In this week’s Ask Nathan:
- Will they produce the 2025 Jeep Cherokee?
- Journalist’s complaints about travel?
The first question comes from a Jeep fan who wants to know if we will get a 2025 Jeep Cherokee.
Q: (Via: AskNathan@TFL.com) Hi Nathan, do you or Roman know anything about the 2025 Jeep Cherokee?
Other magazines and some websites say that it’s coming back. Nobody’s giving us anything in definite. I am one of those people who still likes most products built by jeep. My wife has a 2019 Jeep Renegade and she loves it. I have a 2013 Jeep Wrangler Sport Unlimited. It’s still extremely reliable, but it’s terrible on fuel mileage. I have 189,000 miles on it and most of it has been strong. But I’m very happy with it.
Anyway, I was wondering if you had any information on it?
– Lou B Turlock from CA
A: Yes, there are a lot of rumors about an upcoming 2025 Jeep Cherokee, but nothing has been officially announced.
The rumor-mill is thick, and our insiders are buzzing with juicy tidbits as well; however, nothing has been substantiated. Nothing.
First: the Jeep Cherokee is indeed rumored by Stellantis insiders to make a return sometime in 2025, or 2026. The previous model was not too shabby, especially the Trail Hawk version, but there were sales and production issues. Not to mention Stellantis’ move to electrification. As such, a new, or significantly revised Cherokee seems viable.
Being that the Grand Cherokee and Grand Cherokee L are larger than the vehicles they replace, it leaves quite a hole in the lineup. Basically, you go from the compact Compass, kind of bounce off the Wrangler Unlimited and then leap to the Grand Cherokee. The aforementioned Cherokee filled that void nicely, in the past.
Here are some viable-ish rumors regarding the 2025 Jeep Cherokee (if they even keep the name… which they should).
Jeep Cherokee Wagoneer: A novel rumor, backed by a few facts, comes from Mopar Insiders. They state that there’s a chance that Jeep may change the deck, making the Wagoneer brand larger. In other words, it might become a Cherokee Wagoneer. Yup, an entry level Jeep Wagoneer of some sort, based on the next Cherokee. It’s a hell of an idea, but I do admit that Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneers are selling. Imagine, a baby Wagoneer in design.., right?
PHEV Jeep Cherokee: An insider sent me a hint that the next Jeep Cherokee will be a 4xe model only. In other words, it will be a plug-in hybrid only. I suspect there will be an inexpensive (by comparison) 2.0-liter turbo that leads the way at first. I have no doubt that the platform will be PHEV friendly, but it’s an expensive endeavor to jump into plugins-for-all.
All-Electric Jeep Cherokee: We know for sure that there will soon be a Jeep Recon all-electric 4X4 hitting showrooms. That vehicle is expected to be pretty expensive, like over $50,000 – at the very least. There is a much less expensive all-electric Jeep overseas, but it’s on the smaller side. The Jeep Avenger is a front-wheel drive EV that’s well received in Europe. Size-wise, it’s about the same size as a Renegade, and it has limited range. It has a WLPT range of just under 250 miles, which could translate to under 200 miles here. That, and its size (and lack of an AWD/4X4 system) may be issues here.
Still, what IF they made one of these larger, or based it on the small, or medium STLA platform?
I regret the end of the Cherokee, and I hope Stellantis has the good sense to keep the name for a future comeback. It’s possible that there may be a 2025 Jeep Cherokee, but absolutely nothing official has been announced.
– N
The next question/comment comes from a viewer who is displeased seeing (mostly) automotive journalists complain about their/our travel.
Q: (Via: YouTube) I am so SICK of journalists complaining about how hard it is to get somewhere.
Or having the stones to complain about where they stay or what they eat on their all-expense-paid trip. Oh poor baby you didn’t get your vegan prepared meal in fist class. Poor baby you didn’t get the five star treatment as you show social media your smug face on vacation! Call the wah-bulance because the functional alcoholics had to settle for 9 not 18 holes while so and so paid for their trip. Give me a break!
It must be nice to live every week having a adventure to a new place for a new car. But boohoo when you have to wake up early or spend a month going everywhere. We all feel so bad for you. NOT! Some of you hide your uselessness by adding selfies to social media with NO technical comprehension of the car your getting paid to cover!
Guys who read or watch your work. And I mean all of the automotive journalists cause I’m not singling you out Nathan. But you know a lot of these people and work with some. They give us the billions of social media look at me shots and have the stones to complain the next minute. If it’s so hard, stick to writing about movies or something!
– G. Watters
A: Thanks, I keep that in mind next time I openly complain.
