Jeep Grand Cherokee Video Reviews

Jeep's been watching the seven-seat SUV market and has decided it wants a piece of the action. Enter the Grand Cherokee L, a 5.2-metre, 2.2-tonne, three-row, 4WD SUV that aiming up at a more premium part of the large SUV market.

Australians love performance vehicles of every shape, size and colour – and the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is pure performance packaged in a particularly peculiar form.

There have never been more SUVs to take your pick from. But while many are excellent, there sure are a lot out there that are a bit... samey. Well, Jeep's Grand Cherokee is a bit different.

A decade ago Jeep owners overlooked their vehicles' lack-lustre quality and dubious roadholding manners. They forgave the faults and appreciated the vehicle's single-minded ability to competently cross the most difficult terrain.Time heals a lot of wounds. The latest Grand Cherokee is imposing and attractively sculpted – and while there have been improvements, most people are willing to overlook any imperfections.Chrysler and Jeep quality is improving. It's now up to average which is still less than ideal. But where the car lets you down is in the superficial stuff - the coachwork, predominantly - while the engineering seems to be increasingly more durable.At $65,000 it's a good price for a very well fitted out 4WD that's actually made to go off the bitumen. It's roomy, tows well, has a heap of safety gear, is relatively economical to run - though has no capped-price service program - and has a style that looks as good on top of a dune as alongside a downtown curb.The Overland is the top-spec model but I think there's better value in a mid-range Limited model with the diesel engine at $60,000. If you stay with petrol, the V6 is $5000 cheaper and better value than the optional V8. Be aware that there's a new model coming with upgrades including a more desirable eight-speed automatic transmission.Lovely to look at with a chunky body sculptured with neat chamfers and big wheels stuck hard up at each corner. The cabin is equally as attractive but falls down on closer inspection with average dash panel fit and large, cheap-looking switchgear. Yes, it's workable and hints at being rugged but could be improved. The foot-operated park brake is a Chrysler stable mate and is hard to work in off-road conditions. Beautiful perforated leather seats are comfortable, have heating for front and back and cooling for the front.Electric adjustment - including the tilt/telescopic steering wheel - makes it easy to find the perfect driving position. The heated steering wheel is cool, er, warming. More electrics for the tail gate - with separate lift-up glass panel, which is handy - and the dual-pane sunroof. The liberal space in the boot and the split-fold rear seats give it typical SUV flexibility. The Overland is the most expensive of the Grand Cherokee line-up and offers as much luxury as a top-spec Chrysler 300 sedan.Jeep finds another use for its 210kW/347Nm 3.6-litre V6 petrol engine and creates a wagon with running costs that won't break the bank. The engine is powerful on paper but the Overland's weight curtails most of the enthusiasm. It's mated to a five-speed auto then through a two-speed transfer case with constant all-wheel drive. It gets the upmarket Quadra-Drive II transfer case with an electronic rear diff and a five-mode Select-Terrain dial-up traction program like Land Rover's TerrainResponse. The suspension is an electronic air system that changes ground clearance from 205mm to a monster 270mm. The Overland also has a stack of safety gear and a voice-activated media centre with a touch screen, sat-nav, 40Gb hard drive and 10 speakers.The Overland has one of the most comprehensive safety-related equipment on the market - certainly within its $65,000 price bracket - but only has a four-star crash test rating. It has eight airbags, electronic stability and traction control, all-wheel drive, a full-size spare, roll mitigation, tyre pressure monitoring, blind-spot assist, active cruise control with forward collision warning, park sensors front and rear, a reverse camera, an accident response system that shuts off the fuel and unlocks the doors, plus rear cross-path detection.Jeeps never feel planted on the road. There's always - and this is successive - a new model that has the wishy-washy steering and front suspension quirks that require the driver to make continuous adjustments to maintain the road line. It's almost like Jeep deliberately in-build this vagueness.The 3.6-litre V6 engine is smooth, potentially sparkling and careful drivers can get reasonable fuel economy. But the V6 is let down by drawing on a five-speed auto with a lazy torque converter. It desperately needs the eight-speed unit - that's due later this year - to close up the gaps in the ratios. To be fair, the engine is dragging around a 2.3-tonne dry-weight wagon.Driven gently, it's a very comfortable wagon and aside from the distracted steering, makes for a spacious long-distance cruiser. Off the road this is a true 4WD. It soaks up hard bumps and rarely bottoms the suspension and has a brilliant constant 4WD system that ensures maximum traction.Dial in the terrain on the dash-mounted switch and engine and transmission response, brake aids and even the ground clearance are perfectly adjusted for the conditions. Pick low-range and it's as close to unstoppable as any 4WD. While traction is excellent and assurance that this wagon will go pretty much anywhere, the ride comfort is compromised. The Jeep isn't alone here as any 4WD with a similar air suspension will also produce a hard low-speed ride.Despite a couple of grumbles, this is very competent and given its on-road comfort, makes for a true dual-purpose family 4WD wagon.

