I doubt that few could have guessed that SUVs, with their favorable seating position, versatility, and somewhat inflated sense of security would ultimately overtake the automobile industry and leave the days of the sedan numbered when this Jeep Grand Wagoneer arrived at a Jeep-Eagle dealer in 1990 or late-1989. Undoubtably far fewer could have ever imagined this when the vehicle was first introduced for the 1963 model year as the Jeep Wagoneer sans “Grand”.
Of course, today’s crossover SUVs, aka “CUVs”, are a far cry from this now archaic Jeep, with its body-on-frame construction, 5.9-liter carbureted V8 and 3-speed automatic, and advanced four-wheel drive systems optimized for true off-roading. By contrast, CUVs are predominately based on space-efficient car platforms, powered by fuel-efficient turbo direct-injected inline-4s mated to automatic transmissions with as many 11 gears, and offer minimal, if any off-road capability.
Still, these dinosaur-like Jeep Grand Wagoneers have a massive amount of charm that none of today’s CUVs or even large truck-based SUVs can replicate. There was a reason every wealthy person in 1980s and early-1990s film drove one of these as their weekend car.
Photographed: Hingham Shipyard Marinas, Hingham, MA – March 2019
Related Reading:
Brendan,
You ever noticed that those old GWs were once a very-common sight around the Cape, Vineyard and Nantucket?
When I was going to St. Michael’s College in Vermont in the early 2000s, I used to see GWs all the time when I visited friends at UVM (which was frequently) and they almost always had either Mass., Conn. or RI tags on them.
“My expensive weekend home is so private that it requires a special vehicle, which is also expensive, to travel to it.”
They are fairly common for their rarity in Southeastern MA. These days, the popular “Nantucket car” usually is an older Range Rover or Land Rover Discovery.
Old Range Rover? “Nantucket Car’? Nantucket Flower Pot. Nothing shows one to be rich more than to have an unreliable & expensive-to-repair POS vehicle for weekends.
A Land Rover dealership is a business that specializes in apologizing to angry rich people.
Nailed it.
I shake my head when I hear folks say that they’d never be caught dead in a (gasp) ‘Station Wagon”; however, what is a CUV, other than a tall, AWD Station Wagon?
Do people actually say that?
My peers said it a lot in the 90’s and early ‘oughts. The cursed vehicle among my millenial kids and their friends is the minivan.
I guess nobody wants to drive what they were driven around in as kids – must mean they are adults or something.
I remember the early ones well. I was 11 when the 63s came to market Several did patrol the neighborhood I grew up in in the western St, Louis Suburbs. Dad even considered one, But Mom hated 4 dr cars, So he bought another Bonneville HT instead. I rather liked the original front, with the broad upright grille and lighting in the panels to either side of said grille. Somewhat Jeep like, but also a bit of Jaguar, etc. Big thirsty beasts, but roomy and capable.
Speaking of Jaguar, I think these used the same outside mirrors as Jaguars at the time, which I always thought was kind of cool.
These were the Cadillac of SUV’s in the 80’s and 90’s!!
Despite their age, they tend to cluster in some locales. Must be a magnetic attraction.
Love these, they all came standard with an extra dollop of Charisma with a capital C. There is nothing that can replicate it or even come close, everything now and going forward is just a machine.
This one looks like the faded metallic gold color, if I had my choice I think I’d opt for the Ivory with the burgundy interior.
The only similar vehicle I can think of is the Toyota Land Cruiser.
It is amazing to see the transformation these went through from their beginning to their end. What started as an oddball niche vehicle turned into a prestige niche vehicle. You have to give AMC credit for seeing the way to make this old thing an object of desire.
These and the Suburban were the two transformations I never saw coming until they were already well underway. If International Harvester could have hung onto the Travelall into the 80s, who knows what might have happened.
“There was a reason every wealthy person in 1980s and early-1990s film drove one of these as their weekend car.”
That got me to thinking about the movie, “The Great Outdoors” starring John Candy and Dan Ackroyd. Chet Ripley (played by Candy) is portrayed as a middle class man, and rolls up to the family vacation in a Jeep Grand Wagoneer. Roman Craig (played by Ackroyd), Chet’s brother in law, is portrayed as the wealthy stock broker rolling up in a W126 S-class Benz.
I was early teens when this movie came out, so I just assumed that the wood paneled SUV was not for the wealthy. It was the modern equivalent of the wood paneled Wagon Queen Family Truckster station wagon. Not poor, not rich. Just middle of the road.
But, as I’ve gotten older and all that I’ve heard about the demographics of a typical Grand Wagoneer owner (plus the line quoted above), do you think that the Grand Wagoneer was ‘miscast’? Would Roman have been driving it? Should Chet have been driving something different? Or was that the only outward appearance of maybe a stash of cash?
(As I was looking for a photo of the Jeep, the one I grabbed was from a different CC article on the movie itself: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/curbside-cinema-the-cars-of-the-great-outdoors/)
Yeah, a K-Car, Celebrity or Taurus wagon or even an XJ Cherokee four-door sans fake wood or Subaru not-yet-Loyale would’ve fit Chet better.
Maybe the GW’s market went elsewhere in SoCal, either Range Rover or simply not to SUVs at all yet due to lack of inclement weather, so that by the time the GW’s preppy image hit home in Hollywood its’ day had already passed (at least until it became a classic.
Just off the top of my head, Diane Keaton’s character drives on up to her Vermont house in Baby Boom. Richard Dreyfus’s character in What About Bob? also drives on to his New Hampshire vacation home.
