The production line of the current generation Jeep Cherokee may be idled at the Belvidere factory in Illinois but the model itself is not dead. A Jeep spokesperson told CarBuzz the following: “No, [the Cherokee] is not canceled. We have plans for that important vehicle in that important segment, which we will reveal in due time, but do not come to that conclusion.”
However, all of the factory’s 1,350 salaried and hourly workers are currently out of a job though efforts are being made to relocate some to other Stellantis plants, such as the Wrangler and Gladiator plant in Toledo, Ohio. In January, the Cherokee lost its V6 engine option for 2023, the first sign of things to come only weeks later.
The Cherokee name first arrived on the scene back in 1974 when it was a two-door SUV based on the highly successful Wagoneer. It didn’t switch to the unibody platform until 1984 as one of now-defunct AMC’s final models. Under Chrysler’s ownership, the Cherokee continued to thrive and that generation, internally called XJ, remained on the market until 2001 after a 3 million-unit production run.