The Vangler: It’s an Off-Road Minivan Thing and Apparently Jeep Doesn’t Understand
If you were hoping for an off-road minivan from Jeep, we have bad news. They don’t seem interested in building one.
Sure, a minivan might not be the most exciting type of vehicle on the planet. However, there is no denying their practicality and usefulness. And if on top of that you inject it with some Jeep DNA, you might be on to something. An off-road minivan from Jeep could be extremely good fun. It would be perfect for overlanding adventures which are becoming more and more popular. As it stands today, if you want to overland in your Jeep, you are going to need to look into the aftermarket.
A few months ago, some renderings were created on Instagram by samirscustoms. The renderings showed a vehicle named the Vangler. It is basically a hardcore Wrangler that has been merged with a van. Jeeps are cool. Vans are cool. This Vangler is super cool. In fact, the rendering started to make the rounds on social media, and it got people thinking. Would Jeep actually make such a thing? It doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch. Jeep already has a 4-door Wrangler as well as a pickup truck in the mix. Would it be so crazy to think that they could build a kick ass off-road minivan? Sadly, yes. At least according to Jeep.
Recently Brandon Girmus, senior brand manager of the Jeep Gladiator pickup truck addressed the issue with Muscle Cars and Trucks. It was not the news we were hoping for. “I can’t talk about future product, but at the end of the day we’re not going to make a minivan. Whatever we did in terms of future product, it’s still going to be a Jeep,” said Girmus. Bummer. But maybe all is not lost. “It’s still going to be off-road capable. It is still going to be Trail Rated. It’s still going to check all those boxes. We’re always looking for new ideas, and new places, and new directions we could take the Jeep brand. We’ll have to see what we come up with next.” Girmus continued.
Look at these renderings. It certainly looks to us like it would be off-road capable and be able to earn the Trail Rated badge. Perhaps Girmus is just throwing up a bit of a smoke screen. It sure as heck would not be the first time an automaker tried to throw people off the scent. They never want to leak news before they have to. So, we can hang our hats on that and hope that Jeep may still consider an off-road minivan.
Perhaps Jeep just needs to hear from some of their loyal fans. Maybe if we all press hard enough, they will consider it. Let us know what you think of the Vangler renderings in the JK Forum forums. If Jeep built it, would you be a buyer? How much would you be willing to pay? What adventures would you take it on? If we give Jeep the feedback, it might be easier for them to make the business case to put the Vangler in production. It’s a van thing. Jeep please understand.
Images: Instagram.com/samirscustoms
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