Rare Rides Icons: The Jeep Wagoneer, The First Luxury SUV Ever (Part XXI)

We conclude our coverage of the Jeep Wagoneer today, and close out a series that began in February. Last week, we reviewed sales and pricing details for the SJ Wagoneer in its long run from 1963 to 1991. Today we take a look at the same information for other types of Wagoneers Jeep offered to various levels of success from 1984 through today. It seems that since the '80s, Jeep pretty consistently underestimated the attachment owners had to the SJ Wagoneer, yet overestimated the draw of the Wagoneer name when applied to other vehicles. 

The first overestimation was the creation of the Wagoneer and Wagoneer Limited versions of the XJ Cherokee. Those two trims debuted alongside the new Cherokee in 1984. The Wagoneer Limited was marketed not with the other Cherokees, but alongside the SJ Wagoneer.

As we know, the Grand Wagoneer was created so the Wagoneer Limited name could be donated to the new, smaller XJ Wagoneer. American Motors Corp. (AMC) intended the XJ Wagoneer to replace the aged SJ Wagoneer within a couple of years. Much more costly than the regular Cherokee upon which it was based, the Wagoneer Limited was priced like a Buick or Volvo turbo wagon at $18,186 ($57,566 adj.) in 1985.

By 1989, the XJ Wagoneer and Wagoneer Limited proved too expensive and very unpopular with consumers, so the model was discontinued. The SJ Grand Wagoneer would soldier on alone in its final years, selling slowly as consumers turned to more modern and luxurious SUVs. But Chrysler was not prepared to give up on the mystique of the Wagoneer name.

In 1993, the company attempted to create a legitimate successor to the Grand Wagoneer when it released the ZJ Grand Cherokee-based Grand Wagoneer. Marketed as a completely separate model, it asked $29,966 ($70,176 adj.). It was more expensive than competition like the equally luxurious Ford Explorer Limited and Eddie Bauer. The new ZJ Grand Wagoneer proved a one-off, and disappeared after a single model year. 

The Wagoneer name then lay dormant for nearly 30 years. In the meanwhile, Chrysler changed from an independent company to ownership by Daimler, Cerberus, FCA, and then consolidated under the larger Stellantis umbrella. Long promised, the new Wagoneer experienced several missed deadlines and delays before its triumphant return in 2022. 

Newly available in regular and long-wheelbase forms and as Wagoneer or Grand Wagoneer, the new WS platform SUV was large, in charge, and expensive. Base Wagoneers began at $58,995 ($70,075 adj.) and topped out in Series III trim at $74,460 ($88,444 adj.). The Grand Wagoneer started over $10K higher, at $87,000 ($103,339 adj.) and reached $110,000 ($130,659 adj.) as a Series III.

Subsequently the model was facelifted for 2025, and the lineup consolidated. All examples became Grand Wagoneers, with a drop in standard equipment to make the model more competitive. Despite the Wagoneer being the better selling model of the two, the WS platform SUV has not proved especially popular. 

A subsequent Wagoneer arrived in 2025 too: the S. A compact EV SUV on the small STLA platform with other Jeeps, the S was the product of an abandoned idea to expand the Wagoneer name to a sub-brand within Jeep. The Wagoneer S entered the market with a Launch Edition that asked $71,995, and was quickly supplemented with the less expensive Limited at $66,995.

Two very different and unrelated Wagoneers on sale at the same time? It’s kind of like 1984, and the XJ Wagoneer. Its first year of sales seemed promising, with 24,731 examples sold. But those figures quickly fell off, and in 1985 dropped to 13,501. The following year in ‘86 they receded to 12,672, then 12,289 in 1987.

The writing was on the wall for the XJ Wagoneer by 1988, when just 9,138 rolled out of showrooms. Dealers struggled to sell the remaining examples in 1989, and only 6,537 found homes. Sales made up a small fraction of the 2,195,678 Jeep Cherokees sold in America between 1984 and 2001.

It was a similar story with the ZJ Grand Wagoneer introduced in 1993. The expensive wood-clad version sold 6,378 examples. That paled in comparison to the huge success of the Grand Cherokee (an SUV revelation at the time) which sold 190,935 examples in its first year. Many of those were the top Limited trim, which was nearly identical to the Grand Wagoneer save for the tacky wood paneling. And much less expensive.

When the WS Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer debuted in 2022, they failed to make the splash intended by Stellantis. As a new entrant in a market full of stalwart large SUVs, the Wagoneer moved 22,646 units in its debut year. That includes Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, and regular and long-wheelbase L versions. Sales nearly doubled to 43,252 in 2023, and increased again in 2024 to 56,818.

In 2025, figures slipped to 46,023 as the refresh and model consolidation approached. Sales seem to be holding steady around 5,000 per month in 2026, and if they do the revised Grand Wagoneer will have its best sales year ever. Wagoneer sales are comparable to the Cadillac Escalade, which sold 41,672 examples in 2024 and 57,041 in 2025. What’s missing from the picture is a Ram full-size SUV, which ChryCo has needed since 1994. One wonders if such a vehicle will appear!

Finally we turn to the poor sales of the Wagoneer S, which sold 11,270 examples in a long first year from summer 2024 through the end of 2025. In the first quarter of 2026 just 175 were sold as a federal tax credit ($7,500) expired and the EV was quickly cancelled “and will return soon.” But it seems the Wagoneer name is here to stay for the time being, holding a small corner of the market like it did in the '60s. 

[Images: sellers, Stellantis]

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