When Fiat announced that it will be bringing the Jeep brand to India, a lot of SUV lovers had a smile on their face as Jeep is not just a brand, but is a cult. However, just when everybody thought that the launch of the products wasn’t too far in the offing, the launch plans were put on hold. However, it seems like Fiat India has resumed the preparations and has got busy with readying the Jeep Cherokee and the Jeep Wrangler for their Indian innings. The Jeep Cherokee and Jeep Wrangler test mules that you see in the pics here were recently spotted testing on public roads. It was being speculated earlier that while the Wrangler would be priced in the INR 20-25 lakh range, the Grand Cherokee would retail in the pricing bracket of Rs 45-50 lakhs. Initially, the cars will be brought in India via the CBU route from North America and if the company gets a good response, the cars might be assembled locally with higher levels of localisation.
The word on the street is that Fiat India has already tested both these models for over 1,50,000 kilometres on our country’s varied terrain. We will get the latest generation of the Grand Cherokee which has a 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel engine as its heart. It belts out a maximum power of 247 BHP @ 4000 RPM and a mammoth torque of 570 Nm @ 2000 RPM. This engine gets mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission. The Wrangler is a serious SUV which is meant for some real off-roading. It has a 2.8-litre, 4 cylinder diesel motor which has a maximum power output of 197 BHP and a peak torque figure of 460 NM. It will come mated to a 6 speed manual transmission or a 5 speed automatic transmission.
Fiat dealerships are said to be reworking their infrastructure setups to accommodate the new cars. Initially, the cars will be made available via 10 dealerships in the country while more of them will follow suite depending upon the response of the public.
