Jeep Gladiator sales moves into 4th place among midsize trucks

[DirtyD]

I think within 5 years the Glad will have better resale then the Taco.

I hope so, that was part of the reason I traded my full size in. Figure in 4 years or so I should be sitting pretty as fa as equity goes.

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[WXman]

I don't think I can see Jeep over taking the Toyota, Chevy, or Ford. Those all have a 2 door 2 wheel drive version and Jeep lacks that. So as far as units sold Jeep will almost certainly be less than the others.

The Fords and Chevys have the commercial and municipal markets on their side as well. I don't think we will see many city, county or commercial entities sporting around in a Gladiator.

Dealers adding mark ups also does not help Gladiator sales.

Great points. When you consider that Gladiator is the newest truck on the market, the only one that hasn't been on sale the entire calendar year, is only offered in ONE configuration, and is the most expensive truck in the class....when you consider all that it's pretty amazing that they've sold enough of them to already move into 4th place. The JT is doing just fine.

Also, FCA was estimating "15% of Wrangler sales" would go Gladiator, but in Q3 that number is actually closer to 27%. If they play their cards right and offer some rebates this fall they'll be right in the game with Ford and GM.

I think within 5 years the Glad will have better resale then the Taco.

I think if consumers had brains between their ears, the the Glad would already have better resale than the Taco. The Taco is objectively the worst truck in the class. It objectively has the worst brakes, worst transmission, worst engine, worst frame, worst cargo box, and worst interior of any truck on sale in America in 2019. Yet, it's sales are #1. That just goes to show you that Kool-Aid is a powerful drink.

 

[BLK HOLE]

Jeep won't overtake the Tacoma...its firmly planted in that position, regardless the dent Jeep puts in it. Not sure about the other 2 tho. Time will tell....but at this point the Ridgeline and Cayman should be on the hot seat.

Surprising about the Ford...I rarely see them. Seen more Gladiators than Rangers.

 

[saintpauljeff]

interesting article, the Ford Ranger is one of the vehicles I'm considering along with the Gladiator

 

[BLK HOLE]

interesting article, the Ford Ranger is one of the vehicles I'm considering along with the Gladiator

If ride quality is paramount get the Ranger...but if everything else is important, get the Jeep.

 

[saintpauljeff]

If ride quality is paramount get the Ranger...but if everything else is important, get the Jeep.

I'm still really not sure what I want, I've never owned either a Jeep or Ford, haven't had time to progress towards test drives yet as I just bought a house a few months ago and that's been consuming most of my time. Just been learning about the Gladiator here on this forum and slowly doing research about how I'd potentially go about purchasing one.

 

[TheSolarWizard]

If the glad v6 had 30 more hp and 50 more tq, even more people would be buying it.
The 2.3l turbo v6 in the ranger is super impressive.

 

[Bobzdar]

FCA has stated they only have so much capacity on the gladiator, I think 100k per year. That means they'll have a hard time passing any of the trucks higher on the list as they don't have the capacity. Wrangler and Gladiator capacity is 300k per year in Toledo, and they've planned for 200k JL's and 100k JT's. Now I'm sure if demand for the Gladiator is higher and the JL lower, they can move some production over, but they'd have to move it all over to JT and stop making the JL completely to pass the Tacoma.

 

[BLK HOLE]

FCA has stated they only have so much capacity on the gladiator, I think 100k per year. That means they'll have a hard time passing any of the trucks higher on the list as they don't have the capacity. Wrangler and Gladiator capacity is 300k per year in Toledo, and they've planned for 200k JL's and 100k JT's. Now I'm sure if demand for the Gladiator is higher and the JL lower, they can move some production over, but they'd have to move it all over to JT and stop making the JL completely to pass the Tacoma.

They'd just expand the facility.

 

[Bobzdar]

They'd just expand the facility.

Yeah, that doesn't happen overnight. So I'd expect max of around 25k per quarter for the next year or two, if they hit that they might expand or trade off some JL capacity. Given they're at 16k for the first full quarter, they're already 2/3 of the way to their current max.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

FCA has never intended the Gladiator to be a sales leader. If they did, it would be a very different design with IFS and other changes. It’s never going to be a fleet sales leader.

However it may very well be a sales margin leader with the most profitability. I’ve already seen discounts over $5000 on Rangers.

 

[Troybilt]

FCA has never intended the Gladiator to be a sales leader. If they did, it would be a very different design with IFS and other changes.

Right because the Wrangler sales are so poor without IFS.

 

[velogeek]

Right because the Wrangler sales are so poor without IFS.

The live axle is what defines a Wrangler now that the JLU is basically the size of a freakin' 4Runner. If they lose that, they lose it's monopoly in the segment and it has to start competing with the 4Runner and the upcoming Bronco.

The Gladiator is not a monopoly and it's competing against other mid-size pickups. The fact is that the live axle is detrimental to its use as a daily driver and the inherent characteristics are why everyone else abandoned it. I'd never pick a Gladiator over a Tacoma for something meant to be driven everyday on the street - the Tacoma and Ranger just ride and handle so much better. Where the Gladiator shines, and why I'll be selling my Taco, is that it does what Jeep has traditionally done better - play in the dirt.

Jeep retained the live axle because they wanted an off-road capable pickup and that's the best way to do it. In doing so, they sacrificed a lot of what the market wants and will never catch the Tacoma who did the opposite. The comment above is right - if FCA wanted a competitor, they would have built something similar to the rest of the market. They didn't though and thankfully stayed true to the Jeep legacy.

 

[Rocksalt]

Before buying my JT I test drove a Taco because these were my choices for what I wanted in a pickup. I dint notice much of a difference in overall ride quality between the 2.
What turned me off with the Taco was the tranny was searching for gears continuously.

 

[velogeek]

Before buying my JT I test drove a Taco because these were my choices for what I wanted in a pickup. I dint notice much of a difference in overall ride quality between the 2.
What turned me off with the Taco was the tranny was searching for gears continuously.

Get them up to freeway speeds and rough roads and it's night and day - the Tacoma is far more stable at speed. Totally agree on the AT though... they under-geared the truck and as a result it doesn't hold 5th or 6th well.

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