2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee L (inc. 0-100) review: Why I wouldn't buy this SUV...

CarExpert

The new Jeep Grand Cherokee L is big...but it's let down by a few fundamental flaws. Paul Maric reviews the top-specification 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee L Summit Reserve and finds it has some issues.   Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  More Jeep content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/jeep More Jeep Grand Cherokee content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/jeep/grand-cherokee  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior 0:55 Interior 4:08 Infotainment 6:38 Safety 10:17 Practicality 11:41 On the road 17:58 0-100km/h 23:20 Verdict 25:27  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #jeep #grandcherokee #review

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.

00:01 This is one of the biggest SUVs I've driven in a while.

00:04 It's the new Jeep Grand Cherokee L,

00:07 which means it's a long boy.

00:09 There is actually a bigger version of this.

00:11 It's called the Grand Wagoneer.

00:13 And while we don't get that in Australia,

00:15 that actually sits on a body-on-frame chassis.

00:17 This one's unibody, but this is still absolutely enormous.

00:20 This competes with things like the Hyundai Palisade,

00:23 the Toyota Kluger, amongst others.

00:26 This is the top specification.

00:28 It's called the Summit Reserve.

00:30 What a fancy name.

00:31 Priced at just over $115,000.

00:34 If that's too expensive,

00:35 the entire range kicks off at just over 80 grand.

00:38 Today, we're gonna do a detailed review of this car.

00:40 So if you do wanna skip ahead to other parts of this review,

00:42 you can use the time codes on the screen,

00:44 or if you're on YouTube,

00:45 you can scroll down and use the chapters below.

00:48 And if you haven't done so already,

00:49 subscribe to our channel, press the bell icon,

00:52 'cause that'll tell you every single time

00:53 we drive one of these.

00:54 Let's talk exterior design.

00:57 So you've got five external colors to pick from.

00:59 All but white is gonna cost you $1,750,

01:03 which is a lot of money,

01:04 but I guess it is a lot of paint

01:06 that you actually need to put on the car.

01:08 I love the design of this, I'm not gonna lie.

01:10 I love the front, I love the back.

01:11 It really just has fantastic proportions.

01:14 Down the front here,

01:15 you've got that trademark seven-pillar Jeep grill.

01:19 Jeep logo up the top there,

01:21 and a camera built in just here for your 360 camera.

01:25 Radar down the bottom there,

01:26 and then this piano black section.

01:28 I really like just the way that it looks,

01:30 I don't know, tough and stylish at the same time.

01:33 They haven't compromised any of that

01:35 sort of Jeep ruggedness in terms of the design,

01:37 and it has a real presence in person as well.

01:40 It turns a lot of heads.

01:41 So it is quite an impressive

01:43 and imposing vehicle out on the road.

01:45 Over here in terms of your headlights,

01:46 full LED headlights with headlight washer.

01:50 Down the bottom there,

01:51 you've got front parking sensors as well.

01:53 Whip around to the side.

01:56 Now, this rides on 21-inch alloy wheels.

01:59 This is an interesting setup

02:01 because this particular spec has air suspension,

02:03 it has semi-adaptive damping as well.

02:05 So it should mean that it actually rides nicely

02:07 out on the road.

02:08 This actually had some ride and handling tuning work done

02:12 here in Australia prior to the launch of the car.

02:14 So it should be tailored for our roads there.

02:16 The Summit Reserve has body colored wheel arch guards there,

02:20 a little sort of side locator lamp,

02:23 Grand Cherokee lettering down the side there as well.

02:26 In terms of ground clearance,

02:27 this being the top spec

02:28 and having the adjustable air suspension,

02:30 it can rise up to 276 millimeters of ground clearance,

02:33 which is actually pretty decent,

02:35 and that improves your approach and departure angles as well,

02:37 which I'll run over later.

02:39 Over here, you have piano black up the top there,

02:41 and then you have a camera built into here,

02:43 plus that indicator in the wing mirror.

02:46 You've got these chrome,

02:48 sort of chrome S garnishes up the side of the car there,

02:51 and then a black roof,

02:52 which I think looks fantastic.

02:54 Roof rails there, privacy glass,

02:56 and then come around to the back.

