This 1978 review of the newly-introduced Jeep Wagoneer Limited provides an interesting perspective, as it was right about the time that the Wagoneer morphed from being a genuine utility 4×4 wagon into a pricey luxury AWD, or in other words, the prototype of what soon became a huge segment of the market. It wasn’t yet called the Grand Wagoneer, the ultimate evergreen incarnation of this American classic, but in principle, it was the same thing.
R&T gives the Wagoneer Limited quite a positive review, despite its weight (4700 lbs) for such a relative compact wagon and its 11 mpg thirst. And that’s with the two-barrel AMC 360 V8; the four barrel 401 would likely stay in the single digits unless babied. Meanwhile the much larger and heavier big SUVs of today get around 18-20 mpg.
The whole notion of luxury SUVs was still almost unknown; Jeep was blazing new trails here, with this $12,000 ($48k adjusted) Jeep. Sounds almost cheap, compared to today’s $50-65k SUVs, but for the times, this was a bit of a shocker for regular folks. But then regular folks weren’t buying it; the Wagoneer Limited and Grand Wagoneer quickly established themselves as having the single highest income demographic of any domestic car. Think Aspen and Jackson Hole. No wonder they didn’t want to stop building it. It was a money machine.
The Wagoneer’s old-school leaf-sprung solid axle suspension was deemed to be quite effective, with certain limitations. At least it wasn’t soft and wallowing, like so many domestic cars of the time, which undoubtedly is why R&T said it “does permit some surprisingly agile cornering maneuvers”.
Nobody would have predicted in 1978 that this vehicle would still be built in almost unchanged form 14 years later.
Anybody who follows “This Is Us” (guilty, something my wife and I enjoy together) is aware of the Pearson-mobile (my term for their Jeep Grand Wagoneer), the purchase of which made up a significant sub-plot in a couple of episodes…INCLUDING that Jack bought a final-year model while they were still available. IIRC a salesman tells Jack, who was thinking about it, that “this model” was being phased out and that the one in the showroom may be the last one they get in.
That was all the impulse Jack needed and although wife Rebecca was a little concerned how they’d make the payments, they pulled the trigger. In all the scenes taking place in the ’90s, that GW is prominent. It was a part of their family, even for years after Jack’s death.
That’s one of the pleasures of “TIU,” it’s pretty well-researched. There’ve been a few blunders like most shows or movies, but the Grand Wagoneer storyline’s pretty spot-on.
I’ve always liked these and they are on my short list of “some-day” vehicles I need to own…perhaps now is the time, gas has never been cheaper!
Have I got a deal for you….I found these several years ago and all were for sale. About eight in all, one or two even had a six-banger.
I would only require one but thank you 🙂 I’ve seen this picture before, it is indeed quite the selection.
Whats the price range on them
These things were insanely expensive in top trim, too. Why any knowledgable customer would plop that kind of cash on a vinyl wood clad, outdated rig in 1991 is beyond me!
I can get on board with the early models sans trim and austere, purposeful good looks but woof, the late models are just gross.
These were a lot of things to a lot of people, but crisp ’60s styling being offered new as late as 1991 was undoubtedly a big part of it. It really stood out among the used bar of soap styling that became predominate in the late 1980s.
That, and it had presence and a V-8, something that could not be said about a lot of offerings at the time that also carried a luxury price tag.
I would have wanted it in dark blue……
The dashboard is clearly AMC, closely resembling the Hornet and Gremlin. I wonder if those Jackson Holes realized they were driving a Rambler? Horror of horrors!
I recall C/D re-ran a Cherokee test circa ’77-78 too, and opined at the time that this would make an ideal replacement for the classic American station wagon. And one of the (modern) commenters, noting that their wish had in fact become true, noted that now that SUVs and crossovers have replaced all those station wagons, all the motoring press does is pine for the days of brown manual-transmission rear-drive wagons before SUVS and CUVs took over.
That was certainly the sentiment of the crew that departed Car and Driver to form Automobile Magazine. Daved E. Davis was an SUV proponent from the jump, and station wagons really were/are far less fun and useful than they are in people born since 1975’s imaginations.
I also remember just how glowing a review the crew that replaced David E. Davis’ at Car and Driver gave to the first Toyota RAV4. Time has proven them to be useful high quality cars that changed the game, but Car and Driver went beyond all that and said that they offered a driving experience far closer to that of a WRC-winning Celica GT-Four than that of a Camry. Obviously, Toyota was brilliant to create the RAV4 when they did, but it’s success in no way related to it being a bargain Group R homologation special.
WRT the RAV4: Maybe they needed to get the check that month?
Having driven various Celicas back in my saleswart days, that must have been some RAV4…
“Car and Driver went beyond all that and said that they offered a driving experience far closer to that of a WRC-winning Celica GT-Four than that of a Camry”
I remember this test as well, and the wording was to the effect it felt like a rally car compared to a typical body-on-frame SUV, not in general.
That’s how I read it too.
