Cherokee that would've been?

Found this oddball vehicle on the Beijing Jeep site. Looks like what the
Cherokee would've become had Barbie's Li'l SUV (Liberty) not replaced it.
It's a facelift, but seems like a nicely done one. Note the Liberty-esque
taillamps.

http://www.beijing-jeep.com/images/bj2003_001.jpg

Close-up pictures are bj2003_001.jpg through bj2003_0011.jpg


DS

 

It's as if the Cherokee found it's own evolutionary course. The spacing of
the openings on the grille is quite odd, no? There's a distinctly different
sensibility embodied in that part of the design.

The other thing that's interesting is how up front they are about saying
that they borrowed this'n'that from the 'U.S. Chrysler Corporation'. Like
the catalytic converter, for example. It's a strange selling point. Maybe
it's more important in Chinese culture than it would be to us.

I remember reading in the Automotive News several years ago that there was a
sudden and drastic change of direction in the design for the Cherokee's
replacement. At the time, the article placed a lot more emphasis on the
similarity of the front end to that of the Wrangler, intimating that the new
vehicle would be just as rugged and off-roadable in Wrangler fashion than it
actually turned out to be. When I found out they had ruined the Cherokee's
fine HP-to-weight ratio, I lost interest quickly, and as it happened, they
really took away the sporting character of the vehicle, presumably to sell
it to women. We actually considered getting a new Cherokee back in '97 or
'98 when my wife needed a new vehicle, but it was too trucklike for her, and
she decided she'd rather have a minivan. Her objection to the JGC was that
it was too slow with the I-6, and the V8 was major coin. She rightly
pointed out that a 3.0L Caravan had it all over the 4.0L JGC in terms of
acceleration, and it cost less to boot. She's a woman after my own heart --
shop for bargains with good HP-to-weight!

In retrospect, she might've gone for a Liberty-esque vehicle, had it been
available. I expect that today she'd choose a 4.7L Durango instead. It's
everything that the JGC wasn't, with the exception of the off-road
capability, which we really don't need. Back then, I almost gave her the
'96 Intrepid and took the Cherokee for myself (it was a great deal at the
time), but I wasn't sure I wanted to give up the nice low center of gravity
in the car. I still wonder sometimes if I shouldn't replace the current
Intrepid with a nice used Cherokee. Maybe someday....

--Geoff

 

H'm. Odd? I donno...it doesn't look like the last actual Cherokee, but I
don't really see anything odd about it. I'm not sure I go for the "tall
nose" appearance, swollen in the middle. Too bad no clear picture of the
rear styling. I bet those taillamps change the appearance considerably.

Or maybe the Chinese know they make garbage just like the rest of the
world knows they make garbage. "American car" may well imply
higher-than-normal quality of engineering in that market. And catalytic
converters are still rather new to the Chinese market. They still don't
have them in the Middle East markets, except for Israel.

Barbie's li'l SUV!

DS

 

American model is a "made in Chink"? Thinking about it how original
American car could be coming
out of chink factory. The chink don't use a real stuff. Everyone knows
this. They use a plastic.
They could use chop stick in our American model.