AD&P; > October 2013 > FEATURE > Designing the 2014 Jeep Cherokee > Gary S. Vasilash > gsv@autofeldguide.com
Designing the 2014
Jeep Cherokee
by Gary S. Vasilash
> Editor-In-Chief
Here's what's behind the design of what is
arguably a compelling or a controversial
Jeep, the 2014 Cherokee.
"The task of the Cherokee design team was to make it a Jeep, number one,
but a very new Jeep," says Mark Allen, head of Design, Jeep.
TThere are Jeeps that are boxy, like the
Wrangler. There are Jeeps that are stylish,
like the Grand Cherokee. And now there
is the return of the Wrangler, which
shows an entirely new design direction
for the venerable brand.
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It is the last half of that sentence that is clearly a case of understatement,
because the 2014 Jeep Cherokee looks, at 100 yards, nothing like the Jeeps of
yore, particularly the Jeep Liberty, which the Cherokee replaces in the lineup
of the venerable go-anywhere, do-anything marquee. As Allen explains, there
is something of a continuum of Jeep design. There is the Wrangler, the boxy
truck, and the Grand Cherokee, which is far more formed and shaped. Along
that continuum, the Cherokee is closer in approach to the Grand Cherokee,