Jeep Cherokees missing in action as thousands stack up at factory

The 2014 Jeep Cherokee rolled into the spotlight to much debate in February, with its angular looks boldly moving away from the slab-cut Cherokees of yore. First assembly began in July, and reviewers drove the cars in August and September. Yet today, weeks after it was expected to hit the market, there's not a single Cherokee up for sale in any Jeep dealership in America — despite at least 19,000 having been built.

A search of Chrysler's nationwide dealer inventory system shows nine Cherokees listed as "in transit" to dealers, a small break in a giant logjam; Chrysler's own data showed it had built 18,849 Cherokees at the plant in Toledo as of September 30, and production has continued since then. Chrysler has offered few specifics about the delay, saying it involved "powertrain calibration" issues and vowing that it would not let buyers have a half-baked SUV: