First look: Jeep Grand Cherokee turns three

DAIMLERCHRYSLER yesterday unveiled its third-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee at this week’s New York motor show.

Fresh looks, improved on and off-road performance and an increase in luxury specification are the American mid-sized sports-utility vehicle’s main attractions.

Australian sales are expected to begin in the final half of next year, almost a year after its Stateside debut.

Like its five-year-old predecessor, the MkIII Grand Cherokee eschews revolutionary for evolutionary styling, with a similarly proportioned five-door wagon design.

Detail changes include a wedgier profile, larger headlights and tail-lights, a far bolder grille, sharper edges and even bigger wheelarches than before.

Inside it’s a complete redesign, with better quality materials encasing a significantly more European-style dash – a sure upshot of its German parent's influence.

More comfort is also on the Jeep’s agenda thanks to an increase in overall size and available passenger space, while lusher equipment levels have been introduced, such as a DVD-based GPS system, an advanced parking radar system, Bluetooth-style multi-media interfacing, and high-end audio availability.

On the engine front, the Grand Cherokee’s biggest and most beguiling engine option is now Chrysler’s new 5.7-litre Hemi V8.

Displacing but not replacing the current 190kW/425Nm 4.7-litre V8, the Hemi has DaimlerChrysler’s Multi-Displacement System going on, which halts half the cylinders during ambling times for up to a 20 per cent saving in fuel consumption.

Both V8s feature refined versions of the previous 4.7’s five-speed automatic gearbox it also now allows for higher towing limits.

Meanwhile, the ageing 140kW 4.0-litre six-cylinder unit is usurped by the current Cherokee’s 155kW 3.7-litre V6, although now it’s mated to a new five-speed automatic transmission.

Both automatics now feature a Tiptronic-style shift device.

Underneath it’s a similarly progressive approach to the Grand Cherokee’s dual on and off-road persona, with Jeep offering a choice of three full-time four-wheel drive systems.

The new Quadra-Trac I uses a single-speed transfer case for full-time 4WD, and does not involve driver intervention. It’s a move designed to appease the 25 per cent of US Grand Cherokee buyers who chose the old car’s rear-wheel drive-only option that’s now been discontinued.

Meanwhile, the Quadra-Trac II has low-range and neutral gearing facilities, and relies on a more sophisticated transfer case that provides torque electronically to the wheels that need most traction.

Top-line versions feature the new Quadra-Drive II system, which opts for electronic limited-slip differentials instead of the old model’s Vari-Lock progressive axles for more extreme off-road capabilities.

The Grand Cherokee driver’s on-road rapport rises with a 40mm increase in track width, new independent front suspension that Jeep says provides more precision and control, improved rack-and-pinion steering feel, a tighter turning circle and – thanks to lower weight properties - and, in spite of a 13 per cent increase in front wheel travel, less "head toss" or swaying.

Out back, revisions to and beefing up of the existing five-link rear suspension’s geometry means the Jeep’s lateral stiffness rises for improved handling, while the 5.7 models benefit from a new active anti-roll bar for reduced bodyroll.

Still on electronic driver aids, Mercedes’ Electronic Stability Program makes its first Grand Cherokee showing for surer directional progress.

Jeep is also making noises about the greater floorpan and drivetrain protection afforded by the additional use of skid plates.

Like before, right-hand drive versions of the Grand Cherokee will come from the Magna Steyr assembly plant in Graz, Austria (production begins early in 2005), while the Detroit-made models begin in the final quarter of this year.

The Grand Cherokee was Jeep’s answer to the runaway success of the 1990 Ford Explorer.

Based on the smaller Cherokee and introduced in the USA in 1994, it arrived locally in MkI ZG guise in early 1996.

The current-shape WJ replaced it in July 1999 until the WG facelift followed early last year.