2024 Selec Trac full time four wheel drive on Willys?

[Mad Mac]

Here is what the transfer case shifter looks like AND a decent video on what Selec Track is all about.

Thank you. That was very interesting. Had no idea it was available.

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[Redfour5]

Thank you. That was very interesting. Had no idea it was available.

You are not alone. And that is a problem for Jeep. Just put it on the pile. I bet it's frustrating for Jeep executives working under Stellantis knowing their bosses do NOT understand the American market...

 

[ShadowsPapa]

You are not alone. And that is a problem for Jeep. Just put it on the pile. I bet it's frustrating for Jeep executives working under Stellantis knowing their bosses do NOT understand the American market...

I've always wondered how much control remains at the lower corporate level opposed to someone sitting at the top in the very biggest cushy chair passing down mandates.
Jeep is still a corporate entity itself - how much is decided there, how much freedom is there? Are we assuming Stellantis tells them exactly what to do - or is that actually happening? There's still a "guy" "in charge" at Jeep in the states.
Similar for FCA - it's still a corporate entity - owned by Stellantis, but still, like Buick, an entity itself. Is it Stellantis - or is this an FCA thing? Does the head of GM dictate to the heads at Buick exactly how options and packages will be applied and how things will price out?
I don't know - but have always questioned it because all of us assume it's the top guy dictating.

As for what's going on with Gladiator right now - welcome to the world of "other Jeeps".
What I mean by that is - it's been this way for years in the Grand Cherokee world! You choose what you want by choosing the "level" of GC you want - Laredo gets you this, that and the other thing with maybe 2 or 3 options tops.
We got to the point that when we bought a new GC for my wife - there was a smoker's package, tow package and some funky bling package - choose this level it's got everything.
If we had wanted some other features, we had to step up to the next level. If we wanted less - we dropped to another level. You didn't really sit and build a Grand Cherokee - you told the sales guy "we want this list of things" and he shows you a Laredo, or a Limited or whatever, for example - there weren't any options list to choose from.
Last one we bought - I think they had a total of only 2 or 3 options, everything was standard at that level.
So what I'm seeing (not saying I totally like it or agree with it - don't get me wrong there) is what we've seen for years in the "other Jeeps". You pick a level and all the stuff is already there and if you want a specific thing - you might have to bump up to a higher level, more expensive version of that Grand Cherokee to get that thing because it wasn't an option in the next level down.
We've not bought a Grand Cherokee since late 2020 so I've not followed them lately - maybe it's very different? I'm only laying out what I recall from the numerous Grand Cherokees we've bought over the decades.

Right or wrong - just observations, that's it.

 

[Redfour5]

I've always wondered how much control remains at the lower corporate level opposed to someone sitting at the top in the very biggest cushy chair passing down mandates.
Jeep is still a corporate entity itself - how much is decided there, how much freedom is there? Are we assuming Stellantis tells them exactly what to do - or is that actually happening? There's still a "guy" "in charge" at Jeep in the states.
Similar for FCA - it's still a corporate entity - owned by Stellantis, but still, like Buick, an entity itself. Is it Stellantis - or is this an FCA thing? Does the head of GM dictate to the heads at Buick exactly how options and packages will be applied and how things will price out?
I don't know - but have always questioned it because all of us assume it's the top guy dictating.

As for what's going on with Gladiator right now - welcome to the world of "other Jeeps".
What I mean by that is - it's been this way for years in the Grand Cherokee world! You choose what you want by choosing the "level" of GC you want - Laredo gets you this, that and the other thing with maybe 2 or 3 options tops.
We got to the point that when we bought a new GC for my wife - there was a smoker's package, tow package and some funky bling package - choose this level it's got everything.
If we had wanted some other features, we had to step up to the next level. If we wanted less - we dropped to another level. You didn't really sit and build a Grand Cherokee - you told the sales guy "we want this list of things" and he shows you a Laredo, or a Limited or whatever, for example - there weren't any options list to choose from.
Last one we bought - I think they had a total of only 2 or 3 options, everything was standard at that level.
So what I'm seeing (not saying I totally like it or agree with it - don't get me wrong there) is what we've seen for years in the "other Jeeps". You pick a level and all the stuff is already there and if you want a specific thing - you might have to bump up to a higher level, more expensive version of that Grand Cherokee to get that thing because it wasn't an option in the next level down.
We've not bought a Grand Cherokee since late 2020 so I've not followed them lately - maybe it's very different? I'm only laying out what I recall from the numerous Grand Cherokees we've bought over the decades.

Right or wrong - just observations, that's it.

We don't know enough about how the sausage is made to comment I guess, but there is a long history of higher level corporate stepping in and "micro-managing" lower levels to the detriment or occasionally to the benefit of products. On the Surface you can point to DeLorean and Ford and his conflicts with what he called the "bean counters." I am personally aware of some of the dynamics of Subaru in the mid 2000's when the "marketing" guy became CEO of what had been a company run by engineers. Under the engineers, the product was known for its quality and ingenuity but had become a bit of a niche product. It cannot be argued that the marketing guy really improved sales. But I know an engineer who was not happy... I got caught in the middle with a 4th gen Forester 2004 (all of them pre-wired to tow) and the differences between it and a 2007 where the marketing guys got involved changing things like turn to turn ratio, softer springs, and shift patterns in the transmissions to cater to the customer base... Minor, seemingly unless you towed with one... And now you cannot even tow with a Forester.

And that was within siloed organizations. What happens when you get a multi-national organization spanning continents with a range of formerly separate brands, cultures and corporate infrastructures.

I think we can say that someone at Jeep thought it would be a great idea to start targeting more "upscale" customers and moving products up the cost spectrum and starting to price themselves right out of a market once they were perceived to be forgetting the customer base that "brung em" to the party... You can still see the engineering in the products, but Jeep/Stellantis is tacitly acknowledging a defacto error simply by actually lowering MSRP and adding value/features to more basic units... It says something about the corporation at some level and someone was wrong in a strategic approach and tactical implementation self evidently... Like the Subaru changes, I find it difficult to believe the problem was at the "Jeep" corporate level... But then again, left to their own devices, perhaps they would not have adapted to the changing markets... Hard to tell. The answer is always in the mix and balance. Subaru's are still excellent quality vehicles that have a decently larger market share than when run by the engineers...

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