What the Heck Is Happening At Jeep!?

This video is brought to you by Grainger Motors, where you can save up to $1,300 on a factory extended warranty on your new Ford or Ram Jeep Chrysler vehicle. Hey everybody, we got a great video for you today because we're talking about what the heck is going on at Jeep. So we've got some rather weird news about the new 2025 Wrangler. We're also talking about some crazy management shifts that are happening at Stellantis. And what is going on at this company? Yeah, you know, Jeep is one of the brands that's near and dear to our heart. We have owned a lot of Jeeps. We love off-roading. And so we are a little worried about the brand because, well, they seem to be in a lot of turmoil right now, Tommy. They really do. Yeah, they're struggling with sales. Things are just not looking good for Stellantis overall. We've talked about this before and we're going to continue to talk about it because some of the decisions that Jeep is making for the 2025 Wrangler are kind of a head scratcher. So let's talk about Stellantis then. So Stellantis took over from FCA a number of years ago. And during that FCA period, Jeep, Ram, Dodge, they were all doing pretty well, right? We had a lot of good products. We had relatively reasonable prices and sales were looking good. But recently, since Stellantis took over, things have not been looking so good. Some of the decisions they've made have been head scratchers. A lot of product is aging. And for 2025, the Wrangler has some rather befuddling changes. Should we start with that then? Yeah, I mean, let me give you my little bit of perspective on this. I always worry when a European brand like Peugeot basically merges or takes over an American brand, especially the French, because I think the French have a long record of not understanding, and Europeans in general, the American market, because it is so different than what is happening in Europe. And a lot of that has to do with just the geography of America versus the geography of Europe. We have a lot of open land. We have a lot of places, especially here in the West, where you can go and off-road. I have been to many countries in Europe, Tommy, and I have yet to find a lot of off-roading there. Let me take a minute to tell you about this video's sponsor, Grainger Motors, and their Extended Factory Warranties for new vehicles. Today, more than ever, an Extended Factory Warranty is a worthwhile consideration. The new cars and trucks coming out pack more amazing, yet unproven, tech and complexity than ever. Knowing this, an Extended Factory Warranty buys you peace of mind. If something goes wrong, you're covered for repairs and parts for years after the original warranty expires. A factory-backed warranty means repairs are done by factory-trained technicians who know your vehicle inside and out and are trained to repair known problems. A factory-backed warranty ensures that your car or truck gets replaced with true factory parts and, in some cases, upgraded factory parts to fix those known issues. So next time you buy a new Ford or Ram, Jeep, Dodge, or Chrysler vehicle, go to Grainger Motors for an Extended Factory Warranty. Grainger is the number one seller of Ford Protect Warranties and one of the top sellers of Mopar Vehicle Protection Warranties in the country. This volume lets their customers save an average of $1,300, so what are you waiting for? That's exactly right, and for the most part, after talking to some insiders, especially the French, simply do not understand the American love of four-wheel drive and off-road culture. It is something that especially French management has such a hard time grasping, and this is something so crucial to the Jeep brand, because I think what happens a lot of the time is these folks overseas look at the statistics and they see that on paper only a small percentage of Jeep buyers actually take their Jeep off-road. So they do the rational thing on paper, and that is to limit the availability of off-road options and features, make the vehicles more roadworthy. But especially with Jeep, people buy Wranglers for the off-road trips they never take, but it is crucial to the Wrangler buyer and the Jeep buyer that their products can still handle the tough stuff, and the French really seem to have a hard time with this. Yeah, I completely agree. So let's talk about some of the changes that we've seen that don't bode well for the brand. So if we look at the Wrangler, let's talk about some of the 2025 differences. Huge lineup of engine options. We know that 392 is going away because they've had several final editions now. The final editions are never really the final editions. There's always another final edition, but that's going away, and it really seems like they're phasing out their workhorse engine for 2025. So for the last 12, 13 years, the venerable 3.6 liter Pentastar V6 has been the go-to engine of choice for Wranglers across the globe. I'm going to make a prediction. I'm going to make a bold prediction. So for the longest time for the Jeep brand, the 4 liter was kind of the gold standard. It was in the Wrangler, it was in the Cherokee, and it was the engine that you wanted because it was one of the 10 best engines ever built in terms of reliability. But my bold prediction is that the Pentastar six-cylinder V6 is going to go into the pantheon of great engines because, you know, Splantis has put it in everything over the years, including FCA, and that engine just keeps on trucking. And it may not be the most fuel efficient, it may not be the most powerful, but it is certainly one that has proved its long-term reliability. I think that's a little bold. They're not that good. They're the rush of engines. It's a fine band, but it's no one's favorite. It's fine. But in my opinion, it's the best engine in the Wrangler lineup because, to your credit, it has proven itself more or less reliable. They do have some problems with like oil filter housings and early cam problems, but they are generally very