Cherokee that would've been?

It's as if the Cherokee found it's own evolutionary course. The spacing of the openings on the grille is quite odd, no? There's a distinctly different sensibility embodied in that part of the design.

The other thing that's interesting is how up front they are about saying that they borrowed this'n'that from the 'U.S. Chrysler Corporation'. Like the catalytic converter, for example. It's a strange selling point. Maybe it's more important in Chinese culture than it would be to us.

I remember reading in the Automotive News several years ago that there was a sudden and drastic change of direction in the design for the Cherokee's replacement. At the time, the article placed a lot more emphasis on the similarity of the front end to that of the Wrangler, intimating that the new vehicle would be just as rugged and off-roadable in Wrangler fashion than it actually turned out to be. When I found out they had ruined the Cherokee's fine HP-to-weight ratio, I lost interest quickly, and as it happened, they really took away the sporting character of the vehicle, presumably to sell it to women. We actually considered getting a new Cherokee back in '97 or '98 when my wife needed a new vehicle, but it was too trucklike for her, and she decided she'd rather have a minivan. Her objection to the JGC was that it was too slow with the I-6, and the V8 was major coin. She rightly pointed out that a 3.0L Caravan had it all over the 4.0L JGC in terms of acceleration, and it cost less to boot. She's a woman after my own heart -- shop for bargains with good HP-to-weight!

In retrospect, she might've gone for a Liberty-esque vehicle, had it been available. I expect that today she'd choose a 4.7L Durango instead. It's everything that the JGC wasn't, with the exception of the off-road capability, which we really don't need. Back then, I almost gave her the '96 Intrepid and took the Cherokee for myself (it was a great deal at the time), but I wasn't sure I wanted to give up the nice low center of gravity in the car. I still wonder sometimes if I shouldn't replace the current Intrepid with a nice used Cherokee. Maybe someday....

--Geoff

H'm. Odd? I donno...it doesn't look like the last actual Cherokee, but I don't really see anything odd about it. I'm not sure I go for the "tall nose" appearance, swollen in the middle. Too bad no clear picture of the rear styling. I bet those taillamps change the appearance considerably.

Or maybe the Chinese know they make garbage just like the rest of the world knows they make garbage. "American car" may well imply higher-than-normal quality of engineering in that market. And catalytic converters are still rather new to the Chinese market. They still don't have them in the Middle East markets, except for Israel.

Barbie's li'l SUV!

DS

Liberty-esque

American model is a "made in Chink"? Thinking about it how original American car could be coming out of chink factory. The chink don't use a real stuff. Everyone knows this. They use a plastic. They could use chop stick in our American model.