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After the unsuccessful relaunch of the Grand Wagoneer nameplate on the ZJ platform in 1993, the storied model name was put on ice. The years rolled by as SUVs of all sizes continued to gain popularity and morph into the adjacent Crossover Utility Vehicle (CUV). This was great news for Jeep, which saw its sales increase throughout subsequent two decades. During that time the Grand Wagoneer name was not entirely forgotten: Various projects aimed at resurrecting a Grand Wagoneer came and went but never moved past the ideation stage. But that was about to change.

Once in a blue moon a vehicle surfaces that’s so rare and special it demands memorialization on the internet. Such a vehicle appeared at auction last week, so today we pause our Wagoneer coverage and revert to the original style of the Rare Rides series: coverage of a singular vehicle. Stopping us in our tracks is a flawless Cadillac Seville Gucci from 1979.

Jeep introduced its new midsize Grand Cherokee in 1993 to great fanfare. The family SUV segment was about to explode, and Chrysler’s offering was right on time. Suburban families eagerly snapped up the Grand Cherokee, but there was an additional and exclusive version on offer as well, and it wore a storied nameplate. The Grand Wagoneer returned!

In our last Jeep Wagoneer installment, we reached the end of the line for the antique SJ Grand Wagoneer. Designed with user-friendly roots and launched in 1963 with relatively few frills, it soldiered on through 1991 and concluded its run as a wood-clad beast of burden with a luxurious interior, a carbureted engine from 1970, and the aura of desirability among its wealthy customer base. Jeep’s new owner Chrysler was eager to recreate the Grand Wagoneer magic, and did so as soon as the Grand Cherokee launched.

We return to the Jeep Wagoneer in 1987 and its 25th anniversary. As the Wagoneer remained on sale in its dated but popular guise, parent company AMC was at death’s door. Under ownership by Renault, AMC was in massive debt as the Renault-AMC lineup of cars proved unsuccessful. Chrysler stepped in during March to purchase AMC-Jeep for a huge sum, assuming all of AMC’s debt from Renault. On June 20, 1987 the American Motors Corp. ceased to exist, and was renamed to Jeep Eagle Corp.

We last left the Jeep Wagoneer at a branching point in 1984, where the SJ Wagoneer Limited was rebranded as the Grand Wagoneer, and the new XJ Cherokee donned some fancy trim and became the base trim Wagoneer and upmarket Wagoneer Limited. AMC’s desired outcome was for the XJ Cherokee to replace the SJ in all ways, and send the old Wagoneer off into the sunset. While that strategy worked for the Cherokee models, buyers were not keen on the expensive and compact XJ Wagoneer. Sales of the new Wagoneer never hit 25,000 in a year and dropped off quickly. Meanwhile, AMC was forced to continue selling the old and outdated but profitable Grand Wagoneer.

“People in the auto industry never go away,” a friend said to me with some bitterness in his voice. “They leave one company—sometimes because they weren’t doing a very good job—then before you know it, they show up somewhere else with a better title.”

The Volvo LX03 concept looks like something pulled straight from a science fiction movie.

Friend of the site Connie Peters drives the 2026 Nissan Leaf.

Joey Cohen joins the Bozi Breakdown in Episode 3 to dissect the recent Texas NASCAR race. They highlight the track's unique challenge with two distinct ends requiring compromises. They focus on the Next Gen car's "aero attitude" with underbody downforce via the rear diffuser. Joey explains the difficulty of planning for races with 35 other cars, as the car's aero sensitivity in traffic significantly differs from single-car testing.

Nicknamed the "Octopus Truck," this innovative cleaning vehicle uses eight robotic arms, each equipped with brushes and high-pressure water jets, to scrub tunnel walls and ceilings with precision.

Self-driving technologies are the new space race with car manufacturers jostling to be the first to achieve fully autonomous vehicles. But the road to get there has been bumpy, with a track record that’s far from flawless.

Ford made big news at January's 2026 Detroit Auto Show. The Dearborn-based manufacturer debuted a pair of new high-performance models that appeal to enthusiasts at both extremes of the automotive spectrum. A hot new Mustang is slated to arrive later this year, while a souped-up Bronco SUV is also in the works.

Jeep had its only all-new product debut since the Sixties when it introduced the compact XJ Cherokee in 1984. Designed with packaging and fuel efficiency in mind, the unibody Cherokee was a departure from the way SUVs were traditionally designed. Also launched with the new Cherokee range was an all-new Wagoneer.

Friend of the site Connie Peters drives the Polestar 4 EV.

