or replaced for warranty work, has less parts to break, has higher longevity, and less moving parts to rob energy from the engine that could be used to propel the vehicle.

SFA also provides better off-road performance, reliability, and articulation.

The Wrangler is NOT a Porsche, Ferarri, Corvette, etc. nor was it ever intended to be. The fact is is that if you buy a Wrangler, you are buying reliability, simplicity, and longevity. Longevity will become even more important if JEEP puts a Diesel 2.8 engine in the TK. The body, suspension and drivetrain will have to last as long as the engine.

If Jeep does build a 4-door Wrangler, they will be responding to customer input, which is what this site is all about.

A 4-door Wrangler could be 4-full size doors like the DAKAR/RESCUE, or 2 full-size doors and 2 half-sized doors that open suicide style. Either way, they will provide more access to the rear passenger area. Great for parents, Great for friends, Great for girls in mini-skirts.


My personal opinion is that the hard-top and soft-top as we know it must go the way of the 2-dollar bill.
I'm sure many people would agree with me that they dont have a hard-top because they want to have a convertible, but would like to have a hardtop for winter, but have no place to store it, would have a difficult time lifting it off the Jeep without scratching the body, cracking a window, or just plain ol knocking something down in the process.
While I will admit that the Jeep hard-tops have gotten lighter, and easier to mount/dismount, and the soft-top is infinitely easier and faster to do the same, there is still the storage issue, and the Wrangler Unlimited hard-top definitely compounds the issue.
My vote would be for an integrated rollcage with a 5-panel hard and soft-top system that mounts/zips to the integrated rollcage. Panels could be mounted full hard-top, full soft-top, or any combo of the two, or removed completely.
Hard-top panels could store in the rear cargo area, or in the area of a large suitcase in the garage. The Soft-top panels could store in a duffel-bag.

To Jon.
If they make a 4-door wrangler it will be because
people like us complained. I love my XJ and just want
a suitable replacement from jeep.

With a Four door Wrangler in the list of future vehicles, I suspect the next gen TJ will lean more towards remaining the true Jeep most of us have enjoyed these past years. The four door Wrangler will need to be different enough from the Liberty to make both of them marketable. I now suspect the next gen Wrangler will remain SFA.

Then again, you never know. When you have a high up at DCX (Trevor Reed) makes the statement, “The Chrysler group will abandon nearly all two-door vehicles after the 2006 model year”. I hope that does not mean the Wrangler.

The article referenced on the allpar site is a 61 page presentation regarding future planning for all Auto manufacturers and was presented to the tool and die makers. Someone posted a pointer to the key page most of us would be interested in:

http://www.stratusphere.us/stuff/DCX_NVL06.jpg

As I had mentioned to Mike, this should not be considered fact, so changes are still likely. The four door Wrangler issue was leaked a while back by the ‘suits’ when they were announcing the Commander. As many have said, the possibilities of more variations could come from the new Wrangler platform, but economics and market share could determine what we will see. Sadly, I still doubt we will see a small pickup built off of the new Wrangler platform as DCX has stated before there is not enough market for small pickup trucks.

That does not mean Jeep will not have a pickup in the future. An SUT of the Commander is one possibility. This could go head to head with the Sport-Trac or other similar vehicles. With all the platform sharing, the other possibility is a variation of the Dakota rebadged as a Jeep. Like ‘diesel fan’ points out, it will be interesting to see what they do to make the concurrent models different enough to distinguish them from each other, but similar enough to be built side by side.

On a totally different topic, my Rubicon Unlimited still has no build date. I guess I’m not one of the lucky ones. The plants will be idling down for the holidays, and they don’t want any partial vehicles left on the line. I was told not to expect any new info on my order until after the holidays.

Also off-topic, for those of us wanting to turn our Unlimiteds into Scrambler like trucks (Scramblerwishes, are you out there?), looks like our buddy up in Canada is looking into making a multi-piece half hardtop for the TJ (www.gatortop.com). Plans are to have something in a couple of months. It looks like the half hardtop idea is also being kicked around by another guy as well. In the Jeep forum:

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120818&page=1&pp=15

Maybe Jeep missed out on a great opportunity….

Also, please note that AllPar.com is notoriously out of date with some of it's info (their web site lists "confirmed 2005 pickup, called the Scrambler, is closely based on the Wrangler" which we all now know is not true).

maybe, but Jon is correct.

here is my comment

Build the Gladiator! Please! Please! Please!

Mmmmmmm.....4 Door Wrangler.

I'm hoping it is open top with removable doors, even if taking the doors off will require more effort than it does now - Can't beat that top/doors off feeling and it also helps the driver spot when crawling.

No rescue? I was really hoping to see that although I doubt I'd ever buy one. Although Jeeps will normally own a hummer off of the highway (especially the H2) the general public needs to learn that again and the Rescue would have done that. O well.

I'm not worried about the crossover vehicle. Sure it will be a piece and a insult to the name, but it will sell trucks and bring more people to the name. This will move more people to Wranglers and such and will make things better for the rest of us. Economies of scale...

I'm also not worried about the abilities of the next Wrangler. The TJ will run circles out of the YJ and CJ both on and off road. Bitch and moan all you want about Chysler, but the fact of the matter is they gave us the best out-of-the box vehicle out there. I'm confident they'll make the next Wrangler more capable than the TJ.

I am sure if they make a four door Wrangler some on this site will still complain.

1. too expensive
2. back seat not big enough
3. wrong engine or tranny combo.
4. not the right color
5. no removable doors (maybe)
6. standard SFA - what no IFS?
7. too cute
8. too boxy
9. no square headlights like the XJ
10. too fancy or too plain (take your pick)

Interesting to note that both Dodge and Jeep will be offering concurrent models. How will the Jeep be made distinctive of the Dodge? Will we see a more off-road or technical flavor with the perhaps the "up-country" option returning with newer offerings such as the six speed manual and diesel options. And, finally a four door Wrangler to replace the XJ should indeed make many people happy.

The Dodge vehicle sharing Compass/Scout architecture is a vehicle that will replace the Dodge Neon. Note, this vehicle is not a Neon and does not at all resemble the Neon. The Neon is being discontinued and a new vehicle is being introduced in its place.

I agree that the next-generation will be an extremely capable off-road vehicle. It will disappoint some because of the changes that Jeep is forced to make due to Federal safety regulations. However, I do not believe that any of its off-road capabilities will be compromised.

On another note, for anyone who loves old Jeeps, Mahindra of India is still producing, under license, variations of the CJ-3B. For more information: http://www.mahindraworld.com/mahindras/automotive/hrdtpmm775xdb.htm