Re: Over there

[farna@xxxxxxx]

Okay, I missed the "Car of the Dome" reference somehow... referring to the Super Cherokee?? Assuming so, I would also assume that the Chinese guys looked at the Cherokee and said "it's close, but we need a little more" and just stretched it and added a little extra overhang. They had to tool up all new body dies and such anyway, it wouldn't be difficult to make a few minor alterations out of practicality. I wasn't suggesting the stretch in wheelbase had anything to do with styling -- just practical for back seat passengers. All Asians aren't little bitty people like some of us Americans seem to think! If you've ever spent much time riding in the back seat of an XJ with even an average size American driving, you'll note that it's slightly cramped. 2-3" more room would make a world of difference! I'm not sure if the slight increase in rear overhang was for cargo space or to balance the wheelbase stretch -- more than likely to balance. The raised roof goes a long way toward the!
  stylistic balancing act, but again I think it was more for practicality. 

The Commander is definitely more "Jeep looking" than the new Grand Cherokee, or as I say, "Grand Pacifica". Of course combining the two makes way to much sense from a manufacturing standpoint to blame Chrysler for doing so. Both are in the same market segment though, competeing as much against each other as against Rovers and Tahoes. chrysler isn't known for big luxurious SUVs like Jeep has been, so I'm almost positive plant efficiency will go up because of this rather shrewd, definitely smart, move. A very different crowd shops for the Grand than does for the XJ, Liberty, Wrangler, or even Commander. 

Liberty was a waste as far as I'm concerned, though the Kia crowd does seem to like it. I'd go for two completely diffferent segments -- make the luxury GC and the Commander for the soccer moms and design a more ulititarian line around the easier to manufacture Wrangler. A four door wagon body could easily be turned into a unitized body pickup. The crowd that would go for such a thing wouldn't even mind door seams from filler panels where the rear doors were. A welded in panel separating bed from cab with lift up panels exposing storage space in the rear foot wells would be a nice touch, of access to that area from behind the seats, and a fiberglass or steel removeable hard top and roll bar would be fine. The rough and tumble Jeep crowd would love it, and wannabes would buy a slightly more civilized version just to LOOK rough and tumble! No changes to the basic design and two new vehicles to sell -- from stripped utility/work to dolled up yuppie/wannabe versions, all relativ!
 ely CHEAP to manufacture and should be good for 10+ years of production with whatever mechanical changes along the way. 

Oh yes, the Premier. While it does use some R-25 components, mainly the drivetrain, it IS NOT an Americanized R-25 as you seem to suggest. Similar in size and concept, and maybe even drawing off of it, but the Premier IS a totally new design. Check the AllPar site with some of the notes from one of the engineers. I first thought it was a modified R-25 platform as well, but there are way to many differences. 

On September 8, 2005 Mahoney, John wrote:

> Frank, I doubt the Car of the Dome was under the noggins of 1984 XJ designers; in part because, save ever-outsider Stevens, none were really classicists, and in part because they'd been "tasked to" (woo-woo, I'm using the latest lexicon --- if you've been listening to the blabber from every creep in Congress and every talking head on TV) make it as much a "heritage" carryall as possible; meaning, of course, that it look to and draw from the post-classic 1940s [thus sometimes Stevens'] Jeeps. 
> 
> AMC realized and respected what it had bought from Kaiser and Willys; if anything, AMC was more perceptive --- or, shall we say, quicker to perceive --- than was Chrysler about value in selling American history.  Corrective surgery on Liberty; the re-boxing of Grand Cherokee into a Commander and other stylistic twirls are really but back-to-the-future dance steps to the Willys quadrille.  Ohhh, what just happened?  Quad!  Fore!  (IOW, I might be hitting funny today; watch out for silliness.)   

<SNIP> 

> Doc, Bryan, Eddie, Joe, Frank, et al: Giorgetto's "25 on 21" Premier could be collected as a "modern classic" sedan in 20, 30, or 50 years.  It -was- an "executive class" near-luxury car in some markets and trim levels; it -is- an understated-yet-sophisticated design in some more-cognizant design circles.
> 


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