Jeep Hemi

For those of us of a certain vintage, the word “hemi” has meaning. Specifically, it means you had one bad-ass, tire-smoking, Chevy-killing unit. I never owned one myself. A buddy had a ’66 hemi Charger, one of only eight sold in Canada. Another friend had a ’70 hemi Challenger that could run 13 second quarters off the lot. That was stupid quick back in the day, although I did see that car lose to both a ’69 GTO Judge and a 302 inch Z-28 Camaro on the Line 86 dragway in front of my house. Fast forward fifty years, and you can get the modern iteration of the hemi in a Jeep. It’ll run the quarter in 12.9 seconds. That’s quite something for a vehicle with the aerodynamics of a cement block. Problem is, the hemi Jeep starts at $110,000. Throw in a few options and the taxes, and you’re easily over the $140k mark. The one I built on the Jeep website could be mine for two grand a month… every month for eight years. That’s more than I paid for every house I ever lived in except the 100 acres here at Falling Downs. Back in 1970 a hemi Challenger was within reach for every unionized factory worker in town. There’s no factory workers today, anywhere, union or not, signing on the dotted line for a $140,000 Jeep. You’re encroaching on G-Wagen territory here. No matter how you slice and dice it, a Fiat-Chrysler-Stellantis vehicle ain’t never gonna be a Mercedes.