After a career that spanned more than two decades at CNN and years as an independent producer, David Bernknopf found himself looking for work and found it running an investigative unit at a TV operation in Alaska.

Your Future Machine is your go-to destination for cutting-edge technology, transportation, and innovation. From the latest advancements in electric vehicles and autonomous machines to the future of mobility, and everything in between. We bring you engaging content that connects you with the world of tomorrow. Our mission is to inspire curiosity and excitement by showcasing groundbreaking machines and tools designed to shape the future.

In this episode of the VWIDTalk Podcast, we analyze real-world data from a mountain ski trip in 20+ inches of snow.

In this episode of Spare Parts, we take Jon’s classic British sports car to Eclectic Motorworks for his first-ever dyno day—and the first time the MGB has ever been on a dyno.

Our K-Tuned supported K20 turbo Integra finally hits the dyno and chases that elusive 500whp mark.

The 2026 Honda Pilot Elite levels up Honda’s flagship three‑row SUV with sharper exterior styling, a more premium cabin, and meaningful tech upgrades that family‑SUV shoppers search for.

As we learned in our last Wagoneer installment, the SJ weathered the storm of the first (1973) and second (1979) oil shocks. The latter of which forced AMC to reinstall an inline-six and a manual transmission into its luxurious utility wagon barge, to advertise a lower cost of entry and better fuel economy figures. After more than 20 years, AMC was ready to move on from the Wagoneer entirely, and had a plan to do so which it implemented in 1984. Welcome to the new XJ.

In the late 1960s, Opel had a problem. Not a mechanical one, but a spiritual one.

A South Korean software company is pushing AI-powered kiosks that could eventually replace human sales representatives at your local dealership.

Tyler Reddick won the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway with his No. 45 Toyota Camry NASCAR Cup Car.

The Ford Starliner and Sunliner are not cars that are often spoken about when discussing Ford’s performance history but they should be.

Some people argue that fast cars racing around race courses serve as “rolling billboards.” Which was probably a more effective thing before digital advertising.

Subnado from Waydoo is a compact and versatile water mobility device made for people who love spending time on and around the water.

Chris Russo, SmartCharge Clean Energy Program Manager at Con Edison wants to give you money as SmartCharge incentivizes off-peak charging to balance grid demand and make everybody a winner.

Welcome back to another episode of VW ID Talk! We sit down with Zervan and Taylor, the adventurous duo behind the "Sun Buzz." They are on a mission to travel to the lower 48 states in their VW ID. Buzz, and they are already halfway there.

We return to our Wagoneer coverage today at a turning point in the greater automotive market. The introduction of the lower-priced Jeep Cherokee in 1974 allowed Jeep to push the Wagoneer into more luxurious territory, an effort cemented by the arrival of the Limited trim in 1978.5. A few months later all Jeep vehicles were restyled with a new front clip, bringing the lineup to a more cohesive and modern appearance for the ‘79 model year. But world events during 1979 would change the course of automotive history and pull the rug from under the Wagoneer in some ways.

NEW YORK -- One of the things I love about New York City -- and other big cities, like Chicago or LA -- is the constant motion. Yes, sometimes it can overwhelm. But sometimes, it feels like all the motion isn't just the routine beats of daily life -- it feels like some sort of progress.

The 2026 New York International Auto Show gave off that vibe.

Paul Jacobson, executive vice president and chief financial officer of General Motors, made a telling observation about GM’s current approach to electric vehicles at last week’s  Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s 32nd Annual Automotive Insights Symposium in Detroit.

If you’ve ever spent any time around South American car culture, you’ll know that it’s built on an intoxicating mix of necessity and lunacy.

The 1st generation Ford Fusion. This was a mid size Sedan that was slotted between the Ford Focus and the Ford 500. Ford built this car to compete against the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.

After their purchase of Jeep in 1970, American Motors began diversification of the newly acquired brand’s product line. The company saw the potential in Jeep for a much broader offering of passenger utility vehicles: Utility wagons, recreational utility vehicles, and trucks. The former two would gradually converge together in nomenclature to be called SUVs, a term Jeep created in 1974 when it marketed the new Cherokee (an SJ Wagoneer derivative). Part of the product diversification was refinement of the Wagoneer platform and experimentation with luxury trims after the Super Wagoneer failed to see much success. In 1978 AMC launched a new luxurious Wagoneer trim, and this time it worked.

There’s of course, a lot of great journalism out there, but if you look at your newsfeed, there’s a lot of crap too.

Coming this summer as a 2027 model, Volvo released yet another battery electric vehicle, the EX60.

