Next-Gen 2025 Jeep Cherokee Goes Back to Blocky XJ Roots, Albeit Only Virtually

For example, the Jeep Cherokee nameplate – taking its moniker from the Cherokee tribe of North American Indians – was established in 1974, well before Jeep came into possession of Chrysler in 1987. It was initially a rebadged two-door Jeep Wagoneer and then switched with the second generation in 1984 to a lighter, nimbler, unibody design with the arrival of the XJ version of the Jeep Cherokee.

Today, the XJ iteration is considered to be crucial for the transformative evolution of 4x4 vehicles from trucks with closed bodies into veritable high-riding limousines. In other words, the XJ Cherokee was one of the founding fathers of the modern SUV segment. Interestingly, beginning with the third generation, it went through another revolution and was known as the Jeep Liberty in North America, starting with the 2002 model year.

Until the arrival of the Compass and Patriot, the new crossover SUV remained the smallest four-door model in Jeep's lineup, and the automaker tried to reinvent it yet again with the fourth generation – the second Liberty was boxier and also featured a Dodge sibling, the Nitro model. A slow-selling iteration, it was quickly discontinued in 2008, and the nameplate went on hiatus until the current evolution, the KL Jeep Cherokee, was reintroduced for the 2014 model year at the 2013 New York International Auto Show.

There, it premiered the still-controversial split-headlight design that's commonly frustrating a lot of fans of other brands nowadays. However, due to its extended production run, the current Jeep Cherokee is a lot more traditional after the refreshed version debuted at the 2018 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, for the 2019MY. Now a decade old and still counting, the Cherokee is the middle offering between the Renegade, Compass, and the two Grand Cherokees.

While it is certainly growing long in the tooth, Jeep doesn't care too much about that – and currently, the only two available trims, Altitude Lux and Trailhawk are even more expensive than the base Grand Cherokee! Naturally, some people might say that Jeep should make it more like the latter if they want to ask about the same price. And if the company doesn't oblige, no worries; the imaginative realm of digital car content creators is ready and willing.

Just recently, we saw how the parallel universes of vehicular CGI might portray the refreshed 2025 Jeep Grand Cherokee – even boxier than today, making it decidedly cooler, if we are to believe the resident pixel masters from the Q Cars and AutomagzPro channels on YouTube. Well, that probably gave ideas to other CGI artists to follow the call of the wild for other Jeep models.

For example, the Halo oto channel on YouTube also provides fresh automotive info corroborated with their virtual designs; now, there are some CGI ideas about the next Cherokee – and the WL fifth-generation Grand Cherokee obviously inspires it. That's not a bad roll call; with this unofficial design, the Jeep Cherokee turns one eye toward the glorious past of the XJ iteration while also showing good styling for the late 2020s rather than the early 2010s like the current model.