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- Sep 30, 2010
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So what does everyone think about this one? Has Jeep lost its mind?
With 2015 Jeep Renegade, America's off-road truck thinks small —and Italian
2015 Jeep Renegade Latitude
Ever since the original Jeep got its discharge papers from the U.S. Army, the various owners of the Jeep brand have been trying to find new shapes and uses for the Jeep name beyond military life Before World War II ended, a designer for Jeep builder Willys-Overland came up with a sketch of a two-seat roadster that became the Jeepster.
Through the decades, other experiments have followed — Comanche, Commando, later Commander and Liberty. And today, Jeep's owner Fiat-Chrysler revealed it's first original attempt at a new Jeep, one built with U.S. engineering and Italian assembly for world consumption. Meet the 2015 Jeep Renegade.
Sized for the small SUV market — checking in a wee bit larger than the Nissan Juke — the Renegade uses an all-new chassis design meant to accommodate vehicles with four wheel drive. In the past, chassis like these have been the downfall of Jeep spinoffs, offering a compromised off-road performance while still carrying the weight and efficiency penalty that every trail-riding truck must.
Here, Fiat has done as it did with the successful new Cherokee, setting aside a "Trailhawk" model for those who want hard-core climbing in a cute package. How hard core? The Trailhawks can ford 19 inches of water (the Wrangler can handle 30 inches, slowly), roll with 8 inches of ground clearance and dig for traction with a special four-wheel-drive system featuring a 20:1 crawl ratio.
And isn't it cute? Unlike the Jeep Cherokee, Jeep designers stuck to the old playbook with the Renegade — avoiding alien slit lights for reviving Jeep's classic seven-bar grille and round headlamps, which flow into an upright body. Out back, there's a little too much effort in the rear taillamps, but the interior felt well sorted during a brief preview, with all the standard software and safety accoutrements like blind spot monitoring.
The power for those hijinks comes from one of 16 different engine/transmission combinations Jeep has engineered for various countries around the world; in the United States, the Renegade will offer either a 1.4-liter turbo four-cylinder with 160 hp and 182 ft.-lbs. of torque, or a 2.4-liter four-cylinder with 184 hp and 177 lb.-ft. U.S. models come with either a six-speed manual or Chrysler's nine-speed automatic, while those for the rest of the world offer different transmissions and either gas or diesel engines when production begins later this year.
The biggest hurdle for this Jeep may have more to do with where it's built than how. Needing to use some of its underworked factories in Italy, Fiat will assemble the Renegade there for export around the world — the first Jeep built in Europe for North American consumption. Many of the previous stabs at broadening the Jeep range have failed because the models sacrificed too much Jeep-ness without offering much benefit in trade. With the Cherokee, Jeep's Italian bosses have shown they could successfully push the envelope of the Jeep name in the United States, and have set a new goal of selling 1 million Jeeps worldwide this year. The Renegade will show whether they can pull the same feat in the rest of the world.
By Justin Hyde
With 2015 Jeep Renegade, America's off-road truck thinks small —and Italian
2015 Jeep Renegade Latitude
Ever since the original Jeep got its discharge papers from the U.S. Army, the various owners of the Jeep brand have been trying to find new shapes and uses for the Jeep name beyond military life Before World War II ended, a designer for Jeep builder Willys-Overland came up with a sketch of a two-seat roadster that became the Jeepster.
Through the decades, other experiments have followed — Comanche, Commando, later Commander and Liberty. And today, Jeep's owner Fiat-Chrysler revealed it's first original attempt at a new Jeep, one built with U.S. engineering and Italian assembly for world consumption. Meet the 2015 Jeep Renegade.
Sized for the small SUV market — checking in a wee bit larger than the Nissan Juke — the Renegade uses an all-new chassis design meant to accommodate vehicles with four wheel drive. In the past, chassis like these have been the downfall of Jeep spinoffs, offering a compromised off-road performance while still carrying the weight and efficiency penalty that every trail-riding truck must.
Here, Fiat has done as it did with the successful new Cherokee, setting aside a "Trailhawk" model for those who want hard-core climbing in a cute package. How hard core? The Trailhawks can ford 19 inches of water (the Wrangler can handle 30 inches, slowly), roll with 8 inches of ground clearance and dig for traction with a special four-wheel-drive system featuring a 20:1 crawl ratio.
And isn't it cute? Unlike the Jeep Cherokee, Jeep designers stuck to the old playbook with the Renegade — avoiding alien slit lights for reviving Jeep's classic seven-bar grille and round headlamps, which flow into an upright body. Out back, there's a little too much effort in the rear taillamps, but the interior felt well sorted during a brief preview, with all the standard software and safety accoutrements like blind spot monitoring.
The power for those hijinks comes from one of 16 different engine/transmission combinations Jeep has engineered for various countries around the world; in the United States, the Renegade will offer either a 1.4-liter turbo four-cylinder with 160 hp and 182 ft.-lbs. of torque, or a 2.4-liter four-cylinder with 184 hp and 177 lb.-ft. U.S. models come with either a six-speed manual or Chrysler's nine-speed automatic, while those for the rest of the world offer different transmissions and either gas or diesel engines when production begins later this year.
The biggest hurdle for this Jeep may have more to do with where it's built than how. Needing to use some of its underworked factories in Italy, Fiat will assemble the Renegade there for export around the world — the first Jeep built in Europe for North American consumption. Many of the previous stabs at broadening the Jeep range have failed because the models sacrificed too much Jeep-ness without offering much benefit in trade. With the Cherokee, Jeep's Italian bosses have shown they could successfully push the envelope of the Jeep name in the United States, and have set a new goal of selling 1 million Jeeps worldwide this year. The Renegade will show whether they can pull the same feat in the rest of the world.
By Justin Hyde