After some effort, The Speaker of the House and I have convinced our near-five-year-old son that there is no such thing as monsters. I am going to have to tell him I was wrong.There are monsters in real life and I'm driving one - the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, the most powerful, technologically-advanced (that wouldn't be hard), high-performance Jeep ever.Snorting, snarling, stupendously quick and somewhat silly, the SRT8 flies in the face of frugal, fiscally responsible and economical motoring. Bring it, baby.If you like the idea of sitting above the traffic and yet still having the ability to bellow belligerently away from the lights at pace, then this is your bus. At a $76,000 starting price (almost $10,000 cheaper than the preceding model), the hottest Grand Cherokee yet is incredible value for money - an SUV with similar abilities and outputs is going to cost at least twice as much.For not much more than a top-spec Pajero or Pathfinder, the SRT8 has Nappa leather and suede sports seats (heated and cooled),a paddleshifter-equipped sports leather steering wheel, carbon-fibre trim bits, dual-zone climate control with rear vents, rear seat heaters, power-folding auto-dimming and heated exterior mirrors, a powered rear tailgate, a touchscreen-controlled 40-gig hard-drive and USB-port equipped Alpine nine-speaker (10 if you count the subwoofer) infotainment system, Bluetooth phone and audio link, 20-inch forged alloy wheels wrapped in wide Pirelli run-flat tyres, although with a 45-series profile you'll want to steer clear of the rough stuff.There are clever touches like a rechargeable pop-out torch in the boot is a neat and handy touch for any unplanned night roadside stops.What puts the Grand into this particular Cherokee is the 6.4-litre HEMI V8, with an active intake manifold and active exhaust, which produces 344kW and 624Nm of torque - up 37kW and 61Nm (and almost 200kg) over the old car. The clever intake and valve system teams up with the cylinder dropout mode (to run on four of the eight cylinders) to drop fuel use by 12.4 per cent to 14.1 litres per 100km.Body control and ride quality (more so the former than the latter) is controlled by a Bilstein adaptive damping suspension, which offers five modes - Automatic, Sport, Tow, Track and Snow - and the all-wheel drive system shifts drive to the best-suited wheels, although there's no low-range - yet another concession to being a bitumen burner as opposed to an off-road warrior.There's not a great deal of scope for body sculpting when you're dealing with a big boxy off-roader as a starting point, but the SRT8 is certainly heavy with purpose.Lower, with the now-common as muck LED running lights, it is more muscular thanks to body add-ons and venting through large bonnet apertures, the hi-po wagon has dual exhausts at the outer edge of the rear diffuser, which makes towing now feasible to the tune of just over two-tonne braked capacity.The boffins claim the new platform (shared with Mercedes-Benz and Maserati) has played its part in improving torsional rigidity by 146 per cent.You'd think with a long list of safety features it would have blown NCAP away but it's only scored (albeit in standard LHD Grand Cherokee turbo diesel guise) a four-star NCAP rating. Top of the list is an epic set of stoppers - Brembo in origin, the big ventilated discs are gripped by six-piston (up from four) front and four-piston rear calipers, enough force, says Jeep, to give it a 0-160km/h-0 time in the mid-16 second range.Also on the SRT8's extensive safety features list is adaptive cruise control, blind spot warning system, stability control (including anti-rollover function), emergency brake assist with forward collision warning, front and rear parking sensors and a rear-view camera. The spare is an 18in steel, with 245/65 rubber - it doesn't quite match the 20s on the SRT8 but also doesn't quite fit into the temporary spare either.Rain-sensing wipers, bi-xenon headlights, an automatic brake drying system, auto-dimming headlights, trailer sway control, seven airbags (including a driver's knee), a tyre pressure monitoring system, but in a nod to its limited 4WD application the hill descent control is deleted.Ferocious is the first word that springs to mind for several aspects of this car. The engine is feral and powerful, leaving little doubt as to the intent thanks to the active exhaust and living up to the noise with pace. The manufacturer claims five seconds is all it needs to reach the state limit and its own performance computer tows the company line.Not bad for something that tips the scales at 2.3 tonnes, but you pay for such outlandish bouts of right-foot brutality at the pump, with a thirst that can go close to 20 litres per 100km, but it's not like you're shopping this leviathan against a Prius.The weak link in the chain is the five-speed auto, which doesn't always respond with the alacrity of the six-speeder bolted to the back of the turbodiesel - using the paddles is a better option given the high (for a V8) torque peak in press-on driving.Track mode on the adjustable suspension offers good body control but super-rigid ride and the latter doesn't soften as much as it should when the dial is turned back to Auto mode and the runflats probably don't help the ride either. The steering is serviceable - not pin sharp but not vague either, but it feels like it is left alone when the suspension modes are changed.The big, comfortable and well-bolstered seats fight lateral forces admirably - it's the tyres that complain first - but the more-expensive European super SUVs show their class in the corners. The Jeep's stopping power also elicits some expletives - the big Brembos haul the wagon to a standstill remarkably well, giving credence to a claim (not tested on our public roads of course) of a 0-160-0km/h “go to whoa” time in the mid-16-second range.Even moderate braking force can halt this demon from 100km/h in 40 metres, although some extra pedal force can apparently bring that down by another five metres. Unlike its more sedate Grand Cherokee siblings, this is more Mount Panorama than Mount Kosciusko - a deep front spoiler and 190mm of ground clearance, not to mention the absence of low range and the least "off-road" compatible all-wheel drive system mean this Grand Cherokee is unlikely to hop over any rocks.What it can do is blow by a whole stack of purpose-built performance cars from standstill - and probably out-brake some of them as well. A tighter machine than the old one, the rocketship Grand Cherokee is a rough diamond - try going faster in an SUV for the money.