02:58 Now around the back here,

02:59 you've got a set of LED tail lights,

03:02 the Summit Reserve badge just here,

03:05 real exhaust outlets hidden under there.

03:08 Now, another interesting element here,

03:09 you've got two sets of cameras.

03:11 So you've got this one up here,

03:12 and that also has a little washer built into it as well.

03:15 And then you've got this one down here as well,

03:17 that has a washer as well.

03:18 So when the weather is like this

03:20 and the back gets all dirty,

03:22 you don't need to actually stop the car

03:24 to clean your cameras.

03:25 You can just give them a squirt and they will become clean.

03:27 There's a brake light integrated here,

03:29 plus a shark fin aerial up the top.

03:31 Now let me know what you reckon

03:32 about the design in the comments section below.

03:34 I do want to point something out,

03:36 and you may have noticed this

03:37 as we've been going around the car here,

03:38 but some of these panels just don't line up.

03:41 Like have a look at this.

03:42 This is out of alignment there.

03:44 On this side here,

03:45 that paint or whatever the sort of wrapping on this is,

03:48 is bubbling.

03:49 And around other parts of the car as well,

03:51 the panels are out of alignment.

03:52 So I don't know if that's just this vehicle.

03:55 It doesn't have all that many Ks on it,

03:57 but it is pretty disappointing to see

03:58 that it has been assembled to look like that.

04:01 If I was paying 115, 120 grand for this,

04:04 I'd be pretty disappointed with the way this appears

04:06 at the moment in terms of the panel alignment.

04:08 So we're inside the Grand Cherokee L.

04:11 Woo, this looks nice.

04:13 So let's start off with the key.

04:15 Here it is here.

04:15 So you've got unlock, lock.

04:17 You have a remote start function, a boot function,

04:20 and then on the back there, you have Jeep.

04:23 This is a proximity sensing key.

04:25 So you can leave that in your pocket, grab the door handle.

04:28 Once you're inside,

04:28 you have a push button start just up here.

04:31 So this actually all just looks really stunning to me.

04:34 And in the Summit Reserve,

04:35 you can get this interior color as well.

04:37 And it really just blends nicely

04:39 with that walnut woodgrain trim along the dashboard there.

04:42 The only downside is the seat

04:44 is already getting pretty dirty

04:45 and this car's done all of 4,000 kilometers.

04:47 So that is worth keeping in mind

04:49 if you do go for one of these exotic seat colors,

04:51 you really do have to stay on top of keeping it clean.

04:54 Otherwise it's gonna look like a 40 year old truck

04:57 by the time you're done with it.

04:59 Along the top of the dashboard there,

05:00 that looks great as well.

05:01 So it's sort of leather material lined.

05:04 You've got these materials down the side there

05:07 that are soft to the touch, a good spot to lean your knee on.

05:09 And then you get more of that woodgrain trim

05:11 along the doors and the diamond quilt stitching

05:13 there as well.

05:14 So it is really beautifully presented.

05:16 And I think this actually looks very much

05:19 like it's worth its price tag.

05:20 But when you do take a closer look,

05:22 there are some things here that stand out

05:24 that I'm not a huge fan of.

05:25 There is piano black all over the place.

05:27 And again, it's only 4,000 kilometers old,

05:29 but it's all scratched up

05:31 and it's just impossible to keep clean.

05:33 I really don't understand why they keep using

05:36 that type of material.

05:37 And then in addition to that,

05:38 some of the build around here isn't fantastic.

05:41 So these things,

05:43 they're just sort of loose around the steering wheel.

05:45 This stuff here squeaks when you're moving it around.

05:47 This is really hard to open.

05:49 You have to kind of push it in really hard

05:52 for it to do anything.

05:54 And this one here, when you close it,

05:56 you have to really get into it as well.

05:57 So it is disappointing there that this,

06:00 yeah, I don't know,

06:01 it just doesn't feel like they've gone to enough testing

06:02 here to make sure this is durable over time,

06:04 which is just a little bit disappointing,

06:06 but it is what it is, I guess.

06:07 Now, what about your touch points?

06:08 So this here is soft to the touch,

06:12 soft on the door as well.

06:13 How soft is it?

06:14 Well, we've got our durometer.

06:15 We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.

06:17 If you want to see how this car compares to others

06:19 that we've tested before,

06:20 have a look at the link in the description.

