Looking at the recent posts, there have been a lot of Jeep articles in the group. It’s not that I’m really harping on Jeep, but that’s the way the random order of the articles came together.

For today’s exercise, we’re looking at two site sections of Jeep.com promoting two different models in the Jeep lineup.

First up is this four-page ad for the Jeep Commander from December 2005. For those of you who don’t remember the Commander (and I don’t blame you) it was notable for being the only Jeep at the time to offer three rows of seating.

There’s a lot of text in this spread, but the part we care about is at the bottom of the last page:

I should point out that Jeep no longer makes the Commander. That’s why it was particularly refreshing when Jeep.com/Commander took us here in June 2020 (when I took these site screengrabs):

Now, that is excellent web management! Even though Jeep no longer makes the Commander, they’re using the page to give relevant information about the model.

Did they have to do this? No.

Does the page really translate into sales of new Jeeps? Who knows.

But it’s a very satisfying experience to see this kind of attention to detail.

In case it’s too small to read, the text of the current site says “The powerful Jeep Commander had a great run from 2005-2010 as the only three-row Jeep Brand SUV with seven-passenger seating. Now out of production, its memory lives on.”

And, frankly, this is even more spectacular given the fact that it’s Jeep (and, by extension, Chrysler) who is going to this length! Generally, Chrysler hasn’t had a strong track record of solid web management.

Now, before we heap too much praise on Jeep and Chrysler, I should point out that, back in June 2020 when I took the site screengrab, Jeep.com/Commander actually redirected to Jeep.com/Commander.html, which is we we see the nice page. Today, in early 2021, the redirect seems to have failed or disappeared as simply Jeep.com/Commander now gives us Jeep’s basic Page Not Found page.

After that semi-win, let’s take a look at another Jeep ad. This two-page ad is from July 2013 and touts the craftsmanship that goes into the Grand Cherokee:

Down in the extreme lower right-hand corner of the ad is the URL suggesting we visit Jeep.com/GrandCherokee:

Unlike the Commander from the first example in today’s venture, the Grand Cherokee is still being made, and has been in production for many years now. However, when I visited Jeep.com/GrandCherokee in June of 2020 at the start of publishing these articles, this is what came up:

Huh? Wait, so Jeep has a site dedicated to a discontinued car, but a perfectly relevant site for an existing model gives a Page Not Found error? This kind of inconsistency is why I am so critical of Jeep (and Chrysler).

Now that we’re a few months into 2021, I thought it was worth revisiting Jeep.com/GrandCherokee to see what comes up today:

Okay! Now that’s much better. You’ll notice that it actually redirects to Jeep.com/Grand-Cherokee.html, but that’s okay. In fact, it means that someone went through the effort of redirecting the old site to something relevant and pertinent today.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think that someone at Chrysler is starting to pay attention. And that’s a good thing.