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So far, Jeep has been somewhat left out of the V8 party. The Wrangler 392 soldiers on, and Gladiator 392 is coming, but at the other end of the spectrum, the V8 has been eliminated from the Grand Wagoneer and was essentially DOA in the current-generation Grand Cherokee. The latter ostensibly launched with a Hemi option, but good luck finding one. It only lasted until 2023, and the long-wheelbase L model lost its Hemi option in 2024.
Things are a bit weird at Stellantis right now, to put it mildly. Virtually every brand has a new (or freshly un-retired) exec at the helm, and each of its brands is still fighting to overcome the whiplash of the past five years. Two things are happening here. First, Stellantis has had other priorities for the Hemi, and second, the company just spent a ton of money to develop a new family of turbocharged inline engines (both 4- and 6-cylinder) that it needs to try to recoup.
They’re good motors, and the company has every incentive to make a return on that investment. More and more, it seems like Jeep is going to be the program’s primary beneficiary, since Durango is leaning hard on the Hemi-ssance. In fact, between stuffing them into Dodge’s volume leader and the Ram 1500, Stellantis started running out of V8s.
The 4xe plug-in hybrid took its place, and, well, we saw how that worked out. Even as a replacement, it didn’t match the Hemi’s 7,200-pound tow rating—nor does any other current powertrain option in the Grand Cherokee lineup. This leaves a subset of potential buyers in the lurch. Jeep has teased the return of a Hemi to the Grand Cherokee, which seems virtually inevitable at this point. But I’d like to propose an alternative: How about a Wagoneer Classic?
Hear me out: You give the Durango a seven-slot nose job, jazz up the interior with some nostalgia-soaked design elements, and stick a Waggy badge on it. Offer it with the 3.6, 5.7, and 6.4, and since it’s a Wagoneer, it doesn’t have to be “Trail Rated” to fit with Jeep’s modern branding. Translation? No need to mess with the powertrain. The Durango is essentially the cheaper version of the Grand Cherokee L we didn’t get until the current generation—a long-wheelbase WK2—and since it’s already in production, the tooling costs would be relatively insignificant.
Is this as easy as dropping the 5.7-liter Hemi back in the Grand Cherokee and shipping it? Certainly not, but it would be a relatively low-stakes move for a company determined to make hay while the sun shines. Plus, it’s an opportunity to attract more enthusiasts to the Wagoneer sub-brand. That’s no bad thing, right?
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Byron is an editor at The Drive with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories.