06:22 So I kind of mentioned the build quality stuff just before,

06:24 but our usual shape test has that sort of wobbling

06:27 a little bit in the center there,

06:28 but the rest of this feels fairly solid.

06:30 And our door test, get ready for some beeping.

06:32 (door beeping)

06:35 Yeah, it feels really nice and solid

06:37 when you open and close the door.

06:38 Let's talk about infotainment.

06:40 Now, this is one of the standout features

06:42 of the Grand Cherokee L.

06:44 It's basically the newest version

06:45 of Jeep's Uconnect infotainment system.

06:48 That infotainment system has generally

06:50 actually been pretty good,

06:51 and this is just the latest and greatest version of it.

06:55 Now, how big is it?

06:56 So 10.1 inch display, it appears here.

06:58 You then have a screen ahead of the driver as well

07:00 that I'll run you through briefly,

07:02 and that display is 10.25 inch.

07:04 So this is your home screen.

07:05 You can configure what appears here on the home screen

07:09 and make it look exactly how you want it to look

07:12 pretty sort of easily.

07:13 The thing I find interesting is

07:15 they obviously didn't do the conversion

07:17 from left-hand drive to right-hand drive very well

07:19 because the steering wheel heater button

07:22 is up on that side, which is the passenger side,

07:26 instead of it being on the driver's side,

07:28 which is a little bit strange.

07:29 I would've thought they'd localize that

07:31 so that it actually works properly.

07:33 In terms of your audio,

07:34 you have AM, FM, and DAB digital radio.

07:38 That's all plumbed through a 19-speaker

07:40 Macintosh-branded sound system.

07:42 Sound system's great.

07:43 It sounds fantastic,

07:45 especially in this big cabinet.

07:46 It's kind of like a theater in here.

07:48 It's got plenty of bass,

07:49 and I really like the way that it sounds.

07:50 You get inbuilt satellite navigation.

07:53 The inbuilt satellite navigation works well.

07:55 It's nice and fast and sharp.

07:57 In terms of smartphone mirroring,

07:58 you have wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

08:01 Show you what Apple CarPlay looks like.

08:03 So basically full-screen integration,

08:05 nice and fast and snappy there as well.

08:08 Show you what Android Auto looks like.

08:10 It is also wireless and also full-screen.

08:14 That's nice and snappy as well.

08:16 Very impressive.

08:17 Up the top here,

08:18 you've got the ability to add shortcuts as well.

08:22 So you can get to certain places

08:24 without having to sort of flick around all the menus.

08:27 This does have some really interesting features though.

08:30 So if you have kids in the car,

08:32 which is probably what you're going to do,

08:34 you're gonna have the ability to watch them.

08:37 I know it sounds a little bit creepy,

08:39 but let me explain where this is actually useful.

08:41 So if you go to FamCam,

08:42 I love that noise,

08:43 you can click on any of the seats

08:46 to get a zoomed in view

08:47 of exactly where the kids are sitting.

08:49 Now this is important because for me,

08:51 with a rearward facing child seat in this position here,

08:54 so the rear passenger seat,

08:56 I have to use a mirror to see if my daughter's asleep.

09:00 This on the other hand,

09:01 I can just press a button

09:02 and then the camera looks to see whether she's asleep.

09:05 So I love that feature.

09:06 This is going to be really handy for families

09:08 who have babies in some of these rows

09:10 and they wanna see what they're up to,

09:11 or if they wanna see who is arguing here

09:13 in the third row

09:15 and who needs to get in trouble

09:16 for slapping their sibling or something like that.

09:19 This is also where you can access your other cameras.

09:21 This feature is really handy too.

09:22 So a push of that button drops the headrests

09:24 in the third row.

09:25 So if you do need better visibility out the back,

09:27 it is pretty straightforward just to hit that

09:29 and then they disappear.

09:30 So a very impressive setup

09:32 and I love that they've thought about

09:33 all of the family features here on the infotainment system.

09:36 Now the screen ahead of the driver,

09:38 so pretty straightforward,

09:39 you can configure all your different views there.

09:41 This particular car has an option pack

09:42 that includes a wireless phone charger,

09:44 a head up display.

09:46 It's meant to have a passenger screen,

09:48 but I can't see it there.

