Up until now, the Jeep Grand Cherokee has been something of an also-ran, to the point where it was all but invisible in the Irish market. No matter the good and bad points of previous versions of the vehicle, Irish luxury SUV buyers in their hundreds ignored the American offering in favour of vehicles from Land Rover, Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Lexus.
That’s probably not about to change, but at least this time it won’t be the fault of the car. Previous Jeep Grand Cherokees have talked the luxury talk but not walked the quality walk. The last generation model was big, comfy, pleasant to drive and staggeringly good off-road, but its cabin was way too cheap in its design and materials to truly compete with its Anglo-German-Japanese rivals. Dial back to the third-generation model of 2005 and the Grand Cherokee was so laughably cheap inside and so horrendous to drive on its lumpy live axles that it simply wasn’t even in the car park of the Range Rover Sports ballpark.
Well, no longer. The new Jeep Grand Cherokee is set, like its illustrious second World War predecessor, to invade Europe late in the game, at a time when serious – and justified – questions are being asked about whether we should be buying large, heavy cars such as this at all. In Irish market terms it should have been on sale now. But isn’t. It then should have been going on sale later this year. But isn’t. In fact, it will be well into 2024 before a set of Grand Cherokee keys lands on an Irish end-table, but don’t hold your breath – this generation of the Grand Cherokee is proving such a success in its home market in the US that production for those of us east of Staten Island has been delayed and delayed again.
Will it be worth waiting for? Actually, yes. This is a Grand Cherokee, but not as we have previously known it.
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It is as we have previously known it in its general physiognomy. It’s a big, bulky SUV with a giant grille and a glowering expression. Arguably, you could call it slightly less posh in its look than a Range Rover, and the blue-collar (khaki-collar, really) origins of the Jeep brand still seem to show through. Encroaching guilt about its size and profligacy aside, it’s a hugely handsome car, with definite but subtle undertones of the 1963 Jeep Grand Wagoneer in there somewhere – that car, according to Jeep, truly invented the luxury SUV segment, almost a decade before the original Range Rover. So blame it for the state we’re in, I guess.
Actually, this particular Grand Cherokee isn’t a environmentally ruinous as its predecessors. It will come to these shores – when it finally does so – only in plug-in hybrid 4XE form. Much ink and bile has been spilled debating the merits of plug-in hybrids, but at least they show a certain amount of willing, and in any case this is – along with the dinky all-electric Jeep Avenger – this brand’s first step on the road to becoming a fully electric brand in Europe by 2030. More interesting all-electric models, including a sleek and slinky Wagoneer S with 600hp and 700km range, are coming shortly.
For the moment, this Grand Cherokee is well behind its competition from Range Rover when it comes to electrification. Where the current Range Rover Sport (the closest Land Rover analogue to the Grand Cherokee) boasts a smooth six-cylinder engine and enough battery capacity for a genuine 100km on electric power, the Jeep has a mere in-line-four turbo motor and enough battery for just 48km of claimed electric range on a charge. Compared with the RR Sport’s 440hp, the Jeep deploys a mere 380hp, but with 637Nm of total torque it’s actually slightly ahead of the Range Rover.
Does this make it a worse-performing vehicle in the real world? Possibly, but perhaps not by as much as you might think.
To start with, the Grand Cherokee outperforms the equivalent Range Rover. Open the door and climb aboard and the Jeep’s cabin looks and feels more luxurious, more opulent than that of its British counterpart. True, there are still one or two cheap plastic switches around the place, but the combination of multiple big digital screens (including an optional one for the front seat passenger) and some of the most cosseting front seats you’ll ever park your bottom atop mean that the Grand Cherokee would be my go-to luxury 4x4 for its cabin environment. Perceived build quality has taken a massive jump compared with the previous version, and the tactility of the wood trim and the leatherwork is absolutely top-drawer. Only the slightly cheap-looking graphics of the driver’s digital instrument panel spoil the show.
In the back, as you’d expect in a vehicle so large, there is lounging room aplenty and a spectacular view out through big, square side windows. The boot is predictably massive – just over 1,000 litres if you pack it to the roof, but a slightly disappointing 580 litres if you load to the luggage cover. The more compact Audi Q5 has 550 litres. Equally, we’re not getting (at least not yet) the seven-seat Grand Cherokee L version in Europe, mostly because its seven seats can’t be packaged with the plug-in hybrid power train.
Speaking of which, how well (or badly) does the 4XE perform on the road? Actually, it’s pretty good. Clearly, the four-cylinder engine isn’t going to be a buttery-smooth as the Range Rover’s straight six, but it’s not intrusively loud even when you rev it hard, and for the most part the Grand Cherokee lopes along in terrific comfort and refinement, with its air suspension easing away all but the sharpest-edged tarmac intrusions.
It’s not even all that thirsty. Over a lengthy route that involved motorways, town driving and very fast, twisty mountain roads, and using a mixture of battery-saving and hybrid mode driving, we averaged eight litres of fuel per 100km. That’s hardly economical, in the scheme of things, but it’s not bad for a big, hefty car such as this, especially one being driven with vim on the mountain sections – something that proved surprisingly enjoyable as the Grand Cherokee has good steering response and a capable chassis.
That capability extends to mountains without roads, and this is the great charm of the Grand Cherokee. Extend that air suspension to its fullest height and flick the terrain response selector to the gravel and rock setting, and off we go into the woods and the hills.
Not only does the Grand Cherokee cope easily with off-road routes that would rip the wheels off a lesser vehicle, the bonus here is that thanks to some battery-saving en route we’re able to do our off-roading in electric silence – the Jeep’s electric system uses two motors: a 44hp mild-hybrid starter/generator and a chunkier 134hp electric motor which can power the entirety of the ‘Quadra-Drive II’ (we love American names for technical stuff) four-wheel drive system with its limited-slip rear differential. Thus equipped, the Grand Cherokee will effortlessly clamber and climb – silently – over whatever obstacle is in front of you, while you wind down the windows and listen to the birdsong.
In the debate over whether we should or should not buy SUVs, this is the Grand Cherokee’s winning card – it is a truly capable multi-role machine, not a jumped-up hatchback with a weight problem (actually, at 2.1 tonnes, the Grand Cherokee 4XE is pretty trim compared with some others). It’s truly luxurious inside, handsome without, and able to do things, sans tarmac, that would bend the minds of most owners.
Will it be worth the circa-€100,000 price tag when it eventually arrives in Ireland? I’d say yes. In this rarefied luxury atmosphere, the final nuances of the price don’t make much real difference – if you can afford one of these, you can equally afford any of its rivals. This is the one I’d choose, though. Its hard-working roots make it less of a guilt trip than more overtly monied rivals, and that fabulous cabin would put a smile on my face every morning. Eco-guilt? Just plug it in more and make full use of the electric side of the power train. Even so, few will ever be sold here – price, the small dealer network and a general Irish blind spot for all things Jeep will see to that. It will be one for a lucky few.
