Gladiator lackluster sales??

J

jwrangler15

New member
Does anyone have any opinions on these articles?? As soon as winter is over I plan on selling my truck then buying a gladiator late September or early October (hunting season comes back in). But I have been seeing a few articles saying the gladiators have been selling poorly since the initial early hype rush is over. Dealerships are offering insane discounts now even though it seems they are on sport or overland trims. I get the impression people aren't impressed that they sold aprox 40,000 units. But with the truck coming out in what April/May of 19? I feel that to be pretty impressive. I mean there are a lot of trucks in the segment. I did not think Jeep would pull that many away from Toyota or Chevy. And you still have the frontier, ridgline, and ranger. And pulling away from that many wrangler sales. Does anyone for foresee jeep ever dropping msrp on these or would they just make certain options standard features? I went to the motortrend auto show in Baltimore over the weekend particularly to see the gladiator without having a salesman hovering over me, and there were always people surrounding it. I heard a ton of mixed opinions on it. Seemed like people either loved it or hated it and not many in between's. I can agree though with people that when I buy one I will be purchasing a Rubicon, they just look so much better with the highline fenders and hood vs the sport right off the bat, but thats just my opinion. To me the sports just look so disproportionate. It will hold me over from buying a lift right away. Just throw on some wheels and 35's. You get a lot of extra features in the Rubicon to me for a good price over the sport s if you plan on doing the same upgrades down the road. Everyone I heard talking at the autoshow and reading comments on autoblog, or motortrend, jalopnik, youtube, etc that dislike the truck say its not a real truck, when in reality it has the best towing, in class/payload/most interior room, best offroad capability (except for the not so great breakover angle). But even the break over angle doesnt seem much of an issue watching videos on youtube. I mean its a midsize its not gonna have the same towing and payload features as full size, what are people expecting. I want one for some occasional offroad/camping trips and just being able to take the top and doors off. Its like having a wrangler with a truck bed. I use to have a wrangler but sold it for my f150. And I have regretted selling it everyday since.I always told myself if jeep ever released a truck based off a wrangler I would buy one and the time has come. Any thoughts on any of this?? Particularly bout supposed low sales and high price tags? I mean they are expensive after you put some options in it. You can get a ram2500 or f250 for the same price. I understand its a completely diff class, but seriously its a heavy duty vs a midsize at the end of the day.

https://www.autoblog.com/2020/02/10/jeep-gladiator-sluggish-sales-discounts-incentives/

https://jalopnik.com/the-jeep-gladiator-is-struggling-1841569645

https://www.tfltruck.com/2020/01/2020-jeep-gladiator-discounts-report/
 
It’s a niche vehicle with a fairly high price tag. Sales volume numbers are not going to be high. I think MSRP will continue to be high but you’ll see discounts and other incentives.


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fiend said:
It’s a niche vehicle with a fairly high price tag. Sales volume numbers are not going to be high. I think MSRP will continue to be high but you’ll see discounts and other incentives.


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Click to expand...

That seems to be the truck game. Load em up with features and then discount the shit outta them.
 
jwrangler15 said:
Does anyone have any opinions on these articles?? As soon as winter is over I plan on selling my truck then buying a gladiator late September or early October (hunting season comes back in). But I have been seeing a few articles saying the gladiators have been selling poorly since the initial early hype rush is over. Dealerships are offering insane discounts now even though it seems they are on sport or overland trims. I get the impression people aren't impressed that they sold aprox 40,000 units. But with the truck coming out in what April/May of 19? I feel that to be pretty impressive. I mean there are a lot of trucks in the segment. I did not think Jeep would pull that many away from Toyota or Chevy. And you still have the frontier, ridgline, and ranger. And pulling away from that many wrangler sales. Does anyone for foresee jeep ever dropping msrp on these or would they just make certain options standard features? I went to the motortrend auto show in Baltimore over the weekend particularly to see the gladiator without having a salesman hovering over me, and there were always people surrounding it. I heard a ton of mixed opinions on it. Seemed like people either loved it or hated it and not many in between's. I can agree though with people that when I buy one I will be purchasing a Rubicon, they just look so much better with the highline fenders and hood vs the sport right off the bat, but thats just my opinion. To me the sports just look so disproportionate. It will hold me over from buying a lift right away. Just throw on some wheels and 35's. You get a lot of extra features in the Rubicon to me for a good price over the sport s if you plan on doing the same upgrades down the road. Everyone I heard talking at the autoshow and reading comments on autoblog, or motortrend, jalopnik, youtube, etc that dislike the truck say its not a real truck, when in reality it has the best towing, in class/payload/most interior room, best offroad capability (except for the not so great breakover angle). But even the break over angle doesnt seem much of an issue watching videos on youtube. I mean its a midsize its not gonna have the same towing and payload features as full size, what are people expecting. I want one for some occasional offroad/camping trips and just being able to take the top and doors off. Its like having a wrangler with a truck bed. I use to have a wrangler but sold it for my f150. And I have regretted selling it everyday since.I always told myself if jeep ever released a truck based off a wrangler I would buy one and the time has come. Any thoughts on any of this?? Particularly bout supposed low sales and high price tags? I mean they are expensive after you put some options in it. You can get a ram2500 or f250 for the same price. I understand its a completely diff class, but seriously its a heavy duty vs a midsize at the end of the day.

https://www.autoblog.com/2020/02/10/jeep-gladiator-sluggish-sales-discounts-incentives/

https://jalopnik.com/the-jeep-gladiator-is-struggling-1841569645

https://www.tfltruck.com/2020/01/2020-jeep-gladiator-discounts-report/
Click to expand...