WE turn the spotlight on the car world's newest and brightest stars as we ask the questions to which you want the answers. But there's only one question that really needs answering  would you buy one?Where have they been hiding this beauty? The CRD is the diesel version of Jeep's five-seat off road wagon and definitely the pick of the bunch. Forget the V8, this is the one you want.It will set you back $50,000 but in SUV land this is something of a bargain, bearing in mind the cheapest long wheelbase Prado goes for $6000 more.The aforementioned Prado, Nissan Pathfinder and the Mitsubishi Pajero spring to mind. Nothing else has anywhere near as much off road ability as the Jeep.Built by VM Motori and developed together with Fiat Powertrain, the new 3.0-litre turbo diesel engine produces 177kW of power at 4000 revs and 550Nm of torque between 1800 and 2800 revs. This translates to 10 percent more power and eight percent more torque than the engine it replaces.Extremely well. Big 4WDs are always a better proposition in diesel form. This is the first application of the new engine and a spin-off of Fiat's recent buy-out of a bankrupt Chrysler (it now holds more than 50 per cent).Rated at 8.3 litres/100km. That's pretty good for a big 4WD. The trip computer was showing 8.6 in mixed driving.Gets three stars from the Government's Green Vehicle Guide (Prius is the benchmark with five stars).The previous model got four stars. This one has just been tested but the results have not been released yet. With stability control, seven airbags plus active head restraints, it is likely to get a full, five-star result.All-new independent suspension front and rear delivers much better on-road manners. It also allows the spare tyre to be stored inside the vehicle instead of underneath. Adjustable air suspension is available for another $2500.Probably the best Jeep we've driven to date (if you exclude the wonderful SRT8 version). Diesel is teamed with a five-speed auto that can be operated in manual mode if desired. Selec-Terrain traction control system allows the driver to choose the drive system that best matches on- or off-road driving conditions.Power adjust front seats are standard and the rear seats recline 12 degrees. Cargo volume is up 11 per cent. A touch screen media centre with a 30GB hard drive is standard that responds to voice commands.You bet. Ticks all the boxes. Smooth, quiet and comfortable wtih a formidable off road reputation. At the moment the Grand Cherokee is by far and away the best mid-sized wagon in Australia. The big problem is glaying your hands on one.