Next-Gen 2025 Jeep Cherokee Goes Back to Blocky XJ Roots, Albeit Only Virtually
The Jeep brand has an exciting history – it started as a military vehicle, became a highly-sought civilian SUV, and morphed into a worldwide-recognized specialty brand.…
Next-Gen 2025 Jeep Cherokee Goes Back to Blocky XJ Roots, Albeit Only Virtually
The Jeep brand has an exciting history – it started as a military vehicle, became a highly-sought civilian SUV, and morphed into a worldwide-recognized specialty brand. So, are we surprised that some of its models also have a convoluted history?
For example, the Jeep Cherokee nameplate – taking its moniker from the Cherokee tribe of North American Indians – was established in 1974, well before Jeep came into possession of Chrysler in 1987. It was initially a rebadged two-door Jeep Wagoneer and then switched with the second generation in 1984 to a lighter, nimbler, unibody design with the arrival of the XJ version of the Jeep Cherokee.
Today, the XJ iteration is considered to be crucial for the transformative evolution of 4x4 vehicles from trucks with closed bodies into veritable high-riding limousines. In other words, the XJ Cherokee was one of the founding fathers of the modern SUV segment. Interestingly, beginning with the third generation, it went through another revolution and was known as the Jeep Liberty in North America, starting with the 2002 model year.
Until the arrival of the Compass and Patriot, the new crossover SUV remained the smallest four-door model in Jeep's lineup, and the automaker tried to reinvent it yet again with the fourth generation – the second Liberty was boxier and also featured a Dodge sibling, the Nitro model. A slow-selling iteration, it was quickly discontinued in 2008, and the nameplate went on hiatus until the current evolution, the KL Jeep Cherokee, was reintroduced for the 2014 model year at the 2013 New York International Auto Show.
There, it premiered the still-controversial split-headlight design that's commonly frustrating a lot of fans of other brands nowadays. However, due to its extended production run, the current Jeep Cherokee is a lot more traditional after the refreshed version debuted at the 2018 North American International Auto Sh..
