Quote Originally Posted by Snarf77 View Post
Yes, I was talking about the original acquisition cost. If I buy a used JK in 20 years, maybe it will be $1750 plus auction fees. Meh.

All my points stand. There is zero market for a portal axle Jeep with any of those features, and there never will be. Would I have one? YUP. Would I pay what it would cost to build one of those? Nope. You probably wouldn't either!

BTW, you can buy a base-model jeep without any of those annoying comforts. I like my USB outlet.


Well the US Armed Forces procured my vehicle in 1970 for the amazingly stupid price of $72,560.00. Which I have to say was about 80% profit for either Kaiser-Jeep or Am General depending on exactly how far long it was in the production process during the big switch over. Either way the US Armed Forces paid top dollar for a truck that designed in 1949 and not sufficiently upgraded between 1956-1993 until the Am General ESP M35A3 program was initiated. And then they really paid out of the nose to make then nearly 50 year old design up to 30 year old standards! So, if were to take a tip from the Pentagon the Jeep JKU would have 30 year old technology and cost three times the price you paid for it.

There is only one reason you don't have portal axles on the Jeep right now-- the cost of retooling the factory at Dana to make the axles is considered to expensive. So you get standard Dana 30 and Dana 44's with modest changes because it is far more cost effective for Dana to make as few alterations to the axle design as possible while getting the best price for them.

And the Base Jeep is sort of a joke. As for the USB Outlet it is really rather needless.