09:49 And perhaps this is something that is missing

09:51 due to the semiconductor shortage.

09:53 But it does have this feature, which is night vision.

09:55 So looking out the front there,

09:57 I can see the night vision camera.

10:00 You may think this is stupid

10:01 and it is cool to see like where heat sources are

10:04 off other cars and stuff like that.

10:05 But this is actually more useful for pedestrians.

10:07 When you do have a pedestrian walk in front of the car,

10:09 it will highlight them for you.

10:10 Especially useful if you're driving out in the country

10:12 and can't see animals and other warm blooded creatures.

10:17 Now, what about your safety tech?

10:18 You have autonomous emergency braking

10:20 with pedestrian and cyclist detection.

10:22 You have an auto dimming rear vision mirror,

10:24 but it also doubles as a digital rear mirror as well,

10:27 which is pretty impressive.

10:28 You have a lane departure warning

10:30 and a lane keeping assistant.

10:31 You have rear cross traffic alert, blind spot monitoring

10:34 built into the wing mirror.

10:36 Now, in addition to all this stuff,

10:39 you have right our cruise control,

10:40 but the Summit Reserve also comes

10:42 with this highway assistant.

10:45 It's really not a very good system.

10:46 So I tested this out on the way here today

10:48 and it just won't stay in the lane.

10:51 Like it kind of stays in the lane sometimes,

10:53 but it will then veer out of the lane all on its own.

10:56 Yeah, it's just a really poorly calibrated system.

10:58 So it's pretty disappointing

10:59 that that doesn't work any better.

11:01 On the parking front,

11:02 you have front and rear parking sensors.

11:04 The Summit Reserve also gets a 360 camera.

11:07 This is what it looks like.

11:09 So that is your top down view over here.

11:11 It's okay, it's kind of stitched together.

11:13 You can kind of see what's around the car.

11:15 That's your rear view.

11:16 You can then go wide angle for the rear view,

11:18 wide angle for the front view, direct out the front there,

11:21 or have a look at this.

11:22 You can go supersized for the rear view

11:24 and that resolution is excellent.

11:26 You can clearly see what's going on there.

11:27 You even have a zoom function as well.

11:29 If you're hitching a trailer,

11:31 you can look out the front too,

11:33 see the wheel guides as you're driving off roads,

11:36 that will come in handy.

11:37 And then you can press this as well to clean the camera too.

11:39 So very impressive.

11:41 Moving on to practicality,

11:42 we'll start off with your connectivity.

11:44 So in here, you've got a USB-C and USB-A,

11:48 two sets of those, an auxiliary port,

11:51 you've got a 12 volt outlet.

11:52 You also have the optional wireless phone charger.

11:56 In terms of where are you gonna store your phone

11:58 and stuff like that?

11:58 Well, it can live down there on the wireless phone charger

12:00 or alternatively,

12:02 stick it here on the cup holder if you want.

12:04 Speaking of cup holder,

12:05 holds the coffee in nicely,

12:07 but it is a deep hole.

12:08 So your coffee kind of disappears down there,

12:10 but look, it's not the end of the world.

12:12 You've got these rubber grips in there as well

12:14 to hold your drinks as you go.

12:17 Normal bottle fits in without any dramas.

12:20 It's inside the door too.

12:21 Let's try our big bottle.

12:23 No, it does actually fit.

12:30 I was gonna lie there for a second.

12:31 It does actually fit.

12:32 You have to wedge it in.

12:33 I would have thought this being an American car,

12:35 it would fit, you know,

12:37 like that's the size of a typical American coffee.

12:39 So it should fit that,

12:40 but that doesn't.

12:41 You gotta kind of wedge it in.

12:42 I wouldn't love to put something sort of

12:45 without flexible bits on the edge of it in there.

12:48 Other storage.

12:49 You've got this set of console here.

12:50 You have a section up the top there

12:51 for keys and bits and pieces,

12:53 and then a section beneath it.

12:55 That's actually pretty decent.

12:56 It's nice and deep.

12:57 We've got a glove box over here as well.

12:59 That is reasonably sized too.

13:01 No sunglasses holder,

13:02 but this is where you'll find the controls

13:04 for that big panoramic glass sunroof as well.

