Hey, Jeep fans. If you think the idea of a funky-looking, car-based Cherokee revival is offensive, have a listen to what might be in store for the next-gen Jeep Wrangler. Automotive News is reporting that as Jeep develops the 2016 Wrangler, weight reduction is a crucial target, and the Wrangler’s rugged solid axles could be sacrificed in the name of better fuel economy.
2016 Jeep Wrangler to ditch solid axles to save weight? – Autoblog
Disrupting the Borg is expensive and time consuming!
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Independent suspensions are actually heavier than solid axle suspensions in many instances. It is much more likely that ever increasing safety standards will force Jeep from using solid axles before CAFE. There are some unique handling characteristics that go along with using solid axles and the suspensions that go with them. These handling characteristics are easily compensated for by educated and experienced drivers. But due to weak driver’s education laws and federally mandated electronic nannies (stability control, traction control, etc) the number of educated drivers is declining.
I bought a new Jeep Cherokee 4×4 in 1989. It had solid axles front and rear. I drove it for 12 years and then bought another 4×4 Cherokee in 2001. I am still driving it. For 23 years I have been able to daily drive a short, narrow solid axle 4×4 without ABS, traction control, stability control, back up or blind spot sensors and cameras, etc. All without causing any accidents, no rolling, flipping, crashing, injuries or deaths.
And I attribute part of that success on the large amount of glass on that model that makes it very easy to keep an eye on traffic. You have to be able to see problems developing in order to avoid them. Now it is much harder to see out of new vehicles due in part by mandated safety changes. So trying to be safe has actually made it harder to avoid accidents in the first place.
Knockout Game
http://video.foxnews.com/v/2893070052001/report-clean-energy-could-choke-us-power-grid/
“Obama is already setting a new historic course by reorienting the economy from private consumption to public investments…free-market pundits bemoan the evident intention of Obama and team to ‘tell us what kind of car to drive’. Yet that is exactly what they intend to do…and rightly so. Free-market ideology is an anachronism in an era of climate change.” –Jeffery Sachs, Columbia U, Director of The Earth Institute
So the moral of the story here is “keep your old Jeep, just keep getting it repaired.” You’ll get a lot further.
I thought about my earlier comment. An independent suspension system (at normal ride height, i.e. on road) would allow a flatter bottom to the Jeep Wrangler which would have less wind turbulence. This could improve mileage.
I won’t go into all the pros and cons of an independent suspension off road.
The main things is that a factory independent suspension would limit choices and raise costs of aftermarket modifications.