The EGO Power+ MB1005-2 electric mini bike brings something familiar and practical to electric riding by using the same 56V batteries found in EGO’s popular power tools.

In our last Wagoneer installment of Rare Rides Icons, we began the journey through the frequent and sometimes confusing updates Jeep made to its flagship utility wagon. Edits to the SJ Wagoneer began in 1964 and continued through the end of its life at the 1991 model year. However, the most important change to the Wagoneer occurred as a side-effect of Jeep’s ownership. We pick up in early 1970.

The Mercury Bobcat. It was Mercury's first subcompact car sold in North America and yes, it was a rebadged Pinto but it gave Mercury an inexpensive model that had good gas mileage numbers.

We're modifying a 2024 Toyota Prius Prime in an attempt to improve the handling and appearance and turn it into a hot hatch.

Late last year consultancy  EY released the results of its “decoding the digital home study,” which is based on surveys of 20,500 consumers in 14 countries (Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the US) about their attitudes regarding “TMT”: technology, media and telecoms.

Joby Aviation is bringing its vision of fast, clean city travel to life through a new partnership with Virgin Atlantic, marking a significant step forward for electric urban aviation.

Bill Ford has been spending time in Australia to hype the family business and he’s been saying all the right things. Among his more recent statements was a proclamation that Ford would continue prioritizing V8s until regulations made that impossible.

Fuel prices continue to climb globally due to the situation in the Middle East. But it’s hardly the only issue impacting the cost of owning and operating a motor vehicle. Insurance rates have ballooned over the last several years, as have manufacturing costs. Automakers are blaming tariffs, citing billions in increased costs for 2025. But they were also raising prices on vehicles rather dramatically prior to those tariffs coming into play.

The Jeep Wagoneer had an unusually long run for a passenger automobile, and successfully spanned across four decades. Though it was in production from the Sixties into the Nineties, the SJ Wagoneer had but one generation. As mentioned in the last entry where we covered the original interior details, there were many changes inside, outside, and underneath through the decades. Oh, and Wagoneer invented the luxury SUV in 1966.

What makes your head turn when a car roars past? History matters as much as a well-preserved machine, as each vehicle presents a compelling story.

Not too long ago, Audi unveiled its exciting new Concept C. A fresh-faced design study, this sleek two-door not only hints (or perhaps, shouts) at a possible future sports car but also previews a whole new design philosophy for the four-ring luxury brand.

The Abiloader from Abiliquip is a practical vehicle-mounted wheelchair loader designed to make daily mobility easier and more independent.

Fuel prices are on the rise in America, with the conflict in Iran presumed to be the primary culprit. The per barrel price of crude nearly doubled at the start of the month in a moment of panic. While prices have come down since, they remain at their highest point in the last twelve months and fuel prices have begun reflecting this.

In this episode, Jan and Wes dive deep into one of the most visually striking modifications for the Volkswagen ID.4: the GTX Signature Lights.

We take our cheap & high mileage Tesla Model 3 from boring commuter appliance to rally-inspired snow demon thanks to a host of upgrades.

It's another behind-the-scenes podcast!

In the long and occasionally bewildering history of Porsche, there are cars that defined the brand—the 356, the 911, the 917.

The 2nd generation Mercury Marauder. The Marauder name was 1st used on an engine in the late 50s and it was 1st used as a nameplate for a car in 1963 only to be retired in 1965.

In a  Cox Automotive analysis released a couple weeks ago about electric vehicle sales in the US, there is this:

“While the Q4 collapse will command headlines, total EV sales in calendar year 2025 tell a different story: Thanks in part to record volume in Q3, total EV sales last year came in just shy of 2024’s 1.30 million. In fact, 2025 was the second-best year on record for EV sales in the U.S., and the EV share of total market sales was a strong 7.8%, down from 8.1% a year earlier, according to Kelley Blue Book estimates.”

The ”Q4 collapse” was a decline in EV sales to 5.8 percent of the total US new vehicle market.

The “record volume in Q3” was a market share of 10.5 percent.

DOCYKE is making engineering fun and hands-on with modular ride-on kits that let kids build and customize their own vehicles.

Start your engines (or motors)—physical buttons are finally back!

As we reviewed in our last installment, the exterior design of the Jeep Wagoneer was a notable thing at its debut in 1963. The design emphasized its wagon nature rather than its truck underpinnings, which set it apart from the competition. Like the exterior, the interior was designed with daily livability in mind and was less basic and utilitarian than contemporary utility wagons.