long-lasting, fairly efficient, fairly powerful. But what they've done for 2025 is they've eliminated the automatic option with that 3.6 V6. So the only way now to get the Pentastars is with a manual transmission. And this is a big problem, in my opinion, because manual transmission take rates, even on Wranglers, are pretty small. And they're really trying to phase this engine out is what it feels like to me, forcing people to get the 2.0-liter turbo now if they want the automatic. Yeah, and I got to tell you, Tommy, I'm not in love with that 2.0-liter turbo. I know it's the only option you can get if you want the 4xe, which is, you know, the one that, of course, is now being heavily pushed because you can get the government discounts on it. But it's not my favorite engine. It doesn't seem to pair well with the Wrangler. It's a little peaky. And what I mean by that is they have a lot of, in my opinion, a lot of kind of peaks of torque that come in suddenly and not super linear. And then they sound really poor. They do sound like Dysons. They've got this weird kind of hum about them. And then there's not turbo sound, but there's kind of whine. Don't like the way they sound. So, in my opinion, 3.6 is still the best engine in the Wrangler lineup other than 392, which is going away. Yeah, and in Europe, for a while there, the 2-liter turbo was in everything. Every Mercedes, every BMW, it just became the engine to go to. And in a lot of ways, it still is. And, of course, that is now being replaced by a straight-six for many brands. Of course, the Pentastar is a V6. It's not a straight-six. But still, it's not something that, like I said, goes well with a Wrangler. I think if you put it in the 4xe, the electrification of that vehicle kind of does tend to even out the peaks in the power band of the 2-liter. But still, yeah, we owned one, and I've got to say I did not love it. Now, here's the pricing lineup. The Jeep actually hasn't gotten that much more expensive, which is good, especially when you consider the fact they got rid of the manual locks and the manual window option. So now it's all power options, and the base price is up about $100 or so, so not a huge bump. For 2025. I think now, Dad, America's finally lost the last vehicle sold in the U.S. with power windows and power locks. I think that's it. I don't think there's any other vehicles. Someone in the comments let me know if there's any other cars for 2025 that have manual windows and manual locks. I think that the Wrangler was it. So what's the base Wrangler going to start at, if you're looking at the very base, base, base? Oh, 34. So when you bought yours, you had the Willys. It was about 35. Was it about 35? Yeah. That was a package up from the standard. But this is a two-door. Yes. With steelies, basically. Yeah, about 34-ish. Okay, all right. And look, the problem with the previous model years, if you wanted that V6 with the automatic, it was a $4,500 upgrade, which is insane. Essentially $4,500 for an automatic transmission, which is just crazy. So I still think that that should be an option in the Wrangler, especially on the base end of things. And then on the Gladiator side of things, they killed the manual in the Gladiator, which I think was a bad choice. And we do have a new color as well. Well, I think it's a bad choice, especially now because there's been this resurgence in manuals. I was just looking at some of the numbers on other brands, and did you know that, for instance, the WRX, the manual outsells the automatic in that vehicle? Yeah, that makes sense. But that's an enthusiast vehicle. It's probably the same. But so is the Jeep. Yeah, but the Jeep is more of a mainstream vehicle. You see a lot of folks just using it to commute to and from school. I don't know the exact take numbers on manuals. Same thing with the BRZ outsells. Enthusiast vehicle. That's a sports car. I'm just saying all of a sudden people have woken up to the fact that, you know, if you don't save the manuals, it might be too late. And so right now there is a resurgence in manual love, and it's a bad time to be going in the opposite direction. Well, you can still get one on the Wrangler. That's great. Still around. So let's talk about some other big, big, big news for Stellantis. So the latest news this week, this is on automotive news. The AP Press is that Stellantis is searching for a new CEO. So Tavares, Carlos Tavares, this is a quote from AP News, has been under fire from U.S. dealers and the UAW after a dismal first half financial performance when the company was caught off guard with too much high price inventory on dealer lots. In a statement Monday, Stellantis said Tavares five-year contract is a little over a year from its expiration date, quoting it is normal for a board to look into the subject with the necessary anticipation, given the importance of the position without this having an impact on future discussions. Well, look, I mean, Stellantis in America lost, I think at least 2% market share. And when you lose 1% of market share, heads are going to roll. When you lose 2%, I'm surprised he still had a job. It's just, you know, they went from, you know, being one of the most derived, especially on the Ram side to over the years, you know, making the Ram one of the key players in the truck market, credible interiors, especially innovative with trucks like the TRX. And then, you know, during COVID prices went up and then after COVID, all of the other manufacturers that directly compete with, I'm talking about Ford and GM, you know, started putting cash on the hood. And for some mysterious reason, the Stellantis, especially on the Ram side and on the Jeep side, just kept increasing prices, prices, prices. And the products didn't change. And the product didn't change. And the dealers were like, how can we compete with the guys across the street? You know, we buy our Jeeps at Johnson's Auto Plaza. And right across the street from them is Brighton Ford, where we buy our Fords. And these guys are directly