HB Ride Spotting: Jeep Wrangler CRD 4-Door, Possibly

I think that sometimes Chrysler puts these CRD (common-rail diesel) badges on the test cars just to throw off people taking pictures, so this might or might not be a Jeep Wrangler CRD mule driving up Woodward this morning. I have seen them before, and there are old pictures on the web of Wrangler CRDs, but it is commonly assumed that eventually Jeep will announce a domestic market diesel Wrangler. There is a cool cobbled together look to this though - the bolted on beam bumper, the black steel wheels, the deep tint - it is actually far cooler looking than a standard Wrangler.



The paint job is equally weird, you can see that this has been bolted together from a couple of different cars, based on the two different shades of red on the doors and tailgate.

New cars looking like new cars is played out - if they do bring this out, keep this look. Make the paint match, but retain the stripped aesthetic. It looks good without the rear-mounted spare (put it on the roof with a couple of gas cans), so leave it off, strip off the tacky plastic fenders, and keep any exterior metal fastened with exposed, unpainted fasteners. Oh, and figure out how to make it 500 pounds lighter, because it is a cumbersome gas pig regardless of fuel source. It is going to take a lot of leftover french-fry grease to run this thing otherwise.