Jeep Remains Only 'American Brand' Japan Seems Willing to Tolerate

While I don’t particularly agree with all the criticisms Lee Iacocca has thrown at Japan, his most polarizing claim (published in Playboy, no less) — that its citizens certainly know Jeep because “they saw enough of them in World War II” — has bizarrely continued to ring true. As far as American automotive brands go, Jeep has been Japan’s favorite for a while. And it only needed to tamp down its relationship to “The Big One” slightly to get there.

However, the sales game is always relative.

Despite being one of the fastest-growing brands on the market, Jeep only netted itself 13,360 deliveries in Japan for 2019. But consistent growth since 2013 has to account for something, especially when the overall market is performing so poorly. At the very least, it shows American brands can make some amount of headway on a nut Iacocca believed uncrackable.

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  • ToolGuy I don't think it is fair that the other car companies have to compete with VW.
  • Wjtinfwb Seemed pointless to cannibalize your own products sales by offering a clearly inferior and older product toting the same name at a lower price point. Now many "Classic" buyers would have bought a current Generation RAM had that been all that was offered? It kind of made sense when GM did it for fleet only sales of outdated models like Malibu or Impala or even Ford while new model build grew to capacity. But they've sold these two side by side for at least 3 years now, which just seems counterproductive and costly.
  • Tassos Remember, the safest most affordable trip is the one you do not take. Also remember, if I am driving there is a good reason for it -- I do not need you clogging up the roads out of habit lol. Learn how to drive, people. This includes knowing when to stay home. 🤡
  • Spamvw Nice to know I've broken into the top 10.478000 yesterday, but it's digital odo so there will no pics when it goes to it's final resting place.As I've said before, since the computer brain reads in KM's it will stop at roughly 620k.I've been told that there are VW folks who can reset it. But I'm guessing rust will take the unibody by then.Sam'02 TDI Jetta Wagon (grey) (manual)
  • Jkross22 Sounds like a jobs program instead of increasing safety.