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  • William Maley
    William Maley

    By William Maley •

    Ralph Gilles: 2014 Cherokee's Styling Is An Evolutionary Step

    By William Maley

    Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

    March 7, 2013

    When Jeep released some of the shots of the new 2014 Cherokee before its official debut at the New York Auto Show, it was open season on the web as most everyone dog-piled on the looks of it.

    However Chrysler’s design chief, Ralph Gilles is standing behind it. Talking with Wards Auto, Gilles explained that the Cherokee marks the next step in the evolution of the design for Jeep.

    “When you contrast it to the outgoing Liberty…I think it’s a huge departure, obviously from the previous one. But it’s also going to be seen as very current in the way that Jeep has evolved its aesthetic to a very contemporary place. That was very much a purpose for us,” Gilles said.

    Mark Allen, head of Jeep design says the Cherokee's design had one goal in mind: to make sure people want to buy the Cherokee five years from now.

    “Our head was in 2019. It’s not a big square box. It’s a little more efficient looking than the Liberty. Our No.1 goal was efficiency, and if we’re going to make an efficient Jeep, it’s gotta look efficient first off,” Allen told Wards.

    Source: Wards Auto

    William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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    Delta Force79

    Apparently the majority of Jeep customers want a square box, including myself. The XJ Cherokee sold like hot cakes it's entire run, the Liberty has sold well too. The Wrangler which is literally a box on wheels speaks for itself...

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    G. David Felt

    H'mm this guy clearly has never gone off road in any real 4x4. This plastic front nosed ugly kid is going to get broken up big time. It is NOT 2019, The customers have clearly stated they like the box on wheels look and if they wanted to get to this body style in 2019, then they should have started with a mild change towards that body style now and in 2 years taken it a bit farther and then in 2019 did this. Consumers expecially the off road crowd is not going to like this futuristic Jelly bean that is not really for the 4x4 crowd but aimed as a FWD CUV pavement only crowd.

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    FAPTurbo

    The off-road crowd have the Wrangler and they spend 95% of the time on pavement anyways.

    This vehicle looks great and entirely in-tune with what the majority of CUV buyers want these days. If self-appointed 'off-roaders' want to ChryCo to continue making Trail Rated Jeeps, they'd do well to hope the Cherokee makes money and cheer it on.

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    G. David Felt

    Fap I disagree, this should have been a Chrysler or Dodge CUV. The Jeep Brand has been very profitable with the marketing of going off trail in the rugged out doors world. I do not see this ugly CUV being needed under the Jeep Banner.

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    Intrepidation

    Fap's right. For people who actually buy new vehicles for offroading buy the Wrangler. Everyone loves the old Cherokee and old Grand Cherokees because they are cheap. Besides, the current Patriot and Compass are nothing trail rated despite being CUVs, and they do quite well in the bush. This, despite the fact that no one takes them off road. This will no doubt be trail rated in at least one form. Very few sane people would buy a brand new Jeep that wasn't a Wrangler (or a brand new vehicle in general), and then proceed to beat on it.

    I'm still not sold on the front end styling, mainly the separate lamps though.

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    FAPTurbo

    Fap I disagree, this should have been a Chrysler or Dodge CUV. The Jeep Brand has been very profitable with the marketing of going off trail in the rugged out doors world. I do not see this ugly CUV being needed under the Jeep Banner.

    Key word in your quote is 'marketing.' BMW advertises its cars as having Nurburgring-beating pedigree and proceeds to make CUV's and a front-wheel drive vehicle. 99% of BMW's don't see the track.

    All Jeep needs is for John and Jane Doe to be impressed when their Cherokee can ford a foot and a half of water on the road from a backed up drainage sewer in their neighbourhood. They're never going rock crawling and neither will anyone else

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    SoCalCTS

    I haven't chimed in for awhile but I can't stay silent. The new Cherokee is stupid ugly. It makes the Aztek look attractive. Too much chrome for women to find attractive and headlights that are too feminine for a Jeep. The whole front needs to be reworked. Scrap the angry eyebrow LEDs, scrap the lower chrome fascia... oh they won't listen.

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