13:07 Okay, moving on to comfort.

13:09 You have quad zone automatic climate control.

13:12 So two zones up the front here.

13:14 You also have heated and cooled seats up the front

13:16 with a heated steering wheel.

13:18 You have massage function for both the front seats

13:21 with memory, 12-way electric seat adjustments.

13:23 You can go forwards, backwards.

13:25 Backrest can go forwards, backwards.

13:27 You can lift the base.

13:28 You can extend the front section.

13:29 You can adjust your lumbar.

13:31 There is so much adjustment here.

13:33 Love the seats as well.

13:34 They are so comfortable.

13:35 So they've got these perforations for the cooling.

13:37 Summit written in them up the top there,

13:39 and plenty of bolstering as well.

13:42 Beautiful leather material too.

13:43 So they are very nicely presented.

13:46 So very impressed with that.

13:47 Steering wheel offers both tilts and reach adjustment.

13:51 It's electrically adjustable.

13:52 And on our reach test,

13:53 all of this stuff is easy to reach while you're driving.

13:55 Okay, second row, Grand Cherokee L.

13:58 Let's start off with our room.

13:59 So knee room is reasonable.

14:01 Toe room is okay.

14:03 Headroom is not too bad.

14:04 I just would have thought

14:05 there'd be just a little bit more room here.

14:07 So yes, I have my seat quite far back,

14:09 but if you have a look at that knee room,

14:11 it's sort of, it's fine, but it's nothing amazing.

14:13 Same with toe room.

14:14 I would have expected just maybe a little bit more there

14:16 so I can stretch out.

14:17 But for the most part,

14:18 it is actually not too bad back here.

14:20 Creature comfort.

14:20 So you've got mat pockets in the back of the seats.

14:22 You have your third and fourth zone of climate control,

14:25 heating and cooling for the two outboard seats.

14:28 You also have air vents down here,

14:30 USB-C and USB-A connectivity,

14:33 plus an actual power outlet as well.

14:36 The seats themselves move forwards and backwards.

14:38 You can afford a bit more room for the third row.

14:40 You can also tilt them as well

14:42 if you want to recline a little bit.

14:44 Center armrest here with two cup holders.

14:48 Bottom fits in there nicely with those rubber sections.

14:51 This fits inside the door as well,

14:54 although it's a little bit of a squeeze.

14:56 I'm going to call out here as well

14:57 that you have ISOFIX points on all three of these seats

15:00 and then top tether points on all five seats back here,

15:03 which is great.

15:04 So if you do have a whole bunch of kids,

15:06 you're going to be able to accommodate everybody nicely.

15:09 You've got these window shades, they're manual.

15:11 Let's do our window test.

15:14 See if it goes all the way down.

15:16 Bob's your uncle.

15:16 All the way down and it's auto up and down as well.

15:19 Very impressive.

15:20 And finally, some cooling vents just here

15:23 on the B pillar as well, which is good news.

15:25 So third row, given there was slightly less space

15:28 than anticipated here in the second row,

15:30 let's see what it's like in the third row.

15:31 So there's a couple of ways of getting in.

15:33 You can just drop that seat and climb over,

15:36 or they've got this clever mechanism

15:37 that lifts the seat, slides it forward

15:41 so that you can, even as an adult, just climb all the way in.

15:43 So we'll give that a shot.

15:45 All right, so let me slide this back.

15:50 I'm going to try and put it like all the way back.

15:53 So that position there is the default,

15:55 but I have stacks of knee room there.

15:57 Sean, I might get you to slide that back all the way

16:01 so that we have maximum leg room for the second row.

16:04 There we go, that'll do.

16:06 So even there with this all the way back,

16:09 I actually have an okay amount of room.

16:10 My knees are sort of just touching that.

16:12 Toe room is limited, but headroom is pretty reasonable.

16:15 So very impressed with that.

16:17 Other crutchy comforts back here.

16:18 You've got air vents, USB-C, USB-A,

16:21 cup holders on both sides.

16:23 It's actually a really nice place to be seated,

16:25 even for adults, which I'm pretty surprised by.

16:28 You don't really have a lot of SUVs in this segment

16:31 focusing on adults for the third row.

16:33 So yeah, big tick there for Jeep.

16:35 Let's talk cargo space.

