Volkswagen Golf vs Jeep Cherokee

What's the difference?

Like the generations that preceded it, the current VW Golf 8.5 is a high-quality, comfortable and efficient small car. Add in good looks, space-efficiency, thoughtful practicality as well as class-competitive safety and you have the makings of a compelling package. The potential sticking point is this entry-level 110TSI Life’s value proposition in terms of included features relative to its purchase price and ongoing cost of ownership.  

The Cherokee is perhaps not going to tempt anyone set on a mainstream mid-size family SUV. But, to those on the periphery who are genuinely looking for something different, there’s a lot on offer here.

The proposition is boosted by the Cherokee’s unique off-road equipment and compelling price tag, but just keep in mind it’s old-fashioned in more than just one way…

The team at VW’s Design Centre in Wolfsburg grapples with the same challenge when it comes to evolving the Golf as their contemporaries down the autobahn at Porsche face with the 911.

Over successive generations it must remain instantly recognisable as a Golf but move on to a more contemporary look and feel.

And although it’s always a subjective call I’d argue the current ‘8.5’ generation Golf answers the brief nicely.

Its neat, tightly wrapped exterior aligns with the classic Golf profile while including enough detail elements like the angular tail-lights and broad C-pillar to pass the badge removal test. Take away the VW roundels and this car is still clearly a Golf.

Neat touches include illuminated door handle recesses and broad-spoke alloy wheels that lift the visual tone.

Inside, the same juggling act stands up with sizeable screens for instruments and media balanced by a typically teutonic dash, door and console layout (with soft-touch surfaces at key points). Conservative but ultra-functional and easy to live with.

One niggle is haptic slider controls for audio volume and ventilation adjustment below the media screen rather than physical dials (although a steering wheel volume rocker switch helps). 

Part of me wants to like the Cherokee. It’s a refreshingly modern take on the mid-size formula from Jeep. There’s another part of me which thinks it’s a bit soft around the edges with a little too much influence from the likes of the last-generation RAV4, especially around the rear. A smaller, heavily opinionated, part of me says it looks like the kind of car the Hamburgler would drive.

But you can’t deny the black paint with black and grey highlights looks tough. The raised plastic bumpers, small wheels, and red powder-coated recovery hooks speak to this SUV’s off-road ambition. And the package is nicely rounded out with LED light fittings front and rear which cut nice angles around this car’s edges.

Inside is still very… American, but this has been toned down significantly from past Jeep offerings. There are almost no truly awful plastics now, with an abundance of soft-touch surfaces and nicer interaction points.

The wheel is still chunky and leather-clad though, and the multimedia screen is an impressive and bright unit taking centre stage in the dash.

My main complaint with the cabin is the chunky A-pillar which eats a bit of your peripheral vision, but otherwise it’s a plush design.

At close to 4.3 metres long, less than 1.8m wide and under 1.5m tall with a 2631mm wheelbase the Golf sits at the more compact end of the small-car spectrum.

But there’s plenty of head and shoulder room up front with relatively large doors making entry and egress easy.

Storage is plentiful with bins in the doors large enough to swallow large bottles, a decent glove box, an open tray in the dash for the front passenger and twin cupholders in the centre console (one able to hide away for extra general storage), a wireless device charging bay and a coin or pen slot next to the gear selector. 

Special mention goes to the padded lid on the storage box between the front seats, which in modern VW style, can ratchet up through three positions and extend out to make its side hustle as an armrest even more valuable.

Move to the back and, understandably, there’s adequate rather than copious amounts of space, roughly on a par with others in the class.

Sitting behind the driver’s seat set for my 183cm position I have decent leg and headroom and there’s enough width for three (friendly) full-size adults on a short journey but it’s best for two.

There are generous door bins, again with room for large bottles, map pockets on the front seatbacks, two (and a half) cupholders in the fold-down centre armrest and an oddments slot under twin adjustable vents at the rear of the front centre console.

Power and connectivity runs to dual USB-C jacks and a 12-volt socket up front, with another two USB-Cs in the back and a 12V in the boot.

Speaking of which, the boot measures 374 litres (VDA) with the 60/40 split-folding rear seat upright expanding to 1230L with it folded.   

Interestingly, the Golf’s Corolla nemesis offers only 217 litres of boot space with all seats up. But the flagship ZR grows to 333L because it ditches a physical spare tyre for a repair/inflator kit.

Something the Golf, to VW’s credit, doesn’t do, with a space-saver spare under the boot floor. Numerous load anchors and bag hooks in there are a big plus.

The fact you’re able to tow a 1.5-tonne braked trailer (690kg unbraked) rounds out a solid practicality package. 

