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The undeniably good looking, Jeep Grand Cherokee a luxury handsome beast.
Now available with a turbo diesel, long awaited.
Is it the perfect Grand Cherokee or just the perfect reason to go back, and check off the V8?
Let's drive this 2014 Grand Cherokee Summit.
All wheel drive with the diesel.
Check.
Check.
Now, it's not a stretch to say that the current Grand Cherokee is kinda the American Land Rover.
They've taken this guy upscale, very mature, and sophisticated in its line, but it remains a serious off roader.
Spot the latest ones by a revised face and rump, slightly smaller more streamlined tail lights and such.
In other words.
It's just getting more elegant every year.
Now technically a Grand Cherokee in this current guise is not a truck, at least not in the opinions of a purist.
Because it's not a body on frame vehicle.
It's a unibody design but it makes for a very car-like vehicle.
Now because we've got a Summit which is the top trim level.
We've got a standard 8.4 inch squarish but very large Uconnect head unit.
We've seen this before in Grand Cherokees and other Chrysler products.
I'm not gonna go real deep on it.
If you wanna get some details on it check out our other reviews of other trim Grand Cherokees.
We're really here to talk about diesel today i will mention though at this point CD is optional.
We have one here in the console, you would get this either by optioning CD a la cart ar getting the blue-ray headrest system we have, that I don't approve of.
But basically.
Optical disc, bye-bye.
Now we've an all wheel drive diesel vehicle.
But because of the Grand Cherokee, this sort of American Land Rover thing, that's all been refined out.
It comes down to a nice bit of elegant electronics.
Your shifter here is a very familiar automatic shifter that goes to an eight speed automatic.
And here you've got your modes.
You can go all the way over to.
Snow, sand, an automatic selector, and then you got mud and rock selections.
Augmenting that you've got choice of ride height here.
And you can lock her down in four low.
So you've got the full compliment of real Jeep off road terrain rated stuff.
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Now interestingly this new diesel in the Grand Cherokee is not a German unit, not an American unit, but because of the new Fiat parentage, it's made in Italy by GM motors.
And apparently they've got a mechanic running around barefoot because someone left a sock in here.
It's a turbo charged diesel, as they just about all are these days, 240 horsepower.
Kinda small for a big vehicle, 420 pound feet of torque.
This is a dramatic difference, a stark difference between those two metrics.
And interestingly, of all the Grand Cherokees, this one has the least horsepower, but also the most torque.
Now the weight is stunning as well.
I had to do a double take and reread the materials.
5300 plus pounds curb weight.
Zero to 60 happens in 7.8 seconds, which is kind of a miracle.
But again, thanks to all that torque, it happens.
Your MPG is actually pretty good for a vehicle of this weight.
It's 21 city, 28 highway.
That is eight miles per gallon better than the V-8 5.7 liter Grand Cherokee.
That's a huge difference, even though neither are numbers to brag about.
All wheel drive on our vehicle.
You can get these in rear wheel drive.
Towing capacity and all wheel drive is 7200 pounds.
A little more actually if you get rear wheel drive.
And your range, as diesels tend to have, is stunning.
730 miles on a tank.
Let's get right to the heart of the issue.
Driving this thing reminds me of a school bus.
The power comes on pretty mushily, it's rubbery throttle response.
Ton of power there.
Don't get me wrong.
But it's not accessible in a responsive way.
I find that [UNKNOWN] to be a chore to drive.
On the other hand, the ride quality is superb.
Even over really crappy, muddy, rutted roads where you would take this thing.
Ride quality's nice.
And if it weren't for that engine the interior cabin noise would be superb as well.
So, the engine and its behavior and power delivery and noise are completely at odds with the way this car looks outside and in.
And of course it feels its weight.
It feels its 5300 something pounds.
But not in a tubby way.
It's it's well controlled weight.
Which not every suspension can lay claim to doing successfully.
Visibility is not bad all around the vehicle.
You've got some pretty good viz out the corners because of a large quarter window between the.
In the C and D pillars.
And of course remember, this is a two row car.
There is no third row or third row option.
Okay, let's price our Summit Diesel and our 2014 configuration.
This guy is gonna start off a little over 48,000 delivered.
That's just for a Summit.
Add all wheel drive, 3,000.
add the diesel option 5,000.
It's an ala carte kick box.
The only other option I would add on this high trim vehicle is optical disc drive.
Why not?
You've got a thousand CDs at home.
I would skip the $2,000 dual headrest blueray system like the plague.
And go get a couple of IPads.
All in, a little over five years to pay off the diesel option here.
That's ballpark math.
You need to value things like its very long range, its unique torque curve.
Although its towing capacity, on this vehicle, is no better than a gas V-8.
Here's who this vehicle appeals to.
Someone who bemoans how nice Jeeps have gotten in recent years, or drives a Ram Cummins pickup as their work truck.
Or generally likes the sound of a diesel engine.
For the rest of us, this one doesn't necessarily fit.
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