Market segments and market shares aren’t things most car shoppers think about when visiting their local dealer or scouring online auction sites for a used vehicle. Still, it’s an important factor in how the ecosystem of the used market manages the ebb and flow of available vehicles. If you’re a budget-minded driver who is navigating the often overwhelming used market, you want to know that the model you’re investing in is known for its reliability in both the new and used market. For those on the hunt for a pre-owned SUV that will add value to their daily drive, the Jeep brand is a manufacturer many turn to when shopping used.
Jeep is one of those rare brands that dominates its segment in the off-road SUV market. If you want something rugged and durable, you opt for a Jeep. But how does that translate to the used SUV market? Is a used Jeep dealership at the top of your list to find the perfect pre-owned SUV? Do other car shoppers opt to include used Jeep models in their shopping list as often as Ford, Toyota, or Chevy SUV models? Well, that’s what we’re here to find out, and you just might learn a thing or two about Jeep’s presence in the used marketplace within the last couple of years along the way.
Best-Selling Used Jeep Vehicles
When it comes to the top-selling used vehicles in the industry, the list is dominated by many of the brand names you would expect to be on a top-selling list for used vehicles. You have the likely names like Chevy and Ford on the list, with Toyota, Nissan, and Honda as well. However, when it comes to top-selling used vehicles, the Jeep brand also makes the list with the Jeep Grand Cherokee.
The Grand Cherokee maintains 1.5% of the overall used car market, matching the Ford Escape, which also maintains a 1.5% market share. For reference, the top-selling used vehicle in America, the F-150, occupies 3.3% of the market share, so there’s almost only a 2% difference between the best-selling used vehicle on the list and the Grand Cherokee.
But across every category, the Grand Cherokee manages to maintain a strong hold on the consumer market. In fact, the Grand Cherokee was the tenth best-selling vehicle overall for 2022, according to ISeeCars.com, even competing against other vehicles across other segments. This is a consistent pattern for the Jeep brand and one that will be repeated throughout this article.
Jeep’s Best-Selling Used SUV in 2023
When it comes to best-selling used vehicles for 2023, the Jeep brand still manages to find its way onto the top lists. On average, one of the most popular used vehicles happens to be the Jeep Grand Cherokee, once again topping out the used SUV list for CarMax. They conducted a study over a six-month period throughout 2023 to find out what users were buying the most, and the Grand Cherokee managed to grab a spot on the list.
The Grand Cherokee took the third spot, consistently showing strong interest from car shoppers looking for both new and used vehicles. This gives Jeep a rather significant position in the market, as people consider them worthwhile vehicles to own when shopping for a new vehicle and when looking for something convenient and dependable as a used daily driver or family vehicle.
Jeep Wrangler Topped Used Vehicle Searches in 2022
Despite the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited being a slow-moving vehicle on used car lots half a decade ago, the figures have seen a significant movement for many of Jeep’s popular models. For instance, from 2021 through 2022, more than 282,100 queries were logged for a used Jeep Grand Cherokee, according to Compare the Market, giving it the ninth spot on the list, while the Jeep Wrangler occupied the top spot with 760,940 searches, taking the number one spot for most searched for used vehicle ahead of the Toyota Tacoma and Tesla Model 3, both of which occupied the second and third spots respectively.
While we can speculate as to why the Wrangler was moving slowly off of used Jeep dealership lots half a decade ago, what we do know for a fact is that the Wrangler is a very popular lease vehicle today. This may tie into previous data for slow-moving used Wrangler sales – it can be a pricey SUV, and it was noted that the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, in particular, which is the four-door version – was the slower-moving of the available models. The Wrangler Unlimited is also more expensive than the two-door version, so that could also help explain the context of why the Unlimited wasn’t moving as quickly when looking at pre-pandemic studies.
The Lease vs. Used Conundrum of the Jeep Brand
The top-used charts may not show the Wrangler in the top spots like the Jeep Grand Cherokee, but they do show that the Wrangler dominates another area of the market that the Grand Cherokee does not, especially regarding leases. In fact, one of the top leased vehicles of 2022 was actually the Jeep Wrangler, which occupied 1.61% of the market share of leased vehicles during the first quarter of 2022 alone, according to Experian.
So why is the Wrangler so much more popular as a lease vehicle than a used vehicle? And why are more people searching for used Wranglers and leasing them rather than buying them? Well, Experian points out that some lease deals for certain vehicles can offer lower monthly payments than getting a car loan for that used vehicle. In turn, shoppers lease instead of buy when it comes to popular models they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford, even used.
Used Jeep Models Retaining Their Value
For the people who do choose to buy, a lot of them stick with their Jeeps. The high searches for used Wranglers and the big sales of the Grand Cherokee all tie into a lot of brand loyalty and high-brand worth for Jeep as an automaker. Many people love to keep their Jeeps, which is reflected in the market value of popular Jeep nameplates like the Wrangler and Cherokee for resale vehicles in 2023.
When it comes to the Wrangler, it has a 66.3% resale value after five years, according to a report on MotorTrend. The unique styling, performance, and off-road capabilities of the rugged 4×4 have set it apart in the market segment unlike any other vehicle. Only recently have we seen Ford attempt to go head-to-head with an equivalent model in the same segment with the Bronco and Bronco Raptor. The retention of the resale value for the Wrangler, however, also ties into its popularity as a used vehicle. Many people want one; not everyone can afford one, but the ones who do get their hands on one like to keep them.
The same also applies to the Jeep Cherokee, which still manages to maintain strong appeal in the used car market despite being slowly phased out of Jeep’s line-up. The standard Cherokee also retains high resale value at just over half its MSRP, resting at the 53.6% mark. That is very impressive for the compact SUV, even while it may be overshadowed in interest and sales by the Jeep Grand Cherokee and, obviously, the Jeep Wrangler.
Pre-Owned Jeep Models Like the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee Are a Great Investment
Even though Jeep takes a small slice of the used market share pie, the vehicle models offered by the brand still stand out in the highly competitive compact, midsize, and crossover SUV segments. Their vehicles also manage to edge onto the best-sellers list in one way or another. And they still occupy two slots in the top 25 best-selling overall vehicles of 2022, according to Car and Driver, with the Jeep Wrangler occupying the 17th spot and the newer fifth-generation Grand Cherokee occupying the 10th spot on the list.
In short, there’s still a lot of high interest in the Jeep brand, whether new or used models. People love to lease Jeep Wranglers, and they love to buy used Cherokee and Grand Cherokee SUVs. In the coming years, it will also be interesting to see where the Gladiator sits in the competitive used midsize pickup segment due to its quickly rising popularity. If the current trends of the brand’s performance in the used SUV segment are anything to go by, Jeep should perform well in the used midsize pickup segment, too.