The reality was that the SJ Wagoneer was antiquated by 1980 or so. It was surprisingly cramped inside, heavy, thirsty, and its leaf spring suspension had very real limitations. And this applied to the other SUVs at the time (Bronco, Scout, Blazer).
The Rav4 was in an utterly different league from them.
I think the comment you’re referring to was in a comparison test, one where they hurt the RAV4 off-roading against an XJ, a Suzuki Vitarra/Geo Tracker and maybe a Kia Sportage. The one I recall was part of an editor’s column about its eminent launch. There was a specific reference to a Celica with a turbo and AWD, not just a literary tool for separating it from its competitors.
Not the test I was referring to, but I also remember it. The RAV trounced the competition overall, won the comparison, and was deemed surprisingly close to the Wrangler (not the XJ, this was a 2 door test) in off-road ability unless you literally was trying to off-road in the most hardcore of senses. Just lookup the departure angles on the first RAV 2-door.
I don’t think that’s the same article. Pretty sure the one I’m thinking of had a fairly basic XJ that they criticized for its inefficiency and age.
Fair enough. That one doesn’t jog this admittedly imperfect memory 🙂
Huh, I never would have guessed how close these are to the dimensions of my RAV4. 2″ longer, 2″ wider, same height,…and they’re about 1100 lbs. heavier.
I’ve always had a soft spot for these and think they make the most amazing retromods with modern engines.
As late as the mid 2000’s the GW was still widely represented as the go-to weekend getaway hauler for old money families in the Northeast. There were as many of these still making Summer jaunts from tony Manhattan parking garages to Long Island and Jersey Shore locales as there were heading out of Boston to Vermont and New Hampshire ski houses in the Winter. Many of them led fairly pampered lives it seems, as their purpose was to haul people and toys for fun, rather than to serve as daily family transport.
Of course they’re still coveted and in high demand, with several restorers selling refurbished ones for crazy-ass money.
At the other end of the snob scale, here’s one that has a more dubious provenance:
https://www.fayettevilleflyer.com/2013/11/20/skyler-whites-vehicle-from-breaking-bad-spotted-in-fayetteville/
Well said. I collect and restore GW’s and I picked up two 91s from Nantucket Island this year. Plenty of $$ floating around this vacation island.
My dad bought a one new in 1977. It was our only car for 6 years and was passed down to me for a year. I really regretted selling it, as its replacement, a 1984 XJ was inferior in many ways.
The fuel economy was poor but it was immensely capable in every other way.
The Wagoneer’s longevity is also a testament to its designer, Brooks Stevens (hence the resemblance, especially in the greenhouse, to the Studebaker Wagonaire).
As noted by others here, the Grand Wagoneer had quite a following among the highly affluent in the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, the end-of-the-run models were hardly trouble-free and in fact, sometimes very unreliable. When asked about his pristine and owned-since-new 1991 GW, my daughter’s lacrosse coach gave me a baleful look and told me he much preferred driving his first-generation Tahoe and a subsequent series of Suburbans, which were far more comfortable, much more fuel-efficient and had much greater load capacity, not to mention reliable. His wife, however, preferred to keep the GW for “special occasions”, such as an annual trip to a tony golf resort, which often involved a call to AAA when the GW broke down on the way home.
Doesn’t surprise me. They were Chrysler Corp products for their last few years. And before that? AMC wasn’t too much better. A friend owned a ‘79 CJ7 from new for over 15 years. His opinion: “A. M. C. K. E. Y. – M. O. U. S. E.”; I’ve never heard how Jeep was regarded when it still belonged to Willys.
There is a dealership and restorer of them in Texas called Wagonmasters. They sell rebuilt “better than new” ones also. Prices range for rebuilt ones for $60,00o to $90,000 dollars. They have been restoring them for 25 years. The Grand Wagoneer are great vehicles with a lot of character.
https://wagonmaster.com/
I can recall these in their original iteration, as utility-typed vehicles for pulling boats and such. I had trouble with the transition to crazy-expensive luxury versions. But evidently those with lots of loose change did not.
The one thing they never licked was the way the things rusted.
Wagonmasters has a 1991 “Final Ediation’ with its window sticker. $30,246 with destination wasn’t that crazy for the day. A similar amount would have gotten you a final model year E30 325i with leather. According to the Consumer Price Index, that’s $56,936.43 in today’s quantitatively-eased fiat currency. You can’t buy the vehicle with the wealthiest owner demographics in the US today for $57K, but that was the title that the Suburban and Grand Wagoneer fought over thirty years ago, showing stealth wealth was doing better than Cadillac or German overt wealth.
Today the vehicle that holds the crown is the Toyota Land Cruiser, which costs about $90K and is as nice and as anachronistic now as the Wagoneer was back then.
I loved these as a kid, and still do. One man’s “gross” is another man’s “awesome”! If fake woodgrain was an option on my 2019 Suburban I would have it. There, I said it.
Strange they would see the need for a frivolous detail like carpeting on the rear of the bucket seats, but no head rests, for a family-oriented vehicle. Even in 1978, people appreciated the extra safety from rear collisions, even if they were using a truck classification to skirt the need for them.
