The fact that the XJ Wagoneer didn’t pan out as a replacement for the Grand Wagoneer was a minor issue, given that it was just a re-trimmed Cherokee. But the failure of the Comanche pickup must have been a harder pill to swallow. This one took a bit more doing: the rear of the Comanche has a separate frame under the bed that ties into the unibody Cherokee front body section, called Uni-Frame. Well, that’s not that hard. Still, when the Comanche came out, riding on the heels of the red-hot Cherokee, it seemed set to take the compact pickup market by storm. What happened?
It’s more like what didn’t happen: an extended cab. The Comanche came in two bed lengths, six and seven feet (shown here). But there was no extended cab option, and by 1986, when the Comanche arrived, that was practically the kiss of death, especially so in the compact pickup field. Both the Chevy S10 and the Ranger were sporting extended cabs by the time of the Comanche’s arrival.
Sure, all the competitors in the compact truck field were still selling some bare-bones short-bed regular cab trucks. But that’s not where the money was. The profitable sweet spot was with well-equipped extended-cab trucks, and the Comanche flubbed that. Especially since it wasn’t trying to compete on ultimate low price, but more on the Jeep brand.
The Comanche came in two and four-wheel drive versions, and the same engine lineup as the Cherokee. When the new 170 hp 4.0 L six arrived in 1987, the Comanche was totally in a league of its own, a genuine sport truck. Nothing else could touch it performance wise. But that didn’t solve the sales challenges either.
In addition to the lack of extended cab, there may have been other factors at play. By this time, Jeep dealers had moved away from the trucky Jeep lineage, as the sweet spot in the business was selling loaded Cherokee Limiteds to Mommy and Daddy. Profit margins on those Cherokees were significantly higher. And eventually, after Chrysler bought AMC, the production lines were better put to use building more of those Cherokees. The highest sales years for Cherokees came shortly after the Comanche was finally sent off to the reservation, after the 1992 model year. Chrysler had the Dodge Dakota, which also used the Jeep four as a base engine, and did offer an extended cab.
The nice thing about XJs is that they’re timeless…all you need is 21st-century wheels and it looks like it came out of the factory in 2001.
One of those rare times in that era when Jeep/Chrysler misread the market. I have long suspected that a full line (including an extended cab) Jeep pickup would have sold better than the Dakota did.
Back when Dodge gived a big design change to the Ram in 1994. One guy edited a pic to imagine a “what if?” about a Jeep J10/J20 based on the Ram http://www.javelinamx.com/javhome/art/jeep-ram.jpg
A friend of mine had one of these. It was about 10 years old when he bought it, but it was hard to kill and he loved it.
It must have been a base model. There was a big, empty dial where the tach should be, with a large AMC logo stenciled in the middle. I told him that was a warning light, and that when illuminated, it warned you to pull over, because you were driving an AMC.
He didn’t like my making fun of his car.
That’s the rare AMC warning light! Funny.
In a former life I had an ’86 with the 2.5; somewhat less than slow, and a touch agricultural. Still, in nearly every way it was a better vehicle than the ’97 Tacoma stripper that followed, with special emphasis on fuel economy and ride quality.
A friend had one of these, a 4 wheel drive with the GM 2.8 V6, brand new and me being a Bronco II owner, I liked it. A lot. I have to agree with Paul in that the strategy to go with a standard cab doomed this truck. Over at Ford and Chevy/GMC, the Extended Cab pickups took momentum. A shame. A nice and clean design that looks as good to me today as it did in 86. Toyota pickups were also gaining big sales here in the states, which did not help the Jeep bottom line.
As I stated in a previous post, I’ve had two Comanches and still own a 1992 2-wheel drive long bed with automatic and the in-line 6. With the exception of not offering an extended cab these were, IMO, clearly superior to other compact pickup trucks of the day. The power of the 6 and, if so equipped, the capability of the 4-wheel drive systems are legendary. The combination of the long wheel base and 4-link front axle gives my truck a fairly smooth ride on the road.
My first Comanche (1991 year model lwb with base trim, 2-wd, automatic, and the 6) was purchased for hauling duties while I remodeled the house. It was not pretty and had over 140,000 miles when I got it but was dead reliable and fulfilled its mission superbly. Because of its age and rough looking condition, and the fact I hate dealing with the kind of vermin a Craigslist ad can stir up, I donated the truck last year to Habitat for Humanity for the auction proceeds.
Last June I saw on eBay an ad for the 1992 Comanche. It was located in Slidell, Louisiana just east of New Orleans. I bid and, much to my surprise and my wife’s chagrin, won the truck! Like any middle-aged crazy, I hitched a ride from my home near Houston (five hour trip with my elderly father behind the wheel who refused to let me drive his new GMC Terrain) and drove the truck back that same afternoon. My parents continued on to their time-share in Florida. The previous owner pointed out, and I noted as well, that the tires were somewhat iffy looking.
