As we learned in our last Wagoneer installment, the SJ weathered the storm of the first (1973) and second (1979) oil shocks. The latter of which forced AMC to reinstall an inline-six and a manual transmission into its luxurious utility wagon barge, to advertise a lower cost of entry and better fuel economy figures. After more than 20 years, AMC was ready to move on from the Wagoneer entirely, and had a plan to do so which it implemented in 1984. Welcome to the new XJ.In a long project that was in the works since the latter portion of the Seventies, XJ was a radical departure for Jeep. The arrival of Renault ownership in 1979 meant the French firm had input on the XJ’s development, and it became the second such product subsequent to the Renault Alliance that launched in 1983. Renault pushed for some not-so-American characteristics during XJ development. They wa …
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Author: Corey Lewis
