Head of Jeep Brand NA is bullish on Gladiator future

[Jeepdoggydog]

So sad to learn about the death of my career on a internet forum.

So glad to learn about the future of the Gladiator from someone that claims to know it all.

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[Wheelin98TJ]

So glad to learn about the future of the Gladiator from someone that claims to know it all.

He has insider knowledge based on his previous posts I've seen.

 

[Jeepdoggydog]

He has insider knowledge based on his previous posts I've seen.

Agreed,, I have read their junk before, companies from Apple, Tesla,, and others employ such trolls in their marketing, and information departments. Their job is to harvest data and report back to their bosses.

 

[BearFootSam]

That's awesome. I'd like to learn more about your farm.

We are in a similar situation. We have approximately 10 miles of recreational roads to get to our mountain property which is located next to a National Forest. The Gladiator gets us to and from the property in inclement weather, but it was also purchased to replace the Jeep Cherokee.

We're only 18.5 acres but we a decent size orchard and are expanding. The original owners left a lot of old cedar split rail fence and big 6'+ DBH trees that make navigation difficult.

The jeep has great visibility, I know exactly where my wheels are. With the axle width greater than vehicle width, and being relatively svelte around the middle, it's possible to cut some challenging turns.

The width thing doesn't sound significant until you are on a shelf road rounding a rock fall with your sidewall inches from a 60* tumble. If I poke my head out of the window I can out eyes on the tire and check my margin for error. Not to say a larger truck couldn't make it, but you'd want a spotter and a change of underwear.

 

[biodiesel]

We're only 18.5 acres but we a decent size orchard and are expanding.

Nice! We have to use hoop houses to grow most vegetables at our elevation (7,100' feet). Summers are short, and nights can be cold. I plant yellow sweet clover for the honeybees. Alfalfa, rye, and a few other cool weather crops grow pretty good.

I agree that the Gladiator makes for a useful truck for small homesteads and farms. I need to buy a smaller dump trailer (5'x8') that can be towed with the Gladiator. Right now, I'm using a 6'x12', 10,000 GVWR and it's nearly too heavy for my 1/2 ton.

 

[BourbonRunner]

I'm not sure why Ram drug their feet. My guess is that it boils down to poor leadership from Carlos Tavares. Sergio wouldn't have let Ram, Dodge, Jeep, and Chrysler fall through the cracks.

I put the blame squarely at Tavares' feet for the gross mishandling of all of the former Chrysler marques. Full stop. Sergio had the passion for the brands and understood their history and appeal and moved to embrace that and build on it. Tavares is just the poor man's Carlos Ghosn.

 

[Janster]

3) Get rid of all the dam luxury junk on the JT ( Sport on up). Power seats, Heated seats, lane changing mirrors, off road pages, crash avoidance, Dual Climate, Electric disconnects, 4K stereos, effing color matched tops and fenders. People bitch about price but need their princess shopping list of options. Bullshit, it's a dam Wrangler. Wonder why there are so many electrical issues?

You must be one of those young whipper snappers…..

I want the luxury stuff, cuz I’m old…..and not getting any younger. And yes…I can afford that luxury stuff. I especially absolutely L O V E the fact I don’t need to wear gloves cuz that heated steering wheel is F’n AWESOME!!

But wait… don’t they already have options to buy a bare bones JT without all the extra stuff?? So why are you complaining about the luxury stuff?
If you’re allowed to buy a bare bones truck…buy it. Let the rest of us have our luxury options.

That’s one of the reasons why I didn’t buy another Tacoma… (back in 2016). In 2016, it was the Tacomas debut for the newest generation. That new truck still didn’t have rear disc brakes, & no power seats. It didn’t have 4WD auto either. I bought a GMC Canyon that had all those things & more.

 

[biodiesel]

There is a threshold in which certain options are so unpopular, that it's no longer cost effective to make the lower budget item. For example, I read that hand crank windows have been eliminated by many auto manufacturers because it costs more to offer the hand crank option than to stick with the mass-produced power windows.

 

[yoda13]

I used to be in this camp. But then seeing how IFS now dominates King of the Hammers, and the solid axle teams are nearly extinct, I stopped caring as much. The Bronco has shown that IFS is workable. Granted these are all custom rigs, IFS can be extremely competent in the rocks. I pretty much only wheel rocks where I live, and my next rig will not be a Jeep, as I wouldn't buy a cup of coffee from Stellantis. I'd probably already have a ZR2 if they fixed the gearing (too numerically low)

I crossed shopped the ZR2 Colorado. It was the only thing I considered besides my Gladiators. Their transmission issues scared me off, that and the fact I have always been a jeep guy. If I didn’t have the gladiator, I would have a ZR2. Nonetheless, I still prefer the simplicity of a solid axle.

 

[yoda13]

The Gladiator needs to change.

There are a bazillion ideas to make it better. People in this thread acting like a 15mpg, underpowered, lumber-wagon-esk ride quality, screaming-at-4k-to-tow-anything, overpriced lump is special; give me a break. We all took a bath on the resale value because these just aren't worth that much. A V6 that was engineered when Obama was running for office. Solid Axles need R&D? Please. This thing is a stretched JL with ram suspension, let's not all sit here and pretend it's anything more than that.

Mine sits in the driveway because it makes for a hideous daily driver. I felt the exact same way when I recently got a 2025 JL as a rental. Just an awful thing to drive daily. And I say that as someone who has driven 2 JKs, and this JT, as dailys since 2013.