It was a DEEPLY ingrained axiom among auto industry execs well into the ’90s that “safety doesn’t sell”. If the Feds didn’t require something, you didn’t get it and it was that simple.
I don’t think these were as popular on the West Coast as in the Northeast. Not rare, but not the same cachet. I remember being surprised when I started seeing movies or TV shows set in tony suburbs of New York featuring wealthy characters driving Grand Wagoneers. Of course this may have been different at western ski resorts, but in the Bay Area it was all Mercedes or BMW by then. I think the Ford Explorer was the first domestic SUV to break the class barrier, and then the Range Rover and later, the Land Cruiser 80 Series really took off in the early ‘90’s.
I too ‘pine’ for the days of station-wagons, though not necessarily just for station-wagons. I just wish today, we had a choice.
My favorite ‘big’ Wagoneer is the early, Plain-Jane version with the upright grille. preferably with the rare and unique ‘Tornado’ SOHC hemi six. Though I’d probably want at least power-steering, and an upgrade to front discs.
Happy Motoring, Mark
I recall that Bill Harrah had a Ferrari V12 installed in one of these back in the day.Called it a Jerrari or some such nonsense.
I remember that – I think Road & Track did a feature, maybe even a full road test.
Bill Harrah had two Jerraris constructed. The first one even had the nose of the 365 GT that was the engine and 5-speed transmission donor grafted onto it with complementing rear end treatment. The second one appeared to be a stock 1977 Wagoneer, possibly with the drivetrain out of the first. They both still exist, but last time I saw the 1969 Ferrari-faced one, it was being sold with Chevy SBC power, IIRC.
I have had a number of 4x4s, modern and vintage, and a ’78 Wagoneer was one of the most impressive. I remember being able to tow a trailer with a ton or so of firewood up a very steep, wet, grassy slope without any slipping. It was, of course, excellent in the snow as well.
I’ve been driving my ‘78 Wagoneer since 1982 and it’s been a fantastic, albeit thirsty, vehicle that’s a kick to drive. It’s 401 is plenty strong for anything one needs to do.
Should’ve never stopped making them. This should have been Jeep’s G-wagon!
hehehehehehehehehehehehe
I believe that it died because they would have had to completely reengineer it to fit an airbag for 1992. I don’t know if its EPA numbers of 11 city and 13 highway played a role too. The funny thing about SJs is just how tiny they are inside. The XJ’s interior was benchmarked by the SJ’s, and the XJ actually had better seats front and rear. Throw in 50% better gas mileage and infinitely better performance with the 4.0 liter by 1990, and it was pretty hard to justify modernizing the SJ as a vanity project. The first Grand Cherokee was actually a very nice driving SUV that did everything objectively better than the 30 year old SJ, let down only by poor quality that the SJ shared.
Yes but the same criticisms can be leveled at the G-wagon for the most part, it had that same upper crust demographic that doesn’t care about efficiency or packaging locked in. No doubt the Grand Cherokees to follow were objectively better suited for mainstream buyers but it’s never been a status vehicle, it’s just a grander Cherokee.
The Wagoneer was an amazing product of 1963. The G-Wagon was state of the art in 1979. That makes a difference. The Wagoneer had peaked by the time the G-Wagon was conceived by Steyr-Puch. The W463 version of the G-wagon that made it to the US wasn’t introduced until 1990. It was replaced after 28 years, much like the SJ.
I lived in Fairfield County, CT from 1988 through 1990, and you couldn’t swing a stick without hitting one of these. Often driven, not well, on the Merritt Parkway by drivers terrified of the trucks on the Connecticut Turnpike. I was terrified of them and preferred the truckers and the Turnpike.
They did have a semi-predecessor in the ’66-’69 Super Wagoneer, which was fully equipped but not as luxurious.
I’m curious if anybody remembers these in any significant quantities in the upper Midwest back in the Day when they were in showrooms; I thought they were pretty rare, honestly, here in the Twin Cities then, but SUV’s were not my interest then or now. Our extended family were SUV buyers in those days pre-Explorer popularity explosion and nobody even humored the idea of a Jeep until the XJ hit. That said, my then yuppie father went for a new Isuzu Trooper II in 1986 (over a BMW 3 series!). Jeep for him was never considered.
We had a 1975 Wagoneer that split the difference between the later, luxury Wagoneers and the earlier, more rustic ones. It was red with a houndstooth pattern interior with a front bench and I believe a 360, although I was only 6 at the time. I guess we were a bit early for the trend as we lived in Greenwich CT and regularly tailgated at Yale football games, as my dad was class of 1962. My parents loved the high tailgate for Yale games, and here’s an actual photo of my parents one of the games!
Let’s try this again!
Third time’s the charm?
A neighbor had several during the 70s and early 80s to pull their horse trailer. I recall my dad wondering why on earth you’d want to drive a truck like that, rough ride and all, when an Olds 98 would pull the trailer just as well and give a luxurious ride when you weren’t towing something. The neighbor’s husband drove big Pontiacs then moved up to Cadillacs when his business really prospered.