Commander To End Production Soon?

According to the Detroit News, auto analysts are predicting the end of the Jeep Commander. The article states that the boxy Commander could come to a close in 2009 due to its low sales and gas guzzling nature.

Here's a snip:

The future of the hulking Jeep Commander SUV introduced a little over a year ago looks bleak.

Auto analysts and other industry officials say the Commander, a boxy three-row SUV built at Chrysler's Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit, is likely to be discontinued after the 2009 model-year.

"We removed the Commander from our forecast" after the 2009 model year, said Jeff Schuster, forecasting analyst with California-based J.D. Power and Associates. J.D. Power and other auto forecasting firms gather information from suppliers and other industry sources privy to automakers' future production plans.

Some say that the Commander is also too close in size to the 4x4 of the Year the Grand Cherokee and this could be the cause of low sales...

Here's another snip:

The Commander also appeared to eat into demand for the Grand Cherokee, once one of America's most popular vehicles. Jeep sold 139,148 Grand Cherokee's last year, down 75,000 units from 2005.

"It's a logical move to get rid of the Commander given the small incremental sales increases," said Erich Merkle, an analyst with IRN Inc. in Grand Rapids. "The Commander has had a dramatic negative impact on the Grand Cherokee."

Who knows what will happen? Let's just hope we can keep the Commander's around.

Read the entire article here.