Hopefully this can be factually answered as opposed to IMO (or WAG) terrority; apparently the first 4-door mass-market (not custom) Jeep Wranglers were introduced in 2007 (mentioned in this wiki entry) - going from ‘anecdata’ (i.e. what I am seeing on the roads nowadays), those 4-doors models are pretty darn popular.
So why weren’t personal 4-door Wrangler models (over the various YJ/TJ/etc versions) offered much earlier, say starting in the mid-1980s (1987 - first YJ) alongside other Jeep models that were actually offered, like the (2 & 4 door) Cherokees?
I’d say because wranglers have never really been marketed as family vehicles before. They have always been light on amenities, plus a short wheelbase was one of their selling points.
Sorta like why high end sports cars like ferraris have never been sold with four doors.
I think the 4-door Wranglers are sort of in the same market niche as the old Cherokees, so it probably wouldn’t have made sense to be selling them simultaneously.
And since they already had 6 models on the market, 2007 seemed like a good time to introduce a 4 door version of the Wrangler. I think their logic was “what if somebody figures out what the difference between the Liberty, Commander, Compass and Patriot is?” and they said “we better make a 4 door Wrangler so they at least won’t know where that fits in!”
Heh, I hope that’s snark. I still think that they could have gone w/ 4 doors in 1997 (10 years before the actual introduction, and near the height of the ‘big’ SUV boom) and made out quite well, without damaging the ‘rep’ of the whole Wrangler…vision? :dubious:
Anyway, I saw 2 4-door Wranglers just on the way to lunch today, and if that’s not confirmation bias (which it probably is - I haven’t seen any actual sales data broken down 2dr vs 4dr), then Jeep may have missed on out on a decade of great sales by waiting till 2007…