Jeep Builds a Pickup Truck - The Gladiator

[Brad69]

Lots of Jeep hating going on in here!
View attachment 72410

Heated leather seats, rear defroster, rear wiper, so on and so forth. I think my wife’s Jeep has everything available it’s surprisingly quite and handles good considering it has mud terrain tires from the factory.


This is is her car that handles good! It has heated seats as well!
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I have to drive this slower car it has heated seats too!

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[halfmileharry]

My first GTX didn't have PS or pb.
Not even an automatic transmission.
Heated seats?
WOW.

 

[KJQ6945]

My first GTX didn't have PS or pb.
Not even an automatic transmission.
Heated seats?
WOW.

Heated seats would have melted the rich, Corinthian, vinyl, and you had a 440 to keep you warm.

 

[halfmileharry]

Heated seats would have melted the rich, Corinthian, vinyl, and you had a 440 to keep you warm.

Sitting here laughing. That had to be the worst plastic seat covers ever devised by man or machine.

 

[gregkl]

The Gladiator is for a unique crowd. Someone who doesn’t need a truck to haul large items, but wants a Jeep as well. This Jeep truck isn’t going to perform as well off road as a full blown Jeep Wrangler. And it’s not going to haul anything like a truck can.

Actually, it’s for someone who is willing to spend stupid money for something that’s bad ass. Something you can mod and accessorize. And you can only mod and accessorize so much on a truck.

This truck will sell. And they will sell a lot.

The company I work for molds the subwoofer enclosure for the Jeep Truck (JT). We were originally told the annual volume would be 20,000 units. The subwoofer is an option with a 50% take rate so initial forecast was 40,000 trucks. FCA recently has asked us to plan for 87,000 subwoofers which translates into approx. 170,000 trucks. Uh, no one except for some FCA dreamers thinks volumes will get anywhere near that.

 

[Rookie]

I'll be surprised if it's not more.

 

[Brad69]

View attachment 72438

I think Chysler has made some improvements since the 60’s.
The cooled seats in this one will give you frostbite it also has heated steering wheel. The clutch is still as a heavy feel it’s a dual disk.

Then you also have 707 horsepower!

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[gregkl]

Who knew right away that the reference to 419 was to the Toledo, OH area code?

 

[halfmileharry]

View attachment 72438

I think Chysler has made some improvements since the 60’s.
The cooled seats in this one will give you frostbite it also has heated steering wheel. The clutch is still as a heavy feel it’s a dual disk.

Then you also have 707 horsepower!

View attachment 72439

Granted that interior is leaps and bounds above the old Mopar butt rests but I'm still not "warming up" to it.

 

[WebSnyper]

I know the people at Toyota are smarter than me but it blows my mind why they haven't came out with a new FJ40 type vehicle and claimed there share of this market that Jeep has all to itself.

I know. They need to bring it back. The FJ Cruiser came out with good numbers in the US (see chart below), but sales fell off. Between that and the mileage hit they took to their overall fleet, they ended up killing it off.

But I'd love to see them come out with a 2 door SUV again in that class.

Calendar year	US	Canada
2006	56,225[SUP][53][/SUP]	4,919[SUP][56][/SUP]
2007	55,170[SUP][57][/SUP]	4,901[SUP][56][/SUP]
2008	28,688[SUP][54][/SUP]	2,630[SUP][56][/SUP]
2009	11,941[SUP][54][/SUP]	899[SUP][56][/SUP]
2010	14,959[SUP][58][/SUP]	797[SUP][56][/SUP]
2011	13,541[SUP][59][/SUP]	639[SUP][56][/SUP]
2012	13,656[SUP][60][/SUP]	726[SUP][61][/SUP]
2013	13,131[SUP][62][/SUP]	656[SUP][63][/SUP]
2014	14,718[SUP][64][/SUP]	618[SUP][65[/SUP]

 

[Super Bee]

They can keep that new Jeep but I will take the Wagoneer on the trailer.

 

[Route 45]

Heated seats would have melted the rich, Corinthian, vinyl, and you had a 440 to keep you warm.

Don't be talking smack about fine Corinthian leather!

[video=youtube;E0diMFShiUU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0diMFShiUU[/video]

 

[KellyinAvon]

Don't be talking smack about fine Corinthian leather!

[video=youtube;E0diMFShiUU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0diMFShiUU[/video]

75 World Series, every-other commercial I swear...

 

[hoosierdoc]

Yeah, I'm the market: suburbia-dwelling, former off-road loving, needs to carry big stuff some weekends, mostly commuting, disposable income having guy (once the last kid is out of the house).

I'd definitely look at one.

Last time I was in that market (to offset the lack of cool in the garage when we started getting mini-vans), I looked at the Explorer Sport-trak (?) or whatever that thing was with the partial pickup bed in the back. Kinda like the Hummer version with the same thing.

Too expensive at the time, but would've liked one.

Get a minivan with a trailer. I’ve been rocking one for four years.

 

[lovemachine]

Get a minivan with a trailer. I’ve been rocking one for four years.

I wish someone would make a minivan that looked like the A-Team van.

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

I don't understand the Jeep thing either. They look cool then you get in one. Terrible in every way and the same price as the v8 super crew long bed f150 I bought.....doesn't make sense to me at all.*

There's your trouble. If I want to spend outrageous money, I'll buy a truck. If I want to spend outrageous money and be uncomfortable with half the capabilities, then jeep starts looking better.

 

[lovemachine]

 

[Super Bee]

Ok, with the top down and the doors off it does look like it could be fun.

My mom, who is 74, bought a new Wrangler a couple years ago. Lifted and oversize wheels and tires from the local Jeep dealer. On day one she had me remove the top completely and take off the doors. You have to watch the radar before heading out, however it is fun to drive.

 

[bwframe]

There's your trouble. If I want to spend outrageous money, I'll buy a truck. If I want to spend outrageous money and be uncomfortable with half the capabilities, then jeep starts looking better.

Isn't that why Ford and Chevy are both moving away from "economy" cars to only trucks and SUV's? They only want to deal with the high dollar crowd?

 

[bwframe]

No thank you! I was the victim of a Jeep Comanche pickup years ago. Never again...

I liked my '89 Comanche. Only had it 2 yrs though.

You probably didn't have to work on yours much.

My experience was that the Comanche we had was put together oddly with pretty much all OEM parts. Every routine repair was a hundred bucks and a trip the far away dealership (in the 80's). The electrical system had unique fuses that were difficult to find, brakes were some kind of high dollar Mopar stuff, etc, etc, etc.

Ultimately the truck had catastrophic tranny failure at just over 100k miles. We deemed it not worth the repair and sold it at a loss, not rolling.