16:37 So being such a long vehicle,

16:39 they've actually done wonders here with cargo space

16:41 and making this actually usable.

16:43 So in this area here alone,

16:45 you have just under 500 litres of cargo space,

16:48 which is pretty awesome.

16:49 I'll show you what it looks like

16:50 with the bag in there.

16:53 Fits it in nicely without any problems.

16:55 Beneath the cargo floor,

16:56 you've also got some storage away from prying eyes.

16:59 It's also where you'll find your jack.

17:01 Now, the interesting thing is,

17:02 you would expect something like this,

17:03 which is off-road focused, to have a full-size spare,

17:07 but unfortunately, under the car, it's like a steel spare.

17:10 It's only 245 mil wide.

17:12 The rest of the tires are 275.

17:13 So it is strange that they've gone with such a small tire.

17:17 Why not just have a full-size spare under there?

17:19 So, a very odd choice.

17:21 In terms of your other features back here,

17:23 you've got a 12-volt outlet off to the side.

17:25 Then in addition to that,

17:26 you also have all the buttons

17:28 for dropping all of these seats.

17:29 So these two are dropped and also raised

17:32 using these electronic controls.

17:34 So they lower out of the way.

17:36 Once they are out of the way,

17:37 that produces a space that is just under 1400 litres in size.

17:42 So it's a nice, big, open, cavernous area.

17:45 And if you want even more space,

17:46 you can drop the second row from here too

17:49 by dropping that.

17:50 That expands the space to over 2000 litres.

17:53 Like it is an absolutely whopper space here.

17:56 So it's pretty versatile there when it comes to storage.

17:58 (car engine roaring)

18:01 Righto, so we've just hit the road in the Grand Cherokee.

18:05 Now, unfortunately for the Australian market,

18:08 the only engine we get at the moment

18:09 is a naturally aspirated petrol V6.

18:13 And I know what you're thinking.

18:14 It's a 2.2, 2.3 ton car.

18:16 Surely a petrol V6 isn't adequate.

18:19 You'd be right.

18:20 It produces 210 kilowatts of power

18:22 and 344 newton metres of torque.

18:26 It really is just an insignificant amount of power

18:28 and torque for a vehicle this size.

18:30 That affects things like towing capacity

18:31 here on the top spec.

18:32 Can only tow just under 2.3 tonnes,

18:35 which again is just so substandard

18:37 compared to the previous generation of the Grand Cherokee,

18:40 which was able to do three and a half tonnes

18:42 brake towing capacity,

18:43 which is exactly what you need in this segment

18:45 when you aren't towing things like a caravan

18:47 and big old things like that.

18:49 It's all mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission.

18:52 How does that all feel behind the wheel?

18:54 We'll give it a little punch here.

18:55 (car engine roaring)

18:57 The gearbox itself is actually nice and sharp

19:00 and crisp and quick.

19:01 The problem is that the engine just needs to rev

19:05 and make a whole bunch of noise whenever it does anything.

19:07 And that's like overtaking.

19:09 You will just hear it for days.

19:11 Tacking off at the traffic lights,

19:12 you really have to stay stuck into it

19:15 because it is very peaky.

19:16 And that means that it has to be high up in its rev band

19:18 to actually achieve anything meaningful.

19:20 On the upside,

19:21 it is mated to a permanent four-wheel drive system.

19:24 So that means it's constantly active.

19:25 It's not one of those on-demand systems.

19:27 So you're always sending torque to the four wheels

19:30 in some variation of it.

19:31 And that means it does feel somewhat sure-footed

19:33 out on the road.

19:35 When we go for a bit more of a fang,

19:37 I'll be interested to see how it goes here

19:38 in the wet conditions,

19:39 because it is sopping wet today.

19:41 There are patches of dry on the road here,

19:43 but for the most part, it is pretty wet.

19:44 And we're running a bit of a highway terrain tire

19:47 that is a bridge between on-road and off-road sort of capable.

19:51 Now, Jeep claims a combined fuel economy

19:55 of under 11 litres per 100 Ks,

19:57 but we're currently seeing on an average of 11.7.

20:00 And that's with a good mix of highway and city driving,

20:04 and also a bit of sporty driving around here this morning.

20:06 So I'm okay with that figure.

