Design
With its rounded styling, the last generation Cherokee was derided by some fans as being too soft for their liking. In response, the latest generation Cherokee is square and buff in extremis. Its angular design and butch detailing make the car look much bigger than it actually is. At just under 4.3m long, the Cherokee is shorter than both its hard-core off-roading competitors, as well as the more car-like Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, and Subaru Forester.
This means that, depending on the height of the front seat occupants, rear seat passengers may feel a bit cramped for foot space. Many passengers found the rear bench too short for comfort. And because it's flatter than Vanilla Ice's haircut, any roundabouts or corners that are attacked with anything approaching mild vigour will have back seaters rolling around like Bibendum (the roly poly Michelin man).
One key design change on the latest Cherokee is the adoption of a lift-up tail-gate, in place of the swing out door on older models. This means that the full-sized spare wheel no longer resides exposed out back. Both the front passenger's seat and the rear bench fold flat to increase luggage space.
Step inside and you can see why recent interiors from Chrysler, of which Jeep is a part of, have been heavily criticised by both the media and public alike. The dashboard is a riot of hard, grey plastic which exudes a cheap '80s feel. There are a few touches of Euro-modernity, such as the damped hand grips in the ceiling and the interior light which slowly fade to black when you lock the doors. Thankfully, there are a limited number of soft touch surfaces, such as the arm rests on the doors and the centre console.
Exposed screw heads, such as those in the centre console and on the tail-gate, only re-enforce the car's cheap air. The external door lock on the passenger's side door (there's none on the driver's door), as well as the bonnet release hiding in the front passenger's foot well, are all evidence of a hurried — or "cost efficient" — conversion from left-hand drive to right-hand drive.
Features
The Cherokee comes in two trim levels: Sport, which we're basing our review on, and the pricier Limited. Although the Sport is reasonably well equipped, all of the funkiest features are relegated to the options list of the more expensive Limited. These include the AU$3,000 full length folding fabric roof dubbed Sky Slider and the AU$3,000 MyGig entertainment and satellite navigation system. The MyGig system accepts voice commands, and includes a flip-down 6.5-inch touchscreen and 20GB hard-disk for storing music. It ties in with the Limited's nine-speaker Infinity sound system with integrated subwoofer.
That said, the Sport's six-speaker set up is about as rockin' as you can get from a non-premium branded sound system. There's an MP3/WMA compatible in-dash CD stacker good for six discs, as well as an auxiliary jack for connectivity to your favourite MP3 player. Irrespective of the source, music never gets too muddy and the sound is well separated. If only there were steering wheel controls for the audio system and a USB jack for MP3 player connectivity — operating an MP3 player while driving is fiddly, at best, and dangerous, at worst.
A flat bonnet, shallow dashboard and very vertical windscreen make it easy to see the front boundaries of the car when parking. Side vision is just okay, so the big side mirrors, with convex lenses on both sides, are welcome. Rear vision is much more limited, which makes the standard fitments of rear parking sensors a godsend. Cruise control is another standard item and is handy out on the highway. However, the "Cruise" symbol on the dashboard lights up when the system is turned on, not when you've actually set it to regulate your speed.
One cold winter's day, the Cherokee's remote fob failed to unlock the doors, and any attempt to open the car's door manually or start the engine was met with an unnerving shriek from the alarm. We can confirm that standing around in a shopping centre car park next to a loudly wailing immobilised car garners a lot of curious glares from onlookers but precious little assistance or concern. Thankfully the Cherokee's 100,000km warranty includes complementary 24/7 roadside assist, which was promptly called into action. After a half hour wait, assistance arrived and promptly diagnosing the problem as an engine immobiliser malfunction, which was fixed by disconnecting the car's battery for a minute.
Performance
There are two engine choices: a 3.7-litre petrol V6, mated to a four-speed auto, and a 2.8-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder. The latter, which we tested, comes with a five-speed auto as standard and is an AU$4,000 option — the petrol versions of the Cherokee Sport and Limited are AU$39,990 and AU$45,990 respectively.
We can only assume that the Cherokee's "Sport" moniker refers to the sport in sports utility vehicle, or SUV, rather than sport as in motor sport. Because, quite frankly, the Cherokee isn't that much fun to drive on paved roads. The diesel is muted when cruising, but can be quite raucous when accelerating — it's here that the superb standard sound system comes into its own, blotting out most of the engine's ruckus. Around town the best fuel economy we could manage was 15.7L/100km, while a combination of highway, off-road and twisty mountain roads brought consumption down to 10L/100km.
There's a lot of free play around the steering's centre and there's little, if any, communication from the wheel. The plentiful power assistance ensures that around town duties and parking won't make you sweat. There's plenty of travel in the suspension, meaning that big bumps — like Sydney's many potholes — are easily soaked up. The suspension's so soft, however, that it bounces around on speed humps or regular undulations on the road surface.
In all honesty though, the Cherokee's an off-roader and, in the US at least, is rated to tackle the challenging Rubicon Trail located in the Sierra Nevada. The moment the Cherokee hits an unpaved road, the steering becomes firmer and pleasantly heavier. A switch by the gear stick allows you to flick between two-wheel drive, four-wheel drive, and low-range four-wheel drive, which is necessary to straddle boulders and ride roughshod over chasms. There's also Hill Descent Control that allows you to maintain a constant speed when scrabbling down a steep off-road path.
Conclusion
If you're a serious off-roader — and we don't mean driving up a gravel track to your favourite vineyard — then the Cherokee is worthy of consideration. For those looking for a city-only family hauler Jeep's latest model demands too many compromises.
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