[ObsessedByFIAT]

In post #6, second pic, which shows the speedo console: Did anyone notice 99L/100KM? I believe this is the real time average.
99L for 100KM?? Is that for real? I mean its almost like 1L per kilometer!!!

I would love to be proved wrong though!

Horrible pricing to say the least!!! RIP Jeep in India!

[purohitanuj]

RIP Jeep! Give me one reason to pick this against the all new Ford Endeavour!
This is a joke. I would like to meet someone who would actually buy this, at this price point.
IMO, this doesn't even deserve a Team-Bhp official review. Now the battle is now between Montero and Cherokee to exit the market first.

[Asifgrkhan]

Originally Posted by smartcat

In Europe, what does the Grand Cherokee compete with on price? ML/Q5/X5 ?

The Grand Cherokee starts at $29,999 in the US. That translates to 20L in our currency. And Jeep is charging 5x that amount in India. Good luck Jeep/Fiat Chrysler. They are going to need it. In fact the GC Limited is $38k.

There is no way that a SRT10 is worth more than an X5M. And both have the same off road chops, which is none.

GTO said it best upthread. The Grand Cherokee feature to feature competes with the Ford Everest/Endeavour.

[Turbanator]

Given the Assessable values and prices of these in overseas, JEEP prices are close to my calculations, though they could have done little better. Do factor over 200 % duties and then 15 % VAT & CST on these. Now the folks who complain about some other CBU prices like Mustang will realise how some manufacturers like FORD , Volvo & even BMW / Mercedes / Audi have priced their products competitively (relatively)

I think they are dead before arrival and they don't appear to be serious either. FORD had imported 2-3 lots before they launched Mustang whereas there is not a single import data on Zauba or elsewhere for any Jeep Import after April( unless I am missing)

[earthian]

First of all, Thank you Akshay for the detailed review. Though, i do feel, that it would be one for the library and for (failure) case studies at management schools. Not many T-BHpians would be buying this, i am sure. What irritates is that there is no way that it could cost so much. Obviously, the "management" thought that the Brand had sufficient mileage for milking, and priced it accordingly.
Some people are going to lose their jobs, that is for sure!

[sourabhzen]

Originally Posted by Asifgrkhan

Good luck Jeep/Fiat Chrysler. They are going to need it.

No amount of luck can help them sell it at these prices. I guess it will be easier to spot RR Phantom than a Wrangler or Cherokee on Delhi roads. Their employees might have started their search for new jobs.

[teemus]

Absolutely Shocked!!

Though I am surely not a buyer of Jeep but I am thinking about someone who would perhaps be waiting for Jeep's launch; how shell shocked he would be now!!

As per the speculations I was expecting the Wrangler at 45-50L and Grand Cherokke at 75L. SRT could perhaps have been at premium of say 90L to 100L.

Now what FCA has done is very very skillfully made sure the fan boys (or someone who has used the Jeep abroad and are all praise for it) stay right clear of the showrooms which also sell something called Punto Pure.

Imagine a situation where one goes in a Fiat showroom to buy a Wrangler but ends up buying 10 hot Avventura's instead. Now that would be bad for business, or would it?

[sawnilrules]

Can't believe that Fiat already killed the goose, even before it entered the market.

But, good in a way, I can now happily wait for someone to buy it, feel extremely frustrated with it say in two-three years due to super poor after sales support, then, put it on sale.

As it is a Fiat depreciates twice faster than earth's one revolution cycle. Secondly this being supposedly a luxury marque, will depreciate even faster.. & then pick the second hand one at what 10- 20 lacs..

Not a bad deal I would say..

[Raikkonen]

There is no point in castracizing Jeep India on their exorbitant pricing. Sure, their prices are low overseas, but our great Govt. imposes Customs duty of close to 190% on these CBU's. For Ex: A 25 Lakh (44,000) Jeep incurs a duty of approx 93 Lakhs in India when imported as CBU's. Check it out here

http://www.cybex.in/indian-custom-du...-87032391.aspx

The industry is surely skewed against importing overseas cars.

[daywiz]

Originally Posted by autohead

If you are in US you can have it for 28 lacs, one can rent a house in US park the Jeep there, fly business class from India, enjoy the drive once in few months and still have money to blow up in Las Vegas.

Not at all. You are referring to the 4x2 base model with the 3.6L Petrol. The indian variant starts with Limited and its a disel engine. The price would definitely start around north of 34 lakhs ( converting US prices)

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

India gets three variants - Limited, Summit and SRT. In the US, these are priced as below-

Limited - $ 37,565/-
Summit- $ 49,795/-
SRT- $ 65,695/-

In comparison, Audi Q5 range starts from $ 40,900/- while Audi Q7 range starts from $ 54,800/-

In India, Q7 range is price around the 75L range. SRT priced above it is understandable, but the whole range and with such a premium?

The pricing is alot higher, when we consider the diesel and 4x4 options. Here is the updated pricing from US

Limited - $ 45,500+ /- ( Diesel + 4x4 )
Summit - $ $58,290 ( Diesel + 4x4 )
SRT - As you mentioned

Originally Posted by GTO

Great review, Akshay & Omkar! Thanks for sharing guys. Rating 5 stars.

