I hope its more than an exercise

 

Um, it's Jeep. You think they should have a musclecar, maybe?

 

I kinda like it.

 

Absolutely not. I'm looking at the big picture for DCX, which seems to be a problem with product overlap. I know that Jeep's product line is limited to SUV's/trucks. I'm not a "must be a RWD V8 or it sucks" person.

 

There is talk on the Mopar boards that the Jeep Commander and Chrysler Aspen are going to go away after another year, with possibly more changes to come. Lot of rethinking going on in Auburn Hills at the moment.

 

I think what Jeep really needs next is a pickup. They already have 6 SUVs

 

It looks like a smashed cherokee.

 

Personally, I feel Aspen is the most ill-concieved vehicle (let alone SUV) in recent history.

The purpose of the Aspen was to compete in the luxury Ute market with Escalade, Navigator, and many of the foreign brands, but cost less. But the reason these brands are successful is because they ARE somewhat exclusive, looks great or at least unique, and has status.

Taking a second string SUV like the Dakota was a bad move. Lincoln tried that with the Aviator in using the Explorer, and it tanked. That killed any idea GM had for a "Baby Escalade". Then not investing any money into the sheetmetal on an already questionable design was silly. The 300 is a design that expresses confidence, and is almost in your face. It doesn't even look like other LXs.

If the Aspen at least had the Jeep Commander's body, it would have had a fighting chance. But while I could see even the failed Lincoln Aviator as being pretty cool, the Aspen is at the least tacky, and at most goofy.

In either case, it's nowhere near the league it's suppose to be running with... regardless of the price.

 

It would certainly be in my top five.

The Commander was an interesting idea idea -- a three-row Jeep -- that wasn't as well executed as it could have been, for reasons that aren't clear to me. I wouldn't mind seeing them give it one more try.

 

DCX seems to have gotten a little off track with some of their recent products. The Aspen, Commander, and Compass are not very well thought out, by DCX's standards.

 

Aspen is obviously of those knee-jerk "brand jobs" just to keep the plant capacity up -- Nobody blinked an eye when Detroit did this 10 years ago. But the "Poor Man's Escalade" advertising is just

But I dislike the new Dakota so much, if I had to choose, I'd probably take the Aspen. Sorry.

Hopefully this concept indicates that Jeep is getting back to their offroad/sport image and away from the people-movers.

 

I like it. With a diesel I wonder what the towing capacity will be?