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This is the 3rd time that I am going to try and post this. The other 2, the post deleted, so I hope that this works. My buddy and I were browsing at Birmingham Chrysler Jeep (my local 2-towns-over dealership, which held the best service record across the nation for quite a while, though I don't know if they still do.) I just like to go and see all the nice Jeep that I cannot afford... I could not believe the prices on the new Wrangler Unlimited... 28,000 was the sticker price... My Cherokee was only 24 back in the day, and when I did the price lookup, the Unlimited was comparable to a midgrade 300C, or a Caravan, both expensive vehicles. It's amazing how much a Jeep can cost these days. Who has that kind of money?!?
Upon a closer inspection of the Unlimited, I rather like it... The front interior is comparable to that of my Cherokee, although since I have never been in a Wrangler, I cannot compare to that. It looked sharp, the 2 that I saw were in the cherry red, and the patriot blue, both with black hard tops. In the pictures that I saw when it was first mentioned on this board, the soft top looked kind of odd on it, but I have not actually seen one with that, so I do not know. It's body styling reminded me of a CJ-7, same friendly Jeep, but stretched...
I heard from one of the dealers that I was talking to some rather disturbing news... I hope he was misinformed, but Chrysler has a tendency to get rid of things when they get a little long in the tooth: Jeep Trucks, Wranglers with Square Headlights, and my beloved Cherokee (not the one that costs you an arm and a leg, but the other one) I have nothing against the Grands, but why keep one and not the other? Maybe they'll bring it back like Chevy did the Monte Carlo, but I doubt it, that's not Chrysler style... Anyway, he mentioned that they were discontinuing the I-6, as early as 2007. Everything would then come with the 3.7 V-6 instead... He even said that, although the V-6 has a higher top horsepower, the I-6 kicks it's butt on low-RPM torque, which is where everyone feels it, and wants it.
Out of all the engines in all the cars that I have ever worked with, the I-6 makes the most practical sense to me, and is therefore the easiest for me to work on. Also, combined with the Jeep engine compartments, it is one of the only Chrysler vehicles that you can actually get in and work on. My mom's Sebring, fat chance... You have to take off a wheel to get to the battery, and who knows where the radiator is? They put the pressure cap in line, because it is hidden, in fact, everything is under the huge plastic air intake. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate change, and getting rid of this engine, which has been a cornerstone of Jeep for quite a while, just seems wrong.
Jeez, I write a lot, and keep in mind that this is the 3rd copy, which always gets shorter... To sum up, Jeeps are too expensive, Chrysler needs to stop banishing things to the land of wind and ghosts (I know things can't last forever, but don't take something away that has kept steady sales since the AMC days (and technically pulled AMC through some very hard times, from what I read), and they'd sure better not get rid of the 4.0 I-6...
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