I’m planning to pull the trigger on one of these shortly, just waiting for 2012’s to hit the dealers. If anyone has feedback on their 2011 I’d appreciate your comments. Anything you would have optioned differently? Happy with purchase? wishing you bought something else instead…?
I’ve always liked the Grand Cherokee. Just gave my 9 year old one with 130K miles to my daughter in college. Good price for the money.
I guess it depends why you want it. I have a camper that I tow. If I didn’t, I would buy a smaller 4WD cross over.
My biggest complaint is the really poor gas mileage. It’s why I have been looking at the GMC Terrain or Ford Explorer. Those don’t get great gas mileage, but better than the Grand Cherokee.
Parents have an '11. It looks decent, has okay pep (HEMI!!!) but drives like crap. It gives you NOTHING in terms of steering feel, throttle response, etc. It’s almost like driving a taller '88 Crown Vic.
I like the '98 Cherokee they had better than either of the last 2 generations of Grand Cherokees they’ve owned.
We have a 2001 GC now (wife’s daily driver) and I’m about to sell my 2007 Tacoma, as our corporate car allowance requires the vehicle to be <5yrs old. I do a lot of highway driving in Canada, and like that added safety of an advanced 4WD system such as the Jeep’s Quadra Drive. I’ll also frequently use most, if not all, of the vehicles rated towing capacity. I believe that the new GC Hemi will turn off 4 cylinders when cruising at highway speed, and actually gets decent MPG. Regardless, I don’t pay for the gas anyway, so MPG is a bit lower on my evaluation criteria.
I’m pretty familiar with the new Jeep, and have been fairly satisfied with the one we own now. I’m just wondering what owners of the newest iteration have to say?
That’s interesting, I’ve noticed something similar on previous test drives. I know that the Jeep transmission ‘learns’ your driving style by monitoring TPS, engine RPM, speed, etc. and sets it’s shift points accordingly. If your parents are light on the gas when accelerating, the transmission will ultimately end up shifting earlier. Disconnect their battery for a while, step on the brake, then re-connect and go drive the Jeep a bit more aggresively. The transmission will learn to hold shifts a bit longer, and give you a more responsive feel. I had a Jeep tech reset my tranny once and it made a noticeable difference.
Yeah, for someone who used to autocross, and has a BMW 335i coupe as their other car, he drives like grandma.
A lot of the newer autos do that. It’s awful.
We would have leased one except my wife insists on 7 seats for some reason. They are very nicely appointed, get crappy gas mileage, and if our previous GC is any indication, start falling apart at 70k miles.
be sure that the interior has enough room for you. IIRC, in connection with the body redesign, the interior capacity shrunk a fair amount (now smaller than even the Volvo XC 90s)