Jeep's Aussie resurgence continues

Chrysler has a raft of new products in the pipeline for Australia over the next four years. Three are direct successors to current models, but two are altogether new entries in the product range that will expand the brand's local market penetration above and below the current points.

One of the new models expected to raise Jeep's sales projections in this country is a replacement for the Commander (pictured), Jeeps' unloved rival to the 200 Series LandCruiser and the GU Patrol. The new vehicle is understood to be referred to within the halls of the Chrysler Group as 'Grand Wagoneer'.

"I know it's going through the various validation cycles at the moment, in respect of the design, interior and exterior side. I can't pick a date, but it's going to be post-'15, I would think," explained John Kett, VP and CEO for Fiat Chrysler Asia Pacific.

Mr Kett couldn't confirm that the Commander replacement would be named 'Grand Wagoneer', saying merely that the powers that be kept that sort of information "close to the chest", but with the name's historic significance to the marque, "I can imagine it's a candidate for sure..."

Assuming the large SUV makes it to Australia, Jeep should be in a position to offer it with a diesel powerplant, according to the Chrysler executive.

"It's definitely carrying over the same engine and transmission offering that's [available with] the Grand Cherokee today..."

Well before that vehicle makes its global debut, however, Jeep will unveil a new Cherokee.

"Next year or the year after we've got the Cherokee replacement, then we've got the Compass and Patriot replacement. Then we're toying with the idea of having a sub-compact SUV..."

Pressed for timing on the launch of the next new model (replacing the Cherokee) Mr Kett indicated it was at least 12 months away yet.

"I'm not sure whether it's late next year for Australia or early the following year..." he said.

Subsequent to the new Cherokee Jeep will introduce new Compass and Patriot models built on a common Fiat platform.

"It's the same platform that builds the Dart and the Viaggio... It's a shared platform... obviously there's a lot of tweaks done to it to make it trail-rated if we're looking for a trail-rated version of it..."

Mr Kett didn't have a date for the B-Segment Jeep, which will slot into the range below the Compass and Patriot, but confirmed it was "a long-range plan" and it would be built on another Fiat platform.

"It's a modified version of the Punto, as I understand it... It allows [Jeep] to expand into the sub-compact segment, not just Fiat..."

The new vehicle is being developed to target large, emerging markets in China and, particularly, India, according to Mr Kett — and almost uniquely for a vehicle of its size, it will be capable of going offroad.

"As we go into compact and sub-compact, we're definitely going to have a trail-rated version of it. We're not going to commit that every single Jeep can make it... to Moab or wherever...

As Mitsubishi anticipated with the ASX, Jeep expects to snatch sales from B and C segments (light and small car segments in VFACTS-speak) with the as yet unnamed B-segment Jeep. That means it will offer affordability, in the form of two-wheel drive versions as well as the four-wheel drives.

"It's going to be an interesting play for us," he said of the sub-compact model, which will inevitably rival the Ford EcoSport, Holden Trax and the ASX already mentioned, to name a few.

Australia's standing as the largest market for Chrysler after North America and China, as well as being the largest right-hand drive market in the world, is largely due to the sheer volume of Jeeps sold here and rolling out the new models in coming years should sustain consumer interest in the brand.

The company's much improved outlook in recent years has been a matter of finding the right product for the local market — or at least not just bleating about the lack of diesel-engined Patriots with slushboxes, to use one example.

"It's not, if I rewind back three years, narrowing our opportunities because we're so good at articulating where we miss out on transmissions and engines or size or price..." Mr Kett explained.

"It's really important for us as we start to go through the next generation of Jeeps, which will bring in eight-speed, nine-speed [transmission] combinations and technology that we don't have today, that starts to change the shape of the portfolio [from]... a legitimate alternative today to a technology leader... it's quite exciting."

Mr Kett is an ex-pat Aussie based in Shanghai who joined Chrysler in 2008, just as the company was cut loose by Daimler AG and snapped up by Cerberus Holdings. Before Chrysler he was a Holden employee. He has seen the company at its lowest point and now he's seeing it moving forward in leaps and bounds.

The nadir for Jeep in Australia came in 2009. That was the year the brand experienced the full compounded impact of global financial crisis, the breakup of the DaimlerChrysler union and Chrysler's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the US.

The nett result for Jeep, which is the leading Chrysler brand in Australia according to sales figures supplied by VFACTs, was a downturn in sales from 5232 the year before to 4193. While it's tempting to place the blame at the feet of consumer sentiment that year, it's also true that Chrysler Jeep had no stock to sell for a substantial part of 2009. Once operations were suspended for two months at the factories supplying Australia while the company went through its financial transformation, the local arm simply had no cars to sell.

Since then however, Chrysler Australia has forged ahead, almost entirely due to the popularity of the Jeep brand, which has drawn upon the evergreen Wrangler, the segment-dominating Grand Cherokee and the facelifted Compass to lift sales by 42.5 per cent in 2010 and 44.7 per cent in 2011. Its sales tally last year was 8648 units — more than double the sales figure just two years earlier.

There's yet more to be done though, says John Kett.

"[Chrysler] Australia has done a huge job for us... to get critical mass back into the right-hand drive business..." he told motoring.com.au last week. "It's really important to us to keep that momentum..."

Mr Kett takes the view that Chrysler Australia and its dealer network are "conditioned" to think in terms of selling 8000 or 10,000 units a year throughout the country.

"When I speak to colleagues and friends of mine, even they would say: '8000 is a good job for you blokes', so... to believe that we can be somewhere between five to 10 per cent better in the SUV segment is a completely different mindset."

"We see ourselves trying to hit above 20,000 this year..."

Jeep's year to date sales are already beyond five per cent of the SUV class, and including July numbers, the brand's sales have reached 9605. So 20,000 for the year is a stretch, but not impossible by any means. The year to date score is nearly 1000 units ahead of the full year figure for all Chrysler models sold in Australia during 2011.

The importer will capitalise on an established marketing strategy that has enhanced local awareness of the brand by introducing new models over the next four years. Before then, however, the company will set out to increase sales for existing models. Traditionally positioned as the Jeep in the range, the Wrangler will receive more attention from the company's sales and marketing staff.

"We'd like to get a lot more out of it, if we can," explained Mr Kett. "It's... tended to be considered niche, but I think there's a tremendous opportunity in that segment to go a little bit harder."

To achieve that end, the Wrangler will "ride on the back of what we've done with Grand Cherokee", in the Chrysler exec's words. "As we start to launch a full portfolio for Jeep it may in fact be a beneficiary..."

That would be a turn-around for the company, which, in the past, has associated newer models with the Wrangler to establish their credentials as bona fide Jeeps.

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