Jeep has more than a few problems it needs to fix, but chief among them is probably pricing. The brand’s upmarket push with models like the Wagoneer has turned off many would-be buyers because they simply cost too damn much. Jeep may have jumped the gun a bit, and surprisingly one of the brand’s executives admitted as much in a recent interview.
Speaking to Motor1 at the 2025 Detroit Auto Show, head of Jeep North America Bob Broderdorf admitted the brand went a little too far with pricing for the Wagoneer models.
Wagoneer, it’s too far. There’s such a fine line on where to go. Creating demand in the market, you want one less car than the market wants. Not 1,000 less, or 1,000 more, so there’s subtlety there. And some of the strategies just went too far.
Broderdorf also admitted to Motor1 that this kind of pricing and upmarket push hurt the brand’s relationship with consumers and dealers alike. He has a point. Jeep’s upmarket push has been going on for a while now; trims of the WK2 generation of the Grand Cherokee saw Jeep playing in price realms it had never been in before, where fully loaded trims of the Grand Cherokee cost nearly $60,000. Prices went even higher for the 707-horsepower Trackhawk, which started at just over $90,000 and could easily crest six figures with major options.
When the Wagoneer line debuted for 2022, that upmarket push continued. A base Wagoneer started at $68,590, and there was a full $19,000 difference between the base prices of the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, which could get well into six figures fully loaded. That upmarket push will be reversed, it seems. Broderdorf wants to win customers back by lowering prices, something that’s already been done on models like the Grand Cherokee and Wagoneer. Depending on the trim, Wagoneer prices have been cut by $3,000 to $6,000 for 2025. Broderdorf also wants to put options people really want into option packages, rather than make them pay to get things they don’t want just so they can get the items they do want.
Some of the moves that we’ve done, I even call it ‘taking content hostage.’ There are some things they locked away in previous strategies that made the really cool stuff you’re looking for too hard to get. That needs to be unlocked. You will see us, very shortly, unlock more of that from a product standpoint. That’s what you want? It’s there. We’re not making you get something you don’t want just to get the price higher.
I’m looking to competitively position our cars and pick a fight. Jeep is iconic for a reason. The love is there, it just needs to make sense to people.
While it’s great to see an executive acknowledge and do something about one of the brand’s major shortcomings, it sucks that none of this came along sooner. Something needs to change in the brand’s favor, and it needs to change fast. Jeep’s sales were down nine percent in 2024, with every model in the lineup seeing double-digit sales declines.