Jeep to Revive Market for Smaller Trucks

By JEREMY W. PETERS

New York Times
Published: November 17, 2004

UBURN HILLS, Mich., Nov. 16 - The Chrysler Group said Tuesday that it was considering building its first new Jeep pickup truck in more than a decade as part of a broader effort by automakers to rekindle interest in small to midsize pickups.

The company, a division of DaimlerChrysler, unveiled sketches of a prototype Jeep pickup, called the Gladiator, that is modeled after Jeep's signature sport utility vehicle, the Wrangler.

In recent years, demand for the largest pickups has soared, threatening to crowd smaller pickup trucks out of the market.

But automakers are not ready to abandon those smaller vehicles. This year, Chrysler started selling a redesigned version of its Dodge Dakota pickup truck, and Chevrolet, GMC and Nissan have all recently released small to midsize pickups.

Next year, Honda plans to start selling its first pickup, a smaller truck called the Ridgeline.

Even so, the new small and midsize pickups face an unenthusiastic market. Sales of those vehicles have declined 47 percent since 1999, according to Wards AutoInfoBank, an industry data and research service. But automakers are still convinced that they can cultivate interest.

The Chrysler Group also made public on Tuesday the first glimpses of a second prototype, a sports car called the Chrysler Firepower, which would essentially be Chrysler's version of the Dodge Viper.

Both vehicles will be officially unveiled to the public in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

On paper, the Gladiator is a boxy, four-door truck with a military look, oversize wheels and a side-mounted spare tire. If Chrysler builds it, it will be the first Jeep pickup since the Comanche went out of production in 1992. Chrysler said Tuesday that it had a specific target in mind for the Gladiator.

"This is a vehicle we would conceive being for a young, active guy," said Trevor Creed, the senior vice president for design at the Chrysler Group.

Though he would not give specifics, Mr. Creed said the Gladiator was part of a larger design campaign at Chrysler to expand the Jeep line.

"We haven't done enough with Jeep," he said. "We are going to do an awful lot with Jeep in a very short time."

Tuesday's unveiling at Chrysler's world headquarters compound in Auburn Hills, north of Detroit, came as the outlook for Chrysler was improving. DaimlerChrysler is the only one of the big three domestic automakers to have gained market share this year.

Both General Motors and Ford Motor have seen their market shares slip since last year. General Motors' market share was 27.5 percent for the first 10 months of 2004, down from 27.7 percent in the same period a year earlier. Ford's share was 18.4 percent, down from 19.6 percent.

DaimlerChrysler's market share increased to 13 percent in the same period this year, up from 12.8 percent last year.

The Gladiator and the Firepower may never hit Chrysler showrooms; many concept cars never do. Only one prototype of each will be built for the Detroit auto show. Company executives will then decide whether to move forward with production.

"Sometimes the design department likes to take the lead and put things out there that, quite frankly, they would like to build," Mr. Creed said. "But they don't control the purse strings."