Noah Emmerich’s character drives one in “Beautiful Girls” too but it’s portrayed less as anything special and more of a workaday vehicle (as it more or less started out as) like any other SUV. Great movie, though.
As mentioned in yet another CC article, John Hughes seemed to have a thing for cars with faux wood paneling.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-cinema/cc-cinema-the-cars-of-john-hughes-movies/
My guess: The Wagoneer was selected because it had wood paneling and projected an “outdoorsy” image.
In 1980, the Grand Wagoneer with 4WD based about $10K when an Olds Custom Cruiser or Merc Colony Park full size wagon based around $8500.
The Grand Wagoneer was priced comparably to a Cadillac. Cadillac had all time record sales in 1979 and 1985. It was expensive for an American car, but not absurdly expensive like an S Class.
While the *average* economic position of Wagoneer buyers was very high, that number is skewed by the top end of the pool of buyers. The Wagoneer attracted an unusually high percentage of very wealthy buyers who wanted a distinctive vehicle and might have bought a prestige import but would not buy a Cadillac.
The quintessential old money vehicle. I’ve always loved them, and I recall there’s a company producing refurbished Wagoneers, and doing very well.
I never understood these. Archaic, ungainly and tacky in their later years. Who plunked down good money for these in 1990 when it was essentially a 1963 design? Albeit with refinements over the years, I’m sure. To each their own, I guess. I’m probably alone in my thoughts, these are fetching big money today…
The same type people who plunked down good money on a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen (at least up until the 2018 model year).
People who can afford anything typically have at least a couple of cars in their garage. They’re willing to spend more and make more compromises for a vehicle that has and unmatchable iconic image, especially if they don’t have to drive it daily.
It’s the reason why someone will be willing to spend upwards of $130K for a fully-restored Land Rover Defender that’s only slightly more refined than a Jeep Wrangler when they could get a far more luxurious Range Rover for less.
Exactly. In a similar vein Jeep finally figured out a few years ago that their average new Wrangler buyer considers the thing a total bargain and isn’t cross shopping the thing based on price at all, nor on objective measures relative to any other vehicle’s on-road performance. Hence the rapid increase in prices of them in recent years – Because they can! Last year was the Wrangler’s best year ever with the highest prices ever. Most buyers that are over let’s say 40, have at least one or more other cars they can drive when absolutely needed. Many of them, within weeks or months of purchase, then drop another 25-50% or more of the purchase price into “accessories” that then return pennies on the dollar at trade-in time and just don’t care.
The same folks that plunked down the money for a Volvo 240 which was made from 74-93. I could drive through the wealth areas of Clarksville Maryland and Columbia MD in the 1990’s and see Volvo 240 sedans and wagons in a lot of the driveways
These Jeeps (like the Volvo 240) were reliable and safe and actually did not cost too much to be repaired.
These things are amazsing, and you can really buy now an almost brand new one throught these fellows.
https://wagonmaster.com/
A friend of mine bought one which was, I would say better than new with everything either rebuilt or redone, just exactly as it was when it was brand new.
Very expensive ones.
Have a great day folks!
Fernando, I was going to point this out but you beat me to it. Companies like Wagonmaster (for the SJ full size Jeeps) and Davis Auto Sports (for smaller XJ Wagoneers and Cherokees) perform some outstanding restorations of these classic SUVs. They appeal to a narrow band of people who have big $$ to spend but would rather drive a classic than buy a new Escalade. I salivate over the Wagonmasters but can’t justify spending that kind of money.
Forgot to post a picture of the Wagonmaster stock!
Here it is:
FCA has been promising a new Waggy/Grand Waggy for several years. They budgeted $1B to retool Warren Truck for it over a year ago, after the Ram 1500 moved to SHAP. Well, the new 1500 is in SHAP, but Warren is still building the 1500 “classic”. FCA is still promising us a new Waggy/Grand Waggy and saying it will be built in Warren, which implies BoF construction.
The thought crosses my mind, if they do get the Waggy/Grand Waggy in production in Warren, and they put a variant of the Grand Commander in Belvidere to replace the Journey, will the Grand Cherokee be cannibalized from above and below enough to make Mack Ave Assembly, for which ground breaking is supposed to be in June, redundant?
Jeep is capacity limited. Unless/until the overall market for SUVs falls, there’s no reason to think they can’t sell another line of SUVs on top of their current line.
“Jeep is capacity limited. Unless/until the overall market for SUVs falls, there’s no reason to think they can’t sell another line of SUVs on top of their current line.”
Not quite as limited as a year ago. The third shift was cut at Belvidere as they were building too many non-grand, Cherokees.
As we in metro Detroit wait to see if the city can get clear title to the 200 acres of additional land needed for Mack Ave Assembly to double Grand Cherokee assembly capacity, news came across the wire that the third shift had been eliminated at Windsor assembly due to slack demand for minivans.
One wonders if FCA would be money ahead to drop the Caravan and add the Grand Cherokee to Windsor’s production slate? The GC must be more profitable than the Caravan, and using Windsor would save the couple Billion that Mack Ave will cost. By road and bridge, the Windsor plant is only about 19 miles from Jefferson North Assembly, so the supply chain would not be disrupted. Maybe they haven’t updated Windsor and it can’t handle two platforms as different as the Pacifica and Grand Cherokee?
Please don’t give them ideas Steve!
I can see some bean counter reading that and thinking
” if we bring back the AWD Caravan, lift it and panel it, and call it the new Grand Cherokee, we’ll make tons of profit! “