Depends on the prospective buyer IMO. For the price and what else out there for the same price that can be obtained, absolutely the JT is expensive. But for someone who wants a 4 door Jeep and a truck, guess what? Nothing else out there unless you want a Brute conversion for even more $$$. I waited almost a year to order a Gladiator without a single test drive because I wanted one. And now that I own one, no regrets. Sounds like you may be in the same boat based on this comment:

jwrangler15 said:
I always told myself if jeep ever released a truck based off a wrangler I would buy one and the time has come.
Click to expand...

Whenever I read articles like the ones above, I always ask myself 1)Who's writing them? 2)Who are they being written for? Again, I think it depends on the buyer.

As far as the disproportionate look on the Sports in comparison to the Rubicon trim, I totally agree. But I just threw a hood sticker and a set of 35s on mine with no lift and I think it's a 180 from stock. I love the look. And I'm in 20k-ish cheaper than a Rubicon. Granted, I'm not using it for rock crawling, etc.

jwrangler15 said:
I heard a ton of mixed opinions on it. Seemed like people either loved it or hated it and not many in between's.
Click to expand...

I've owned some fun unique vehicles over the years, but I don't think any vehicle I've owned has brought forth the attention this one has. My wife and I constantly have stories of people we ran into and what they said just from every day driving. We've categorized it into 3 groups:

1) People that don't have a clue what it is and have a ton of questions.
2) People that know exactly what it is and like it, but still have a ton of questions (even asking to take pictures of the inside).
3) People that know exactly what it is and DON'T like it, yet still want to look it over checking out every detail.

It's been 30 years since Jeep released a truck and a 4 door truck at that. So it's pretty unique and special. Not sure if you can really put it in a comparison market to anything else out there. Oh and it still has solid axles, so there's that too.
 
I don’t know much about sales or marketing at all, but I think (and hope) that people are maybe waiting a while for the kinks to get worked out? Idk. I’m happy with mine so far but there are definitely some very small oversights I think that could be ironed out in the next year or two. Haven’t found anything that would be remotely close to a dealbreaker for me though. I know the biggest deterrent for people in my area is the price tag.


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It will be around in its current form for 4-5 years. By model year 5, it will become a platform for Jeep’s electric truck. All the cool kids are entering the electric truck market.



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Sharkey said:
It will be around in its current form for 4-5 years. By model year 5, it will become a platform for Jeep’s electric truck. All the cool kids are entering the electric truck market.



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Right, because lithium batteries are much better for the environment than hydrocarbons...Arnett will be pleased, though.


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Definitely up to the buyer and niche they are looking for. Personally I have only owned trucks. Bought a 17 JKU and loved it but wasn’t the same. Once the JL came out then the JT it was perfect for us! The best of both worlds! A perfectly practical but absolutely capable JT. Looking forward to see the evolution of it...


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Yep, I read the article too, hydrogen for the dual source to get the extra range.


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WJCO said:
Depends on the prospective buyer IMO. For the price and what else out there for the same price that can be obtained, absolutely the JT is expensive. But for someone who wants a 4 door Jeep and a truck, guess what? Nothing else out there unless you want a Brute conversion for even more $$$. I waited almost a year to order a Gladiator without a single test drive because I wanted one. And now that I own one, no regrets. Sounds like you may be in the same boat based on this comment:



Whenever I read articles like the ones above, I always ask myself 1)Who's writing them? 2)Who are they being written for? Again, I think it depends on the buyer.

As far as the disproportionate look on the Sports in comparison to the Rubicon trim, I totally agree. But I just threw a hood sticker and a set of 35s on mine with no lift and I think it's a 180 from stock. I love the look. And I'm in 20k-ish cheaper than a Rubicon. Granted, I'm not using it for rock crawling, etc.



I've owned some fun unique vehicles over the years, but I don't think any vehicle I've owned has brought forth the attention this one has. My wife and I constantly have stories of people we ran into and what they said just from every day driving. We've categorized it into 3 groups:

1) People that don't have a clue what it is and have a ton of questions.
2) People that know exactly what it is and like it, but still have a ton of questions (even asking to take pictures of the inside).
3) People that know exactly what it is and DON'T like it, yet still want to look it over checking out every detail.

It's been 30 years since Jeep released a truck and a 4 door truck at that. So it's pretty unique and special. Not sure if you can really put it in a comparison market to anything else out there. Oh and it still has solid axles, so there's that too.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I agree with everything you said!! Hoping to grab one when the 2021's come out to see if they changed anything from the first model year, even thought I don't think they'll change anything after year one. Or when the 2021's come out to try and grab a good deal on a 2020.
 
-AINOKEA- said:
I don’t know much about sales or marketing at all, but I think (and hope) that people are maybe waiting a while for the kinks to get worked out? Idk. I’m happy with mine so far but there are definitely some very small oversights I think that could be ironed out in the next year or two. Haven’t found anything that would be remotely close to a dealbreaker for me though. I know the biggest deterrent for people in my area is the price tag.


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Click to expand...

What are some of the oversights that you would liked to be ironed out?
 
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