Chrysler sell J8 to civilians in 2011-2012

[tyrntlzrdking]

I have learned that the J8 will soon be manufactured in South Carolina and assmebled by Jeep Government and Military sales, which is owned by parent company Jankel.
I contacted Jankel about this, and asked if they had any plans to make the J8 available to civilians.
The Vice President of the company Kenneth P. Bergquist (retired Brigadier General, US Army) responded and told me that they could unfortunatly only sell to govenments, but Chrysler does have plans to make the J8 available commercially, but not until 2011 or 2012 at the earliest.

I am going to assume when this happens it will be quite a bit less expensive.

Jeff

[AEV Dave]

I think you have bits and pcs of a rumor. Jankel is setting up a company in SC to do the upfit (bring in complet JKs, and upfit them for various roles in govts) work, its part of the deal if they want to sell to the US gov (needs to be us built), but as I understand it they will just be doing the upfit work, not the building of vehicles. I really don't know whats been discussed. As far as selling them commercially, they are currently being used in mines in Nevada where they are underground and will never be sold to the public. In order to certify them for road use, I don't think there is any way they could do that for 11 or 12 or really any year with the work load that they have.
Thats all I know.

dh

[tyrntlzrdking]

All I know for sure is the Vice president of Jenkel told me that Chrysler will soon sell the J8 for to commercial customers. I assume he meant non government agencies.
Chrysler could easily make the J8 legal for the USA general public.

[JeepinJon]

Chrysler could easily make the J8 legal for the USA general public.


Could, but probably won't since they don't want to have to go through all the crash testing. I have gotten confirmation though that there will be a diesel JK
available to order in 2012, probably to be delivered as a late 2012, or 2013 model year.

[AEV Dave]

Keep holding your breath boys, its gonna be a while.

dh

[Mieser]

Dave,
Could you respond the the PM I sent you please!

[jingram]

Dammit Dave, don't tease us like that... so much rumor mill crap about a Diesel JK next year.

[tyrntlzrdking]

What I believe at the moment is that the 2.8L diesel will begin production in a Wrangler in October of 2010.
Around 2011 they will come out with a modified version of the J8.

Since the diesel will soon be a common Wrangler engine, I would go with a
6.1L Hemi in my J8.
I doubt Chrysler will offer that in a Wrangler ever.

[BBirish]

I would buy one in a heartbeat :D

[djb_rh]

So everyone is saying "civilian J8" here, but then it gets split into "diesel JK" and "civilian J8." What do you mean by a civilian J8? A 3 door LWB? Or a 5 door but with all the J8 trimmings? Or both? Seems highly unlikely that the "civilian J8" would be a stripped interior and such like what AEV is offering, but it certainly could be the stiffer chassis and different rear axle, I guess.


--Donnie

[flatlander_48]

Dammit Dave, don't tease us like that... so much rumor mill crap about a Diesel JK next year.

All I know is that when the CARS program hit, if Jeep had had a diesel JK, I could have talked my wife into it. As it was, they didn't and I couldn't...

[BBirish]

Keep holding your breath boys, its gonna be a while.

dh

But will it actually be produced? And how long is a while :D

[jester116th]

After all the taxpayer money that went into saving cryslers ass they should give us whatever we want!:D