Our first day at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) began at 6:30am. An insanely early start for those of us from the West Coast, however Jeep was first up with the announcements for their new vehicles at 8am. If we wanted good seats, we needed to be there early and it definitely paid off! We were front and centre. As an owner of a Jeep Wrangler, I was looking forward to seeing what was in store for 2014.

Mike Manley, President and CEO of the Jeep brand, did the honour of unveiling the new models. The first vehicle Jeep revealed was the 2014 Compass.

I’m shamelessly taking this from their promotional materials:

• 2014 Jeep® Compass debuts new six-speed PowerTech automatic transmission
• 2014 Jeep Compass features an updated design – both inside and out
• Fuel economy ratings of up to 30 miles per gallon (mpg) highway
• Unsurpassed Jeep capability offering Trail Rated 4×4 capability with Freedom
Drive II Off-road Package and exceptional ride and handling performance in all
weather conditions
• New standard front-seat-mounted side air bags and available ParkView rear
backup camera giving the Jeep Compass more than 30 safety and security
features
• 2014 Jeep Compass delivers value for consumers: legendary Jeep capability
and design, fuel economy of up to 30 mpg and loads of standard features

Built in America at the Belvidere Assembly Plant in Belvidere, Ill., the 2014 Jeep Compass models will
begin arriving in dealer showrooms in the second quarter of 2013.

Next up was a classic, the Jeep Grand Cherokee:

• New eight-speed automatic transmission boosts fuel efficiency across all powertrains while
improving Grand Cherokee’s legendary 4×4 performance with a lower crawl ratio
• More luxurious than ever: world-class craftsmanship includes a new Grand Cherokee Summit
model
• More than 60 advanced safety and security features; most in class
• Legendary Jeep® capability courtesy of three 4×4 systems, class-exclusive Quadra-Lift air
suspension and class-leading Jeep Selec-Terrain traction management system with new Selec-
Speed Control
• Array of advanced user-friendly technology features including new 8.4-inch touchscreen display,
7-inch customer configurable multiview cluster display, Uconnect Access and cloud-based voice
texting

Manufacturing: Built in Detroit
The new 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee is built at the 3-million-square-foot Jefferson North Assembly
Plant (JNAP) in Detroit, which has been the site of Grand Cherokee production since its introduction in
1992. To meet consumer demand, a third crew of 1,100 workers was added at JNAP in the fourth
quarter of 2012.

The final vehicle to take the stage was the 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT. After it drove on stage, Ralph Gilles, Vice President Product Design Chrysler LLC, CEO SRT & SRT Motorsport, climbed out of the passenger seat and took the stage.

This model had the same updates as the Grand Cherokee, however there was something special about this one. Unbeknownst to all of us in the audience, the Grand Cherokee SRT had been running the whole time Ralph Gilles was speaking. However, that wasn’t the only surprise he had for the audience. Not only was the Grand Cherokee SRT still running, it was a diesel! By far the quietest diesel I have ever heard…

• For 2014, Jeep Grand Cherokee delivers a best-in-class 30 miles per gallon (mpg) highway courtesy of a new 3.0-liter EcoDiesel V-6 engine for North America and a new eight-speed transmission. The new 3.0-liter EcoDiesel V-6 boasts an unmatched driving range of more than 730 miles.

• A new eight-speed transmission drives the new EcoDiesel, as well as Grand Cherokee’s 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 engine – now achieving up to 25 mpg highway and more than 600-miles driving range – and its 5.7-liter V-8, now achieving up to 21 mpg highway.

Afterwards all three of the Jeep models were driven back on stage where they remained for the rest of the day for everyone to get a closer look.

I was lucky enough to get a media kit from Jeep with the promotional materials for their new 2014 models. This is by far the coolest media kit I’ve ever seen!

It’s hard to tell in the photo, but the actual media kit itself is a metal first aid kit. Judging by the number of photos I saw of it on Instagram throughout the day, I wasn’t the only one who admired it…