Sponsored

Negative gladiator sales article

OP
OP
Yellow1098

Yellow1098

Well-Known Member
First Name
Greg
Joined
Jul 2, 2019
Threads
30
Messages
711
Reaction score
617
Location
Orlando, FL
Vehicle(s)
2020 Gladiator Silver Sport S, 77 trans am, Ducati 1098
Pulled the trigger to soon saw the article was posted already in price section....feel free to delete mod
 

Trauma PA

Well-Known Member
First Name
Robert
Joined
Jul 2, 2018
Threads
31
Messages
1,310
Reaction score
1,424
Location
Southwest Florida
Vehicle(s)
2021 JT Willys, 2021 Audi Q3
Occupation
Trauma Surgery Physician Assistant
I think Jeep overpriced the Gladiator but I really don't care either. I bought two now. Got a decent deal on both of them. Had I wanted a Sport or an Overland there are even much better deals now to be had. I'd still rather pay a bit more for a Gladiator than a bit less for a boring Ranger, Colorado, or Tacoma. I've got a Rubicon JT but I have no doubt that I'd be just as happy in a Sport S. And if I knew back when I first bought what I know now about the Gladiator, I definitely would have bought a Sport S.
 

Sponsored

spazzyfry123

Well-Known Member
First Name
Tyler
Joined
Jul 25, 2019
Threads
36
Messages
1,051
Reaction score
955
Location
Florida
Vehicle(s)
2020 JTR (Sold) - Now Land Cruiser
Occupation
ME
What a junk article.
:LOL::LOL:

“The Gladiator is on Struggle Street”

Turns out the writer of the article just wanted another clickable title. Once again, no real facts or really anything tangible. The author just doesn’t seem to like the JT nor the price. Yet his quotes are from a dealer that sells 15-25 a month and is competing in sales with the Wrangler. The price is slightly higher than its competitors but offers much more at base.

THIS is a perfect example as to why I poke fun at jalopnik.
 

WXman

Banned
Banned
Joined
Mar 1, 2017
Threads
69
Messages
3,102
Reaction score
4,067
Location
Bluegrass region of Kentucky
Vehicle(s)
2021 Jeep Gladiator Overland EcoDiesel
Occupation
Meteorology and Transportation
Is it struggling? That depends. Did FCA intend to outsell the competition? Or did they intend to be unique in the segment and give Jeep people what they'd been begging for?

They might be very happy selling 50,000 of these a year.
 

Hootbro

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2019
Threads
32
Messages
6,206
Reaction score
10,295
Location
Delaware
Vehicle(s)
2022 Gladiator Rubicon
Jalopnik is the "National Inquirer" of the automotive internet press. Other than the statement of the Gladiator poaching some of what would have been Wrangler sale customers, the rest of the article is superlative hyperbole.
 

ACAD_Cowboy

Well-Known Member
First Name
Francis
Joined
May 1, 2019
Threads
22
Messages
1,414
Reaction score
1,953
Location
NY
Vehicle(s)
15 jkur
I read the article and some of the points he brings up are in fact valid but only from a global business perspective.

A. Overpriced: Sadly the JL and JT line are both very up market compared to the JK but this is because of the amount of new and different content. Consumers have radically changed the unit lifecycle time, in the old days you had programmed annual style changes that helped support platform changes on a 7 to 10 year time frame. But that's the old days where you lug around a hulk for a decade and everyone was pretty okay with it, not so any more. FCA needs to recoup costs much quicker so they can plow time and money into the next buzz model and keep hype alive. To put this in perspective, my rubicon has the 3.6, the rocktrac transfer case and dana elocker 44's. And so does every other JK, JL and JT rubicon. I figure that sometime in model year '08 is when they started to turn a real honest profit on the rubicon and at this point it is almost like negative interest payments to build one. But somehow it's still an expensive option package.

B. Cannibalizing JL sales: Is this really the case? Yes and no. IMHO no one is buying a JT who isn't already interested in the JL. As a truck it has okay statistics but the reality is you're not going to cross sell it against a ram, bed is "too small", it doesn't have "commanding road vision" and it's not bro-dozer bait. And all of this is fine. The problem comes in that it offers "more" and "better" stats compared compared to the JLU in truck specs but "less" and "worse" stats in jeep specs. If you want a jeep to do jeep stuff you're sticking with the JLU and if you want a fun truck with 200% RDA on cool you are sticking with the JT. The real issue is they are both under the jeep brand and and JL/JLU (and the JK family) exist is huge numbers, factory over production numbers, soviet tractor factory numbers! So yes, every JT sold is a JL/JLU that goes unsold and since the turnover rate isn't high enough because of very high retained value, improved build quality and far better than previous durability, it's gotta be hard selling new ones.