20:08 Generally, a petrol V6 is going to use a whole lot of fuel,

20:11 especially when it is mated to something this size.

20:13 The good news on the fuel economy, though,

20:15 is that it has a fuel tank that measures 104 litres.

20:17 So that means that you can stick a whole bunch of juice in it

20:19 and you're not going to have to stop all the time

20:21 to fill it up,

20:21 but it is going to be quite thirsty in the process.

20:24 Jeep is actually working on a turbocharged

20:27 six-cylinder petrol engine

20:28 that I'm hoping we get for the Australian market.

20:30 There is a petrol V8 available in the States,

20:33 but we miss out on that locally.

20:34 So what is the ride like?

20:39 Let's dial it up to 130 Ks an hour.

20:43 That is the maximum legal speed in parts of Australia.

20:47 We'll send it over our sine waves.

20:50 See what it feels like.

20:51 You can hear it making a whole bunch of noise to get there.

20:54 Okay.

20:56 It actually feels pretty good, so that's commendable there.

20:59 So it has really good body control at that top end.

21:02 In and around town, the ride isn't fantastic.

21:04 It's nowhere near as comfortable as it could be.

21:07 And especially when you compare it

21:08 to some of the competitors in this segment,

21:09 a lot of them really focus on quality of ride

21:12 and a softer ride.

21:13 This is strangely firm at the front end.

21:16 So the front suspension is really firm

21:18 and then the back is softer.

21:19 So when you do hit things like speed bumps

21:22 and stuff like that, you feel a big shunt from the front

21:25 and then it's softer at the rear, strangely.

21:26 And that results in a ride that isn't overly comfortable.

21:30 So I think it could have a little bit more comfort

21:32 dialed into it, especially when you are using air suspension

21:35 and a sort of semi-adaptive damping setup.

21:38 You've got a set of drive modes here,

21:39 Sport, Auto, Snow, Sand, Mud and Rock.

21:42 Let's pop it into Sport mode.

21:45 So that immediately puts the suspension

21:48 down to the aero setting.

21:49 It puts the gearbox into Sport mode.

21:51 Like I said, it is wet here today.

21:53 Yes, it is wet here today and this is kind of, yeah.

22:02 I don't know, these tyres don't seem to love

22:05 this kind of wet terrain here in the car.

22:07 It is kind of under steering a little bit

22:10 and it feels big out on the road.

22:12 So steering doesn't have a great deal of feel to it.

22:15 It's kind of a little bit numb.

22:16 It's artificial in a lot of ways.

22:19 And yeah, I mean, there's no hiding the fact

22:22 that this is an enormous SUV,

22:23 so you're not really going to ever get

22:25 that sporty feel out of it.

22:26 Makes me wonder if they're actually gonna do

22:27 an SRT version of this because yeah, I don't know.

22:31 Inherently, it just feels a little sketchy

22:34 as the speed picks up, especially here on the wet stuff.

22:37 So yeah, I don't know.

22:40 Not sort of overly impressed with it.

22:42 Dial it onto our back straight.

22:48 I'm keen to see what this engine feels like

22:51 if you're gonna do something like an overtake

22:53 or something like that, because while it is noisy and peaky,

22:57 the good part is that when it does get up

22:59 into the higher part of that rev band,

23:01 it actually has a little bit of punch to it.

23:03 So here's our back straight.

23:04 I'll just punch that throttle.

23:06 (engine revving)

23:09 Yeah, look, it's making a whole lot of noise

23:10 and not really moving all that quickly.

23:12 So yeah, look, it's good, but not amazing.

23:15 I think this desperately needs that turbo six cylinder.

23:18 Jeep doesn't have an official zero to 100 time

23:22 for the Grand Cherokee L,

23:24 but this is how it went up against our stopwatch.

23:26 (engine revving)

23:32 (engine revving)

23:34 Let's talk about some of the off-road specs.

23:44 So I mentioned earlier

23:45 that you do have the air suspension set up,

23:46 and when you do put that into its highest off-road setting,

23:49 you're getting almost 280 millimetres of ground clearance,

23:51 which is excellent.

23:52 Summit Reserve with that fancy suspension

23:55 also gets a better approach and departure angle,

23:57 and that comes in at 28.2 degrees for the approach angle

24:00 and a little under 24 degrees for the departure angle.

