The 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L sets a new standard

[MUSIC] The Jeep Grand Cherokee is one of the most popular SUVs available today and for good reason or. Perhaps I should say reasons not only does it look great but it offers immense off-road capability has a super nice interior, and it is plenty comfortable. But whenever Jeep redesigns, this vehicle, it is big news and that is especially true in 2021 because the brand new Grand Cherokee L has been pumped up. And it now comes with a standard seat 2021 Grand Cherokee Allah is built on a new platform. This unibody structure is more than 60% high strength steel, giving the vehicle a sturdy backbone to reduce weight. The vehicles closures like the hood and liftgate are made of aluminum. And mass was likely a major concern during development because the Grand Cherokee L is bigger than its predecessor, like, a lot bigger, it's 15.1 inches longer and the wheelbase has been stretched by seven inches. And these increases of course, were made to accommodate that new third row seat. Which allows it to fit up to seven people. The Grand Cherokee L is offered with two friendly and familiar power trains. If you are well versed in the Christ's, I mean FCA still ANSYS if you are well versed in the elantas powertrain lineup, nothing here will surprise you. The base engine is a 3.6 liter pentastar v six in delivers a respectable 293 horsepower and 260 pound feet of torque and that is enough to enable this vehicle to tow up to 6200 pounds. If you need a little more own fake 5.7 liter hemi is also on the menu. It gets you a 357 horse Stampede along with 390 pounds of twist which allows the grand cherokee l to tow 7200 pounds. An eight speed automatic transmission is standard. A big shock. I know. Beyond that, you can get this vehicle with either rear wheel drive or one of three different four wheel drive systems. An adaptive air suspension is available as well for both better refinement on road and more capability in the dirt. Buttoning things up. The 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee is certainly bigger than before but I'm not convinced it looks better. It's got this sorta very large lower air intake than the grille slats are angled rearward at the bottom, which I've been told was done to sorta visually make it look like the hood is longer to better match that stretched roofline and I don't know if this is progress to tell you the truth and. To be fair, the outgoing Grand Cherokee is already one of the most attractive SUVs on the market. So how are you gonna beat that with the new model? Fortunately though, Jeep designers knocked it out of the park with this vehicles cabin, which is of course where you spend most of your time. The layout and materials comfort and tech are all top notch in the Grand Cherokee L. The range topping summit model comes with Napa leather or Palermo co hides if you get the summit reserve package. You can also get open pore wood accents and even Berber floor mats. A suede like headliner is referred to as is a 19 speaker Macintosh audio system. You connect five infotainment tech is standard with either an 8.4 inch or a 10.1 inch touchscreen and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are supported. A video monitoring system is even available so you can keep tabs on folks in the second row seat, which supposedly offers class leading leg room. Now, there's a digital instrument cluster and you can even get night vision, among many other features I simply don't have time to mention right now. [SOUND] [UNKNOWN] here let's give her the spurs. [SOUND] Not too bad, not too bad. This is a top shelf summit model that I'm driving right now with the reserve baggage so this is as nice as you will ever get a 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L and this model happens to be fitted with the base engine, the V six and It's very smooth, very quiet as the pentastar usually is. But in this application it does feel just a little bit overmatched. I mean it does have a whole lot of three-row SUV to move around. Now, the performance is still very good, but if you're going to do any serious towing or hauling, you're probably gonna wanna opt for available, With the available adaptive air suspension system, I've got to say on road. This vehicle drives quite nicely, the ride is smooth for the most part. Though with those gigantic wheels, you can tell that there's a lot of mass moving around underneath you, but the suspension does a pretty admirable job. Smothering out imperfections in the road, and providing a mostly quiet experience. Engineers did a lot of work to keep noise vibration and harshness at bay NVH three enemies of serenity in any vehicle. So what we have here is enhanced active noise cancellation. We've got acoustic glass, there's extra body sealing and then. They did something pretty clever they mounted the front axle physically mounted that to the engine and I'm told that the half shaft runs through the oil pan what that allowed them to do move the whole power train down a little bit without sacrificing ground clearance which also helps keep everything nice and sturdy and rigid underneath the hood so that there is less noise generated and less noise entering the cabin. Standard safety tech includes automatic emergency braking, rear cross traffic alert and adaptive cruise control with stop and go capability, Lane Keeping Assist and blind spot monitoring are also included. So that is great news. You don't have to pay extra for all those fancy features. Active driving assist is one very nice feature that Jeep has added to this redesigned grand Cherokee L and it's basically adaptive cruise control with lane centering. And I tested it a little bit earlier out on the interstate and it works phenomenally well. It keeps this large SUV locked in the center of its lane. It does a great job monitoring traffic all around you so that it's not charging at cars that are ahead of you or Slowly accelerating to the point where other vehicles can cut in it works really well. [SOUND] Taking things one step further hands free driving assist, which should operate a lot like GM excellent supercruise system is coming This vehicle though, not until the 2022 model year, so if that's something you want, you might want to hold off on purchasing one of these things and I've got to say if it's even half as good as active driving assist, it should be absolutely dynamite. [SOUND] But this trail rated Jeep should be just as capable when the pavement ends as it is, cruising your local subdivision, coldness act. So let's find out, shall we? [SOUND] So even though this new Grand Cherokee L has basically a luxury car interior, it is still a jeep through and through which means it is super rugged and able to take you just about anywhere you wanna go. This particular example is fitted with the top shelf Quadra drive to four wheel drive system with low range gearing. It also has that available air suspension system we've got the body all the way up. We've got it in four wheel drive low and this thing climbs hills basically like a mountain goat. This vehicle is available with hill descent control that works in both forward and reverse. You can also get a select terrain Traction Management System with five different driving modes. There's auto sport rock, snow, and then mud slash sand. So you should be able to tailor this vehicles responses to just about any condition you'll experience out on the trail. All right, let's talk about some numbers here for a second, maximum ground clearance in the Grand Cherokee l 10.9 inches or close to 11, but not quite there. Now, beyond that this vehicle can drive through up to 24 inches of water, two whole feet. Which is damn impressive for such a family friendly vehicle. Of course, you can get this thing with skid plates to protect those delicate underbody components so you don't rip them out when you're rock crawling. And as for suspension geometry, The approach angle is 30.1 degrees, departure 23.6, and brake over 33.6. So that means that even though this is a fairly large vehicle you should be able to snake it in to some pretty tight places. But what really impresses me about this three row vehicle is just how solid the structure feels. Even when you've got one or two wheels up in the air There are no creaks or groans. It doesn't feel like the body is flexing at all. It is just absolutely stiff, absolutely rigid, which is exactly what you want when you're out on the trail. [MUSIC] The 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee l goes on sale this month, it will be offered in four different trim levels. There's Laredo limited overland and summit. For trim levels at least until a track Hawk model comes out or some plug in hybrid or whatever else engineers may or may not be cooking up, this three row SUV will be built right in Detroit, Michigan. A base rear wheel drive model starts at $38,690 including 1695 In delivery fees now if you want four corner traction and it's a Jeep, let's be honest, you're probably gonna wanna get that plan on spending an additional two grand. At the top end load one of these bad boys up and you will be spending around 70 grand, but with that beautiful interior the loads of technology this vehicle offers and the comfort it provides I really can't complain, I can't. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]