The plushness makes for a comfortable environment, particularly for front passengers who benefit (in this case) from power adjustable seats, telescopically adjustable steering column and faux-leather trimmed padded surfaces pretty much everywhere.

There are small bottle holders in the doors, big bottle holders in the centre console, a large armrest box, and a small trench in front of the transmission stick. Sadly the Cherokee seems to miss out on the secret compartment under the seat base which the smaller Compass gets.

Back seat occupants get a decent, but not impressive, amount of space. I’m 182cm tall and had a small amount of airspace for my knees and head. There are small bottle holders in the doors, pockets on the back of both front seats, a set of movable air vents and USB ports on the back of the centre console, plus large bottle holders in the drop-down armrest.

Seat trim all-around has to be commended for being ultra-soft and comfortable, albeit not super supportive.

The second row is on rails, allowing you to max out boot space if need be.

Speaking of boot space, it’s a tough one to compare to other models because Jeep is insistent on using the SAE standard rather than the VDA standard (as one is more or less a liquid measurement, and the other is one made up of cubes, they are impossible to convert). Regardless, the Cherokee managed to consume all three items in our luggage set with ease, so it at very least has a competitive standard boot capacity.

The floor in our Trailhawk was carpeted, and a luggage cover comes standard. Worth noting is how high the boot floor is off the ground. This limits the space available, but is required for the full-size spare hidden under the floor, a must for long-distance drivers.

Does it represent good value for the price? In a word: Yes.

Let’s take a look. The Trailhawk is the most expensive Cherokee you can buy, yet at $48.450 you’ll get stacks of gear. In fact, you’ll get more stuff than is packed in to most of its mid- to high-spec mainstream rivals.

The question is whether you’ll even want it. This is because while the Cherokee might tick key mid-size spec boxes, its real advantage is in the off-road gear sitting underneath it.

This is one of very few front- drive biased, transverse-mounted engine SUVs to get a locking rear differential, low-range transfer case, and a series of rather serious computer-controlled off-road modes.

Impressive stuff if you’re ever going to take it onto sand or scrabbling up gravel surfaces, potentially of little value if there’s no chance you’ll be doing any of those things.

Regardless, the standard road-going kit is great. Included is LED headlights, leather seats, keyless entry and push-start, an 8.0-inch multimedia touchscreen with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, sat nav and DAB+ digital radio, auto wipers, anti-glare rear vision mirror, and 17-inch alloys.

Those wheels might seem a bit small by high-spec SUV standards, but are more focused on being off-road ready.

Our car was also fitted with the ‘Premium Pack’ ($2950) which adds some luxury touches like heated and cooled front seats with memory power adjust, carpeted boot floor, distance control for the active cruise (more on that in the safety section of this review), and black painted wheels.

As its name implies the Golf 110TSI Life is powered by a 1.4-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine sending 110kW (there it is) and 250Nm to the front wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission with shift paddles on the steering wheel.

It’s an all-alloy unit featuring direct-injection and an air-to-water turbo intercooler with variations of it used in other VW models as well as numerous Audis, Cupras and Skodas.

VW doesn’t quote a zero to 100km/h time for the standard Golf but you can expect a number in the mid-eight second bracket.  

The Cherokee shows its star-spangled heritage here with a rather old-school drivetrain.

Under the bonnet is a 3.2-litre ‘Pentastar’ non-turbo V6. It produces 200kW/315Nm which you might note isn’t much more than a lot of turbocharged 2.0-litre alternatives these days.

If you were hoping for a diesel as a more attractive option for long-distance travel, tough luck, the Trailhawk is V6 petrol only.

The engine is perhaps at odds with the modern nine-speed torque converter automatic transmission, and the Trailhawk is one of the few front-biased, non-ladder chassis-based vehicles to have a low-range crawl gear and locking rear differential.

The Trailhawk drives all four wheels.

The Golf’s official fuel consumption figure for the combined (urban/extra-urban) cycle is 6.3L/100km, the 1.4L turbo four emitting 143g/km of CO2 in the process.

Over a week of mainly city and suburban running with some freeway sections thrown in, we recorded an on-test average of 7.4L/100km. That’s still a respectable number in the context of the category.

Brim the 50-litre tank with minimum 95 RON premium fuel and using our real-world figure you can expect a driving range in excess of 670km.

In the spirit of keeping the hard-done-by fuel conglomerates in business, this V6 is as thirsty as it sounds. This is compounded by the fact that the Trailhawk weighs in at close to two tonnes.

The official claimed/combined figure is already not great at 10.2L/100km, but our week-long test produced a figure of 12.0L/100km. Not a good look when many of the Cherokee’s mid-size competitors are at least in the single-digit range, even in real-world testing.

