Jeep With Curves
DaimlerChrysler, desperate for a hit new vehicle for its aging Jeep lineup, on Friday unwrapped the production version of the 2002 Liberty it will launch next month to replace its 18-year-old Cherokee.
Company executives say they expect the new model’s car-like suspension and contemporary looks to attract younger, hipper buyers and boost the brand’s appeal to women, who now buy less than half of all Jeeps.
Analysts say the Jeep division may be the best hope U.S.-based Chrysler Group has this year to start turning around a string of losses that has made some people question the wisdom of the 1998 acquisition of America’s No. 3 car maker by Daimler-Benz of Germany.
The five-passenger Liberty, starting at $17,005 and rising to as much as $27,500 for a loaded four-wheel-drive model with Jeep’s new 3.7-liter V-6 engine, is scheduled to hit dealer showrooms in mid-May.
But there is some concern that Jeep might have waited too long to freshen its lineup.
“I have a feeling they will do well with the Liberty, but they’ve taken so long that the market is now pretty crowded with capable four-wheel-drive sport-utility vehicles,” said Michael Flynn, director of the University of Michigan’s Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation.
The Liberty “may look less successful just because the field is more crowded and more competitive” than just a few years ago, he said. “And perception is important.”
Chrysler showed how important last year when it introduced a new generation of minivans crammed with upgraded features but looking much like their predecessors. The company continues to be the market leader in minivan sales, but its share of that market has eroded considerably as buyers turn to the competition, particularly Honda’s redesigned Odyssey minivan, for something that looks new and different.
Chrysler started slapping big discounts on its 2001 Dodge and Chrysler minivans within months of their introduction, and that further weakened buyers’ perception of the vans as class-leading, “must-buy” products.
Jeep is looking for Liberty sales to hit 200,000 a year, a 30% improvement over Cherokee’s sagging sales for last year, said Craig Love, vice president for Jeep platform development.
And if that goal isn’t met “and they have a panic reaction like they did with the vans, they will be in for a rough haul,” Flynn said. “They need to remember that sometimes it takes a while for a new vehicle to take off.”
Love, however, said he expects sales to keep pace from the start with peak production capacity of about 16,600 units a month.
Jeep hopes to jump-start sales with a marketing blitz that will stress the Liberty’s tough heritage and off-road credentials while presenting it as a smooth-riding alternative to bouncier, truck-based competitors. Jeep’s marketing program also will hit hard on improvements in fit and finish. Squeaks and rattles in the Cherokee kept that vehicle from scoring well on buyer satisfaction surveys.
The company previewed the first production models Friday in Virginia’s hunt country, where it also hosts an annual gathering of tens of thousands of loyal Jeep fans who delight in pushing through a series of off-road events.
“But the story of Liberty isn’t off-road,” Love said. “People will know it is a Jeep, so they will know [the off-road capability] is there.” But the Liberty, Love said, is meant to bring a “new level of on-road capability and refinement” to the brand.
To that end, Jeep engineers designed the vehicle with the company’s first independent front suspension and a “uniframe” structure that unites body and frame in a single welded unit. It makes the Liberty “two to three times stiffer than the Cherokee” in resistance to bending and twisting forces, said Jack Dolan, head of Jeep’s body systems program.
The resulting ride, company officials say, will be free of the jouncing and rattling that marks most truck-based SUVs, including the Cherokee.
Although the Liberty replaces Cherokee in North America, Jeep will continue using the Cherokee name for the new vehicle in the rest of the world, Love said. The U.S. is expected to account for about 85% of all sales. The name change is intended to demonstrate to U.S. buyers that “this is an all-new vehicle, not just a new version of the Cherokee,” he said.
Both right-hand- and left-hand-drive models will be built at a new plant in Toledo, Ohio.
Liberty’s styling is softer and curvier than the square-edged Cherokee, and Jeep officials expect sales to be split almost equally between men and women.
With the demise this year of the Cherokee, Jeep’s U.S. lineup will consist of the iconic Wrangler, with styling that mimics the first military Jeeps, the Liberty and the more luxurious Grand Cherokee.
