Jeep Cherokee KL

[Sirshredalot]

Does anybody have experience with the new Cherokee?

I'm thinking the Trailhawk looks kind of nice. It looks like it performs pretty well on dirt for a Fiat.

Any reason why I should or shouldn't pull the trigger on one? Is there something else I should be looking at? No, I'm not doing the Suby XV Crosstrek. It's a nice car, but we're trying to make replacement plans for a Subaru that has become a money pit once it passed 110k on the odometer.

[Mazderati]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that, but the new Cherokees are one step above Pontiac Aztek.

[Sirshredalot]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that, but the new Cherokees are one step above Pontiac Aztek.

I could take or leave the styling, but I like the Trailhawk a lot better in that department than the other flavors they have for sale. I'm not too concerned with the aesthetics one way or the other, though. I'm more concerned with performance and what it's like to live with the car in the medium-term.

[Alaskan Rover]

Why in heck would you want to get a trailhawk? $30,000 - $35,000 with not enough departure angle and ground clearance for really serious offroading. I would be wary. Look, I'm a Rover guy, but if you wanna spend that kind of loot on American metal, I think you would have MUCH more fun with the 4 door Wrangler Rubicon...as you can take the top fully off, go with a vinyl Bimini top or stick on a hard-top for winter use and take it trail-riding with doors off and windshield folded down in summers...you can't do THAT with the TrailHawk....and it DOES look like a freakin' Aztec...at least the Wrangler, plebian as they are, still looks like a Jeep.

The Cherokees, however, are NOT Fiats. Apart from simply having the manufacturing company being now owned by Fiat, they have almost nothing to do with Fiats. That's like calling the Bugatti Veyron a Volkswagon, or a late 1980s Lamborghini a Chrysler back when Chrysler owned Lamborghini. Ford owned Land Rover for quite some time and also Jaguar. Companies buy and sell each other all the time without affecting the manufacture of the individual cars or changing their nomenclature.

[SB]

You should stick with the lesbaru.

[bagtagley]

Rover, it shares underpinnings and an engine with the 500L. The Renegade and the Fiat 500X are basically the same vehicle. The Maserati Quatroporte sacrilegiously has Chrysler switch gear, for Pete's sake. Platform sharing is the whole point of these huge auto partnerships.

A Chrysler made Fiat. What could go wrong?

[This End Up]

I'm more concerned with performance and what it's like to live with the car in the medium-term.

. The cherokee may be too new for that kind of feed back.

It is one of the few front wheel drive CUVs that gives you any control over the AWD/4X4 system.

With the way car manufacturers price things today, you are probably paying as much for the Trailhawk paint job as you are for the locking differential.

[goldenshowers]

For some reason a Jeep screams douchebag american.

[basinbeater]

If you want an suv, 4runner is the way grasshopper. Otherwise, diesel 6spd manual awd euro wagon. Duh...

Edit, I agree with mazderati.

[LightRanger]

Other cars in that category that I would look at (excluding Subaru): Mazda CX-5; Ford Escape. Test drove both a little over 18 months ago. Liked both for different reasons.

Then I convinced my wife we needed something bigger and we got a 4Runner (to replace my XJ Cherokee). Will probably buy something in the category to replace the other car when the time comes though.

[Sirshredalot]

You should stick with the lesbaru.

Sadly, the family lesbaru has developed a taste for head gaskets. It's at the point where it costs a car payment to keep it running. This vehicle is probably on its way to lesbaru Valhalla sooner or later.

As for the trail hawk, it does feel slightly overpriced for what it is, but I want reasonable ground clearance and need decent 4wd. And I'm not doing my long highway commute in a wrangler. If I'm buying a new-gen jeep It is tempting to wait for the renegade which is 5 grand cheaper and does all the same stuff. That or just give up and get a small truck.

I kind of hate car shopping in this market segment. The new market all feels slightly overpriced and the low mileage used stuff feels WAY overpriced

[SB]

I can highly recommend the Toy 4R, very capable, lots of room in the 5th gen. If you go Trail Edition you gets all kinds of off road goodies including the Elocker. Although its cheaper to get the SR5 and add an ARB airlocker to the rear.

and this thread needs sum porn

[warthog]

Why not go with the Grand Cherokee? Base is about what you pay for that Trailhawk. I would think that would be the better of the two. Of course, I drive a Yukon, so what do I know about small vehicles?

All us Jeep guys are definitely American Douchebags. Sadly, the new Jeep is so different from what I drive, and the owner is so different, they hardly get a wave any more. I wave more to old FJ's, Scouts, and Broncos, than I do to Jeeps these days.

[bagtagley]

You've already done the head gaskets. If you did the timing belt, too, you're good for a while. Why sell when you've already spent the money to fix?

[iceman]

Yeah I'd go Grand Cherokee over Cherokee myself. Or buy an old XJ and pimp it out and save money. I have one I bought last year for $4.5K and have about $5K into it and it is pretty sweet, a 2000 with ~100K miles, no rust, runs like a top and should keep going pretty much indefinitely. Little suspension lift, 245's, good stereo, reupholtstered the whole interior, new belts and hoses, new radiator, replaced the AC compressor, etc. etc. it's pretty mint for under $10K total.

[Tippster]

[LightRanger]

Ice, that's sweet. XJs are awesome.

The Grand is really the best suggestion.

[Bromontana]

Spending that kind of money on a car I'd have to buy Toyota.

New FJ
Tundra
4Runner
Tacoma

[iceman]

@LR: Yeah I dig it, I just gotta pry it away from the kid now. Letting him use it at school but my day will come, assuming he doesn't wreck it.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Has Chrysler done anything about the fact that they have the most uncomfortable seatbelts ever devised?
Every Chrysler I've ever been in has felt like the seat was slowly trying to eat me.
Idiots.

[mcski]

Yeah I'd go Grand Cherokee over Cherokee myself. Or buy an old XJ and pimp it out and save money. I have one I bought last year for $4.5K and have about $5K into it and it is pretty sweet, a 2000 with ~100K miles, no rust, runs like a top and should keep going pretty much indefinitely. Little suspension lift, 245's, good stereo, reupholtstered the whole interior, new belts and hoses, new radiator, replaced the AC compressor, etc. etc. it's pretty mint for under $10K total.

Pics or it didn't happen.

[LightRanger]

New FJ

If you find a 2014 still on the lot.

And you can stand the ridiculous impracticality of short suicide doors, an enormous c-pillar, tiny windows, etc. Don't get me wrong, they're great, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone who is looking at a new Cherokee.

4R and Grand, OTOH.

[mcski]

Ford owned Land Rover for quite some time and also Jaguar. Companies buy and sell each other all the time without affecting the manufacture of the individual cars or changing their nomenclature.

Jaguars are a fancy Ford Taurus.

[Mazderati]

Jaguar currently belongs to the forum's Indian spambot overlords.

[iceman]

Pics or it didn't happen.

You'd think I'd have a pic but I just checked and I don't. It's a grey Sport model with pretty dark tinted windows, black steel rims and General Grabbers with black lettering, it's pretty sharp. I'll get a pic from the kid and post it up.