I was approached by the good folks at Starr Motors in Suffolk, Virginia about a JK8 they are building, and we discussed the merits of this Mopar Kit that transforms a 4-Door JK Wrangler into a Scrambler-esque pickup truck.
I wonder, would you buy this?
Here is an approximate price breakdown of the new Jeep
2012 Jeep JK with new Pentastar V6 $29,000
JK8 conversion kit $5500
Labor to install kit $3500
tires and wheels and suspension $4500
total to buy a new JK8 $42,500
42K is a lot of money, we're talking fullsize diesel crewcab type money here.
Now you could buy a used 4-door and do the conversion, but I still wonder, is it a good deal? Used JK's haven't exactly gotten cheap. I personally like the idea of the kit, but think it will either take a few years to start selling as JK's get cheaper, or Chrysler will decide to just build a truck and the kit will fade away.
Either way I think the market for taking a 4-door Jeep and cutting the people hauling down to increase the load hauling ability is nil. I mean, why not just buy a truck to start with? The mini truck market is dying, but of course no one offers a solid front axle in that segment.
what do you think?