Now we’re getting somewhere… say hello to the Jeep Renegade Hard Steel concept that debuted at the Geneva Motor Show this week.
And yes, we know it’s not a Wrangler, we know it’s based on a Fiat platform, we know it had IFS/IRS we’ve long since gotten over those arguments, accepted reality and moved on to actually looking at the merits of what we’re getting in the Renegade.
To that end, if you missed it, we nominated the Renegade as one of our top 15 Jeeps at SEMA because it impressed us with what it packed into a small and affordable package with true 4WD and interesting power plants. When we saw it, we looked past the graphics, color and small tires and this is almost exactly what we were envisioning. A small lift and bigger, more aggressive tires.
Given that this is a MOPAR project, we have all our fingers and toes crossed to see this lift released as a factory-approved add on because WE WANT THIS FOR A DD. Just enough lift to get a reasonable amount of clearance and tires more suited to the proportions to give that “slightly stuffed” look we love. We’d drive the snot out of this.
The only oddity for us is that this is based on the Trailhawk but somehow lost the tow hooks. The red hooks would have looked great jutting out from this custom front bumper/fascia.
We could do without the matching trailer, we tend more toward purpose-built off-road trailers that put utility over looks, but the idea of being able to hook up a suitably small, yet functional trailer to a Renegade built like this and pointing the nose into the woods is exactly the kind of thing that got us excited about the baby Jeep.
Bring. It. On.
(Photos courtesy of FCA/MOPAR)