Stellantis has a dud on its hands, make no mistake. It isn't selling because it simply isn't a competitive product. This is a gladiator board, and a few folks here are avoiding taking that look in the mirror. But let's call a spade a spade. The gladiator either needs to make a lot of improvements to keep its current price, or that price needs to drop by a signficant amount.

I will agree that it is way over-priced. Everything thing is now though, but Stellantis has taken things to extremes with Jeep. However, I daily drive mine now… I have for several months. I sold my car because o preferred the jeep. Except for mpg, I think it’s a wonderful daily driver.

 

[legacy_etu]

Nice! We have to use hoop houses to grow most vegetables at our elevation (7,100' feet). Summers are short, and nights can be cold. I plant yellow sweet clover for the honeybees. Alfalfa, rye, and a few other cool weather crops grow pretty good.

I agree that the Gladiator makes for a useful truck for small homesteads and farms. I need to buy a smaller dump trailer (5'x8') that can be towed with the Gladiator. Right now, I'm using a 6'x12', 10,000 GVWR and it's nearly too heavy for my 1/2 ton.

Dang, you both have beautiful properties!

 

[legacy_etu]

Your base assumption is wrong.

Profit is king.

Gladiator as is, doesn't sell.

Ram has nothing for the mid sized market.

Jeep, essentially, has nothing for the mid sized market.

Ram wants sub 50k sales.

Stellantis has a midsized name plate, and an appropriate STLA architecture.

There's no rules that say Gladiators have to be based on Wranglers.

I'm not going to get myself fired over trying to lead people on a message board to water

I'm thinking they are going to bring the Fiat Strada if anything to the NA market. I don't think it will do well if they package it with a cvt though.

 

[Bonanza]

Yeah, sure, you can throw enough money at any problem and get a superior solution, but let’s talk real world.

To get an IFS to outperform SFA adds substantial cost and complexity. One of the merits of SFA is a simple, rugged and economical design. Maintenance is another, clearances and accessibility are cake, costs are reasonable, durability is good.

Some of us, I dare say, also actually like the SFA driving feel. Going over uneven ground like bumpy meadows or heavy debris in uncleared forests SFA is more controlled. Having a static minimum ground clearance at the pumpkin eliminates the risk of slamming hard parts due to suspension compressing coming off a rock or log.

SFA also opens up the world of axle swaps. Say you really bone head the front, crack an axle, you can swap the whole unit. A similar accident might total an IFS. Either would be a bad day, but less so SFA.

I actually bent my Dana44 in my old JK. Replaced it with a JK8 axle housing with my own dos manos. while it was pretty easy to swap the axle housing and a single fubar'd axle shaft, I'm not sure an IFS would've bent. Dana 44s are tough, but not "that" tough to take those big hits. A truss might've helped, might not have.

Point is, there are pros and cons of SAS, as there are IFS. But where the SAS benefits come through are the small portion of trail time that an even smaller portion of the buying pool will recognize.

I crossed shopped the ZR2 Colorado. It was the only thing I considered besides my Gladiators. Their transmission issues scared me off, that and the fact I have always been a jeep guy. If I didn’t have the gladiator, I would have a ZR2. Nonetheless, I still prefer the simplicity of a solid axle.

If I still had desire to mod again, I think I would tend to agree. But there are some compelling factory packages that make IFS fairly attractive. By no means could anything, even from Jeep, be capable to do the trails I've taken my gladiator through, but I have about 10 hard-core trail sessions a year. It's hard to say the tradeoff is worth it. And the wife/kids don't appear to enjoy their heads being tossed around in a rock garden, so I'm just reaching a point where I think I'd prefer just getting "out there" and exploring versus hitting KOH-adjacent trails.

 

[yoda13]

I actually bent my Dana44 in my old JK. Replaced it with a JK8 axle housing with my own dos manos. while it was pretty easy to swap the axle housing and a single fubar'd axle shaft, I'm not sure an IFS would've bent. Dana 44s are tough, but not "that" tough to take those big hits. A truss might've helped, might not have.

Point is, there are pros and cons of SAS, as there are IFS. But where the SAS benefits come through are the small portion of trail time that an even smaller portion of the buying pool will recognize.



If I still had desire to mod again, I think I would tend to agree. But there are some compelling factory packages that make IFS fairly attractive. By no means could anything, even from Jeep, be capable to do the trails I've taken my gladiator through, but I have about 10 hard-core trail sessions a year. It's hard to say the tradeoff is worth it. And the wife/kids don't appear to enjoy their heads being tossed around in a rock garden, so I'm just reaching a point where I think I'd prefer just getting "out there" and exploring versus hitting KOH-adjacent trails.

that makes perfect sense. The KOH are outside my desires too. However, many difficult trails in Moab and Colorado are not.

 

[BourbonRunner]

I'm thinking they are going to bring the Fiat Strada if anything to the NA market. I don't think it will do well if they package it with a cvt though.

I don't see the Strada/Ram 700 coming for a couple reasons, but primarily because it's smaller than the current Rampage and doesn't offer AWD as an option.

OTOH, Rampage is roughly equivalent in size to the Maverick and shares underpinnings with the USDM Compass and ROW Commander (Damned shame Commander isn't sold here as a Cherokee in a 2-row version, too while we're at it). Rampage also looks much more like the full size Rams than the Ram 700/1200.

Because STLA already has all the design and tooling done in Brazil, theoretically that could be brought here in knock downs until they get a plant domestically online to avoid the dreaded Chicken Tax.

Have to remember that behind every model there's about at least a couple hundred million sunk into R&D and assembly line retooling. Financials are not great at STLA so any opportunity to save money is likely on the table.

Speaking of the Ram 1200/Peugeot Landtrek- I wonder if that could be the basis of a new Dakota?

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