Jeep has big plans for the Wrangler 4×4, and not only the highly anticipated next-generation model due in 2017. According to documents uncovered by Automotive News, Jeep will increase Wrangler production capacity at its Toledo, Ohio, plant by 50 percent as the new model is introduced?in part by continuing to build the old Wrangler. For a period of about six months, the current Wrangler will be produced alongside the new version.
Building old models alongside new ones, while certainly weird, isn’t an entirely uncommon practice; see Chevrolet’s Malibu “Classic” from the early 2000s, the Infiniti Q40 neé old G37 sedan, the Nissan Rogue “Select,” and so on. For Jeep, the conditions apparently are ripe for continuing to build the outgoing Wrangler. The Toledo facility that builds the iconic Wrangler also assembles the unibody Cherokee SUV, and in early 2017 the Cherokee’s unibody assembly line will be converted over a period of six months to a body-on-frame line to build new-generation Wranglers. The Cherokee will be moved to Chrysler’s Belvidere, Illinois, plant that currently assembles Dodge Darts (for now) and the Jeep Compass and Patriot crossovers. During this six-month changeover in Toledo, the old Wrangler’s line will be unaffected and thus will keep churning out Wranglers. Automakers commonly shuffle production near the end of a vehicle’s life cycle so as to not lose months of sales while gearing up to...