Next Grand Cherokee Based on Alfa Romeo Sedan Platform?
FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne Suggests an Alfa Romeo Base Might Work for the Next Grand Cherokee
If you can hear Twilight Zone music playing, then you’re not alone. FCA is conducting — and nearly finished with — a “feasibility study” for development of the new Grand Cherokee using the Alfa Romeo Stelvio platform. That same platform also wears the name of Guilia.
We don’t normally think of the Guilia as a Trail Rated type of vehicle. But platforms usually need very little motivation to lean one way or the other. Still, knowing that an Italian platform is behind those 7-grille slats seems a bit “un-Jeepish” to us.
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SUV segments have slowly been edging closer to car platforms for a while now, so we aren’t completely surprised. And Sergio Marchionne has stated for several months that SUVs would be the way to set FCA on equal sales footing with the other two Detroit giants.
The Grand Cherokee’s current platform would no longer see development, but we wouldn’t see the results of this platform merger till 2019, at the earliest. This coincides with FCA’s announcement of a huge re-tooling of its manufacturing plants by 2020 to make room for the Grand Wagoneer and a new pickup.
Via [Motor Authority]
