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The Jeep Commander, one of Jeep’s largest SUVs, may be on its last trail next year.
According to analysts, Chrysler may have no choice. The brand sold just a little over 88,000 Commanders in 2006 but only after extensive discounts. Worse, sales of the once popular (and similar) Grand Cherokee dropped around 75,000 last year, an attrition analysts believe was caused by the Commander’s presence. High gas prices are also blamed for the Commander’s low sales. Chrysler has not commented on press speculation at this time Our take? DaimlerChryler was hit hard by gas prices last year and its high inventory of trucks and SUVs. (It didn’t help that Chrysler didn’t cut production fast enough as well.) We feel the Commander is a decent enough vehicle, though we agree it has a lot of similarities to the Grand Cherokee, perhaps too much so. If Chrysler decides to keep it, its engineers and designers should look into more ways to separate it from its stablemate. Making it larger, as suggested by analysts, or add more styling would justify the price differences.
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