If you were in Jeep Management, what changes would you make to the Gladiator?

[kubankevin]

So Stellantis announced some changes to a few positions in the Jeep Corporate offices. With that being said, some are saying there should be some changes made with the Gladiator. If you were the Director of Engineering and Design, what changes would you make. Or what do you think would make the Gladiator a better truck?

5.7 or 3.0 SST SO as an option for Rubi, Mojave, Max Tow, and Willys

Bring back the 6 speed with a heavier flywheel, a clutch that isn’t made out of paper, and tighter gear ratios especially for 6th gear.

full float axles just like wranglers get.

Pentastar with dual injection for better power and fuel economy without DI intake fouling woes and an improved oil cooler / oil filter housing design

GET RID OF THE AUX BATTERY!!! or at least make it easily accessible. Under the fuse box is not cool.

Allow ESIM activation on other carriers for the WiFi hotspot. Verizon would be best for my area.

PPF on the door hinges from the factory as standard equipment for all Gladiators and Wranglers.

Make keyless ignition an option as an entirety. Most of us would rather have the old school key turn to start ignition.

Redesign the footwell and add a dead pedal

Electronic Hood lock that follows your door lock status

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[DirkG]

Option 1

• Move the JT to the Rampage platform and badge engineer it. Rampage/Gladiator. I.E. Chevy/GMC. Have a Maverick/Santa Cruz competitor in the sub 30k space with the full range of ICE, BEV, and EREV choices available.
• Move the Wrangler into the halo vehicle space, keep it low volume, high pricing, Rubicons, Hurricanes, etc.

Option 2

• Move the Wrangler, Gladiator, and Dakota onto the same platform, again, badge engineering and having flexibility on powertrains and options, can let the Ram be budget, let the Jeep be more "premium"

Either way, you can move units, and the school of thought is shifting away from trying to make a ton on each unit, and more to trying to move more units, like the Chinese do.

Currently, they're locked into a bunch of contracts and prices and volumes, but the next gen isn't set in stone yet.

This is indeed very insightful. The real question in either scenario is what is the breaking point when Jeep has covered all fixed and variable costs. I'm going to assume the aforementioned contracts are not helping.

As a fan of Jeep and a 2-time Gladiator owner, I'm hoping for a combination of both scenarios (except for the Wrangler being a Halo vehicle). With the Halo route, my guess Jeep would slide the Recon in where the fleet and low-cost Wranglers reside, but I think the "Wrangler" name has too wide of a reach to shrink its market like that.

I would align the Dakota (lesser in price/options), Gladiator, and Wrangler on the same platform, but also have a smaller Maverick-sized Jeep and Rampage truck. There are several classic Jeep truck names to use: Overland, Commando/Commander, or the Scrambler. I don't think the Comanche would fly through the woke filter.

Stellantis needs to realize that Jeep's appeal is that the brand and its vehicles appeal to everyone. That's very unique. Harrison Ford is not going to do a Kia or even a Land Rover commercial. But he did a Jeep commercial. I saw an interview with Harrison and you and I own the same brand as Han Solo. People want to own a Jeep. It's the company's job to make that happen to as many people as possible without sacrificing its DNA.

 

[BourbonRunner]

Stellantis needs to realize that Jeep's appeal is that the brand and its vehicles appeal to everyone. That's very unique. Harrison Ford is not going to do a Kia or even a Land Rover commercial. But he did a Jeep commercial. I saw an interview with Harrison and you and I own the same brand as Han Solo. People want to own a Jeep. It's the company's job to make that happen to as many people as possible without sacrificing its DNA.

QFT.

 

[DJK_Juicy]

Easy...

• 2.0 Turbo Four in the Sport, Sport S, and Willys. Drop the price for entry level so more people see a Gladiator as an option.
• Hurricane I6 in the Rubicon and Mojave. Premium price for a 420 hp/469 lb⋅ft torque Gladiator.
• If you want to get crazy, put the 510 hp/521 lb⋅ft torque Hurricane I6 High Output in the Rubicon X and Mojave X

Now that you have fuel economy savings from forced air, take the tooling and blueprints for the 3.73 gears and dispose of them and forget they exist. 4.10 standard.

Oh...also, keep the manual option. Just get a better clutch. It's not that hard to engineer a good clutch...

