Jeep Grand Cherokee 2009 News

Manufacturers including BMW, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), Peugeot and Citroen have issued recalls via the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The Queensland team's driver, Colin Hunter, said their Extreme 4WD Class V8 Jeep Grand Cherokee is suited to wet conditions and would beat a lot of the two-wheel-drive buggies if the track is wet."Our best ever result was ninth outright in 2001 which was a very wet year, but it's a big field this year and the competition is very strong, so matching last year's results will be an excellent achievement," he said."Still, the car we're running is tried and tested, so we are quite confident."Team Manager Stewart Knowles said it was cloudy yesterday, but not yet raining."But when it rains out here it really rains and the track can be three feet under water."The team will also have a tyre advantage being the first in Australia to use a new Goodyear brand with puncture-resistant sidewalls. Hunter Racing has been competing since 1998 and last year finished 20th outright in the Northern Territory and first in class.The team started its sixth title defence with 17th outright and first in class in the Hyden 450 race in Western Australia in April. The 460km Finke Desert Race is the second round of the AORC. The race starts and ends in Alice Springs with an overnight stop between the two legs at the tiny Aboriginal settlement of Aputula.Almost 600 vehicles will compete in the Southern Hemisphere's richest off-road race in cars, trucks, 4WDs and buggies, with almost 500 of them on bikes and quads. Among the outright contenders are Queenslander Bruce Garland and Harry Suzuki who finished 11th in this year's Dakar Rally in South America in their Isuzu D-Max.They will be out to spoil the back-to-back hopes of 2008 King of the Desert David Fellows, of South Australia, driving a Jimco buggy."The track conditions are pretty consistent with previous years and I expect the times to Finke will be under the 1 hour 55min mark," Fellows said.In the bike category, Bathurst rider Ben Grabham has switched from Honda to KTM and will be looking for his third consecutive win.Queenslander Rod Faggotter, who finished second to Grabham in last year's Australasian Safari, is using the Finke as a preparation race for the Safari."The longer distances suit me better. The Finke is more of a two-hour sprint," said Faggotter who finished 12th outright last year."There are a lot of fast local guys here who run the track all the time, so I am up against a lot of quick guys on their home territory."At least with the rain we've had here in the past week there will be no dust so you can see where you are going."The prologue to decide starting order is held on Saturday with the two race legs on Sunday and Monday.

The Nissan 370Z Roadster and Jeep Grand Cherokee are polar opposites in the car world, but each created a major buzz in the Big Apple.The Japanese droptop is the obvious extension of the Z-car renewal program which began in Los Angles last year with an all-new Coupe, while the Grand Cherokee is set for a starring role once Chrysler emerges from its funding crisis.The 370Z Roadster has the same basics as the Coupe, from its 3.7-litre V6 to a much-improved interior, with the addition of a strengthened body and a top that folds in 20 seconds.The latest Grand Cherokee is completely new with a bunch of new off-road technologies and a new-age V6 engine which will eventually migrate throughout the Chrysler family.The droptop Z will hit Australia first, but not for more than a year after its Big Apple appearance."The Coupe will be here next month. The Roadster sometime next year, in about 12 months," says Jeff Fisher of Nissan Australia.There is a slight chance the old and new Zs will be sold side-by-side during the switch to the new cars, although Fisher does not see a problem. He also believes the new Roadster will mirror the improvements in the Coupe."It's not really an issue on the sales side. We're only talking weeny numbers," he says."It's a much improved car and, once people see the pricing, they will see it's very competitive. The 370Z is going to go well."The Grand Cherokee has massive improvements, including the all-new Chrysler Pentastaris engine, which heads a $3 billion spend on powertrain improvements. Chrysler claims an average eight per cent improvement to fuel economy and says the 3.6 in the Grand Cherokee heads a family which will ultimately replace seven existing engines.The New York machine has an engine with 209 kiloWatts and 353 Newton-metres of torque, helped by twin-overhead camshafts with variable valve timing, while the 5.7-litre V8 has also had a tweak for improved efficiency."The Grand Cherokee is completely new. It's a little bigger, too," says Chrysler Australia's Jerry Stamoulis."They will start selling them in the middle of next year in the USA. There is no timing yet for Australia, but normally we expect right-hand drive markets to get the car six to 12 months after the US."So we're hoping for late 2010, or early 2011." 

But don't think these are just pie-in-the-sky concepts with little connection to reality - much of the gear on these concepts is likely to appear in a future Mopar catalogue.The Mopar Underground design team has shown off some of its tweaked Jeep machines, as well as the Grand Cherokee, to the faithful at the recent 43rd annual Moab Jeep Safari, in Utah.The team, in existence since 2002, has delivered more than a dozen on-the-edge Jeep vehicles and go-better bits, and chief designer Mark Allen says the skunkworks has a passion for off-road machines equal to the enthusiastic crowds at the Moab Jeep Safari."Moab Jeep Safari provides a great venue and works as a proving ground to test Jeep vehicle concepts driven alongside Jeep brand enthusiasts, who can provide immediate feedback at the event."As a result, we use knowledge gained at this off-road event to explore new directions for Jeep platforms and to develop Mopar Performance Parts and Accessories to suit these vehicles," he says.Local Jeep spokesman Jerry Stamoulis says the Mopar team is utilising some Australian aftermarket equipment in the concept cars."A couple of the cars are using ARB accessories … the Wrangler Overland has an ARB roof-mounted tent and a rear-locker; the Grand Cherokee has an ARB bumper as well,” Stamoulis says."It's good to see the Australian stuff getting recognition in the US and being used by Mopar for these vehicles.”Stamoulis says new Grand Cherokee was also shown to the Moab faithful ahead of its 2010 U.S. launch."We don't have a date yet, the U.S. will start selling it mid next year, right-hand drive and diesel have been confirmed but we don't have an exact date, hopefully it will be near the end of 2010, eaarly 2011," he says.Three key Jeep models have been given the Mopar treatment.The Jeep Wrangler Overland - based on a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited four-door - sits on 17in wheels (with chunky off-road rubber) and a 2.5 inch Mopar lift kit and is what the company calls "a mobile self-contained campsite."The cabin is trimmed in water-resistant materials, the rear seats have been replaced with a rear cargo area with a rubber floor, with the roof rack fitted with a ARB two-person Simpson II rooftop-mounted tent and awning.The current Grand Cherokee has been given the Mopar treatment to be re-named Grand Canyon II.The most luxurious Mopar off-roader yet has been given more off-road ability with 285/70R17 tyres and a Superlift 4-inch suspension system. The approach angle has been improved with an ARB high-clearance front bumper and Mopar heavy-duty rock rails.But the hotrod of the Mopar trio is the Jeep Lower Forty, based on the Wrangler platform but with 40in x 13.5in tyres on Mopar 20in forged aluminium wheels.The Mopar team aimed to maintain the Wrangler's centre of gravity with extra ground clearance with the wheel/tyre package without a lift kit, so the body and guards were cut and customised, as was the windscreen, which lost three inches in height and gained 10 degrees of rake.The bonnet is now a one-piece-carbon-fibre panel, the rear has an all-new tailgate and there's also an all-new roll cage, but the best bit lies beneath the new bonnet.The Lower Forty is powered by an all-new 5.7-litre HEMI V8 engine and a Getrag 238 six-speed manual transmission, driving all four wheels via Dana axles and ARB air-locker diffs. 

The wholesale restructuring of the US car industry has yielded some little gems of information, some of them from Chrysler.