Photo of Bob Lutz (then the Vice-President of Chrysler) with then Detroit mayor Coleman Young driving the very first production ZJ Grand Cherokee straight from the Chrysler Jefferson Avenue Assemply Plant to Cobo Hall, up the stairwell to the front entrance doors to the lobby area at Cobo Hall, crashing through the window to the lobby area; and driving straight through into the l0bby area in front of several members of the press eagerly awaiting to cover the new SUV.

A new SUV that was originally intended to replace the XJ, but Chrysler ultimately decided to keep the XJ in production in the historic Toledo, Ohio plant alongside the TJ Wrangler; while the ZJ would be assigned a newly rebuilt plant on Jefferson Avenue in Detroit. The ZJ, being largely designed by AMC and as aforementioned; the intended replacement for the XJ; became Jeep’s flagship model, and although only slightly bigger than the XJ; was powered by the AMC inline-6 and Chrysler LA 318 V8 engine.

Chrysler probably redesigned the engine bay ZJ to accommodate the V8 engine, whereas AMC probably designed it to only accommodate the AMC 4-cylinder (the inline-6 with 2 cylinders removed to create a 4 cylinder) and the inline-6. Had the ZJ actually replaced the XJ as the sole ‘Cherokee’ in production, this would have very well turned out to be the case and a V8 engine would have probably never been offered.

Also, if the ZJ had actually replaced the XJ; it would have keep Jeep’s historic philosophy of only having 2 models alive much longer-the Wrangler, the traditional, utilitarian Jeep; and at first the XJ and later the ZJ-the station wagon Jeep-a station wagon built only as Jeep could build it. This doesn’t include the MJ Comanche being on the tail end of it’s production lifespan as of this time.