I took that to heart as I drove back to Texas even more cautiously than my father had driven going east. I encoutered heavy traffic in Baton Rouge that Saturday afternoon and nearly constant rain until I got west of Lake Charles. The rest of the way home was clear and not too hot for an early June day.
Maybe because I picked up the pace a bit (impatient to get home), or maybe because it was inevitable with those tires, the left rear blew out just west of Beaumont (about 70 miles from my house). Fortunately, it was still daylight and I had thought to bring an extra jack and lug wrench. Interstate 10 is in a constant state of construction but the stretch I was on had just been finished and as was as nice as ever.
Still, changing a flat on the shoulder of a highway when big rigs are passing by at close to 80mph is an “exhilarating” experience. When I put the jack and shredded tire carcass with the luckily undamaged rim in the bed of the truck and sat in driver’s seat I realized that my heart was pounding and I was sweating profusely – not from the exertion of changing the tire but from fearing for my life!
The truck was in excellent mechanical shape. I bought it from a local mechanic who was a neighbor of the original owner. Before selling the truck to the mechanic/neighbor she kept it under a carport, rarely driven, for several years until her son got his license. The young man proved the foolishness of youth by announcing that he was not interested in that old truck and promptly spent his meager cash on something sporty looking but probably ridiculous. His loss my gain. By way mine now sports a set of five-spoke alloys similar to those in the picture above. Those on my Comanche are identical to the factory option wheels on a 2001 Cherokee Sport I used to own.
Nice looking truck, too bad the bed side got crunched. Those wheels look just right, too. If I ever make it out to Eugene I will definitely have to check out that bookstore!
I remember these well when introduced. Seriously considered one, but overpriced compared to other compacts. They were a little larger, but not much. Of course Chrysler killed it; it was the most direct competition to the Dakota; which was vastly superior to the Jeep. Another big problem with the Commanche was that it was A-M-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E.
The lack of extended cab had NOTHING to do with dismal sales. The problem, one might ask? The Uni-Frame! Lets take a superbly rigid Cherokee body, whack the back off, and tack a poorly engineered separate bed/subframe on to it. Here in Oregon, saw many myself sagging in the middle as early as ’88. Quickly gained a rep as a P.O.S around here in Ford country. Should have made a unibody pickup instead, would have been MUCH more rigid.
Maybe, but the Ford and VW experiences suggested a unibody truck wouldn’t be a success.
I think there wasn’t any ONE thing that caused it to not sell; it was a combination. No extended cab; the weak center; and that Jeep, by that time, was a marginal player in the truck market and their other truck, the J series, was about to disappear.
Trucks at that time (as now) were about STATUS. And a truck with no cachet, was a truck with no sales.
The XJ wagon was becoming a Mommymobile…not intentionally, but moms who wanted to be Lara Croft were buying them. And it changed the image. Now…can you imagine a truck made out of a Caravan minivan? Impresses the urban cowgirls…NOT!
And finally, the Dakota was already on the way to market when the AMC sale was done. And while the XJ wagon was welcome, the pickup was a threat to Dakota and a not-invented-here rejection. Something had to give, and it was the last Jeep truck.
Does anyone else here remember the extremely short-lived SCCA Sport Truck series? I can remember Comanches just cleaning up in most races they were entered in. Maybe that’s my recollection only, but it seemed they did really well.
That’s what got them on my radar. But by the time I bought my pickup (a 1995 Dakota extended cab, BTW) these were out of production and kind of hard to find good used ones in Atlanta. Oh well…
I remember them well…because about six months ago, as I was picking up a Domino’s pickup pizza special, one delivery guy rumbled up in a rusted-out SporTruck. Kinda a shame; but that truck was so far gone it wasn’t good for anything else BUT that.
The XJ vehicles always did well. My theory, which comes from Evan Boberg, engineer formerly with Jeep and author of Common Sense Not Required…is that in most circumstances, independent front suspension is NOT an advantage. In a all-out desire for a plush ride, it is. But in a need for traction and stable handling, not so much. The XJ’s combination of coils and rigid axles seemed to hit a sweet spot…one that Daimler and subsequent owners of Jeep ignored.
Loved my ’87 – 4.0 five-speed, with the seven-foot bed – except for the fact that it was painted gold from the factory. NEVER failed to start, sure-footed wherever we went, often with a long canoe and lots of coolers, guitars, tents, etc. in the bed, as well. I was hunting odds and ends at the junkyard one afternoon, and found the digital clock that the Comanche lacked. Got home, pulled the dash surround out, and discovered that the Jeep was already wired for the clock. Poked around a bit, and found out that it was wired for lots of other options, as well. I finally traded it off to a friend, who had to have it, for an old BMW bike – as far as I know, he’s still running the thing around his property . . .