New Jeep Pickup Looks Ready for the Street, Trail or Combat
DaimlerChrysler released two artist's renderings of upcoming concept vehicles yesterday, one that looks ready to take on Ford's 500 horsepower mid-engine GT and the other which appears to be a potential production model.
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| Jeep is planning to add new models in an effort to optimize its brand equity, and a pickup truck only makes sense. (Photo: DaimlerChrysler Canada) |
Which one looks ready for the showroom floor? Jeep is soon planning to add new models in an effort to optimize its brand equity, and the new Gladiator might make the best use of its familiar face than anything since the TJ. Painted in an army-like olive drab green, and featuring black matte fender flares and massive knobby mud and dirt off-road tires, one of which is a side-mounted spare, a long past Jeep tradition, the Gladiator looks ready to carry the troops into action.
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| A new Jeep pickup makes a lot of sense, seeing that the brand has a history of building light trucks. (Photo: DaimlerChrysler Canada) |
Jeep's "Flexible Utility Truck," lucky they didn't call it the Flexible Activity Truck, sports an open-air canvass top just like Dodge Dakotas of yore, an expandable truck bed and a stow-away rear-seat cushion.
A Jeep pickup makes a lot of sense, not only because the brand has a history of building light trucks, from the old J-series full-size models to the compact mid-'80s Comanche, and that's only in the last four decades, but because its Dodge cousin brand already builds two, one of which would make a great donor.