My sincerest condolences to brand Jeep . Just shows how out of touch Fiat's management is with reality. A Grand Cherokee for 1.4 crores on the road, and Wrangler for nearly 1 crore!!! Both of these are dead-on-arrival. The Grand Cherokee is trying to enter Range Rover territory - that's like McDonalds trying to sell a value meal at the Zodiac Grill.

I spent a full day with the Grand Cherokee. It's a good SUV, but in the league of the Ford Endeavour 3.2. In fact, the Endeavour 3.2 matches or beats it in every possible area. Instead of one Grand Cherokee, I could buy a Mercedes GLE + Ford Endeavour + Toyota Fortuner.

Seriously dimwit pricing. The worst I've seen in recent times.

Totally agree with you. It is indeed too expensive and competes in the same league as the Endeavour. That said it is got great reviews and maybe they are trying to cash in on that. The fact that FCA can't figure out how to bring more value for money vehicles has been one of their biggest problems, along with poor fuel economy, really heavy weight vehicles and incorporating latest technology even though they claim to be premium.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Absolutely true. No hope for the brand if this is the way they price their products. Even though these are CBU prices, I don't have any hope for their India specific SUV coming next year either, if at all it comes that is!

Then comes the question of showrooms. Shared with FIAT and Abarth? Really? 7L OTR and 1.4 crores OTR in a single showroom for a brand considered weak in this one main parameter.

And don't get me started on service centers! I have travelled 200kms one way to get to a decent service center. Now that might be acceptable for a brand like FIAT, but they really had to pull up their socks for Jeep if they were going to ask more than a crore for it!

I am not 101% sure about the taxes but i would think the following charges would be applicable

If its a CBD unit, then we should see taxes added to the prices of over 135% before state taxes and freight charges and dealer markups come in. Even so, I would say if we were to import the vehicle it would cost us around 80 lakhs ( maybe there are some workarounds to get it cheaper).

I agree with most of you that barring the SRT, the other two models are way too expensive and we should soon see southern bound price revisions, tonnes of free service packages and other goodies.

Did I FORGET TO MENTION THAT A NEW WRANGLER AND GRAND CHEROKEE ARE GOING TO BE LAUNCHED IN 2017 AND 2018 RESPECTIVELY? wonder what will happen to the nearly six year old GC and nine year old Wrangler launched in India then?

[vb-saan]

Nice review Akshay!

You summed it up nicely – utilitarian luxury SUV; 50% of the current price would have been the ideal max range for this brand. When I compare this with the recent big-money launch (the Mustang), these guys made Ford’s pricing look brilliant.

[cbatrody]

It's definitely overpriced when compared elsewhere. Here in the UAE they offer 7 derivatives of Grand Cherokee in total with 3 different engines, all Petrol.

[vinit.merchant]

Looking at the first few pictures of the interiors and the types of plastics and buttons used reminded me of cars from the 90's. Especially the button on the rear AC vents.

And that steering wheel is more of a keyboard than a steering, seriously. Should I steer the car or be worried about pressing buttons by mistake.

And then I scrolled back and re-read the prices.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by Akshay1234

More on this gear lever in the following posts

Did I miss this or is this a work in progress report? I did like the gear lever.

Curious to know if all the low rent plastics are seen on the car sold in the USA or is this FCA's idea of a India special. While on the subject of rubbish plastics, you'll seem some on a Maserati too.

Oh FCA; when will you ever understand our country. You blew it (and continue) with Fiat and now Jeep. Apart from the looks of a Maserati, there is little else going for them.

For FCA to think of launching Jeep in India, they must have put on their thinking caps (clearly not) to understand the product they are selling and the target audience. To start with, you can't think of pricing it anywhere near the Germans or a Land Rover. Jeep is not about luxury. Its more a go anywhere car with an attitude. The way I see it, and as rightly mentioned by GTO, this car can't be priced higher than a Ford Endeavour. Come to think of it, I feel it would be a hard sell even if they did price it in the vicinity of 50lacs. How can a car, that costs around 35lac in the USA, cost three times over once it lands in India. FCA had to know what the landed cost would have been and with that in mind, should have decided against a launch. I mean, these numbers are ridiculous.

I have little else to say for the Jeep. It feels like FCA are being run by a bunch of retards.

[mijnoirhammer67]

I was expecting this car to be around 50-70lakhs. If it was in that price bracket, I still wouldn't have bought it. And then Jeep decides to price it at 1 cr. This has made my morning. Never have I woken up reading the news and been this amused. This has got to be the worst news since, um well I can't even think of a situation that comes close to this. This is one of those moments when we just throw our head back and laugh

*throws his head back and laughs*

1 cr for dummy buttons, cheap and low quality interiors, a rather outdated engine (it's the same engine the previous gen ML had used but feels lesser tuned and lesser refined somehow) and then the pricing.

*throws his head back and laughs again*

On a serious note, there was this actor named Anton Yelchin, he was around 26/27 years old. Good chap, made some pretty decent movies. He died recently, bout a month or more ago and may he RIP, because of a transmission failure from his car. Now guess which car?

Ding ding we have a winner, the Grand Cherokee. Apparently it was parked in neutral, he was in his own driveway when he got out to open the house gate and the car drove over him. His parents have filed a lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler on account of wrongful death.
The details about this accident are highly sketchy, but this car has been known for some gearbox and transmission failures in the past and present. Go figure eh?

Edit: Added Link
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...0-seconds.html