 

[Minty JL]

Bring back carburetors and points ignitions. Gimme pushrods and rocker arms. Get out and manually lock those hubs. 4-spd manuals. Mechanical clutch. No backsets. Two doors. Manual window cranks. No AC, no radio. Tachometer only...do the fucking math if you wanna know your speed. No gas gauge, you gotta dip your finger into the tank that's actually where the backseat woulda been. Speaking of seats, fuck that, we get one seat - driver's. Manual steering, hydraulics are for pussies. Four wheel drum brakes. And bluetooth.

Sounds like you need or desire an 1987 S10.....I miss mine. It was a stripper model only option was a 700-r4 auto. 4 banger IronDuke, I threw a blazer rearend into it with 3.08s, static slammed itand was getting 35mpg commuting 120 miles a day. Crank windows and the largest rear slider I could find......that was my AC

 

[Greg_L]

Sounds like you need or desire an 1987 S10.....I miss mine. It was a stripper model only option was a 700-r4 auto. 4 banger IronDuke, I threw a blazer rearend into it with 3.08s, static slammed itand was getting 35mpg commuting 120 miles a day. Crank windows and the largest rear slider I could find......that was my AC

I had an 84 GMC C10 stepside for a while. It had zero amenities. Well that's not entirely true, it had an AM radio. That was about it. It also had a progression of increasingly powerful small block chevys that eventually broke two transmissions. It wouldn't offroad but holy shit it embarrassed a few Mustangs back in the day. This was before sleeper street race "farm trucks" was a thing. I regret selling it now. Squarebody GMs are getting good $$$$

 

[BourbonRunner]

Sounds like you need or desire an 1987 S10.....I miss mine. It was a stripper model only option was a 700-r4 auto. 4 banger IronDuke, I threw a blazer rearend into it with 3.08s, static slammed itand was getting 35mpg commuting 120 miles a day. Crank windows and the largest rear slider I could find......that was my AC

There's something to be said for the overall simplicity of cars not that long ago versus the over complicated, electrical doodad laden computer controlled amorphous blobs on wheels that we have today. It wasn't that long ago that YJ's had air-conditioning as an option.

See also:

Get off my lawn, turn that crap down, and pass me the Tums.

 

[Minty JL]

There's something to be said for the overall simplicity of cars not that long ago versus the over complicated, electrical doodad laden computer controlled amorphous blobs on wheels that we have today. It wasn't that long ago that YJ's had air-conditioning as an option.

See also:

Get off my lawn, turn that crap down, and pass me the Tums.

Get the fuck off my lawn, there's a side walk you lazy bag of fuck

 

[Minty JL]

I had an 84 GMC C10 stepside for a while. It had zero amenities. Well that's not entirely true, it had an AM radio. That was about it. It also had a progression of increasingly powerful small block chevys that eventually broke two transmissions. It wouldn't offroad but holy shit it embarrassed a few Mustangs back in the day. This was before sleeper street race "farm trucks" was a thing. I regret selling it now. Squarebody GMs are getting good $$$$

Shit, we're getting old.

 

[BourbonRunner]

Shit, we're getting old.

**chugs Metamucil between sips of coffee**

Yup.

 

[Minty JL]

**chugs Metamucil between sips of coffee**

Yup.

or realize it when the Doc says its time to schedule a colonoscopy. My one buddy said the upside was they discovered he was full of shit and lost like 10 lbs.......no shit, true story

 

[BourbonRunner]

or realize it when the Doc says its time to schedule a colonoscopy. My one buddy said the upside was they discovered he was full of shit and lost like 10 lbs.......no shit, true story

Can confirm. I think it was somewhere around 10. But the o-ring hated it.

 

[Minty JL]

Can confirm. I think it was somewhere around 10. But the o-ring hated it.

Well thats shitty LOL

 

[Jrgunn5150]

I would align the Dakota (lesser in price/options), Gladiator, and Wrangler on the same platform, but also have a smaller Maverick-sized Jeep and Rampage truck. There are several classic Jeep truck names to use: Overland, Commando/Commander, or the Scrambler. I don't think the Comanche would fly through the woke filter.

Most likely scenario.

These guys upset about electric power steering are gonna be real mad when they realize what that means for front suspension.

Indeed, there are many names they will not pull back out for sensitivity reason.

 

[BourbonRunner]

Indeed, there are many names they will not pull back out for sensitivity reason.

It is a shame that the Cherokee nation and STLA can't come to an agreement or at least a licensing arrangement. The tribal name has significance in the heritage of the brand and the tribe in the history of the nation. It could be handled reverently if both sides were willing to.

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