Was at the Detroit Auto Show today and saw the Gladiator up close and
personal.
The bed extends into the cabin while you fold the back seat down.
Incidentally, the backseat looked about as big as the one in the CC Daks.
Has some nice features that i don't think i've seen before.
There's only one rear door on the passenger's side, and it's a suicide-style
door. As well, on the driver's side, there's this little access "hatch"
that i thought was really cool. So, if you just needed to grab something
that was sitting on the floor behind the driver's seat, you pop this access
panel, or hatch and get it out. Obviously you could use it to load long-ish
objects into the rear seating area, maybe lay them on the floor or whatever.
And they had a spray-in bedliner that looked pretty thick. That's something
i think EVERY pickup should leave the factory with, or at least the
dealership...
I asked the dummy, err... i mean the model with the microphone in her hand
how serious the corporation was about producing this vehicle. She said she
didn't know, but if they did that it would be toned down a bit.
Reading into this statement, seems like a production version is definitely
in the works...
I figured as much about the aesthetics of it, because all concepts that make
it to production lose a lot of the little doo-dads that they had when
unveiled to the public.
Not so bad in the Gladiator's case since the headlamps, taillamps, front
bumper, rims... i could go on for a while.... all looked pretty dumb on a
"Jeep" branded vehicle. And they all had the typical shinyness that always
seems to accompany a concept vehicle. It did have Goodyear MT/R's on it
though. I didn't check the size, but it seems to have a decent amount of
ground clearance, and i'd guess they were at least 31's, if not 33's.
I did like the idea that they are using a 4cyl diesel in it right now,
hopefully that will stay. Maybe it could get chipped-out and be a nice
powerful towing machine. :)
I don't like that part of the media release stated that this was basically a
Wrangler with a truck bed. The frames on the current Wranglers are "ok" but
they wouldn't make a good base for towing 5000+ pound loads.
Ahh well, no one is perfect, least of all new car designers. <rolleyes>
The Adam Blaster
Two words, figure it out.....
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