Photo: Fiat
When Jeep brought out the Renegade, it was somewhat unnerving the subcompact utility vehicle was slightly more expensive than the Compass. But for all that, and despite the problems posed by the ZF 9-speed automatic, Jeep went on to sell plenty of Renegade vehicles in literally all corners of the world.
A rolling success for the sport utility vehicle manufacturer, the increasingly popular Renegade could welcome an even smaller brother in the coming years according to a fresh report from Automotive News. As per the cited publication, an “A-segment Jeep” is coming, an entry-level model that “will be sold exclusively outside North America,” where smaller cars predominate.
No name, no debut date, no technical information, absolutely nothing else is known about the alleged A-segment Jeep. But if the rumor will be proven right, what should we look forward from the smallest Jeep of the modern era? Your guess is as good as mine, and if my imagination were to take over factuality, I'd say that the Fiat Panda 4x4 is going to be badge-engineered.
The Panda 4x4 would be one of the possible starting points for the unconfirmed and unnamed Jeep model, chiefly because it slots in the A-segment, it has all-wheel-drive, and the underpinnings are cheap enough to allow the American automaker to develop a mostly inexpensive SUV for markets where small vehicles are popular. At the same time, the Panda 4x4-derived model wouldn’t make any sense at all in the United States.
On a related note, Automotive News ends the write-up with the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer. Confirmed to sit at the very top of the Jeep lineup, the two full-size luxobarges “will share a platform with the current Ram 1500.”
That’s right, ladies and gents and boys and girls! What that means is body-on-frame construction, translating to supreme off-road capability. The newcomers are expected to go official in mid-2019, with production to be handled by the Warren Truck Assembly Plant in Michigan.
No name, no debut date, no technical information, absolutely nothing else is known about the alleged A-segment Jeep. But if the rumor will be proven right, what should we look forward from the smallest Jeep of the modern era? Your guess is as good as mine, and if my imagination were to take over factuality, I'd say that the Fiat Panda 4x4 is going to be badge-engineered.
The Panda 4x4 would be one of the possible starting points for the unconfirmed and unnamed Jeep model, chiefly because it slots in the A-segment, it has all-wheel-drive, and the underpinnings are cheap enough to allow the American automaker to develop a mostly inexpensive SUV for markets where small vehicles are popular. At the same time, the Panda 4x4-derived model wouldn’t make any sense at all in the United States.
On a related note, Automotive News ends the write-up with the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer. Confirmed to sit at the very top of the Jeep lineup, the two full-size luxobarges “will share a platform with the current Ram 1500.”
That’s right, ladies and gents and boys and girls! What that means is body-on-frame construction, translating to supreme off-road capability. The newcomers are expected to go official in mid-2019, with production to be handled by the Warren Truck Assembly Plant in Michigan.
Google News