DETROIT - Jeep is planning to resurrect the Wagonner nameplate that was used on a large SUV range that the company built between 1963 and 1991.
Jeep’s then brand head Mike Manley, who now heads up Fiat Chrysler, announced back in 2016 that the company was working on two new flagship SUVs, the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, and now they’re close to fruition with the reveal date set for September 3.
Manley said that the new SUVs would “push the premium boundaries of the brand”, Automotive News reported.
While it was initially speculated that the Wagoneer models would share a platform with the next-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee, it is now being widely reported that the pair will instead use the Ram 1500 bakkie’s body-on-frame architecture. The Jeeps will also be built in the same Michgan factory as the aforementioned pick-up.
Incidentally, Ram recently unveiled a Raptor-rivalling performance variant of the 1500, called the TRX and featuring a 523kW supercharged V8 engine, and we can certainly imagine a Jeep Wagoneer Trackhawk with similar hardware.
But what will be the difference between a Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer?
Back in 2016, Manley told Road & Track magazine: "You could imagine the use of Wagoneer to denote a really premium vehicle, and Grand Wagoneer takes it to the very next level."
The US publication also reports that the Wagoneers will be decidedly expensive vehicles, with top versions possibly even costing as much as $140 000 (R2.3 million), placing them above other big-and-blingy SUVs like the Cadillac Escalade.
Watch this space for more info on September 3.