This Japanese Tuning Company Will Help Make A Cheap Honda Look A Bit Like An XJ Jeep Cherokee

When Jeep teased the incoming Cherokee, the internet was divided. Nearly a quarter-century after XJ Cherokee production ended, people still love the things, and it’s the vehicle the nameplate is closest to. While this new model brings back some boxiness, the closest we might get to something new evoking the look of the XJ Cherokee is this body kit. DAMD, the same company that dresses up Suzuki Jimny off-roaders as little G-Classes, Ford Broncos, Land Rover Defenders, and uh, Lancia Delta Integrales, has rolled out a dramatic new kit that grafts a bit of old-school Jeep Cherokee styling onto the Honda WR-V.

Never heard of the Honda WR-V? I don’t blame you. This subcompact crossover aimed at Southeast Asia is an affordable little thing designed to share as many components with the Honda Amaze sedan as possible. Beyond basic platform sharing, the front doors, headlights, hood, and grille are all shared between the Amaze and the WR-V, an unusual move considering sedans and crossovers rarely share major body parts.

Under the hood, you’ll find a 119-horsepower 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine commensurate with the WR-V’s 159-inch-long profile, and although you can’t get this thing with all-wheel-drive, you can get it with a six-speed manual gearbox for row-your-own simplicity and fun. Want more fun? Well, dressing one of these things up like an XJ Cherokee certainly adds whimsy.

Officially called the DAMD Reverb, this kit takes a familiar face and yoinks a slot from the signature grille in order to avoid IP violation, but then it pairs this riff on a signature piece with some delightfully rectangular halogen headlights. Sure, they might not be as good for actually seeing as modern LED units, but there’s something nostalgic about a warm glow.

Since the WR-V is bulbous and the XJ Cherokee is brick-like, this homage-paying grille and headlight combo calls for a new front bumper, an altered hood, and blanking plates for where the factory headlights wrapped around into the front fenders. The new front bumper definitely adds a dose of modern Jeep, with the proud bumperettes offering up shades of Recon. It’s a bold look, but when paired with the right color, vinyls, and wheels, it’s the sort of adorkable strangeness you can almost kind of explain.

Of course, the Honda WR-V isn’t sold in most regions, so knowing DAMD’s kit costs 298,000 yen, or about $2,056 at current conversion rates, is basically useless information for most people. Still, it’s nice to know this weird aftermarket affair exists. It’s sort of like a DIY neo-classic, except evoking the cassette era rather than the chrome era. How intriguingly bizarre.Top graphic image: DAMD

Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.

The post This Japanese Tuning Company Will Help Make A Cheap Honda Look A Bit Like An XJ Jeep Cherokee appeared first on The Autopian.