Just after building a name for by itself almost a half-century in the past, the Jeep Cherokee, which has endured off and on by means of a number of iterations, has been dropped from the lineup. But the name will live on. Form of.
What began lifestyle as a entire body-on-body SUV in 1974 later morphed into the resilient XJ designed from 1984 to 2001, when it was changed by the Liberty. The Cherokee also lived on by way of accredited generation in China by means of 2014, when Jeep reintroduced the Cherokee name again into its North American lineup with a midsize crossover. But the Cherokee by then experienced lost its luster.
On March 1, Stellantis idled the Belvidere Assembly plant in Illinois, the place the Cherokee was produced. There were being tips that the plant be shuttered completely based on potential negotiations with the United Vehicle Workers.
Cherokee watchers could divine the end coming two months in the past, just after Jeep solution planners radically slimmed down the Cherokee lineup to only two and reduced motor options to a the natural way-aspirated inline-4 and a 270 horsepower turbo. If the Cherokee reemerges in some variety, it will probably be in zero-emissions form, as Jeep has created it apparent that it will construct electrified variants of all Jeep manufacturers by 2025.
At any rate, the Cherokee’s legacy (and its identify) live on the Grand Cherokee, a big, upscale SUV that was renewed with higher-tech touches and a plug-in hybrid presenting in 2022.
The title, in fact, arrived underneath hearth two many years ago, when the chief of the Cherokee Nation requested Jeep to halt employing the tribe’s title on its motor vehicles. “I am certain this comes from a put that is perfectly-intended, but it does not honor us by obtaining our title plastered on the side of a vehicle,” Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal main of the Cherokee Country, said at the time.