It's NOT a Jeep thing
- Thread starter rasband
- Start date
oldb
TJ Enthusiast
I know I'm jumping in the middle but this is a fact-
For a long long long time Jeeps were oriented toward male owners, and were bare bones utility vehicles, not considered practical for daily transportation.
To sell more vehicles you have to sell them to more people.
I totally commend FCA for accomplishing what they have... No one has ever taken something that had such a small niche and turned it into what they did. Not even close.
In my mind a four-door gives the owner a vehicle with the looks and capability Jeep is famous for with the cargo space and amenities of more modern vehicles. Yes there are trade-offs, and it's only logical as you go toward one direction you tend to get away from the other...
But nobody needs to kid their self.... The newer models are extremely nice and capable vehicles.... many of those owners laugh at us for riding around in these relics.(tongue in cheek)
In our view , we see these as jeeps that are much truer to the original DNA , owner friendly and fun, and they may see them as small, outdated and uncomfortable.
Now I'm going to add this... Many of us are holdouts... Like the original Harley riders. But we know when something is good, it's good.
The reason a lot of those young soccer moms don't want to wave, most proper married women just don't wave at other men ...and that's not to say there's anything wrong with your wife or daughter if she does ...but a lot of women just aren't comfortable with that.
Plus, a TJ man is so manly , so rugged , so downright handsome, most women are just purely intimidated. Always remember-
"There's something women love about a TJ man"
I love to hike my britches up and tell my wife that .
Sort of like what happened with the T Bird back in 1958.
B
OUCH!! But you are right. The T Bird was pretty much killed in 1958. To me the strangest part of 1958 was that I really liked that version, it just should have been named something else while the 1958 T Bird could have been given a similar redesign without growing in size and adding the back seat.
The other unfortunate similarity between the T Bird and the Wrangler happened in 1967 when the T Bird was available with 4 doors.
I read this and it reminded me of a video that was sent to me. In the video, two Jeeps come face to face while they're exiting parking lots.
Guy in Jeep #1 lights up.
Then (oddly enough), same guy is now in Jeep #2, and lights up.
Has the sun has fallen and kept you from letting your wave be seen? No worries, my friend. There's another add on light for that!
I was thinking about where Jeep stands in the market today and where it used to stand...
If you go back 35 or 40 years everybody wanted to ride in a jeep.... But when it got down to it not that many people wanted to own one.... Now keep in mind they weren't that bad they were just bare bones... A TJ is an absolute Cadillac compared to a CJ7...
Today... The 4-door Wrangler is the hands-down most popular SUV ever...
Jeep figured out with the TJ that if you made these things more comfortable that you would sell a lot more... The TJ was absolutely the transition vehicle....
With the four-door they took the vehicle that everybody wanted to ride in and made it the vehicle that everyone also wanted to own..
It is a really really cool success story....Especially when you look at Jeep in the mid-80s and realize there was a good chance that the line was going to go away.
Lee Iococca paid 600 million for Jeep... I guarantee you they (FCA) love him today for that.
I'm not taking anything away from the YJ... It was the first step in this direction...and I'm confident that it turned out to be the right direction.
There were so many limitations to making the CJ-7 meet emissions, safety standards and it just simply was too far in the wrong direction from where modern automotive manufacturers were bringing to market . The TJ fixed all that , and set Jeep up for massive success.
If you go back 35 or 40 years everybody wanted to ride in a jeep.... But when it got down to it not that many people wanted to own one.... Now keep in mind they weren't that bad they were just bare bones... A TJ is an absolute Cadillac compared to a CJ7...
Today... The 4-door Wrangler is the hands-down most popular SUV ever...
Jeep figured out with the TJ that if you made these things more comfortable that you would sell a lot more... The TJ was absolutely the transition vehicle....
With the four-door they took the vehicle that everybody wanted to ride in and made it the vehicle that everyone also wanted to own..
It is a really really cool success story....Especially when you look at Jeep in the mid-80s and realize there was a good chance that the line was going to go away.
Lee Iococca paid 600 million for Jeep... I guarantee you they (FCA) love him today for that.
I'm not taking anything away from the YJ... It was the first step in this direction...and I'm confident that it turned out to be the right direction.
There were so many limitations to making the CJ-7 meet emissions, safety standards and it just simply was too far in the wrong direction from where modern automotive manufacturers were bringing to market . The TJ fixed all that , and set Jeep up for massive success.
xxdabroxx
TJ Addict
I’d take a YJ dash in my tj but I want everything else to stay the same. Older vehicle dashes had so much more character.
I'd put a CJ dashboard in my TJ before I put a mid 80s AMC designed Chrysler dashboard in any Jeep. I'm still trying to figure out what they were trying to do with that one. The JL dashboards are probably the best looking of any year Wrangler.
A CJ dash would be pretty cool. Definitely doable though. Sounds like something I can fool around with in Photoshop to see how it would look.
If I went that route and put a CJ dash in, I'd have to make it so that the front speakers were mounted onto a removable face so that it can be pulled out from the front. That, and of course have the shaft style opening made to house a single-din headunit. That Clarion would look really nice with that setup.
Not as easy as you might think...i already researched it, the computer stuff makes it a nightmare along with the HVAC...
Oh no doubt. Far less parts behind it, and it's still cramped to the gills. It would need a little modifications, or a whole new build that kept that same CJ style. The dash pad wouldn't look quite the same. A little more bulky looking probably.