Deserted by the Sahara in the frozen tundra

Hello, Jeremy and Michael:

Love what you do here in the Globe and love your TV show, and I thought of you guys to write to because you always meet up with the bigwigs of the car industry. Maybe you can pass on a suggestion next time you meet the CEO of Jeep: tell him a consumer (me) is pretty upset that he can't buy his new Jeep Sahara because he hates the 202-horsepower engine that's in it, not to mention the four-speed grinding noise it makes, as well as poor fuel economy.

What were they thinking? They did a fantastic job for the 2011, with the new soft-touch interior, the colour-co-ordinated roof, etc., but it still has that terrible engine. They should look into getting a great V-6 with six-speed automatic. And for an option, how about a four-cylinder turbo (180 hp)? Then I will have my perfect Jeep Sahara. -

Hal in Kugluktuk, Nunavut

Vaughan: You may love what we're doing here in the Globe and on the show, Hal, but I love the letter. You know the hardware and make great points. Those long, frozen nights must bring out the best in a writer. I think I'm going to send Cato up there and see if it helps.

Cato: Vaughan, Vaughan, how did you miss this, the delicious irony Hal has delivered: he lives in Nunavut and wants to drive a Sahara. I would think a great writer such as yourself would jump on the word play.

Vaughan: I'm all business. Okay, Hal, there's a two-part explanation for why the Jeep is sub-standard in some regards, yet excellent in others. I'm sure even Cato will agree with this. The old, horrible engine and tranny are still in place because of the absence of dough, moolah, money.

Chrysler went bust, you may recall, and only us taxpayers saved its skin. So the expensive stuff stays the same. Now, as for the huge design - or shall we say cosmetic - improvements, I'll throw the torch to Cato.

Cato: Two words: hard plastic. It's all gone, or at least mostly all gone. The once-cheapo interior is all gone. Chrysler chief designer Ralph Gilles and his crew jettisoned the garbage-can plastic and replaced all the hard points with materials that won't leave your elbows and knees bruised and battered. Without raising prices.

Vaughan: Ralph's a miracle worker. He's this year's MVP of the whole industry, if you ask me. Not only did he and his team tart up the Jeep, they gave a major facelift to nearly everything in the fleet. They managed to fix up or completely reinvent 14, 15, 16 vehicles in a little more than a year. That's unbelievable.

Cato and I saw them all in the design dome at Chrysler headquarters, along with Ralph and Reid Bigland, the Chrysler Canada prez. Every one of them is a huge improvement, design-wise, over the previous one. They beefed up the suspensions and tweaked this and that and did it all on a shoestring by industry standards.

There is a new Pentastar V-6 thrown in there, but they'll have to sell some of this new stuff before they have the dough to do a lot of powertrain re-engineering on the Jeep Wrangler Sahara. But I believe this stuff will sell.

Cato: Can you get pom-poms to go with that silly hat? Because all that Chrysler cheerleading has you overlooking Hal's point: that old minivan V-6 in the Sahara is a deal-breaker, not to mention the four-speed slushbox. Ancient.

I know the Wrangler will go almost anywhere, but that engine is neither smooth nor is gentle. Jeep can't move fast enough to put the Pentastar V-6 into the Wrangler. Jeep has already put that V-6 into the Grand Cherokee. Now it's time for the Wrangler.

Vaughan: I don't think Hal wants to hammer a $60,000 Grand Cherokee across the frozen tundra. Sit tight, Hal. I have great faith that Ralph and friends will deliver the Jeep you want. When, I'm not too sure.

Cato: Next year, I believe. Chrysler had only so much money and engineering talent to go around. Scarce resources in the remake of this company left the Wrangler on the outside looking in. So next year. Count on it.

Vaughan: And this year? If not the Wrangler Sahara, what?

Cato: The Toyota RAV4 has a wonderful V-6. And Hal should also look at the Suzuki Grand Vitara. The V-6 there is a tidy engine and the Grand Vitara is a pretty strong off-roader, too.

Vaughan: Or wait until Jeep does that engine swap you're promising, Cato.

Go to globedrive.com to get more specifications on these three cars.

Jeremy Cato and Michael Vaughan are co-hosts of Car/Business, which appears Fridays at 8 p.m. on Business News Network and Saturdays at 11:30 a.m. on CTV.

HOW THEY COMPARE

Source: Car manufacturers

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