Sorry to bring the party down, but I also got a chance to see one at a dealer (no test drive, yet). Man, what a terrible car. And no, I don't mean the underlying drivetrain, which is semi-impressive. The design, proportions, and angles are all terrible! The quality is simply not there and the interior, with its roller-coaster lines, made me dizzy and nauseated. In many ways it reminded me of the WJs.
Living in the L.A. area, and being a car guy, I kind of take mental notes on how many vehicles of a certain model I see. After a new BMW is released, they pop up all over. Same with the CR-V, Rav4, Tahoe, and even Range Rover. After the Nissan Juke went on sale, I started seeing them popping up here and there in healthy numbers. The new Cherokee has been on sale for how long now? I just saw my first one a few weeks ago and none since then. I don't know where they're selling, but they certainly aren't to be found around here.
I give Fiat one or two years before they either change the name, the looks, or both.
I actually like the Evoque for what it is. Much better body and interior quality, nice design (especially the two-door!!!!), and I have seen a few of them driving around. That's how you do it. I'd never consider one, but I think it adds to the Land Rover brand and helps build it up, rather than this new Cherokee which is just sullying the Jeep name. Can you imagine if they named the Evoque "Defender" instead?!? Of course Jeep goes the other way.
Oh well, at least they got the WK2 Grand Cherokee right.
Rather than looking to previous models for inspiration, Gilles says that the Cherokee has been designed to be more contemporary, with Mark Allen, head of Jeep design, adding that a main goal was to make sure the design still looks modern five years from now.
ROFL!!! Wow - Toyota, take note! Is this how all cars and crossovers are going to look soon?! I hope not!
Any bets on how amazingly good and fresh the Cherokee design will look in 5 years? In my opinion, the new Cherokee is more Aztek than VehiCross (which debuted to much criticism in 1999 but aged well and looks really good today, again imho). Aztek? Still looks just as bad as when it rolled out of the junkyard...oops, I mean, factory!
Quirky can be done, but it's very difficult and requires all the planets to align juuuust right.