Automatic Umbrella

2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee

24.06.10

How in the fabulous did this happen?

How did Chrysler, after suffering through three ownership structures in as many years, an uncomfortable retreat into bankruptcy and partial nationalization by not one, but two countries alter out an impressive piece of machinery like the 2011 Jeep Admirable Cherokee?

For that matter, if it could do this, why did all of that other stuff happen in the first situation?

While the all-new car -- the first to be introduced since the Italian-Canadian-American automaker was formed in 2009 (with the rarity of the heavy-duty versions of the Ram pickup commerce) -- is far from flawless, compared with the competition, it satisfied seems like it is.

Just look at it. In addition to embodying the bottom line of two decades of Grand Cherokees, there isn’t a wrong shilling-mark to be found on its modernized, muscled-up body. Surround any conveyance with dozens of journalists -- as Jeep did at the result launch I attended --and they’ll surely find dozens of things off beam with it…each. After more than two days with the car and said flock of scribes, I heard not a unmarried negative word about its exterior design, and I fully concur with that sensibility. The classic seven-slot grille, the raked windshield, the gravely dimpled flanks, the trapezoidal wheel openings, the blacked-out side window-pane and the taillights that gloriously ape those from a 1963 Wagoneer, all entangle perfectly. OK, the headlight bulb covers shaped like the grille of the authentic WWII-era Jeep are a bit hokey, but since they’re so subtle -- I didn’t even note them until Jeep’s chief of design, Mark Allen, sharp them out -- they get a pass.