Over the past month we've recieved over 50 emails about the availability of the all new 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee. On the upside, we love to hear from our readers (it makes it seem like what we're doing is actually helping), so keep those reports coming in. On the downside, we've been trying to make some sense out of all the reports we're getting about the availability of the 99GC.

Well, we're happy to report that we think we have somewhat of a grasp on what's available and what's not when it comes to the 99GC. In the past month, we've posted emails from readers all over the country, some of them indicating that they've actually received a V8 99GC (Laredos and Limiteds with and without Quadra-Drive) and some of them (actually, it was most of them) indicating that any 99GC with a V8 won't be available until December (at the earliest). A couple of hours ago we were able to speak with a Jeep representative who filled us in on what was going on. He said that as of today, any 99GC with a V8 was on restriction until December - that means that the factory will not be able to produce any 99GCs with V8's until December. He indicated (but not directly) that some V8s were being currently produced, but that they were "all spoken for". From what we were able to gather, it sounds like the V8 production line is not running at 100% capacity yet.

To further compound the problem, a reader informed us that the winter holiday break for the Jeep factories would be "around 12-10-98 until 1-11-99" - it looks like the waiting for those precious V8s will continue into 1999.

If anyone has any information regarding 99GC availability, Let us know...