UPDATE: Latest intel suggests that this is a diesel-powered Jeep destined for possible military use overseas. A shame if true, we say.

Special 70th anniversary editions also coming to Geneva

Jeep has announced plans to offer a new 3.0-liter V6 turbodiesel engine for European Grand Cherokees.

The Jeep Wrangler and its four-door sibling, the Wrangler Unlimited, are Jeep’s best-selling models despite remaining practically unchanged for years. The Wrangler’s pure, unfiltered charm and off-road prowess are the reasons it sells so well. For 2011, Jeep has addressed one of the SUV’s biggest letdowns by revamping the interior. The new trappings look much sharper and take cues from the new Grand Cherokee.

If a Jeep fails in the city, does anyone care?

The long-term test of the 2007 Jeep Compass Limited has come to an end at Edmunds Inside Line. Even after a 16-month stay with us — four months longer than our customary long-term test — the junior Jeep barely cracked 13,000 miles.

It's 4 o'clock in the morning, we're still 100 miles from home and we've been driving the 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited in one form or another for nearly 24 hours. Our trip from the top of California to the bottom was supposed to include a stop at a resort town along the way, but our photographer/tour guide didn't anticipate people on vacation in August so it's one "No Vacancy" after another.

Jeep purists hate the 2007 Jeep Compass. Well, not all of them. Some loathe it, many despise it and quite a few have settled on simple unadulterated detest.

Hard to believe, but it isn't even the styling of Jeep's first car-based crossover that has the brand's loyalists retching all over the Rubicon. Instead, it's the fact that the Compass is Jeep's first car-based crossover, the first Jeep with absolutely no real off-road ability.

It seems like there used to be only one Jeep. Now there are dozens. What's a brand to do?

With the introduction of the 2007 Jeep Compass, Jeep will accomplish one of two things. The legendary American brand will either build a true entry-level (cheap to buy) Jeep, or make us all sad by hawking the company's heritage to gain quick sales.

As we wondered about the need for such a lovably absurd vehicle as the 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, we could almost hear the gruff voice of Patches O'Houlihan of Dodgeball fame. "Necessary?" he'd exclaim with one eyebrow raised. "Is it necessary to have 420 horsepower in a Grand Cherokee? Probably not. But it looks and sounds mean and I like the performance." And after a week in this road-bound hyper-Hemi SUV, we'd have to agree with the crusty son of a gun.

It's been a fast-food kind of week. We've hit the drive-thrus of a Del Taco, a McDonald's, a Wendy's and a KFC all in the last seven days. Yes, we're disgusting. Please don't tell our cardiologist or that jerk from the movie Supersize Me.

It's impossible to criticize the business plan for the 2006 Jeep Commander: Take the Grand Cherokee and give it an extra row of seats. Jeep dealers have long been tired of losing customers who need to haul more than five people to other manufacturers, so it's overdue.