Jeep Grand Cherokee 2012 News

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced its latest round of safety recall notices, with models from Nissan, Jeep, Ford, Mazda, Infiniti and Citroen affected.

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

Demand for a top-spec Jeep Grand Cherokee that is petrol powered but doesn't have the thirst of the 5.7-litre V8 has pushed Jeep to launch a V6 version of the Overland. The Grand Cherokee large SUV has been the success story for Jeep this year, with almost 5000 sales. Of those, around 1800 have been the base model Laredo, compared to 1600 Limited sales and 1000 Overland buyers. The $65,000 V6 Overland comes loaded with a 16.5-inch touchscreen with satnav, air suspension, a rear-view camera, air suspension, panoramic sunroof and wood trim around the leather interior. More importantly, it uses just 11L/100km on 91RON or E85 petrol, against 14L/100km with 95RON fuel on the same model V8. It is also $4500 cheaper than the eight-cylinder. The spec and build quality the vehicle sits on the same platform as the last-gen Mercedes-Benz ML, courtesy of a brief and ill-fated tie-up between the two carmakers makes it a crossover-contentender in the mainstream and prestige SUV segments. Fiat Chrysler Australia managing director Clyde Campbell says customers dictated the introduction of the Pentastar engine to the top-spec version. The V6 was already sold in base Laredo and mid-range Limited trim. "At $65,000, it brings all the appointments expected on prestige vehicles well within the reach of a much larger audience," he notes. Fiat Chrysler Australia spokeswoman Lenore Fletcher expects the introduction of the V6 Overland to push buyers up the scale. "I reckon there will be a lot of people step up from the Limited," she says. The value in this vehicle is just too good to ignore." The 3.6-litre Pentastar V6 engine pumps out 210kW/347Nm through a five-speed auto and five-mode four-wheel drive system. It has a towing capacity of more than 2.2 tonnes. As testament to the selling power of the Pentastar engine, Jeep last month launched a limited-edition of 600 V6-powered Jet variants that sit just above the base model Laredo. The vehicles run black alloy rims, tinted glass, chrome and black exterior highlights and a reversing camera. At $46,500 it costs $1500 more than the Laredo and Jeep expects them to last two to three months.  

The Jeep Grand Cherokee, Cherokee and Liberty have been targeted by the country's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in an investigation into their fuel tank locations.An engineering analysis could lead to a recall, although the exact implications in the USA - and a potential knock-on effect in Australia - are not clear."The Fiat Chrysler group is currently awaiting confirmation from the head office in Detroit regarding whether or not any Australian-owned vehicles are affected and, if so, how many," says Australian spokesperson, Lenore Fletcher. She stresses that there is no recall in the USA yet and a full update is unlikely before the end of this week.In America, safety advocates are pressing the NHTSA over the location of the fuel tank, behind the rear axle, and the potential for fire in a rear-end impact. Initially, the NHTSA only studied the fuel tank on the Grand Cherokee in response to 26 complaints, before deciding to expand the list of vehicles.The investigation covers Jeep Grand Cherokees built between 1993 and 2004, Jeep Cherokees built between 1993 and 2001, and Jeep Liberty SUVs built between 2002 and 2007. The total number of vehicles involved is around 5.1 million.Chrysler says it is co-operating with the investigation and says available information shows no greater fire risk in its vehicles than other similar SUVs.The NHTSA investigation compares the Grand Cherokee's fuel system with that of three similar vehicles: the Chevrolet Blazer, Ford Explorer and Toyota 4Runner and its preliminary findings indicate that fuel-tank failures and fires in rear-end collisions are more prevalent in the Grand Cherokee than in the comparison vehicles. 

There has been a 78 per cent sales surge for the Fiat-owned US group of brands. The irony is the sales growth is being driven largely off the new Jeep Grand Cherokee, which is the Mercedes ML-derived luxury off-roader conceived at a time when Daimler had a stake in Chrysler.Jeep's incarnation of the vehicle is one of the smartest SUVs on the market and its $45,000 starter price has helped grab 1541 sales so far this year. Chrysler Australia spokeswoman Lenore Fletcher says sales are strong across the Jeep portfolio, with Patriot and Wrangler sales up 71 per cent and 37 per cent respectively.The new Compass has also logged 842 sales to be the sixth most popular small SUV. "The next sixth months will be good for us," she says. "We have the Chrysler 300C and the SRT8 variant of the Grand Cherokee, and there's more to come."Chrysler Australia will also take control of Australian sales of the Italian brands Alfa Romeo and Fiat from May 1. It is a logical extension of Fiat's control of the US brands and Chrysler Australia managing director Clyde Campbell says he aims to reawaken sales interest in the brands.Combined first quarter sales for Fiat, Fiat Commercial and Alfa Romeo vehicles was 2635 vehicles. Alfa models include the 159, 159 Sportwagon and the Giulietta. The Fiat 500, Fiat 500 Abarth and commercial vehicles the Ducato and Scudo are also sold here.Land Rover has been the other big mover this year with a 65 per cent growth to 2350 vehicles. The Discovery and Evoque have been stars for the US-based company. Disco sales are up 73 per cent to 618 vehicles and the Evoque has sold 597 cars to just trail BMW's X3 on 607 sales. Great Wall sales rose 73 per cent to 2863 vehicles and 11,983 Volkswagen sales was a 36 per cent increase.  

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