I’m coming from a different direction here. I thnk the folks at Jeep know that that brand of awareness of McIntosh among their target customers doesn’t move the needle. Nor does Mark Levinson, Meridan, etc. with other luxury brands. It allows the manufacturer to attach an level of mystic to the product, thus allowing their marketing departments to define "luxury" in their own terms -- with beautiful marketing materials attached. All of the high end audio brands have an impressive "high end/luxury" back story (some even a current story) that car manufacturers are thrilled to attach to their (luxury) brands to elevate the customer’s perception of the brand. There’s no slight of hand here. Just smart, solid marketing from people who have also made other good decisions on what to include/exclude from their vehicles.
The Meridan system in my Rivian R1T gets a "pass". It does appear that the final sound tuning was performed by Meridan engineers, and not the vehicle manufactuer’s marketing team.
I find it interesting how brand attachment is still a "thing" among obsolete brands and folks are "attaching" all kinds of stuff to brands that were never involved in that discipline during their heydays. Dual (broad customer electronics), Jensen (pretty much the same) and, yes, Bell & Howell. I can’t wait for the Bose line of electric riding mowers to appear at Home Depot.
I love my big blue meters at home. Not sure I need them on the road, unless they’re integrated with the NAV system and indictating which direction I should be turning next.
