The Fact:The Grand Cherokee represented more than $1 billion in plant and product investment.
ZJ, WJ, and WK
It's the vehicle that launched "the second 50 years" of Jeep. The Grand Cherokee was an all-new Jeep born out of Chrysler's paint-still-drying Jefferson North Assembly Plant, located in Detroit. But blah, blah, blah. What people really cared about was that 1993 marked the debut of the Grand Cherokee, a cush and capable 4x4 (did we mention cush and capable?) that had a non-argumentative fan base for its entire life-or at least until it went independent "soccer mom" suspension in 2005.
The History
Engineers at American Motors were hard at development on the ZJ as early as 1985, but the company had a tough decision come 1987: build a minivan or an SUV? Even those of you with subpar to zero math skills can figure out which design won. On the bright side, an extra 18 months went into creating the ZJ, which Jeep says became its flagship (we all pretty much know is usually defined as being "priciest" or "leatheriest").
The Concept I was the first introduction to the future ZJ.
The Model/The Body
One of the few vehicles ever in the history of mankind to actually resemble its concept predecessor, the five-seater ZJ came out in the spring of 1992 as a '93 model and had unibody construction like the baby Cherokee, but was about 10 inches longer and 4 inches wider than the XJ. It was a hit-and all because of having a driver-side airbag and four-wheel ABS! It was also the first Jeep to stuff in a split-bench rear seat.
The ZJ arrived in three levels: base (later called SE), Laredo, and Limited. In 1993 the short-timer Grand Wagoneer got wood, which was top of the line and standard with a V-8. The outdoorsy Orvis came in 1995 (and went in 1998), and as gross as the name sounds, so was its two-tone interior. In 1998 a sportier TSi model was added.
A massive redesign happened for the '99 model year (all but 127 ZJ parts remained), which is when the Grand Cherokee got rounder, a little longer (106-plus inches, but the wheelbase was unchanged), and nabbed its second-gen WJ designation. Laredo and Limited were retained, the headliner Overland was added in 2002, and SE and Sport came and went. For 2004, Special, Freedom, Columbia, and Rocky Mountain Editions busied the lineup.
When the '05 remodel of the Grand happened, morphing into the WK, the Laredo, Limited, and Overland yet again made the rounds. Now featuring a 109.5-inch wheelbase and an overall length of 186.6 inches, it was often criticized for looking a tad like a minivan, which was a polite way of calling it ugly. The high-performance Grands over the years were the '98 5.9 Limited and the street-made SRT8, which hit in 2006. To fest itself that same year, Jeep created a 65th Anniversary Edition Grand that used the Laredo E-package as its muse.
The Worthless Fact:
The idea for the rear suspension on the '93 Grand was scribbled on a cafeteria napkin.