Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has high hopes for the upcoming Jeep Grand Wagoneer and its ability to challenge Range Rover and Mercedes-Benz for premium SUV buyers. The proposed model’s $140,000 price ceiling keeps FCA execs up at night in giddy anticipation.
However, there’s a problem: Before FCA hoists that sparkling and lucrative cherry atop its Jeep sundae, it first needs to build the damn thing, and that’s easier said than done.
Which is why the Grand Wagoneer — the three-row ultra-lux SUV that Lee Iacocca could only dream of — is on hold.
According to two supplier sources who spoke to Automotive News, FCA has slammed the brakes on the Grand Wagoneer. The reason, to anyone’s best guess, comes down to money. FCA simply doesn’t have enough of it, and that throws a wrench into the automaker’s initial plan of stretching the next-generation Grand Cherokee’s platform to underpin the Grand Wagoneer.
Besides being in a scramble to bring the next-gen Jeep Wrangler and Ram 1500 to market, the automaker is in the midst of an assembly plant shuffle. Uncertainty over where FCA can build the range-topping SUV raised its head back in September.
The go-to location — the ancient Warren truck plant, which will soon send its Ram production to Sterling Heights — requires costly upgrades to handle the unibody vehicle. On top of that, the Ram shuffle has already eaten up $1.5 billion. An alternative location, the Jefferson North plant — home to the Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango — isn’t setup to produce a longer-wheelbase vehicle. That means another pricey upgrade.
Unless FCA finds a pot of gold (which, ironically, is how the company sees the Grand Wagoneer), there’s no fulfilling the dream — at least, not at this point. Ideally, the automaker hoped to produce the Grand Wagoneer for the 2019 model year, concurrent with the next-gen Ram 1500 and a year after the updated Wrangler’s sales debut.
One fall-back option is to ditch the idea of a lengthened Grand Cherokee platform and go with something that already exists. That makes the next-gen Ram 1500’s frame a candidate. FCA loves bragging about the versatility of its platforms (and saving money!), so a Ram connection can’t be ruled out, especially when there’s cash and prestige at stake.
Grand Wagoneer put on hold until internal financial crisis is sorted out – Sergio
In related news, Sergio reasserts billions thrown at Alfa Romeo “absolutely worth it, I fail to see any connection, stop asking already.”
Sergio also respectfully requests that reporters stop photographing the headstones of the Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200.
No really you’re just being morbid.
Hey, that thing we don’t know how to do and can’t afford? We’re not doing it.
+1
Ditch the GW plan and make a RAM1500-based Suburban fighter! If they call it the Ramcharger, I won’t even complain that it has 4 doors instead of 2!
Sawzall the back of the 1500 and add a cap to the box area. How expensive is that ?
If only it was that easy….
Developing a Range Rover rival will cost mega bucks. The third gen Range Rover cost 1 billion pounds to develop. That was years ago. That’s the kind of investment FCA will need to make.
I never really understood the business plan for a six figure Jeep in the first place. The current Grand Cherokee already rivals the Range Rover in looks, luxury, on/off road performance and laughable unreliability for a fraction of the price. Unless charging higher prices means a Jeep that is less likely to suddenly die on you while driving down the interstate, what’s the point?
Just call the next Durango a Grand Wagoneer and be done with it already.
While I agree that the Grand Cherokee is America’s “Range Rover”, even the top spec Summit model pales in comparison with the RR when it comes to fit/finish/bling.
I still don’t think they’ll price the Wagoneer in the $140k range (I just don’t think they can command that price point…yet), but there’s big bucks to be made in the $70-$110k range.
The business plan is that 8 years of zero interest pumping later the .1%, at least those who aren’t oilmen, are richer than they’ve ever been before and all it takes to sell them a six figure car is a six figure car.
But they have money for NASCAR?
NASCAR comes out of the advertising budget. It’s just product placement, which they have to do now that everybody skips ads.
The right thing to do would be to build it as a rugged suburban/Yukon/sclade fighter that has off road chops… Put it on the ram chassis with the hemi a diesel and the 6.2 and sell it for between 50-75k and you won’t be able to keep up with demand
This is exactly right. Why build on the grand cherokee chassis which is undersized? Build a truck based wagoneer using the highly successful GM formula for the suburban. Do a little retro styling, too. It is a jeep after all, retro works here as in the Wrangler.
That is certainly a better idea. I’d say make the TOP ALL OPTIONS CHECKED trim sticker at $90K and you’ll have people lined up.
Sounds like a Power Wagon with an SUV body on it and plush interior. Perfect!
I just don’t see it. At who is this thing targeted? Who’s going to fork out 6 figures for a vehicle with Jeep badges on it?
“But what about the 10,000 sales a month of $140,000 Grand Wagoneers, Sergio?
I am haz a sad.”
-Accountant