Jeep confirms that the Cherokee is still alive and well.
The manufacturing may be idled but the SUV appears to still have a future.The production line of the current generation Jeep Cherokee may be idled at the Belvidere factory in Illinois but the car itself is not dead. A Jeep spokeswoman informed CarBuzz the following: “No, [the Cherokee] is not canceled. We have ideas for that significant vehicle in that crucial segment, which we will unveil in due time, but do not come to that conclusion.”However, all of the factory’s 1,350 paid and hourly workers are temporarily out of a job despite efforts are being made to shift them to other Stellantis operations, including as the Wrangler and Gladiator plant in Toledo, Ohio. In January, the Cherokee lost its V6 engine choice for 2023, the first harbinger of things to come only weeks later.The Cherokee name first debuted on the scene back in 1974 when it was a two-door SUV based on the hugely popular Wagoneer. It didn’t convert to the unibody platform until 1984 as one of now-defunct AMC’s final models. Under Chrysler’s ownership, the Cherokee continued to thrive and that generation, internally designated XJ, stayed on the market until 2001 after a 3 million-unit production run.It was replaced by the Liberty the following year (which continued to be branded as ‘Cherokee’ worldwide), albeit it failed to catch on with the public in the same manner as its predecessor.Jeep came to its senses in 2014 when the third and current/outgoing generation appeared, once again dubbed Cherokee.

It boasted contentious front-end style, which has subsequently been toned down, and rode on a Fiat-sourced front-wheel-drive platform. The latter came courtesy of the then newly-formed Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). A number of Jeep-engineered four-wheel drive systems were made available because it is a Jeep, after all.This Cherokee generation (codenamed KL), however, has witnessed a sustained sales reduction over the past three years as the competition in the compact SUV/crossover sector has escalated. Dogged by certain historical dependability concerns, like as its nine-speed automatic transmission, the Cherokee seemed to fall out of favor with purchasers, some of whom found themselves upgrading to the larger Grand
Cherokee.Controversy for Jeep erupted in 2021 when the Cherokee Nation petitioned for Jeep to abandon the Cherokee nameplate once and for all. A future similarly-sized Jeep possibly may not be called Cherokee, but that’s only speculation on our part.While we’re sad to see the present Cherokee manufacturing line idled, we are looking forward to what Jeep has planned next and, perhaps, that car (presumably an EV) will be made at Belvidere.