By Frank S. Washington
AUSTIN, TX – Gutted. That is how I would describe the 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee; but in a good way.
Normally, this would be considered a freshening in the life cycle of Jeep’s flagship model. The Jeep Grand Cherokee was all new in 2011.
The upper grille is shorter, the head lights are slimmer, the front fascia had been raised slightly and the fog lamps were more pronounced.
Of course, the seven-slot grille remained and the Grand Cherokee now has what Jeep called “signature” LED tail lighting and “a re-sculpted” tailgate that allowed better visibility during my test drive.
The front lamps featured LED running lights and bi xenon headlamps are standard on the Overland and Summit models and available on the Limited.
Those were some of the changes to the metal on the 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee. But the real changes took place under the hood. They begin with an eight-speed automatic transmission. This involved more than just having the most gears of any sport-utility.
The new Grand Cherokee retains its 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 and its 290 horsepower. It has been redesigned and mated to the new eight-speed transmission. The Pentastar powered Grand Cherokee now has a towing capability of 6,200 lbs. that Jeep said is best in class.
Fuel economy improvements for the 5.7-liter V8 were impressive. It too was mated to the eight-speed transmission with eyebrow raising results. The 360 horsepower engine can now tow 7,400 lbs., again best in class, and fuel economy increases by 10 percent.
But the even bigger deal is Jeep’s new 3.0-liter EcoDiesel V6. It made 240 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque. It can tow 7,400 lbs., get up to 30 mpg on the highway in the 4X2 models and it has a class leading range of more than 730 miles in that configuration.
This is significant. American sport utility models for more than a decade have been victims of their own success. Luxury brands started making sport utilities because owners of their sedans were purchasing SUVs, many of them Grand Cherokees, as second vehicles. Now, Jeep has responded with a diesel powered SUV of its own to match their offerings.
When I got in our Pentastar powered 2014 Grand Cherokee, it felt good. There was an atmosphere that comes only with a quality build. The seats were supportive and the redesigned steering wheel seemed like it was sculpted for my hands.
Jeep used different colors and combinations of colors, different textures and upgraded leather to enhance the ambience of the new Grand Cherokee’s interior that was pretty good to begin with.
The interior designer used places to come up with the Grand Cherokee’s four color schemes: Morocco, Vesuvius, Grand Canyon and New Zealand. The center stack continued to morph into a horizontal layout with a storage compartment at its base.
I still don’t like the silver satin (plastic) that many automakers are using but in the Grand Cherokee it had been dulled as not to shine so much. And in some of its models, the Jeep Grand Cherokee is using real wood – oak.
I was surprised at the route they chose for the test drive. It was mostly two lane twisting roads, a lot of up and downs and some turns that were so tight they could almost qualify as switchbacks.
There wasn’t a lot of body sway, acceleration was more than adequate and our Pentastar powered Jeep tracked well. We drove a diesel powered Jeep from lunch to the Circuit of the Americas Formula 1 racetrack. It was quiet and the power was understated but it was there when needed.
We had an all-wheel-drive Jeep Grand Cherokee on the drive to lunch but we didn’t know which off road package it was equipped with. The iconic sport utility has a choice of three.
The 4X2, or two-wheel-drive, is rear wheel drive.
Quadra-Trac I is the Grand Cherokee’s base four-wheel-drive system. It has a single speed transfer case and it had a torque split of 50-50. It can also send the torque from side-to-side.
Quadra-Trac II has an active transfer case that is capable of sending 100 percent of the Jeep’s torque to the front or the rear wheels or split it as needed. It also has side-to-side capability.
The Quadra-Trac II with Electronic Limited-slip Differential can deliver 100 percent of the torque fore or aft or send it to a single wheel, any wheel with grip.
Based prices are $29,790 for the Laredo, $36,790 for the Limited, $43,990 for the Overland, $48,990 for the Summit and $43,990 for the EcoDiesel. The 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee will have a blizzard of option packages that will undoubtedly push the price up.
But you pay for what you get and in the Jeep Grand Cherokee buyers get a world class iconic sport utility that is one of the best at what it does.
Frank S. Washington is editor of AboutThatCar.com.
This was printed in the April 21, 2013 – May 4, 2013 Edition
