RST-V wll have a civilian variant to be sold in USA in the next 2-3 years.

I agree,
We will see some sort of truck in the next couple of years.

Jason,
So what your saying is there will be another platform? The Rescue and the Gladiator will use that platform while the Grand Cherokee and Commander will share one. The new Wrangler will be a two door and four door on its own platform. And then the Scout?
The Liberty will continue throught 2007 until a redesign.
That all sounds great, I hope its true.

The rescue is a go...They are just toning the interior down. I would expect the rescue,4 door wrangler,wrangler variations next year...This year the commander and the scout by the end of the year.

I would love to see the Gladiator concept go production, but it still is unlikely. The Gladiator was designed to get reaction from consumers in regards to Jeep having a pickup in their line. I think many of us want Jeep to re-enter this market, but the suits and bean counters have to have numbers.

A pickup off of the Wrangler platform is unlikely as this is too narrow of a vehicle. Jeep gave us the impression we would have a ‘Scrambler’ like truck based on the Unlimited, but Dieter pointed out that there was no business case for this. Sadly, he is probably right as compact truck sales have slipped over the years. Many of the manufacturers have either increased the size of their compact trucks to mid-size or only offer club cab/dual cab versions. If you notice, Dodge has been absent from the compact truck market for a long time.

A pickup off of the Commander is more likely as they can produce a 4-door model similar to the Ford Sport-trac. The pickup could share platform, body, and major components from the Commander, and the assembly plant would have little modifications to endure.

Radical concepts from Jeep have not seen production in the past. Jeep is a very conservative company, and the Rescue and Gladiator are a bit too radical. The Liberty is a fine SUV, but it’s not all that radical compared to the competition. Granted, they finally sell a diesel in the US, but they have been doing that in Europe for a long time already.

The Unlimited is simply an off-shoot like the CJ-6 and CJ-8. The Unlimited was almost a complete copy of what AEV had already been doing with TJs. The Unlimited was basically a low cost way to boost North America sales of the Wrangler line. Have you noticed that the Unlimited is not offered outside of North America?

The Rubicon editions simply add some off-road components that many Jeepers were already doing. Don’t get me wrong, I think what Jeep has done with the Unlimited and the Rubicon editions are good things, but they are not all that radical.

As far as the Rescue, with Jeep having the Commander in their line-up, where does the Rescue fit in? Granted, the Rescue is more hard core off-road ready, but its cost will be close to the Commander. Customers already complain the Unlimited Rubicon is too high in price. I know, someone will say they can sell a stripped down version of the Rescue. Stripped down models don’t provide much revenue.

I’m glad Jeep is finally expanding their line-up, but I’m sure a conservative company like them will be very cautious as to not over-expand. Also, look at some of the other plans at DCX. The Scout will share the new Neon platform, and have a Dodge cousin. The main difference will probably be cosmetic between the 2 versions. The next generation Liberty will also spawn a Dodge clone.

Now there is a slim possibility the Gladiator could use the Dodge Dakota platform. Unfortunatley, the body of the Gladiator is a bit too different from the Dakota, so the odds are it would be too difficult to build this with the current production process. Sadly, I worry DCX might give Jeep a 7-slot grill Dodge Dakota. Again, Jeep could surprise us and pull a rabbit out of the hat, but I doubt it.

As stated before, Jeep will finally get some competition from Toyota with the new FJ. Based on the early concepts, the new FJ does not resemble the Wrangler all that much compared to the original Toyota FJ LandCruisers.

Take a look at:

http://www.rockcrawler.com/features/newsshorts/03january/fj_cruiser.asp

and some photos of the original FJ

http://www.truckworld.com/trail-trucks/01-jascoviez-toyota/jascoviez.html

All in all, it’s good to see Jeep exploring possibilities, but until something is officially in production at Jeep, I would not get too excited. I’m looking forward to my Rubicon Wrangler Unlimited and plan to make this as similar to a ‘Scrambler’ as possible. For now, that’s probably the only Jeep pick-up we’re going to see for a while.

Would a Dakota-based Gladiator be all that bad?

After all, didn't the first-generation Viper start out on a modified Dakota frame? And that one turned out alright, didn't it?

