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2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland
(Chrysler Group LLC photo) |
I met someone the other day who described his perils in car
shopping. It didn’t start well, as he went out, hungover and somewhere in the
Boston suburbs where the accents get thick, on a windy Saturday morning. He
wandered into some dealerships, looking at some lightly used cars and then
questioning their smells. Then he tried some new cars and came away unimpressed
by just about everything he drove. But coming from his Porsche Cayman into
something large and with four-wheel drive, I’d probably feel similarly. He did,
however, like the
Jeep Grand Cherokee, but came away feeling a little cold
about it, perhaps like it was a little too sensible despite its go-anywhere
capabilities.
The Grand Cherokee was a founding member of the ’90s
suburban grocery getter, the SUV, and perennial also-ran to the Ford Explorer.
Both kind of lost their way and popularity in the 2000s, but recently
reinvented themselves. Jeep took the Grand Cherokee back to its roots and made something
that was just as good on-road as it was off. Yes, you have to select a few
option packages to
get the Grand Cherokee “trail rated” these days, but it’s
still as capable as any Jeep before. What’s more, it finally has the quality of
materials befitting of a $40-50,000 car, which is what the upmarket Overland
models cost now.
