Hooniverse “Are These Cars Still Selling?” Weekend – The Jeep Commander
Continuing on with our “Are These Cars Still Selling?” weekend, let’s explore the Jeep Commander. This was an idea from Daimler/Chrysler as an answer that the question no one asked; Can we make a Jeep that fits Seven Passengers, that invokes nostalgia for the late XJ Jeep Cherokee? They did, with horrible execution…
The Jeep Commander was based on the WK Jeep Grand Cherokee platform, but the styling evoked the last Jeep Cherokee, as well as the contemporary Hummer H2 and H3. The marketing types employed at Daimler/Chrysler at the time felt that Jeep had to offer a seven passenger SUV to compete with the Ford Explorer, and the Chevrolet TrailBlazer (and their clones) as well as to compete with the Durango sold at the sister division, Dodge.
The styling was spot on, and looked like a larger Cherokee, with some styling cues from the Grand Wagoneer. However, to squeeze the third seat in the rear of what was essentially a Grand Cherokee, the rear vision was sacrificed when the seats were in use. (This is one of the reasons why rear-parking assist was standard.) These were produced when short-cuts were the norm within the Daimler/Chrysler organization, with the interior using sub-standard materials, making questionable engineering decisions, and offering at least one inadequate powerplant.
They never sold at the levels they were forecast, so when the newly engineered Grand Cherokee was introduced (on top of a borrowed chassis developed by Daimler) the Commander was soon put out of its misery after the 2010 model year. Sales for the commander were as follows: 2006, 88,497; 2007, 63,027; 2008, 27,694; 2009, 12,655; 2010, 8,115. (The seven passenger model was going to be the Dodge Durango, which shares the new Grand Cherokee platform.) Dealers have been quietly off-loading any remaining Commanders, and it looks like there were 105 of them sold this year so far. Would you have purchased one of these things?
Related posts:
- Retrospective via Automotive Traveler: The Jeep Grand Cherokee
- Quick Drive: 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland Summit
- Hooniverse Low-Mileage Weekend Edition – A 1950 Studebaker Commander Starlight Coupe with only 6,676 Miles!
- Hooniverse “Are These Cars Still Selling?” Weekend – The Kia Spectra, Amanti, Rondo, and Borrego
- The 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee
I wanted one of these to replace my '99 Suckazuki Grand Lametara several years back, but it wasn't Grand Wagoneerish enough.
Baffles me that they didn't call it the grand Wagoneer, as that's the obvious role and styling it was filling.
Though, the way these turned out, I'm pretty glad they didn't.
I'll be curious to see what FiatChrysler does with the impending new GW.
The boy and I saw a Grand Wagoneer today- wood grain and all. I thought it looked awesome but the kid tagged it 'Granddad-Wagoneer".
Oh- the Grand Wagoneer name was last used on the 1993 Grand Cherokee as a lux package. Yay wikipedia.
To be used again next MY if Marichonne is to be believed.
One thing I've always been curious about is why Breaking Bad likes to use failed models for the characters' cars.
It's one thing for a character to have some worthless, rotting classic that might have once been a passionate affair. It's another to have shelled out modern money for a modern miserable car.
That was the first association I made as well. I think their cars are very well cast, this is a macho blowhard's idea of what a 'real man' drives.
On one hand, Jesse drives a Tercel, which was in production for 15 years after his was built (and then was renamed). On the other hand, he's got the oddball wagon (I can't remember if his is the 4WD or not, but still). Likewise, the Deville carried on for another 10 or so years after the vintage of Saul Goodman's. On the other hand, even though Gus's Volvo is normal enough (probably because it was a calculated decision on the part of the character), I could swear he was driven around in a Saab in the season finale.
Jesse's Tercel is 4wd
prior to the tercel, he had one of the last RWD monte carlo's (I'd have to go take a good look at a still shot to figure out the exact year….)***… and while I can't approve of what he did to it… those were excellent vehicles in the 'personal luxury coupe' field (as far as I am concerned anyways)
***just checked, looks like it's an '81… so not one of the last, but the start of the better looking body style of the down-sized cars….
I did like this when it came out, and it's a great SUV but old models always drop in sales.Coming from someone who will likely never purchase a new SUV, America really needs a Wagoneer revamp. With the retro chic car styling movement of the last decade or so you'd think it'd be on the horizon.
Though technically, the Wrangler has always been Jeep's 'retro' model.
The jump in fuel prices in 2008 put a serious crimp in Commander sales from which it never recovered, especially with the bankruptcy drama which soon followed.