24:03 Now that of course is the angle of the face

24:05 you can hit when you're going forwards,

24:07 and then the angle of the face you can hit

24:09 when you're going backwards effectively.

24:11 That is your approach and departure angle.

24:13 In terms of your other off-road equipment,

24:14 it has the ability to lock the center diff,

24:16 so it's sending 50% of torque to the front,

24:18 50% of torque to the rear.

24:20 You also have a low range mode and a hill descent control.

24:23 Then these other drive modes as well

24:25 will configure the stability control

24:26 and what that does when this is actually off-road.

24:29 Finally, 610 millimetre weighting depth,

24:31 so that is the depth you can go to

24:33 before you start breaking things under the bonnet.

24:35 Now I know you're wondering,

24:38 big premium SUV, is the road noise premium?

24:41 Look, we're doing sort of highway speeds at the moment

24:44 on a course chip road.

24:46 It's not too bad, so it's not serene

24:48 like something like a Mercedes-Benz,

24:50 but it is nice and quiet inside the cabin.

24:52 What about your visibility?

24:53 So this is a big bus, I'm not gonna lie about that.

24:56 I can see clearly down the front there,

24:58 the wing mirrors are huge.

24:59 Visibility out the back isn't too bad.

25:01 I mentioned earlier that you can drop those rear headrests

25:03 on the third row to give you improved visibility

25:05 and that works really well in that setting there.

25:07 And aside from that,

25:08 you've got a semi-autonomous parking feature

25:10 and the reverse view camera,

25:12 the surround view camera rather, is fantastic.

25:14 So it means that parking this, despite its size,

25:16 is actually not too hard of a task.

25:18 And you're turning circle, it's just under 12 metres,

25:21 so about what I would expect with a car of this size.

25:24 (car engine roaring)

25:27 So the Grand Cherokee L, I've gotta point something out.

25:31 So when we started filming, it was wet

25:34 and it was a little bit sketchy on those tyres,

25:36 but then it dried out

25:37 and I went for a bit more of an aggressive fang

25:39 and it's actually quite dynamic for a vehicle of its size.

25:41 I think the tyres just aren't really suited all that well

25:44 to wet weather driving, but when it does dry up,

25:46 it is actually somewhat engaging to drive.

25:48 That's why some bits of our footage are on a dry road

25:51 and some are wet, so it's a little bit confusing.

25:53 But the Grand Cherokee L, would I buy one?

25:56 The answer's no, and I'll explain why.

25:57 So I love the practicality, it's huge inside,

26:00 the tech is fantastic,

26:02 that camera for the kids is really cool and functional,

26:04 and it's got plenty of room inside as well,

26:06 and I think it looks great too.

26:08 But ultimately, it's let down by a couple of things.

26:10 The towing capacity, when the previous one did

26:12 three and a half tonne towing capacity,

26:13 you can't go backwards now to 2.2 tonnes.

26:16 Then on top of that, the engine,

26:17 it just really isn't suitable for a vehicle this size

26:20 and it just doesn't gel well with this application.

26:23 They really need to sort out that Turbo 6

26:25 and bring that to Australia,

26:26 or even the naturally aspirated V8.

26:28 I think people would be happy to pay for it.

26:29 You just need to offer it, not just a single V6 option.

26:32 And then there's the build quality.

26:34 I can't talk about other Grand Cherokee L vehicles,

26:36 but this one here that we're testing is built pretty poorly,

26:39 and I think if I was paying that kind of money,

26:41 I'd be pretty disappointed in the way

26:42 that it's been assembled.

26:43 So there you go.

26:44 If you are in the market for one,

26:45 I would encourage you to wait

26:46 until they bring a decent engine out here.

26:48 Then that's gonna address a lot of the problems

26:50 that the car has, and then it's actually gonna be

26:52 probably a pretty decent purchase.

26:54 So let me know in the comments section below,

26:56 have you bought one of these?

26:57 Does the V6 get better with time?

26:59 Is it like a fine wine?

27:00 Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

27:03 Now, if you did enjoy this video,

27:04 please make sure you like it

27:05 and you share it with your mates.

27:06 And if you haven't done so already,

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27:10 But until next time, take it easy.

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