I cannot speak for other members of the journalistic community. They are their own people, and they have their own followers. Some need to express themselves all the time. Others keep quiet about hardships. That’s just how it is.
I will say this: Everyday, I am grateful for the job I have, and the unique opportunities it gives me. Having adventures, driving cars and meeting unique people are massive perks. Yes, we are also wined and dined at most of our destinations too. Honestly, some folks take full advantage of these trips, making them into mini-vacations.
If you pay attention, it’s easy to spot the useless or unqualified ones. In our case, I noticed you added the above video which we posted from Hawaii. That one video has over 880K views, and there are many others shot from that trip. In addition, we posted half a dozen written posts to accompany these videos. Add to that the fact that Andre jumped on a red-eye from Hawaii to Phoenix, AZ, meeting me the next day in Flagstaff is important. We covered even more of the Tacoma, and lead the net in overall views and reads.
Why? Hard work. We are there to get the information out ASAP, in our typical TFL Studios fashion. Our views are generated organically, and we never pay for views/follows/subscribers. We don’t lollygag like some, and we never take our roles for granted, like others.
Still, some of us work extremely hard to produce content for our viewers to see. There are times when we may be up for a few days trying to make connections to get from one event, to the other. That’s just part of the business, and some of us like to share that information. We rarely do, unless you ask for behind-the-scenes updates.
I might suggest that if you dislike the complaining, simply follow someone else.
Cheers.
– N
Editor’s note:
I rarely interject on these weekly Ask Nathan columns, but these sorts of inflammatory messages do tend to get my blood boiling. I’ve spent the last six years with the faces you all see every day in our videos, and I’ve been here as some of the newer faces joined the team as well. Every single one of these guys brings talent, creativity, dedication and good, old-fashioned work ethic to the job. This discipline requires nothing less: As much as some folks out there think we simply just screw around with cars and trucks all day — it’s all fun and games, right? — you are sorely and unequivocally mistaken.
Nevertheless, nearly every prejudice is based in some grain of truth. Mr. Watters’ point isn’t entirely without merit: Some folks do indeed gripe about their travel, accommodations, the food and so on. And you know what? We get even more pissed off about it than you do, because they make those of us who actually bust their asses to bring you guys the best, most accurate information we can manage look bad. We clearly make mistakes and you’re well within rights to call us out when we do, but we aren’t in the same league as the sort of folks you describe in your original question.
It shouldn’t just be a matter of pointing out our work ethic in our most popular videos, either. We aim to cover every single new vehicle we can and thoroughly present the videos you guys don’t watch. Why? Because that’s our mission statement: To bring you the news, views and real-world reviews about cars you all might actually care about. From a sheer business perspective, it’d be far more time and cost-effective to…oh, I don’t know, jump a Ram TRX to destruction, because that’s the titillating stuff a lot of you guys watch on YouTube (and, therefore, the content that actually brings in ad money).
But that’s not what the game’s all about for us. At least not for me, since I can really only speak for myself. I wanted to get into this job to learn more about cars, refine my craft and try my damnedest to present you guys useful information that actually builds honesty and trust in the TFL Studios brand.
If there’s any complaining regarding travel, it’s not anything to do with the travel itself. The automakers do bring us out there on their dime, and we always take steps to respectfully acknowledge that fact without letting it corrupt our core goal: Bringing you all honest reviews. Just because you fed me seared ahi doesn’t mean I’m not going to call a spade a spade and mention when parts of a new car aren’t up to snuff.
Like you, we want all automakers to make solid vehicles, and we do what we can to create a fair representation of what works and what needs to change in order to bring about the best outcome for the consumer. But pursuing that goal through constantly traveling takes us away from our everyday lives outside TFL — our families, our friends and our other interests and responsibilities. That’s what can be difficult from time to time, but we don’t constantly sit here and whine about it. Because the travel is part of the job we’re all here to do.
Of course, there’s a lot that kicks ass about this job, as well! To Nathan’s point again, I’ve traveled to places, met people and done things I never would have in another line of work. All the guys you see on the TFL team know that too, plus many of our rivals work equally as hard with that knowledge, pouring their time and energy, their hearts and souls into making the best automotive videos on YouTube (or articles on websites — have to do a shout-out to the writers like me out there).
Hopefully this lends some perspective, though I know some out there won’t ever be convinced what we do is on the level. To those individuals, please do feel free to move on to the channels and presenters that mesh with your personality. Different strokes for different folks, and all that.
To the rest of you: I and the TFL Studios team give you our deepest thanks for supporting us over all these years, and we look forward to covering as much as we can for many years to come.
– Zach