Jeep is the third company in history to produce a vehicle with the Commander name. The other two are the Studebaker Commander and the Scammel Commander. I had to Google Scammel Commander. It is a British Army heavy tank transporter.
That's all I got. *yawn*
Wow, am I boring you all this much?
No, no, no!! The yawn was for my contribution. You never bore me!
There's also Commander Motors Corporation (1922), but it's not clear that they ever produced anything other than a few rebadged Ogrens.
Boring? No. I'm finding this theme interesting, despite my disinclination towards new cars. It's nice to see that this sort of thing still goes on. Both of my '67 SAAB sedans are titled and registered as '68s, as neither one sold when "new." Apparently it was rough finding buyers for the two-strokes once the V4s were on their way. My genuine '68 sedan (a V4 car) sold without difficulty in 1968.
maybe it's just me, but the front end of the jeep has kind of a sad look.
Commander never really had to sell well… one of the beauties of Chrysler's ongoing experiment with flexible manufacturing is that as long as the platform sells well enough, the sales performance of the individual versions only has to be enough that its overall effect is more helpful than hurtful.
Re "(on top of a borrowed chassis developed by Daimler)"… here's what Sergio Marchionne has said about it…
Forbes: Dieter Zetsche (ceo of Daimler) says [the GC platform's suitability as a basis for the Maserati Kubang is] because it’s really a Mercedes platform (dating back to the DaimlerChrysler merger)
[SM]: You know what, if I called the head of product development here and you told him that it was a Mercedes he would just kill you. I’ll tell you why, because it started off as a Mercedes platform. Dieter left here in 2006. That architecture wasn’t industrialized until 2009. In three years in this business, the world changes. The engine that’s in that car (Chrysler’s new Pentastar V6) didn’t even exist. The transmission that’s going into that car next year didn’t exist. All the suspensions were redone, all the work on the inside was redone, everything. This is nonsense.
Theseus' paradox?
This would be great if it were about 5/8ths the size and came with the venerable 4 litre straight six.
…and was available in 3-door, 5-door and pickup bodies, and had a 5-speed manual option, and wore "Cherokee" badges…
what wouldn't be better with that straight six….?
I propose that the pictures of this "Jeep" in mild off road environments are about the only times that a specimen of this inbred example of the once great species has ever left the pavement. Jeeps are becoming more and more un-Jeep-like as time goes on. Sure, the Wrangler still has some credentials, but the rest of them are just suburban transportation pods.
Well, in their first 5-10 years. I'm certain we'll see plenty of Commanders, Liberties, hell, even Patriots with Off-Road Group II getting plenty dirty once they're disposable. Every now and then you'll see the occasional ZJ or WJ with a lift and big tires and whatnot.
Patriot and Compass not withstanding, someone's said that about every generation of Jeep going back to the late 40s.
Remember, Wagoneers were mostly pavement living since they were introduced in '63.
A properly optioned new GC, Wrangler or (sigh) even Liberty will go farther up a trail than any stock Jeep from the previous 5 decades.
What I find interesting is just how close in size this was to the Grand Cherokee – they shared the same wheelbase, and the Commander was only something like two inches longer. Granted, because of this, it suffered for space, and didn't have the economy to match the occasional use third row (compared to a modern crossover). Still, it had a pretty gorgeous brown for the interior, and I sort of liked the exposed screw heads. That redeems it for me.
<img src="http://image.trucktrend.com/f/8266400+w750+st0/163_0512_05z+2006_Jeep_Commander+Interior_View_Steering_Wheel.jpg" /img>
Peter De Lorenzo at The Autoextremist called the Commander "..the answer to the question no one is asking". Ouch.
I've driven a couple customer's Commanders at work. For being HUGE, the visibility out of em' is pretty horrendous. Also, the majority of them were covered in Pep-Boys Bling and driven by short guys…
I have a good friend that bought one "lightly used" back in '09 as a trade in for his '88 Cherokee that was on it's third transmission, needing a 4th at 275,000 miles. He has given it a 6" lift, tires and suspension to match, as well as upgrading all the drivetrain components (not sure what all the upgrades are, myself) but he does take it trail-riding at least 2 weekends a month with wife and (currently) 2 year old inside. I've only driven it once, found visibility to be better than many modern vehicles from chrysler (I'm looking at you 300/charger/(and even though I hate to say it)magnum. I've ridden along on a few of his off-road jaunts and found it to be quite a capable large bodied vehicle.