competing head to head. I mean, you know, car and truck buyers go to Johnson's and then they go to the Ford dealership. And, you know, it's pretty obvious to see if there's money on the hood at one versus the other. And that just really, really got the dealership owners incensed. We've also seen a tremendous long, more turnover we've seen in the, in the past year or two years than we've seen in 15 years of doing this business of Stellantis, C-suite execs, just constant turnover. So within the Jeep world. Well, Mark Allen, the designer. So he left. Yeah. He's been there forever. A bunch of folks left shortly after Stellantis took over. That was huge news. Perhaps not unexpected, but huge news. And then if we look at the Jeep brand, right, the global brand, we went from, we had a CEO changeover from a Moyniere to a Veloza, right? That was really big news. And then the Jeep brand in North America has just had constant changes. So we went from Jim Morrison to Bill Pfeffer, who's lasted nine months to now a guy named Bob Broderdorf. Yeah, but he's been with, he's been with them a long time for a long time. And now Pfeffer replaces Phil Langley as a head of the dealer network. Our Jeep PR contacts are now completely different as well. So we're just seeing so much turnover and change in this company. I think the two most important people that left and, you know, we've been going to the Eastern Jeep Safari. And so we got very close with the exec team over there. Jim, of course, was there for a long time. He was also at Ram for a long time. And between him and Mark Allen, they kind of held the DNA and they protected the brand from all the winds of change, you know, that happened during the decades when the company just got tossed from, you know, from Mercedes to investment fund, then to Fiat and now to Peugeot. And those guys just kind of held that brand DNA separate from all those changes. So that a Jeep is still a Jeep is still a Jeep. And I think, I think with those guys leaving a lot of that bulwark against the price cutting and cost cutting and whatever other ideas that the various management types at the top had has fallen away. And now we're seeing kind of a loss of sales because of it. So Bob, hopefully we'll stick around for a while. He's been senior vice president of Ram brand operations. And before that he was head of Dodge sales operations since 2021. So he has a lot of experience with the company and I hope that he does the brand proud. But yeah, it is a little alarming just to see all the turnover going around at this company and we're just going to wait and see how this materializes. Yeah. And you know, it's just a really bad time because specifically Jeep is facing a lot of headwinds. So when the gladiator came out, it was kind of the darling of the dance. People really liked it. But for some mysterious reason, Jeep would not admit that it's a Wrangler with a bed. And then this year we finally got that admission that it's a Wrangler with a bed. But now the thing is just so expensive. You know, we were complaining about the cost of the new Toyota Tacoma, especially the trail Hunter, but the gladiator still sits on top of that in terms of its pricing. And it's, it's, it's a premium vehicle. And we'll Jeep will tell you as well as the only convertible truck, but then, you know, is there a huge demand for convertible trucks? I'm not sure. That's a good point. Yeah. And the, um, especially compared to like now that we've got Ranger Raptor in the segment of the 57,000 new Toyota Nissan's are incredible deals with the frontiers. The last gladiator I drove was the Mojave and that was $68,000. That's $11,000 more than a Ranger Raptor. Yeah. And it still has, um, no plug in hybrid option. It's coming supposedly, which yeah. Insiders tell us is coming, but likely not till next year. So that's, that would be a, that would be an appeal that would allow us to get excited about the gladiator yet again. Right? Yeah. And we can't forget the elephant in the room, Tommy. And that is for the longest time, the Wrangler, which is, let's face it, the DNA, the heart of the brand of Jeep, right? Because it is the one that can trace its roots all the way back, uh, to that old, you know, Willa's or Willy's, however you want to say it that we've got sitting in the barn from world war two. But the problem is now you've got a brand new forerunner coming, which directly competes with the Wrangler and Bronco has taken a huge market share. Uh, and Ford did it right. You know, they, they came along and they had, uh, vehicles that directly competed with the JL and made the JL the latest Wrangler look old in the process. And Jeep has done very little to refresh in it in the fight in this competition, right? What they did was they kind of changed the grill. They put a bigger screen on it and they electrified the seats. Uh, but in terms of actually, you know, taking Bronco head on, I don't see a lot of, a lot of innovation coming out of Jeep, uh, except for the four by eight, which of course, you know, is very innovative. Uh, and is the only, well, it's one of the only plug in hybrids right now in America, actually, that that's on the market that, that, you know, that you can buy and go off-roading it. Well folks, let us know what you think in the comment section below. Um, this has been an interesting discussion and we'd love to hear your feedback, head over to all tfl.com. If you want to find more content and have it on Patreon, if you want early access and exclusive behind the scenes videos, you know, Tommy, I kind of feel like we need a Jeep in their fleet. Maybe we will have one again soon. This makes me feel like we need to go back and get a Jeep, uh, because, uh, we have had, uh, such a strong audience, you guys, uh, for our Jeep, uh, content. And as much as I love the world war II Jeep, uh, it's more of a classic than a modern convenience or conveyance. So, uh, I think we have to go do a little bit of a wrangler shopping again. We'll see you guys next time. Thank you. Ciao.