February 14th, 2010 • by David Zatz
We drove the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited some time ago, but it was an automatic… and that just seemed wrong. Now that we have the stick-shift version, we know what we were missing. It makes a huge difference in the feel and character of the car; it makes it much more hard-core.
When we first got it, we had a nice shoveled out driveway and a curb cutout that had been blocked by the snowplows clearing streets after the big snowstorm. Hard-packed snow and ice, in a mound around three feet high; and around 18 inches of snow on the ground behind it. We backed the minivan up to make room, then took the Rubicon and created our own path. A snowplow would have been helpful, but just going into 4×4 mode and backing up worked surprisingly well.
I apologize for the low quality of the photos. The first one shows the Jeep having gone into the unplowed “driveway” (there’s a curb cutout but it’s just grass); the second shows how deep the snow was. We didn’t shovel … though afterwards we did have to clear the sidewalk.
May 11th, 2009 • by David Zatz
Before I can be accused of pulling a Leinert, the answer is “probably not.”
Jeep would be hard to pull away from Chrysler without one or the other being seriously wounded, but it’s not impossible. The Nitro would be dropped, the next-generation Durango either dropped or licensed or somehow dealt with, the engines licensed until Jeep could buy something new. Engineers could be reassigned or computer files sent over to other engineers who could spend some time trying to figure everything out. It wouldn’t be ideal, it wouldn’t necessarily make sense, but it could happen.
On the other hand, does Navistar actually have the money to make it happen? And is Jeep worth that much in its current state?
Plenty of other companies have 4×4 cred now. Toyota, Ford, and Mahindra have all made names for themselves, Toyota and Mahindra through actual street machines, and Ford through marketing and sponsorships. Just having off-road cred isn’t enough anyway; Hummer is being sold off and presumably could out-Jeep Jeep.
Based on the numbers, any buyer for Jeep would have to put a few hundred million into the acquisition itself, a few hundred million into bringing products to market, and then provide something to the creditors. Does Navistar even have the money?
Navistar had a gross profit for 2007, 2008 ($2.8 billion), and Q1 2009 ($647 million). Their net loss in 2007 was $120 million; in 2008 they made $134 million; in Q1 2009 they made $234 million. Still, their total liabilities were, in January, $11 billion, with $9.6 billion in assets. They are losing cash, and I don’t figure this will be a good year for them. (Q1 2009 for them ended January 2009 so it doesn’t fully reflect current events, but net change in cash was -$364 million.) This year has been bad for the commercial-truck market; Sterling was shut down and the company formerly known as Freightliner has experienced the revenge of Daimler.
I don’t see Navistar as being able to keep Jeep going as a mass market company anyway. Perhaps they could keep it running like Kaiser or even AMC did, but the cost of playing the game has shot up dramatically and they have real competitors now. They just aren’t big enough and they don’t really have the kind of assets needed for the typical Jeeps: gas-powered Wranglers, Libertys, and Grand Cherokees. The enthusiasts would buy diesel Wranglers, but how many are there? Really? Compared with the hordes who used to buy Libertys, Cherokees, and Grand Cherokees?
As for other Jeep buyers, I don’t see any. Mahindra isn’t sized to buy Jeep, and has already turned it down; Toyota is but has no need for it, and doesn’t usually buy other companies (especially non-Japanese companies). Ford could use it but has no cash; ditto GM which can’t even keep its Pontiac brand alive, or hold onto Opel. Honda and BMW both have leaders who are smart enough to know what they do well, and stick to it. Who is left that has money? Only the Chinese brands, and apparently they’ve already turned down Jeep (though, apparently, not Hummer.)
Time will tell; strange things have indeed happened, and the public statements from some of the parties have been shown to be unreliable. But Navistar… I would not bet on it.
