Jeep’s long rumored and finally confirmed Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer models are going to be body-on-frame vehicles and not unibody like almost all other luxury SUVs, according to Sergio Marchionne.
FCA’s boss shared the news with reporters at the Detroit Auto Show on Monday, according to AutoNews, confirming Jeep’s plans to offer both a Wagoneer and a Grand Wagoneer with a classic body-on-frame architecture.
The new Jeep models will be manufactured at the Warren Truck Assembly plant in Detroit, which will be retooled accordingly. The decision of going with the body-on-frame instead of unibody is a major switch in Jeep’s plan which up until now was indicating that they would go after premium models like the $140,000 Range Rover.
Instead going after expensive and more established players in the luxury market, Jeep’s decision to use a body-on-frame for its future flagships means that they will likely go after Chevrolet and its profitable Tahoe family of models instead. After all, Marchionne has said in the past that he envied the profits GM made from its big SUVs.
That means that a Jeep Grand Wagoneer will probably be priced closer to $100k and help the company sell it in higher volumes, at least in the US market.
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