Automotive Seats Stiching

2011 Jeep Cherokee: Purposeful Perfection

There is but one single thing that separates successful brands from unsuccessful brands, in the automotive industry; purpose. When you examine brands at their best and at their worst, you see them at the height of their purpose, and dwindling into the purposeless existence that precedes bankruptcy, respectively. Consider, for example, the story of Pontiac. At its height, Pontiac was permitted little more than to successfully fulfill its role as a GM’s youthful, exciting brand with vehicles like the immortal GTO and Trans Am. But as the decades wore on, and General Motors rescinded Pontiac’s excitement order, sales dwindled. Trans Ams became Grand Ams became Aztecs became bankruptcy. But that’s not a feat that Jeep has ever even so much as flirted with. A brand fired in the crucible of war with a name that emerged from but a single vehicle, Jeep has been forced to maintain strict adherence to their tried and tested platform of producing rugged, simple, go-anywhere vehicles, and although today’s Wrangler has certainly taken the prototypical Jeep layout to new heights, it remains true to its purpose and thus, popular. The same cannot be said for the Cherokee. 

Having grown in both mass and complexity over the past few years, the problem with the last couple of Cherokees can once again be attributed to a lack of purpose. As Jeep engineers struggled to marry the luxurious qualities of a modern SUV with the bush-busting attitude that Jeep has built their reputation on, buyers and critics alike balked at the notion of a quasi-luxury full-size SUV riding on highway-biased tires, affixed to solid axles, beneath cabins equipped with rear seat entertainment systems. In short, the Cherokee was suffering a serious identity crisis, the likes of which would have left Donald Trump’s hairline feeling pretty confident in itself. Note the use of the past tense terminology.

Because if there’s one thing this new Cherokee isn’t lacking, it’s identity. It knows precisely what it is, and so will you within about seven seconds of setting foot inside it: a full blown luxury SUV. Gone is the expansive (not expensive – decidedly not so, in fact) plastic swath that constituted the dashboard, AWOL is the hideous steering wheel, and best of all, so too the terribly textured rubber upholstery that was masquerading as “leather.” Instead, there’s cosseting and supportive seats wrapped in a much better rendition of leather, and a dashboard that’s as nice to look at as it is to touch. That’s because it’s very pleasantly sculpted, and adorned with resplendently soft leather, replete with stitching. That’s a feature that I’ve only seen in Cayennes and Range Rovers. And it isn’t really carried out any better in those vehicles than it is in here.

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