Update: This article initially stated these photographs have been of the brand new full-size Jeep Wagoneer, however upon nearer examination, they seem extra prone to be photographs of the upcoming Jeep Grand Cherokee redesign. The textual content has been up to date to mirror this.
Jeep’s three-row aspirations look like nearing actuality. As proven by new spy photographs despatched to Autoblog Monday, what we consider to be the three-row variant of its Grand Cherokee is inching nearer and nearer to manufacturing.
While mules and early prototypes of Jeep’s new three-row SUV have been noticed in the wild a number of instances in the previous 12 months, they wore thick, cumbersome, black camouflage that hid a lot of the truck’s type, to the purpose the place telling it other than the full-size Wagoneer has made it tough — tough sufficient even to throw us for a loop.
While fairly a little bit of this stays on this new prototype’s flanks and rear finish, the frilly coverings on the entrance finish and roof have given method to extra form-fitting disguises. Some of probably the most distinguished modifications on this instance are the brand new, sleeker side-view mirrors and what look like production-style cargo rails, and we are able to see what seems to be a production-style grille and headlights in the entrance finish now that the additional layer of camo has been eliminated. Elsewhere, not a lot has modified. The facet physique panels and doorways nonetheless look like both pre-production placeholders or elaborately disguised manufacturing elements.
While they put on very comparable camouflage, there are two objects we have seen differentiating the Grand Cherokee from the bigger Wagoneer on these early prototypes. The first is the six-lug sample wheels noticed on early Wagoneer prototypes; the second is the additional physique size behind the rear door. Both of those may be seen in the side-by-side picture above.
We’re unsure what to anticipate below the hood of the brand new Grand Cherokee. We’ve heard rumors and now seen a patent drawing of an inline-six engine that’s anticipated to exchange the three.6-liter Pentastar V6 in most (or maybe all) of its present purposes. While GM’s full-size SUVs are supplied with a number of V8s, crosstown rival Ford has eradicated them from its body-on-frame fashions, opting as a substitute for variants of its EcoBoost V6. The bigger Wagoneer will probably supply V8 energy, and we would not be stunned to see it as an possibility on the Grand Cherokee too, even when it’s only in SRT-engineered halo fashions.
Last we heard, each the redesigned Grand Cherokee and the Wagoneer have been anticipated to bow later this 12 months. It’s unclear at this level what influence the coronavirus manufacturing shutdowns could have on Jeep’s growth timeline, however we now have our ears to the bottom for brand new developments.
