Reports indicate that the 2017 Jeep Wrangler is finally happening and Sergio Marchionne, the Fiat Chrysler CEO along with Mike Manley, Jeep CEO confirmed it at the Detroit Auto Show. According to them, the vehicle reaches production in late 2017.
According to the Detroit news, more details will be revealed later this month when the updated five-year product strategy to investors is finally revealed by the FCA. However, since we heard the official ‘Yes’ back in September, nothing much has changed so far.
It was declared that it will be built alongside the next-generation Wrangler in Toledo, Ohio. This will be far from being the first production Jeep pick-up, however, under the Wrangler umbrella; this will be the very first one.
It will come with the same healthy dose of aluminum like the next Wrangler. Keep in mind that Jeep sells every last Wrangler that is made at the Toledo plant in Ohio. FCA might need to move the Cherokee production which is built on another Toledo line and move it to another facility. This needs to be done in order to avoid any inventory shortfalls as retooling commences.
However, this particular development spells doom for the Mopar-JK-8 pickup conversion kit which has been on sale since 2011. However, like the Gladiator concept, there have been a lot of new teases and right now most people are ready to have the factory-built Jeep Pickup as soon as possible. This is a trade-off that most Jeep fans should be more than happy to make.
In the meantime, Jeep CEO Michael Manley declared that the Hellcat powered Jeep Grand Cherokee which was speculated for a long time will finally happen and it will make its entry in 2017. The news was released from the uploaded by journalist Brian Makse. He interviewed Manley at the 2016 Detroit Auto show.
Manley was asked whether a 6.2-liter supercharged Hellcat V-8 could be installed into the Grand Cherokee and he replied that it is not only possible to put the Hellcat motor inside the Cherokee but at the same time, it will be brought to the market by the end of 2017.
However, keep it in mind that no one in Fiat Chrysler was willing to confirm the statement made by Manley. From the looks of it, the boss might have jumped the gun on the particular announcement.
That being said, this is also not the first time that Manley has released some knowledge without notifying the troops beforehand. During an interview with C/D last year, Manley declared that the next-generation Wrangler will-be-utilizing body-on-frame construction and moreover, it will not be a unibody vehicle.
This will put to rest a contentious bit of future-Jeep speculation. When Fiat Chrysler registered a Trademark for the name ‘Trackhawk’, the first hint regarding the Grand Cherokee/Hellcat mashup was dropped.
With time, the rumors gained some serious weight when the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT Trackhawk was shown by FCA to a group of Jeep dealers during a meeting in Las Vegas which took place last August. Keep in mind that the Trackhawk is yet to be officially confirmed but it is highly probable that we will be seeing it in 2017.
Meanwhile, it’s been several years that Jeep fans have been waiting patiently to witness a Jeep pick-up on the road but the idea remained a concept for too long. Thankfully, The Detroit News confirmed that this vehicle will be coming soon. After the release of the next-generation Jeep Wrangler, the Wrangler pick-up will enter production on late 2017.