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2015 Jeep Renegade to start at $17,995, Trailhawk rings up at $25,995

Prices for the 2015 Jeep Renegade have leaked onto a enthusiast forum ahead of the official embargo on pricing and driving impressions, which breaks at 12:01 AM Friday. They come from a video interview with Jeep CEO Mike Manley, that was allegedly set live accidentally. It's since been pulled down. At this point, it's unclear if the listed prices include any destination charges, so they could climb slightly higher or lower. In its most basic form, the two-wheel-drive Renegade Sport will go on sale for just $17,995. For that price, you get, um, not a lot. Really. The entry level Renegade doesn't even offer standard air conditioning – it's part of a package that includes heated power mirrors and cruise control. The $21,295 Latitude adds a leather-wrapped steering wheel, standard 16-inch wheels, air conditioning, five-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Bluetooth, a six-speaker stereo and USB connectivity. The top-end Renegade Limited, meanwhile, starts at $24,795 and makes standard items of the heated, powered leather seats, dual-zone climate control, seven-inch TFT display in the instrument cluster, auto-dimming mirror and 18-inch wheels. The Limited also adds a number of aesthetic tweaks that spruce up the Renegade's exterior, including brightwork around the grille, mirror caps, taillights and roof rails. The above prices, of course, are only for the front-drive Renegade. Add $2,000 to the above prices for all-wheel drive. You won't need to add that to the all-wheel-drive-only Trailhawk, which starts at $25,995 and comes with a slew of off-road features, including a bespoke front and rear fascia, with the former sporting the world's most adorable pair of red tow hooks. Mechanically, there's an exclusive version of the brand's Active Drive all-wheel-drive system that includes a 20-to-one crawl ratio and a dedicated Rock mode for the Selec-Terrain system and 17-inch wheels. The cabin, meanwhile, is home to Ruby Red accents. While we have basic trim prices, we're still without more specific details, including the cost of marquee options like the My Sky roof, as well as the plethora of options packages that will be available when the CUV arrives in dealers. We'll have our full review of the all-new Renegade available when the embargo on driving impressions breaks Friday. In the meantime, let us know what you think of these prices. Are they where you expected them to be? Higher? Lower? Have your say in Comments. Related Video:

'84 MotorWeek Cherokee, Bronco and Blazer comparison indulges your SUV nostalgia

These days, truck-based, full-frame SUVs are somewhat of a rarity on the auto landscape due to the rapid rise in popularity of easier-driving, car-based crossovers. Although, without the gradually building popularity of these chunky, high-riding vehicles decades ago, it's unlikely that America's roads would be filled with so many CUVs today. In its latest dig into the archives, MotorWeek has found a 1984 comparison test of a trio of these early Sport Utility Wagons, as long-time host John Davis called them, that helped get acceptance of this segment going. This is a red, white and blue test of the SUVs from American automakers at the time and pits the Chevrolet Blazer, Ford Bronco and Jeep Cherokee (specifically in Wagoneer guise) against each other. Driving manners and interior usability are considered in the evaluation, but Motorweek actually takes these vehicles off road, too. Among the bigger revelations is the improvement in on-road ability in the past 30 years. While specific 0-60 times aren't given, all three models take around 10 seconds just to get to around 50 miles per hour in the 500-feet on-ramp acceleration test. Check out this clip to see just how far this segment has progressed in the past three decades or just get a blast of nostalgia from these now vintage models. News Source: MotorWeek via YouTube Chevrolet Ford Jeep SUV Off-Road Vehicles Classics Videos Ford Bronco chevy blazer

Jeep Cherokee sales rival Wrangler after two months

In our First Drive article on the 2014 Jeep Cherokee we said, "our informal and thoroughly unscientific opinion is they're going to sell tons of them. Why? Because it is very good." So far, it appears the public concurs. Of course, it's very early - the new compact utility has logged just one month of confirmed sales, but Larry Vellequette at Automotive News says dealers have told him that the second month of sales will be even better, a message that mirrors what we've heard from company execs.
In its first, severely truncated month on sale, the Cherokee sold 579 units. With all of November to play with, though, dealers moved 10,169 of them - compared to 11,753 Wranglers and 14,798 Grand Cherokees. That helped propel Jeep to a 30-percent year-on-year improvement for the month, Chrysler Group to a 16-percent improvement and the group's 44th consecutive month of sales growth, exceeding analyst expectations in posting its best November numbers since 2007.
If it can just keep replicating the its first month of sales, the finalist in North American Truck of the Year voting will smoke the trade done by the outgoing Liberty, which didn't break 7,900 units in a month in the last four years of its life (and normally didn't get close to even that). In March this year, Chrysler said it wants to build 250,000 Cherokees in its Toledo assembly plant for global sales. It's early yet, but with second-month sales quoted as being as "strong as death," the bookies might be resetting the odds.