Jeep's Gladiator takes up arms in midsize-pickup battle

Maybe the only thing more surprising than the fact it's been more than a quarter-century since FiatChrysler's Jeep brand sold a pickup truck is that it's taken so long to pull the trigger in a U.S. auto market that's been truck-crazed for the better part of a decade.

Blame Jeep planners. Or more-charitably attribute the glaring tardiness in launching a Jeep pickup to the reality that FiatChrysler had to navigate a recession and a couple of ownership changes before and during the market's transition to pickup mania. But the 2020 Jeep Gladiator is here, unveiled at the 2018 Los Angeles auto show looking like one of the surest things the auto business can conjure.