Seven Fun Facts from the Jeep Roundtable
Our full report from the Jeep Roundtable
By Imthishan Giado
We sat down with Jack Rodencal Managing Director, Fiat Chrysler Middle East), Jerome Monce, Director of Importers & Extra EU Markets for Fiat Chrysler EMEA) and Chris Ellis (Head of the Jeep Brand, EMEA) and Don Schmansky (Jeep Cherokee Engineering Team) to find out what their plans are for the region – here’s all the info I could drag out of them in an interesting discussion that wandered across the entire brand portfolio of Fiat, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, RAM, SRT and Alfa Romeo.
1) A mere four years ago, Jeep was number nine globally for SUV sales – today they’re number one, selling 701,000 cars worldwide. Middle East sales are up 24% year-on-year for January to September this year (and they were 44% up last year as well). Grand Cherokee is the clear sales leader with 7679 units, followed by 5000 units each for Compass and Wrangler. Note that they could actually sell way more Wranglers – they are purely limited by the capacity of the Toledo, Ohio plant where the world’s oldest offroader is still built. Oh, and as you’d expect, Saudi Arabia is the biggest market for the group – even in terms of Alfa Romeo sales.
2) Middle East boss Rodencal wouldn’t disclose his exact target for how many Vipers he’d like to sell in the region…but tellingly, he says they would be “very successful if they sold between 100 and 200 cars. And they plan to be extremely successful.” No hint there, then….
3) Why did the Cherokee make such a dramatic change in appearance from the old model, from a classic boxy Jeep to a Fiat-based platform with car-like styling? To hear Ellis describe it, the company had no choice – the existing Liberty/Cherokee was a dead end.
“We saw the way SUVs were evolving. Crossovers were becoming more important, fuel economy and C02 in some markets are extremely important regulatory drivers. In the past – and I’m not sure I should say this – we asked customers to compromise on-road handling for best-in-class offroad performance. We can’t ask them to do that anymore.”
4) You’ve probably seen the Abarth and the chunky Fiat 500L at the massive Dubai Motor show stand – but they’re not (yet anyway) officially confirmed as coming to the region. If you want them to come – and we really want the Abarth! – then make sure you tell that to people on the stand. They’re listening to everything you say, believe me….
5) Did you know that CEO and noted sweater enthusiast Sergio Marchionne sends emails out to the entire company when they hit internal milestones? And, he apparently never sleeps either being a certified insomniac…wouldn’t want to be his PA!
6) To make the new Cherokee work in this region, it wasn’t just a case of slapping on some stickers in Arabic. Cooling was uprated with an extra 400W fan added to deal with the heat and a full face A/C condenser as well. That’s only the beginning – all the perishable rubbers and plastics have been upgraded to make sure they can withstand years in our harsh climate, while there are now air slots in the underpan to reduce temperatures. Even the heat shield in the catalyst has three layers of insulation to ensure that the heat coming from it doesn’t make its way to the rest of the car.
7) The skid plates on the Trailhawk are the same spec as the Wrangler – they’re built to hold half the vehicle weight on a 4’x4′ square at any point on the plate. The chrome exhaust on the back? A special item just for Trailhawk, built to ensure that the trucklet maintains its 32-degree departure angle where the regular Limited exhaust tips would not do.
BONUS FACTS!
8) Oh yeah, one more thing about the Trailhawk. Right now it comes with a new nine-speed ZF auto. But in the future, a little birdy – let’s call him Mr Intuition – tells me that there’s a good chance the Jeep boys drop a six-speed manual in place of the ZF, making it the second car in the range to have a row-it-yourself box hooked up to the Pentastar engine.
9) There’s been an awful lot handwringing about the next Wrangler not having solid axles anymore. Well our good friend Mr Intuition tells us that there’s nothing to worry about, solid axles are very much here to stay. But suspension suppliers? That’s not set in stone, is it? You heard it here first, courtesy of our friend Mr Intuition!
