Jeep is nothing if not tough. The brand originated from the vehicle that helped the Allies win World War II, and its modern-day customers gather by the thousands every year to spend Easter weekend driving through the desert outside Moab, Utah. But it’s no longer enough to just be tough, and the new Cherokee represents Jeep’s most recent attempt at the whole “sensitive modern man” thing. It might not be able to share its feelings, but it can share its underpinnings, and it does so with the Chrysler 200, Dodge Dart, and Fiat 500L. Not so tough, that group.
Call Jeep’s Trail Rated badge its regressive gene. If sharing platforms with cars is Jeep’s way of backpedaling from its traditional toughness, the off-road special Trailhawk is backpedaling from that backpedaling. It earns its Trail Rated badge by lofting the shared architecture an inch farther from the dirt, tucking it behind skid plates and fitting a locking rear differential, knobby Firestone Destination A/T tires, and unique front and rear fascias that up its off-road-critical approach, departure, and break-over angles to 29.9, 32.2, and 22.9 degrees. Those are increases of 8.9, 4.9, and 1.2 from the regular Cherokee’s. Should you get in over your elevated head, the Trailhawk’s three tow hooks—two up front, one in back, all bright red regardless of exterior color choice—give the rescue party something easy to snatch without bending any suspension components.
Mired in Excellence
We found nothing to get stuck in and very little to complain about. The Firestones’ chunky tread blocks promise off-road capability but sacrifice little on-road refinement in exchange. Its suspension clearly designed for more than crawling over rocks, the Cherokee is quiet and composed over the road. None of its varied platform-mates is so refined. Steering response remains sharp, with a degree of road feel we’d never have expected in a Jeep. And the firm brake pedal feels like a foreshadowing for a Cherokee Abarth. In spite of its excellent pedal feel, braking performance was the only major difference between the Trailhawk and a Cherokee Limited we tested earlier this year; the knobblies add a significant 31 feet to the Limited’s stop, stretching it to 197 feet. But the Trailhawk circled the skidpad at a respectable 0.77 g, 0.02 down on the pavement-oriented Limited.
The powertrain is a mixed bag. In daily use, it’s transparent. The V-6 is strong, and the ZF nine-speed transmission shifts quickly and quietly into the upper ratios to keep revs down. At 45 mph, it’s only turning about 1300 rpm, and even though the engine sounds like it’s lugging, no vibration makes its way into the cockpit. Open it up, and the 3.2-liter shoves the Trailhawk to 60 mph in 7.2 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 15.7 at 90 mph—standout figures for a crossover of this size.
Did You Catch a Niner in There? We Didn’t
Despite the fact that the first batch of Cherokees was detained for weeks after coming off the assembly line while engineers sorted out the powertrain calibrations, the gearbox still feels like a job left unfinished. Sometimes the nine-speed snaps into the next gear; other times the shift is slurred. And although it might actually have nine ratios, it is effectively no more than a seven-speed. We only got it to shift into eighth when we were off throttle headed downhill—and losing speed—at more than 90 mph. We never saw ninth. Jeep could probably save a few bucks by paring the upper couple ratios from the transmission in its four-cylinder Cherokees.
Saving a few bucks might only be on our minds because it’s difficult with this trucklet. A Cherokee starts at $23,990, but by the time you get into a Trailhawk, you’re looking at a minimum of $30,490. Our test vehicle’s major option charges were for heated and leather-trimmed seats ($1295), the V-6 ($1495), navigation ($795), and the Comfort and Convenience package with a rearview camera, power liftgate, keyless entry and go, and power driver’s seat ($1895). Add to that $150 for the matte-black hood appliqué—it teams with the black wheels, those red tow hooks, and the Anvil-colored paint to complete the off-roader look—and Jeep is asking a steep $36,120. Still, the Cherokee is good in Trailhawk and lesser guises. It’s a serious dynamic shock, satisfying and responsive in a completely unexpected way. We found ourselves thinking that, if Jeep would lower it and ditch the off-road ambitions, this could be the basis for a great hot hatch. That’d be another new kind of tough for Jeep.
News Source: http://www.caranddriver.com
No comments:
Post a Comment