Jeep on the up. big time.

[HardRockCamaro]

Nice to read success stories for yank vehicles for a change:  

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20111107%2FRETAIL01%2F311079958%2F1252&fb_source=message\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20111107%2FRETAIL01%2F311079958%2F1252&fb_source=message

"For Jeep dealer Stephen Kaiser, 2011 has been a banner sales year, up 86 percent. What surprises Kaiser most is that the once-scorned Jeep Compass compact SUV has tripled sales over the past year"

"Through the first 10 months of 2011, Jeep is the fastest-growing domestic brand, with sales up 44 percent. At its current rate, Jeep will sell 413,000 units this year, the most since Chrysler's 2009 bankruptcy. But that's still well shy of 1999, when Jeep set its sales record of 554,466"

"Jeep was also the fastest-growing brand through the first three quarters in import-dominated California, according to the trade association that represents the state's car dealers."

"Jeep was the top-ranked domestic brand in the Consumer Reports 2011 reliability survey. That's a long way from 2008, when three of the magazine's 11 worst-rated cars were Jeeps."

""The Wrangler is just doing phenomenally well at auction," says Eric Ibara, analyst for Kelley Blue Book. Typical 5-year-old Wranglers are still fetching 60 percent of their sticker price"

"The Grand Cherokee's move upscale has been even more dramatic. When the fourth-generation model was introduced in June of 2010 as a 2011 model, planners made a critical miscalculation. They underestimated the demand for top-of-the-line trim packages.

Don Lee, a Jeep dealer in Portland, Maine, says he is now seeing import trade-ins for Grand Cherokees that he wasn't getting before.

"We now have a vehicle that will compete with those lines," he says."

"For the first time this summer, Jeep entered the Grand Cherokee Overland Summit in the October Texas Auto Writers' Texas Truck Rodeo, a two-day comparison test. The Grand Cherokee beat the Range Rover Evoque and Mercedes-Benz ML 350 in the full-sized luxury SUV category."

"Jeep bosses also have taken to the road to spend time with the purists who keep the brand flame -- members of Jeep owners clubs.

Pearse Umlauf, vice president of Jeep Jamboree, an independent company that stages 30 Jeep adventure drives for Jeep around the country, says Manley "was with us on the Rubicon this year. Chris Ellis has been on the Rubicon a number of times. They understand it so much better than previous management."

All the work has paid off in 18 straight months of year-over-year sales increases in the United States."


Just a shame Jeep UK blow chunks almost as much as the Merc dealers that have no interest in selling the product and don't want it on their lot.  And on this side of the pond Fiat doubled the cost of spare parts overnight...