JP Magazine brought up a good point about the Gladiator, and the so-called controversey about the Gladiator concept being based on a frame that is not a current DCX frame, a current JEEP frame, or the upcoming TK frame...It would seem that the Gladiator frame, larger than the TK frame, and smaller than the 2500 (Rescue) frame, may in fact be it's own frame design...Now why would JEEP engineers go through all that trouble to engineer a new frame, if they weren't making a business case for the Gladiator???

The Rescue, based on the 2500 frame, has a better argument for 'just' being a concept car than the Gladiator.

I think that the Gladiator has a better chance to see production than some on this site are giving
it.

I think somehow, some way a Jeep pickup or SUT will be added to the line up. Now that Jeep and Chrysler divisions are being merged, dealers will want a pick up on their lots. There has been talk of a Chrysler brand "luxury" SUT but I believe a Jeep version would make more sense. Also, DCX has made it clear that they want to grow market share and can only do that by growing their product lines.


I think Scrambler Ken is right in that we won't see a Gladiator or a Scrambler but we may see a derivative of the Dakota, Ram or a SUT version of the Commander.

Jeep concept vehicles have pretty much shown that they value their off road capability "roots" but these vehicles never seem to make it to market. Their products of late have been 'watered down' for the masses( Liberty and Grand Cherokee are case and points ). It is hard to argue with their method as the Grand Cherokee and Liberty are very strong sellers.

I would say that the gladiator,wrangler/variations will be a single platform...The rescue platform is the ram 2500 pickup truck. The commander will hit the floor in July and the scout/compass(entry level car) late october.

Hopefully the Jeep lineup continues to expand with two sides to the line. On one side Jeep would ideally have a rugged, go anywhere, do anything Wrangler, 4 Door Wrangler, Gladiator, and Rescue. On the other side they would have a more refined but still off-road capable Commander, Grand Cherokee, Liberty. Also, the Scout vehicle would be a good entry level vehicle especially if it was offered with a very fuel efficient (hybrid?) powertrain.

I believe an approach like this would help please both the hard core off-roaders and the loyal Jeep owners who need a more civilized daily driver, grocery getter, etc.

Soon Jeep will have even more competition as Toyota is reportedly going to unveil a production version of last year's FJ Cruiser concept at the Chicago auto show on February 9th.

I'd get one if it was in the 'civilian' price range. I just paid $1,800 to get my tranny rebuilt, and the RST-V doesn't even have one!!!

This is simple technology that JEEP should be building. They already have the Diesel engine, lose the tranny, lose the broken transfer cases and driveshafts, u-joints, ring and pinion breakage, and put 4 (FOUR) MONSTER torque electric motors on the hubs, and get 30-40 MPG (guesstimate) to boot.

Let's face it, the transmission is the most inefficient part of any car, not matter how efficient it may be. Give me electromotive drive and regenerative braking!!!

FORGET the GLADIATOR, forget the HURRICANE, type RST-V into your favorite search engine, and read away.

This IS the vehicle Jeep SHOULD be building...

I think you may be close, Jon.

You can't really draw that comparison, when the Dakar was introduced the Liberty hadn't even been confirmed. The Cherokee was still in production. With the Rescue, we new there would be the Commander (although we thought the name was going to be Wagoneer).

I loved the Rescue but I'm afraid the Commander is the end result. Sort of like when they showed us the Dakar and gave us the Liberty instead. :(

They built the Rubicon, the Unlimted, building the Commander later this year, The Scout and a four door Wrangler in a couple of years.
I don't see any reason to believe that a truck is not in the future. What it will end up looking like who knows, but they wouldn't of built a concept truck if they didn't think they needed some kind of truck.

Remember the Jeep Rescue concept last year and how everyone was creaming in their jeans about it? We kept hearing how Jeep was seriously looking into building it. The Rescue is still not in the show rooms, nor do your hear much about it anymore.

Of course Jeep is going to say they are looking into building the Gladiator or any concept they show. Have we ever heard a manufacturer say, "we built this concept, but have no intention to do anything with it". Sadly, the Gladiator is just a concept.

I like the Gladiator, and hope they build it, but I doubt it wil happen.

Just the fact that they are talking about the Gladiator is great news!
Build it, Build it, Build it!!