Filed under: SUVs, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Plants/Manufacturing, Jeep
click above to view more high-res pics of the 2008 Jeep Liberty
Employees at Jeep’s factory in Toledo, Ohio reported back to work this week after two months of mandatory downtime. The good news is that they still have their jobs; the bad news is that they’ve been told to expect another four weeks off before the end of the year. This time, however, the shutdowns will be scheduled in week-long intervals instead of covering an entire four-week period. The slowdown of SUV sales has been widely covered and the Jeep brand has not been immune, including its bread-and-butter Wrangler model that had proven extremely popular a short while back when the first-ever four-door version was unveiled. Of course, back then gas was below $3 a gallon. Besides the Wrangler, Jeep also makes the Liberty and Dodge Nitro at the Toledo plant.
[Source: 13 ABC]
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Filed under: In the Autoblog Garage, SUVs, Jeep
Click above for a high-res gallery of the 2008 Jeep Compass
We weren’t really sure what direction Jeep was heading when it introduced the Compass in 2007. Built on a shared platform with the Dodge Caliber, the Compass goes against what we normally think a Jeep should be - rugged, tough, capable, and… well… square. The departure from classic Jeep styling hasn’t received rave reviews, and the interior has been a source of complaints, as well. Does the Compass deserve the criticism it’s been receiving? We aimed to find out and secured a 2008 4×2 Sport model for the Autoblog Garage.
All photos Copyright (C)2008 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.
Continue reading In the Autoblog Garage: 2008 Jeep Compass Sport 4×2
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Filed under: SUVs, Plants/Manufacturing, Crossovers/CUVs, Jeep
Click above for big gallery of the current Jeep Grand Cherokee
Jeep has a long and illustrious history with the Cherokee and Grand Cherokee, and that lineage will continue on, albeit with some modifications to remain relevant to the times. Unlike many of its closest rivals that used a body-on-frame approach (we’re looking at you, Explorer), the Grand Cherokee has always been based on a unibody platform. But it looks like future Grand Cherokees will be moving on to a car-based platform rather than its own dedicated one. To retool for this new vehicle program, Chrysler has announced that its Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit will be getting a $1.8 billion renovation that should employ 400 new workers — a boon for the weary Detroit-area economy.
While purists may not like the idea of a car-based Grand Cherokee, we can’t imagine that Chrysler would make the mistake of alienating its vast army of die-hard Jeep fans by making its flagship product too road-biased. Remember too that the Grand Cherokee name has always been affixed to a model that’s a bit less rough-and-tumble than other more hardcore Jeep models like the Wrangler. Expect to see the next-gen Grand Cherokee sometime in 2010. Thanks for the tip, Roger!
[Sources: Dow Jones Newswire, Automotive News - sub. req’d]
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