Wagoneer With Wacky Badge Allegedly Delivered To Dealer

Image featuring a new Jeep Wagoneer with a wildly crooked badge on the back is taking Twitter by storm. Did it really get delivered this way? 

The return of the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer namesake to the Jeep lineup has been hotly in demand by Jeep enthusiasts for decades. The second-generation Wagoneer that ran from 1983 to 1990 is the center of affection for many folks. However, many Jeep enthusiasts have missed the traditional body on frame Wagoneer for decades. So, with the announcement of the newest rendition of the iconic name came many a smiling face. Dealers are already taking delivery of these massive beasts. That is where today’s story comes from.

A Twitter user by the name of Boring.Cars posted this image with the caption, “Is quality control a Jeep thing I don’t understand?” While it’s easy to poke fun at this apparent accidental oversight, we decided to delve deeper into the mystery and see what exactly is going on here. After all, we’d like to believe this is a misstep that Jeep quality control employees would easily catch before the car leaves the factory.

The Varying Stories Explaining This Crooked Corruption Leave the Truth Hard to Track Down. 

Jason Torchinsky of Jalopnik recently wrote an article about this very incident. In his post, he states that he first found it on a private Facebook group. According to Torchinsky, he was told that this picture was taken at a Stellantis assembly plant. Thus, the explanation he received is that this was taken during quality control and was to be corrected before shipping.

In that case, everything sounds fine and dandy. However, there is another alleged story behind this image that throws a bit of a wrench in that theory.

The Truth Remains A Mystery

See, there was a bit of an issue with that explanation. When Twitter user Dave Marsh called the legitimacy of the image into question and suggested it may be photoshopped Boring.Cars returned with a reply. According to the reply, the original poster of this image works at a Jeep dealership. Allegedly, this Wagoneer came off the truck like this, and this picture was taken during its standard pre-delivery inspection.

Apparently, this isn’t exactly uncommon. According to another user in the comment thread who goes by the name Star Hoard, vehicles get sent to dealers like this quite frequently. According to the reply, this is because it’s cheaper for dealerships and body shops to fix minor issues than to burn more time at the plant. Apparently, details like this, mismatched mirrors, and interior problems are not uncommon on new cars.

We may never know the real story. For all we know, a Jeep employee could have intentionally set up this badge like this to take a goofy photo. We can’t say we wouldn’t do it for a laugh if we had the chance! Try as we might, we could not find the original poster of this image. So, it remains a mystery which one of these stories is the real deal for now. Which one makes the most sense to you?

Photos: Twitter/Stellantis Media