Jeep News: Chrysler's CEO Says They Will Not Repeat Mistakes From The Cherokee Launch

[William Maley]

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

October 31, 2013

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne vowed this week that the company would not repeat the mistakes that caused the new 2014 Cherokee to be delayed.

"What we've learned is that we'll never repeat it. We're never going to take a plant down and be out of the market for over a year," Marchionne said on a call with analysts.

The Cherokee is the first Chrysler vehicle to use a new nine-speed automatic transmission. However, problems arose with how the engine, nine-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel-drive system interacted with each other. Engineers worked for months to create a software patch to smooth out the interaction. This is turn caused a number of Cherokees to sit at Jeep's Toledo factory, waiting for this update. It also caused the sale date to be pushed back from the summer to this month.

"We were naïve that it would be a seamless introduction," Marchionne said.

With the issue resolved, dealers are now getting their Cherokees. Also, the Toledo factory is hard at work, producing 1,000 Cherokees a day.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[Drew Dowdell]

My Local Jeep dealer just got a few Cherokees in.

[David]

Please take pictures, that would be very cool.

Sadly I think this will still be a black eye for Jeep as people know they have been having issues with the AWD/4x4 system working with the new 9 spd tranny and V6 engine.

I hope I am wrong and they truly have it working well, but I can see Consumers Reports blasting the first year Release of the Cherokee and it having an affect on sales.

[Drew Dowdell]

I have pictures from my drive time with the Cherokee (and a debut of my better photo taking skills!)

If the CR-V cooperates this weekend, I should have the time to write some reviews finally.

[ocnblu]

Local dealer has at least one dark blue Cherokee. I couldn't stop to check it out closer at the time.

[regfootball]

translation, no more ugly ass front end designs?

Sergio can breathe easy, I saw an actual person driving a Fiat 500L the other day. His new babies may see love yet here the Cherokee and such.

Edited November 1, 2013 by regfootball

[daves87rs]

Front end still scares me...