Jeep Cherokee Media Event Delayed For Last Minute Powertrain Tweaks

2014 Jeep Cherokee Limited

Chrysler announced that it is delaying a scheduled 2014 Jeep Cherokee media event in Seattle to make some tweaks to the vehicle’s powertrain. This is an unusual step, especially with media invited and already planning on attending in what was to be a week long event from August 8th-14th.

They plan to make improvements to the powertrain’s calibration as a result the last few weeks of quality and durability testing. Despite the delay in the media event, Chrysler said they still plan to have the vehicle in showrooms by sometime in September and aim to have the event rescheduled for about the same time.

The 2014 Jeep Cherokee is the replacement for the outgoing Jeep Liberty and it marks the first Jeep based on the Fiat platform as well as the first time they’ve used a 9-speed automatic transmission. Consumers will have their choice of either a 2.4-liter I-4 engine or a 3.2-liter V-6 engine once the car becomes available.

The media event isn’t the only thing that’s seen a delay for the 2014 Jeep Cherokee. It was originally due to begin production on May 23rd, but it didn’t actually begin until June 24th. When Jeep CEO Mike Manley announced the month-long delay in production he said that they will not ship any of the vehicles to dealers until they are confident there will be no problems.

This was back in late June and at the time they thought the 2014 Jeep Cherokee would appear in showrooms sometime toward the end of August or beginning of September. The latest delays put that delivery time more firmly into the month of September.

Production is happening at a plant in Toledo where they expect to be pumping out about 400 of the vehicles every day by early August. They’ve also got a planned second shift coming that same month.

Nicole Wakelin fell in love with cars as a teenager when she got to go for a ride in a Ferrari. It was red and it was fast and that was all that mattered. Game over. She considers things a bit more carefully now, but still has a weakness for fast, beautiful cars. Nicole also writes for NerdApproved and GeekMom.