In the span of 15 hours starting yesterday morning (Feb.22,2013), Ralph Gilles, Vice President of Product design as well as CEO of SRT at Chrysler, retweeted close to 50 tweets both praising and criticizing the official pictures revealed of the 2014 Jeep Cherokee slated to hit showrooms in the third quarter of this year. And he has good reason to, as this new redesign has big shoes to fill with the legacy its originator left behind.
Slated to replace the Jeep Liberty, the 2014 Jeep Cherokee improves on fuel economy from the previous Cherokee by more than 45 percent and focuses more on its on-road capabilities (Although Gilles admits that it will be trail rated).
The responses Ralph got from the official reveal ranged from hilariously critical,
“ The front end looks like a Chinese guy with bad dental work - shame on you Ralph” LOL! sometimes new things look alien “
to somewhat optimistic given the official Jeep Cherokee revealed in the early '80’s received just as much scrutiny (albeit by more distinguished reviewers, and not the American public).
“ Love the look of the new Cherokee. It's good to see Jeep move forward.”
Ralph Gilles is one of the few Americans in upper management who get’s social media.Even though he’s 43 years old, Gilles knows the potential that Twitter has to shed some light on shoddy PR from both other news sources and the American public at large. And with more than 11,000 Twitter followers on his account, his opinion spreads like wildfire.
No one is denying that the new 2014 Jeep Cherokee redesign is nothing short of ground breaking. But whether history and the American public sees it as a worthy carrier of the mantle of the original Jeep has yet to be determined. As Robert Cumford of Automobile Magazine stated in 2009 about the original Jeep Cherokee,
“ it is possibly the best SUV shape of all time, it is the paradigmatic model to which other designers have since aspired"
Souce: Ralph Gilles Twitter and Chrysler press release
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