Sales quiet critics of Jeep Cherokee's looks

Last year Jeep enthusiasts were complaining loudly about the design of the new Jeep Cherokee, which looks vastly different than the boxy Cherokee they remembered from the 1980s and 1990s, and the boxy Liberty that replaced it.

Today, that criticism has almost completely disappeared. Chrysler has sold more than 114,000 through the first eight months of this year and Chrysler's Ralph Gilles is feeling relieved.

"I almost canceled my Twitter account," the Chrysler design chief said today at the 2014 MichAuto conference in Detroit. "It was controversial."

Still, Gilles said Chrysler designed the Cherokee to have global appeal and to appeal to people who are not traditional Jeep customers.

The Cherokee, which replaced the Liberty and took back the old name, has a more aerodynamic look that was designed to appeal to people who buy other crossovers as well as Jeep fans, and it seems to have succeeded on both counts.

"We knew it wasn't a dud," he said. "The incremental buyers, people who own Rav4's and Honda CRV's – they thought it was intriguing. And that interest has translated into actual sales."

Gilles also said the Renegade – an all-new subcompact Jeep due on sale early next year – was designed to appeal to buyers across the globe as well as millennials, or younger buyers.

The Renegade has a grille similar to the iconic grill on the Jeep Wrangler and is a small boxy Jeep that resembles a smaller Wrangler.

"We had to protect what the Jeep was," Gilles said. "It had to be tough, it had to be cool, but at the same time, had to be playful. And at the same time, we had to be true to ourselves."

The Renegade is manufactured in Balocco, Italy, at a Fiat plant. Production began earlier this month.

It is scheduled to go on sale in the U.S. early next year.