The 'Adorable' Jeep Renegade Is Fiat-Chrysler's Love Child
But is it a real Jeep?
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On a list of adjectives a marketing wiz would hitch to the Jeep brand, “adorable” and “Italian” would be near the bottom. The company’s all-new, Renegade, however, is both of those things and brand evangelists aren’t happy about it.
The little truck is bolted together at a Fiat plant in the ankle-bone of Italy, the most apparent cog in Fiat's grand plan to leverage abroad the prize of its Chrysler purchase. For a brand created in response to a 1940s U.S. military contract, this is a stretch. But Fiat is persuaded that the rest of the world wants more Jeeps—call it Americana arbitrage.