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Jeep lays out 5-year plan, including rebirth of Grand Wagoneer and new C-segment offering

Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Machionne presented a five-year plan for the company brands this morning, with Jeep first up on a long day of presentation. Jeep's head honcho Michael Manley wasted no time in laying out what the foreseeable future will look like for what he calls the "lead global brand" of the company.
Big goals for the next half-decade will include expanding the lineup from five nameplates built in one country, to six nameplates build in six countries. That expansion of models will include both a three-row competitor, and, of course, a small vehicle to slot below Cherokee. The company is also seeking to add a whopping 1,300 dealers over the next few years, to sell all this new metal, and has an aggressive goal of doubling Jeep sales by the time 2018 rolls around.
As expected, that first salvo from the off-road brand will be the debut of the much ballyhooed Renegade small crossover in the third quarter of this year. Jeep has already designated that Renegade will get refreshed for the 2017 model year, as well.

FCA's shifter fiasco proves novel gear selectors are a bad idea

What's wrong with PRNDL? Why are automakers trying to overly complicate the simple task of selecting gears? If there's any lesson to learn from the recent news that NHTSA is investigating 853,000 Fiat Chrysler vehicles over its problematic gear selectors, it's that the trend of fancy shifters needs to stop. Now. Last year, NHTSA opened an investigation into Jeep Grand Cherokee models, and has now expanded this probe to include the 2012-14 Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger. The problem? The shifter – assembled by ZF – is confusing for many drivers. "Testing ... indicates that operation of the (electronic) shifter is not intuitive and provides poor tactile and visual feedback to the driver, increasing the potential for unintended gear selection," a NHTSA document states. More than 100 crashes and over a dozen injuries are linked to this problem, according to The Detroit Free Press. To us, the problem isn't just limited to FCA. These unnecessarily novel gear selectors are spreading like wildfire across the industry. Honda and Acura use a weird pushbutton setup. Lincolns have buttons on the dashboard. Jaguar's shifter electronically raises out of the center console. Mercedes uses a stalk with up-for-Reverse, down-for-Drive, push-for-Neutral arrangement. And what the hell is BMW thinking with its M cars? FCA has since abandoned the confusing shifters in question. The 300, Charger, and Grand Cherokee now use the rotary shift dial that's quickly proliferating across the company's brands. Simplistic gear selectors might not be sexy, but no one ever complained about not being able to find the right gear in a Hyundai Sonata. What's most interesting is that this NHTSA investigation could push FCA – and possibly other automakers – to redesign vehicle functions that otherwise operate as designed. Just because most people will never have a problem putting a Dodge Charger in Reverse doesn't mean there isn't a flaw with the design. But perhaps a more simplistic solution – good ol' PRNDL – would have prevented these issues from the start. Related Video: News Source: The Detroit Free PressImage Credit: Copyright 2016 AOL Government/Legal Chrysler Dodge Jeep FCA shifters

Jeep Renegade configurator switches on

Less than a week after letting loose with pricing information for its 2015 Renegade, Jeep has powered up the configurator for its new compact CUV, giving us our first complete look at pricing for the model's healthy options catalog. If you've messed around with any of FCA's other online configurators, the Renegade's will be immediately familiar. Pick a trim, interior and exterior color, optional extras and packages, and you're done. Of course, we don't write these posts just to let you know about a configurator going live. We do them because it gives us an excuse to mess about with all the different varieties of a new model, and, on occasion, to build something surprisingly expensive or cheap, just to see if it can be done. The Renegade certainly has no issues when it comes to the former. If you want the priciest model, you'll need the $25,995 Trailhawk, which can be priced up to $33,330. We got to that figure by adding the $1,495 Trailhawk Premium Group (heated, powered leather seats, dual-zone climate control, heated steering wheel, 40/20/40 split-rear seats), the $595 Safety and Security Group I (blind-spot monitoring with cross-traffic assist and an alarm), the $395 Trailer Tow Group, the $1,395 powered MySky system, a $150 hood decal (which might mean that you can get a Trailhawk without a black stripe), a $1,295 navigation system with satellite radio, a $495 nine-speaker stereo, a $295 push-button starter, a $200 remote starter and a $75 tonneau cover. Will you need all of those options? Not really. But many of them would certainly fall into the "must-have" category for customers. Head over to Jeep's consumer page and mess about with the configurator, and let us know what you think of the full pricing (and what your ideal spec looks like!) in Comments. Related Video: