[…] I think the lower end volume seller jeeps, like the $46-50K Sport S’, are over priced and that’s where the issues start for me. Jeep knows people are willing to spend outside their budget for the “cool factor” that comes with a jeep so they don’t mind padding the price of the model they sell the most frequently. The issue is that price jump has to run down stream in order for the lineup to make any sense, so if they’re selling the volume model for 5 to 10 grand more than what it’s logically worth, that means the entire lineup get’s jacked up, and that’s where problems start. The Rubicon 392, the top dog Wrangler, starts at nearly 90K and can be optioned into the 6 figure range, which might make sense relative to the rest of the Wrangler lineup, but when you consider the Ram TRX actually starts slightly cheaper and falls into the same price category as the Wrangler 392, I’m scratching my head. It’s a 475hp midsized SUV against a 702hp full sized pickup, the TRX is a significantly more substantial vehicle in terms of both engineering effort and just straight up physical material cost, it really doesn’t make any sense for the Wrangler to be anywhere close to the TRX in price, let alone *more* expensive.
And this trickles into the rest of Jeeps lineup too. The Gladiator should have been a license for Jeep to print money, but they shot themselves in the foot because the Gladiator is basically $10K more than comparably equipped midsize trucks from other brands and the novelty of being able to take your doors off really isn’t worth 10 grand to most people. Jeep knew they would have to make the Gladiator more expensive than the Wrangler or else it would raise eyebrows, but in doing that they priced the Gladiator out of the segment, for the cost of a Gladiator you could get a comparable or even better equipped V8 powered half ton truck.
This even reflects on other brands, when Ford announced Bronco pricing it was obvious that they practically just copy and pasted Jeep’s pricing. I really think if Ford didn’t have Jeeps pricing model and market evidence to justify the price of the bronco, it would be much cheaper than it is now.
(This reply was so good it deserved two slides. Sorry, not sorry, Jeep Wrangler.)