2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee on 2040-cars

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Jeep Renegade sales being held due to powertrain issue [UPDATE]

UPDATE: An unnamed FCA US source has clarified to Automotive News that while there is a software issue, it does not concern the transmission. The Jeep Renegade appears to be facing early software problems that are similar to the ones at the introduction of the Cherokee a few years ago. The issue is keeping the brand's latest compact crossover away from dealers until the situation can be resolved. The fault reportedly deals with the software controlling the Renegade's nine-speed automatic transmission. FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne briefly talked about what was happening in an interview with Automotive News. "I'm having a very bad engineering day," he said. "It's a combination of attributes of that vehicle that is making my life horrible." The company boss predicted at the longest it could take until mid-June to fix things. Through April, Jeep has sold 5,157 Renegades, including 4,214 of them in that month alone. Autoblog reached out to an FCA US spokesperson to learn more about the software problem, but the company had no comment. Getting the software right to control the nine-speed automatic plagued development of the Cherokee. The issues delayed the model's launch in 2013, and the company was still releasing improvements for some vehicles this year.

Jeep shows off Moab Easter Safari concepts crawling the red rocks

While most brands are busy showing off in New York, Jeep headed out to Moab for the Easter Jeep Safari with the company's fleet of 2013 concepts. This year saw the Grand Cherokee Trailhawk II, Wrangler Mopar Recon, Wrangler Stitch, Wrangler Sand Trooper II, Wrangler Flattop and Wrangler Slim Concepts tackle the rocks and sand, and Jeep was kind enough to bring along a camera crew to film the machines rolling over a few obstacles. The result is the video below, though don't expect to see too much hardcore off road action.
Instead, the quick clip features more than a few interviews with Jeep executives, including Jeep Head of Product Design Mark Allen, explaining what makes the Easter Jeep Safari so important. You can check out the quick clip below for yourself, and be sure to thumb through our galleries of the concepts as well.

2014 Jeep Cherokee gets official in a hurry

Automakers work very, very hard to keep their new vehicles under wraps until they can present them in exactly the way they want it - typically choreographed under the bright lights of an auto show, or perhaps with photos or video in an idyllic location. Spy shooters and leaks, in other words, keep executives and public-relations types up at night.
This is likely to be one of the most polarizing designs to come out in 2014.
Take today, for instance, when the team over at Jalopnik got a big scoop - the first undisguised shots of the 2014 Jeep Cherokee, a model whose name wasn't even officially confirmed yet. The clandestine images taken inside of a factory were blurry and didn't exactly show off the crossover's radical new contours in the same sort of flattering light that Jeep probably would've wished for its product reveal. So the Auburn Hills automaker has wisely reacted by spilling at least some of the beans on the new model, giving us these four photos and confirming the Liberty replacement's name, Cherokee.