Would FCA have been better served by creating a Willys sub-brand and marketing the overland as a special thing? Would it have helped eased the sales problem? Eh who knows. The problem as it were is they are priced a bit too high for the market and offer model packages that are too similar or not clearly differentiated enough or worse yet have too much overlap making selection a mess. We as a group of market consumers don't need a new vehicle often enough to sustain current production or model proliferation. I say it's time to cull the line up and shift more than a few optional items to standard and increase the content contrast.

Make the sport package the manual windows, no AC, rubber mats AM/FM/CD stripper it was, push all the gee-gaws into the sahara/overland for maximum plush, dial up the brawn on the rubicon and keep pumping out the specials as peacocks with limited availability and a corresponding price. FFS there are 12 variations on the JL/JLU right now and 5 on the JT, it's got to be hell selling them to someone (or someones parents) who really just wants the open air drive, has a budget number in mind and isn't already part of "the scene". It's hard trying to offer a seat for every ass.
 

furrymurray

Well-Known Member
First Name
Michael
Joined
Jan 28, 2019
Threads
4
Messages
564
Reaction score
529
Location
Saint Amant Louisiana
Vehicle(s)
2020 Jeep Gladiator SG Rubicon
I personally don't give two shits what Jalapeno or whatever its name is says. The JT is one of the greatest vehicles to be released in a very long time. I 100% love mine and don't listen to negative people like him no matter what they say. That is why I like this forum so much. We all seem to be like minded individuals that care about the Jeep community and for the most part try to help each other out any way we can. With exception of a handful of negative Nancys. Lol! :LOL::CWL:
 

Sponsored

OL1970

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2019
Threads
11
Messages
100
Reaction score
138
Location
Michigan
Vehicle(s)
2020 JTLE Black, 2018 JLRU White, 1967 Corvette Converible, 2011 997.2 TTS
This is totally selfish, but this is exactly what I hoped would happen. Everybody who wants one will get it in the first couple of years production, then sales will dwindle dramatically and be cancelled. Boom, instant classic. We love ours, but honestly everybody that talks to me about the vehicle either in a parking lot or gas station says damn that's a damn good looking truck, then proceed to comment how most of them (base models) are ugly. I can see where they are coming from and the look of the vehicle dramatically improves with a lift and bigger tires. Yes it is way overpriced, yes it is a niche vehicle, no I would not purchase this if I drove 40,000 miles a year like in my working days.
 

mr_bots

Well-Known Member
First Name
Matt
Joined
Dec 12, 2019
Threads
1
Messages
110
Reaction score
89
Location
New Mexico
Vehicle(s)
2020 Gladiator Overland
Meh, they can say what they want and I've had people tell me my truck is dumb. I don't care, they're not making the payment. Also, I wouldn't have considered a JL. I've always thought Jeeps were cool but not enough to risk giving up the utility of a truck bed so they didn't lose a JL sale with me, they gained a JT sale. Yes it was expensive, but Jeeps tend to have very good resale and so do midsize trucks in general. Also, the JT has the best seating position in it's class, the most interior room, and is overall the most up to date midsize truck on the market. The Frontier is 15 years old though a solid truck, the Tacoma is 15 years old with a heavy refresh 5 years ago that kept the crap (IMO) seating position but gained a gutless engine and inept transmission, the Canyon/Colorado are 5 years old with a troublesome 8 speed and are lacking modern features like keyless entry, LED headlights, ACC.
 

JeepApex

Well-Known Member
First Name
Mark
Joined
Sep 2, 2019
Threads
6
Messages
46
Reaction score
171
Location
Harper's Ferry, WV
Vehicle(s)
2020 Jeep JT Gladiator Sport-S (Billet Silver)
I read that article this morning and there was absolutely zero substantial evidence to support their claim that the Gladiator is on "struggle street."

Nothing but clickbait BS. And I'd be saying the same thing if the article was written about ANY vehicle...
Sponsored

 
 



Top