There was a time - roughly two years ago - when many believed that Chrysler's break-up was inevitable due to bankruptcy and their brands, such as Jeep, would be sold off to the highest bidder (probably coming from China). Today, not only has Chrysler repaid their U.S. government loans (with interest) through private financing, their Jeep brand couldn't be doing better. I say this all with some hometown pride as Toledo, Ohio's famous Jeep production facility simply can't build them fast enough.

According to a report from Automotive News, there's been such a high demand lately for Wrangler's and Liberty's that Chrysler is asking Toledo plant employees to volunteer to work the week between Christmas and New Year's. On top of all of this, Wards Auto has also reported that Mopar is having difficulty keeping up with building the extremely popular JK-8 Independence pickup-conversion kit available for the Wrangler Unlimited. All told, Jeep has sold some 111,045 Wranglers through this past November in the U.S. alone and their popularity is increasing fast overseas.