A Jeep That Goes After Range Rover Isn’t As Crazy As It Sounds

Jeep has been the success story of the Fiat-Chrysler marriage. An investment in product coupled with timing the global love affair with SUVs and crossovers perfectly, and it’s hard to see what product mountain they can’t climb.

But now CEO Sergio Marchionne says Jeep will go after the most established luxury SUV of them all: the Range Rover. And that’s a pretty bold claim considering Jeep’s mainstream positioning right now.

According to Bloomberg, Jeep will pitch a new top-line model at Land Rover’s top model sometime after 2018. The Range Rover rival will be placed ahead of the revived Grand Wagoneer three-row SUV due in the next couple of years. Marchionne was otherwise tight-lipped about plans for the new luxury Jeep.

The idea isn’t as far-fetched as one might think. The old Wagoneer, built between 1963 and 1991, beat the Range Rover to the concept of adding car-like conveniences to what would otherwise be a farm tool. Theoretically, Jeep should be able to pack in the very best comfort and technology features into a top model and go into the $80-$90,000 SUV territory, along with the Cadillac Escalade, Infiniti QX80 and Mercedes-Benz GL(S).

Jeep is also having a hard time doing any wrong in terms of launching hot-selling products, so much so that for the first time The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday the plants that make the Grand Cherokee, Cherokee and Wrangler will stay open through their normal summer break this year to keep up with demand. U.S. sales for the three are up 5, 32 and 22 percent, respectively so far this year.

But can Jeep really break into the luxury SUV segment? Unlike probably every other mainstream brand, the Jeep name is classless. They’ve been pushing the Grand Cherokee well into premium territory with one high-trim after another. Wranglers command insane amounts of money. Even the new little Renegade is more than $33,000 when fully loaded, but that didn’t stop Jeep from moving more than 4,000 of them in its first full month of sales. All of this shows people will pay a lot of money for a Jeep.

What Fiat-Chrysler haven’t been able to do yet is disguise their cars’ more humble origins well. The interior of an $80,000 Jeep or especially Maserati Ghibli shouldn’t feel like a $30,000 Dodge Charger’s covered in more wood and leather. It shouldn’t even look like it.

But if there’s a way Jeep could find the limits of its upward mobility, that could be it.