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
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Looks more like me trying to sketch a Jeep Renegade from memory, but to each’s own.
Also, it kinda looks good? The weird, not quite blocky aesthetic really calls to me.
Too bad they didn’t square up the back to make it look more Cherokee-like. It’s just a goofy front-end treatment, no thanks.
What I don’t understand is why we don’t combine the nostalgia of rectangular halogens with the modern trend of mounting the real headlights in the bumper. Halogens as DRLs, LED headlights instead of fog lights.
You know what’s missing from this article? A photo of a WR-V before uglification.
Buying a used 2017-2020 Honda WR-V in India | Autocar India
It was actually a pretty attractive vehicle a generation ago. I don’t like the grill on the newer ones.
This reminds me of the AMC Eagle for some reason
the amc eagle would unironically be the perfect car for america right now. something like a “batle car” version of the Dodge Charger.
I mean, if I ever moved to Japan I’d think about it, haha!
I never even heard of Honda’s WR-V before, nor DAMD either (excepting any articles about their body kits I’ve seen here). It’d be so nice if Honda sold (at a sustainable profit) something cheaper than the HR-V in America, since the base model now starts at over $26K, which is up about $5K from the car’s intro not all that many years ago… similar to how much the base Ford Maverick has risen in price over the past 4-5 years. 🙁
I’m not really a Jeep Guy (though I like boxy XJs a lot) but I dig the WR-V with DAMD’s body kit on it (and $2K doesn’t seem like too much to pay to make the WR-V much more funky to look at). Though it’s not 100% cohesive, the result is kind of ‘adorkable’ especially with the plain black steelies. 😉
I’d also probably feel better about Honda’s 1.5 liter engine without the turbo on it. In some markets, the 1.5 Honda puts in the WR-V is a diesel!
Could you imagine if Honda did bring the WR-V to the states, and mananged to price the base model at a hair under $20K? And provided that base model with a manual? Jeez… something like that would get me into a dealership at least for a test drive to be sure. But if wishes were fishes…
…I’d have a lot of fish.
Erm, why?
It looks like someone slapped a knockoff XJ grille on a modern crossover. “Jarring” is an understatement.
It looks like they took the hornet and made it jeep to try to sell it.
I can’t quiet put my finger on why, but it looked more like a amc hornet than anything else.
It’s a Fiat Panda Jeep Renegade, but without the Fiat bits.
Those kits are adorable, I’m glad they exist.
So, this is the Honda equivalent of the Angry Jeep grill for the Wrangler?
This is nice. Very on-par with RAV4-based Mitsuoka Buddy.
Still, it doesn’t come close to DAMD Heart Beat (look it up, you won’t regret it).
It’s ugly but if you’re going to have a cheap econobox dressed up as a Jeep you’re much better off starting with a cheap Japanese econobox than an Italian one so in at least one way it’s better than an actual new Cherokee.
I would rather they just make the Jimny street legal in the US. if they need to go to a Toyota or Honda Motor to make people less scared of them so I can get one, then…..ok
Agreed
This sent me down a rabbit hole looking at other DAMD offerings. I came across the past Jimny article making it look like a G-Wagen but hadn’t seen the Lancia Delta kit, or the Renault 5. If they get their hands on a Slate…
I grew up in Virginia Beach so yeah, I’ve heard of WRV.
More Lada Niva than XJ
I can’t say I prefer the fake wood trim to, say, an accent stripe or something cleaner. The fake sealed beam lights are cool. The grille also needs some rally lights, that would look Hella good.
Some people may balk at the styling. But you can’t please everyone.
DAMD if you do, damned if you don’t.
I love it, I want it.
Uncanney Valley of the DAMD
Hi Thomas, I really enjoy your articles. Could you (and the cohort) try to include in these before/after articles a picture of the before?
I know I can google a picture of the Honda WR-V as it comes from the factory, but it just seems so much simpler to have it in the original piece.
The latest WR-V has a face like the latest Explorer, oddly enough. Probably a bit less ugly in person, making a design smaller has that effect. Older WR-Vs look exactly like the raised and cladded gen 3 Fit they are.
DAMD does good work I love their Kei and Jimny line of vehicles. It’s just a fun bit of kit to dress up your car like something that you want the styling but not the price or gas cost.