The nearest to “off-roading” that most SUV drivers get is parking on the sidewalk. Manufacturers have always had to compromise by losing something on the side of off-road performance or luxury cruising when coming up with a vehicle trying to accommodate both ends of the spectrum.
Jeep — like Land Rover — feel they have to make vehicles that can cope with extreme conditions. Ability off-road is their hallmark, but they cannot ignore the demand from their customers for saloon-car smoothness on normal roads.
Jeep has made an outstandingly good fist of accommodating those needs, both in terms of comfort and performance.
It is wider, longer and lower and has lost the rippled body trim that softened the outlines of the earlier models that made them more urban than country.
The new Jeep Grand Cherokee has flatter planes both side and rear, narrower windows relative to the vehicle’s body height, squat stance and large round headlights with the “eyebrows” that are popular on European cars. They relieve the rectilinear front and help it to look serious without frowning — and very businesslike as a result.
The wheelbase at 278 cm is 9 cm longer and the track has been increased by 6.4 cm to 157 cm adding something to stability. The overall length of the Jeep has increased by 13 cm to 474 cm. The net effect of the slight changes combined with the less fussy bodywork combine to give the car a sleek yet functional look. However, with a ground clearance of only just over 20 cm, pounding along moderately (by local standards) rutted desert tracks resulted in frequent “pings” from the underside.
It is a heavy car — weighing in at between 1,905kg. and 2,132 kg. depending on the package and engine. That said, with the new 5.7 liter hemi engine, new suspension layout and electronic stability control program, the weight never becomes a problem, rather adds a reassuring feel of solidity to the car, even when putting it through some extreme side-slipping on friable surfaces. The previous Grand Cherokee’s beam front axle is replaced by independent short and long arm front suspension and very much improves steering, ride and handling
On the road, the car sweeps through long curves majestically upright and stable, the heavy duty all-terrain tires the test model was fitted with “chirruping” slightly when the car approached the limits of adhesion. Steering through tight corners was positive and comfortably firm — the new rack and pinion layout slightly lacks in “feel” but is precise and produces no surprises.
On smooth tarmac surfaces, the cabin was luxuriously quiet, the massive engine dawdling on 2000 rpm at around 120 kph. Anything above that would begin to introduce tire noise into the equation and would be noticeable as a whine — though never uncomfortably loud. With commendable attention to detail, much work was carried out on the large external mirrors to reduce wind-noise: It has worked.
The interior layout has been redesigned and echoes the flatter planes of the exterior. A chiseled appearance to the dashboard, un-cluttered instrument layout and a series of button operated option all set in a wood-effect console manages to balance the needs of “town and country” décor. At night, the stark white illumination is extremely easy to read.
The suite of four buttons that display the trip/fuel consumption and other mechanical information is, however, a little fussy. Prodding buttons, eyes off the road and one hand off the wheel is never a good idea; an improvement would be to move the light switches to the dashboard and the information control to what is currently the lighting control on the stalk behind the steering wheel.
Five hours of hard driving and the comfort levels in the cabin proved their worth – the seats are firm and supportive leaving no residual cramps at all. The air conditioning — split front and rear — is simply formidable. Even in air temperatures of 52 Degrees C, it never faltered.
With the 5.7 Hemi engine, the driver needs the fuel information on a regular basis. With a fuel capacity of 77.6 liters and consumption topping 20 liters per 100 km on even moderately rough ground, long range trips off road would need careful monitoring of fuel reserves. Even with the Chrysler “cylinder de-activation system” which allows it to run on four cylinders when full power is not required — improving fuel economy by up to 20 percent — it is a thirsty car. On roads however, consumption improved drastically reaching a recorded 13.4 per 100 km at moderate cruising speeds.
Off road, the Grand Cherokee showed what it could do — and true to Jeep form, it did impressively well.
Our 5.7L Limited featured an elaborate arrangement known as Quadra-Drive II, with the NV245 transfer case augmented by electronically controlled hydraulic clutch packs on the front and rear differentials. Although the hydraulic pumps activate the system when wheel-speed disparities allow the rotors to turn relative to their housings, this system can lock the clutches when wheel speed has been equalized.
Even in loose sand on a steep uphill grade, the Grand Cherokee found traction. The Quadra Drive 2 system offers even more traction and less wheel-spin than Quadra Trac 2 and proved very good in the off road sections, especially as it has a Low Range gear and manual shift option.
The new Grand Cherokee has an interesting method of engaging Low Range. After putting the shifter in Neutral, the driver pulls up on a chrome lever in the center console, holds it up for three seconds, and lets it go. The same method is used to disengage Low Range. Yeah; Interesting!
Though never fully tested in the powdery sand that bogs down almost any vehicle, the conditions we encountered in a 1200 kilometer run over highway, rock, coarse sand, gravel and sabakhah (wet salt-sand) never once presented a hint of problems.
The real delight of the vehicle is the wonderfully manageable 330 hp from the engine, 90 percent of which is delivered at 2,500 rpm. It muscles the car from 0 — 100 kph in 7 seconds and pushes on to around 210 kph. Rather than a brutish punch, there is a surge that just seems to keep coming. Power enough to pull the 3,265 kilo. loads that it was designed for and on uphill roads, it floats past others with a muted rumble.
Slightly biased toward the side of Jeep’s off-road heritage, the Grand Cherokee has all that you would want from an SUV for cruising; but if you really want to see what it is made of, let it run free in the desert!
