Close your eyes and build your ideal daily, normal-use car.
(Well, maybe don’t close them until you’re done reading, but you get the gist here.)
What would that car look like? If you’re old enough to drive but young enough that you’re not a member of AARP yet, chances are it’s an SUV. Those things are everywhere, almost unbelievably, because no one feels “safe” in anything but a tall car. It’s as if we’re a nation of infants, only secure when we’re strapped into high chairs (we could stand bibs every once in a while too, if we’re being honest). I’m guessing some of you have six wheels, three guns, 12 lasers and a super rad stereo cranking Ozzy tunes nonstop. High five, you’re creative. Most of ours have four wheels, a roof, and some windows.
So maybe the car in your mind may or may not look much like a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee, but I’m guessing it’s fairly close.
Stick with me here: Now think about what you’re asking it to do. Seat two or four people comfortably? Check. Go up and down mountains just as easily as it goes up and down parking spots? Sure. High-resolution interior touch screens would be nice. Seat heaters and ventilators help. Throw in a couple more creature comforts like pants-wetting loud stereos and backup cameras too. How much do you think all that weighs? If you’ve ever held just one air conditioning unit for a car — not counting that you tossed in seat heaters and ventilators — I wouldn’t call you crazy if you said 70,000 lbs. But you’re talking about something that’s closer to 5,000 lbs. in all reality, which is still a lot of mass to move.
Oh, and while your eyes were closed, I bet you asked for something like “… and is powered on the giggles of children around the world.” That’s a noble idea, and good for you, but its not going to happen. Fuel economy is a good plan, so let’s pick a number. A high number. Say 30 mpg.
You’ve put together quite an impressive list of demands for a car. Way more impressive than 12 lasers.
It’s true. There are very few cars that can cope with the high expectations of what we’d like. Even fewer cars can cope with the high expectations that a car places on itself.
The new Jeep Grand Cherokee falls in the unenviable position of having to do both. When the newest iteration of the Jeep Grand Cherokee came out nearly five years ago now, few cars have ever had so much riding on it. It helped then that the Grand Cherokee was good. Like really good. Like, good enough to nearly save an entire manufacturer. Little has changed since then, but in the automotive world, “if it ain’t broke, then find another reason to call it a new model year.”
To that end, Jeep focused this year on the Grand Cherokee’s powertrain. Admittedly, there are very few holes to be found in the existing model. There is a V6 and a V8, each mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission that’s smarter than I am (not tough). Both engines have their respective faults and favors. The 290-horsepower V6, for instance, is plenty horsepower to shuttle up and down a fairly to partly treacherous hill. The 360-horsepower V8, on the other hand, is plenty gumption to devour mountain — and gasoline — at an equal rate. The biggest drawback: Even with the whitest teeth and prettiest hair, you’re managing mpg in the mid-20s.
Answer, throw a diesel in the front. Not quite any diesel. Chrysler’s 3.0-liter, six cylinder engine that’s also planted up front in the Ram 1500 is the newest addition to the Jeep Grand Cherokee. The oil-burning mill cranks 240 horsepower at 3,600 rpm, which doesn’t sound like much until you consider it produces 420 lb.-ft. of torque at 2,000 rpm. For the uninitiated: that’s a lot. That’s enough to nearly pull your house down if the all-season tires could hold grip. Yikes.
Of course, power wasn’t the only reason Jeep planted the iron hunk up front. The biggest benefit is gas mileage. With the diesel up front, the 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee can rightly proclaim that it can reach 30 mpg on the highway. That’s true. For a 5,000-lb. lump of amenities, 30 mpg seems like an impossibility.
“Perfect,” you might say. “All my questions have been answered.”
Except one. The words “diesel premium” — normally the name reserved for the 30 or so cents on top of premium gasoline you pay at the pump — takes on a whole new life here. For the mileage, you’ll pay a staggering $4,500 more over a comparably equipped V6 model, $1,300 more than the V8. To Chrysler’s point, you may realize savings in fuel and resale value when it comes time to sell it again. However, book values for a 2008 Grand Cherokee, the last year Chrysler offered a diesel option the Grand Cherokee are roughly the same. To recoup the costs of buying a diesel, you may have to hold on to the car for roughly 7 years on fuel alone.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. This year’s Grand Cherokee is certainly worth keeping for a while. The diesel is quiet, and plenty capable like others. Chrysler’s betting that for large cars and SUVs diesel is the answer to increasingly higher mileage standards.
To its credit, there are few SUVs on the market that are more refined and well-considered as the Grand Cherokee. But when it comes to the diesel option it remains clear: Your pick depends on what you imagine you’ll ask the Grand Cherokee to do.
Reach managing editor Aaron Cole at acole@aurorasentinel.com