Jeep dealers were anxiously waiting for Chrysler to ship the 2014 Cherokee, but they should begin arriving in showrooms within 10 days.
Jeep Cherokee devotees as well as Jeep dealers across the country are breathing a sigh of relief as Chrysler Group will begin shipping the Liberty replacement to showrooms. They should begin arriving in large numbers within 10 days.
The company has built 23,000 Cherokees since production began on June 24.
“Jeep dealers will breathe a sigh of relief that the Cherokee’s launch delay appears to be coming to an end,” said Tim Fleming, analyst at Kelley Blue Book. “Excluding the discontinued Liberty, Jeep sales have been on a roll this year, up 16%, and the Cherokee gives Jeep another player in the red-hot small crossover space.
“Chrysler hopes the distinctive styling and cutting-edge technology on the Cherokee will set it apart from the competition, and has invested considerable time and money to make sure this important model is ready once it hits the market.”
Chrysler delayed the first shipments of the new Cherokee due to a desire to improve the new nine-speed transmission the SUV uses. Saying only that the new drivetrain could be improved, the maker put a hold on new small SUV to conduct additional testing and validation.
“The company will not ship vehicles until we are fully satisfied the Cherokee meets customer expectations for performance, refinement and quality,” the company said in a statement at the time.
The company noted that the new transmission is being used on two new powertrains and three advanced four-wheel drive systems, which is unprecedented level of complexity, the company said.
The delay was puzzling to many, in particular to those who had already driven the vehicle and couldn’t see what was wrong with the new system. That said, the company maintained there would be only one chance to get it right for customers and if the shipments were delayed for a few weeks, it was a necessary evil.
Many dealers expressed concern about how long the delay may be, but were pleased with the fact that the maker wanted to make sure it was getting it right. The company also noted that the delay is not as long as it appears.
(Chrysler slashes Cherokee production. For more, Click Here.)
The company said it has always pegged the third quarter of this year as the delivery date for the new SUV, which is expected to battle the Ford Escape, Honda CR-V and other compacts for sales.
“So while the Cherokee delay certainly resulted in lost sales, the Jeep brand as a whole is still doing quite well,” Fleming said. “Since news of the automaker working out the software issues with the transmission, the vehicles can now be delivered to dealerships, and Jeep’s sales numbers should jump back into positive territory.”
The new transmission hasn’t been officially tied to any other product and a company spokesperson declined to speculate on whether or not it will be in any other products or if the testing includes changes needed for any other vehicles.
(Click Here to read about Chrysler’s IPO.)
The automaker seems to be bent on making sure it doesn’t have a repeat of the problems it faced with the slow start of the Dodge Dart last summer. Early versions of the Dart were shipped from the plant in Belvidere, Ill., with manual transmissions instead of the automatics that most buyers prefer.