In a small concession, you’ll be able to fill up (annoyingly frequently) with entry-level 91RON unleaded. The Cherokee has a 60L fuel tank.

The Golf is a comfortable, refined and dynamically capable small hatch.

Suspension is strut front, four-link rear and combined with the 17-inch rims shod with comfy 225/45 Nexen N Fera Sport rubber the 110TSI Life manages to soak up typical suburban and highway bumps and dips well. Especially impressive for a small car with such a short wheelbase.

And despite the fact they’re trimmed in humble cloth, the front seats are super comfy and supportive.

An impressively slick 0.275 drag coefficient makes sense when you experience the modest wind noise at highway speeds.

The steering is vehicle speed and input-sensitive and road feel is outstanding. Slipping into ‘Sport’ mode and pushing through some twisting corners it feels like this humble 110TSI is a hot hatch in hiding.

The eight-speed auto transmission is smooth and taking control for more urgent shifts via the steering wheel paddles adds to the enjoyment when you’re in the mood or the need arises.

You’d never know the engine is turbocharged, with the 1.4-litre four-cylinder delivering its power in satisfyingly linear fashion, even at slow speed from low revs.

You can expect zero to 100km/h acceleration in the mid-eight second bracket with 250Nm of pulling power easily enough for confident urban lane changes and 110kW of power on tap for secure highway overtaking.

No surprise brakes are discs all around, vented at the front, and given the car weighs in at a trim 1345kg stopping power is strong and consistent.

Under the heading of general observations, the media system is quick and intuitive to use, all around vision is good despite the characteristically chunky C-pillar and although an 11.1-metre turning circle is a bit above the class average, parking is easy.  

The Cherokee drives pretty much exactly how it looks, soft and ‘murican.

As thirsty as the V6 might be, it’s fun in a kind of retro way to be behind the wheel. It makes lots of angry noises and flies up the rev range (into fuel-drinkin’ town) all too easily, although despite that you might notice you’re not going particularly fast the whole time.

This is largely down to the Cherokee’s overbearing weight. Not great for fuel usage, it does have benefits for comfort and refinement.

On tarmac, and even gravel surfaces, the interior is impressively quiet. There’s little road noise or suspension rattle, and even the fury of the V6 is more of a distant thrum.

Gravity takes its toll in the corners, where the Cherokee hardly feels like a confident apex carver. The steering is light though, and the long-travel suspension is soft and forgiving. This makes for a refreshing SUV experience which places the focus solely on comfort over sportiness.

It’s also a nice point of difference from many mainstream competitors which seem hell-bent on making mid-size family SUVs handle like sports sedans or hatchbacks.

A test of the off-road features was a little outside the scope of our regular weekly test, although a thrashing down a few gravel tracks only served to confirm my confidence in the comfort suspension tune and stability of the standard all-wheel drive mode on offer.

In its last update the Cherokee acquired an active safety suite consisting of auto emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian detection, forward collision warning, lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, rear-cross traffic alert, and active cruise control.

The Trailhawk Premium Pack adds distance control (via a button on the steering wheel).

The Cherokee is also armed with six airbags, a reversing camera and parking sensors. It has dual ISOFIX child-seat mounting points on the outer rear seats.

Only four-cylinder Cherokees have been ANCAP safety tested (and scored a maximum five stars in 2015). This six-cylinder version does not carry a current ANCAP safety rating.

Volkswagen Australia covers the Golf with a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, which is on par with other mainstream brands like Ford, Mazda and Toyota, but behind a dozen others including Hyundai, Kia and Skoda at seven years/unlimited km with the likes of Honda at eight and MG, Mitsubishi and Nissan at 10 years conditional.

Servicing is recommended every 12 months/15,000km and three-, four- and five-year pre-paid service ‘Care Plans’ are available, with the latter for the Golf 110TSI Life locked in at $2940, which splits out to a relatively steep $588 per workshop visit. Pay-as-you-go ‘Assured Service Pricing’ works out at $621 per service.

For reference, a comparably priced Toyota Corolla ZR hatch will set you back a flat $250 per service for each of the first five years. 

There are more than 100 Volkswagen dealers across the country covering all states and territories including main rural and regional areas.

Jeep has upped its ownership promise in the past few years with what it calls the “there and back guarantee”. This consists of a five-year/100,000km warranty and matching capped price service program.

It’s a shame the warranty is distance-limited, but time-wise is on par with Japanese makers. While the capped price service program is welcome, it's almost twice as expensive as an equivalent RAV4.

According to Jeep’s online calculator, services varied from $495 to $620 on this particular variant.

Roadside assist is offered beyond the warranty period provided you continue to service your vehicle at an authorized Jeep dealership.