Marchionne: Jeep may get a pickup truck over objections from Ram 01/13/2011
Sergio Marchionne, the chief executive officer of Chrysler, has revealed that the automaker's Jeep marque may soon develop a new pickup truck, reports Automobile Magazine.
The potential of a Jeep truck, however, reportedly has fellow Chrysler utility brand Ram upset, but Marchionne dismissed their concerns, citing his fondness for Jeep's 2005 Gladiator concept.
"There's better than a 50 percent chance that you'll get [a Jeep truck]," he told the source. "Regardless of what Ram says. They're totally peeved off at the fact that we're going to have anything that looks like a pickup truck with a Jeep badge on it. I actually think there's space for it."
Marchionne reportedly hopes to avoid conflict between the two marques by calling the Jeep car a "multi-purpose vehicle," although he assured the source that it would have a truck bed in the back.
The last time Jeep offered a pickup truck was when it produced the Jeep Comanche. The Comanche, which was a modified version of the standard Cherokee SUV, was produced between 1986 and 1992.