Test drive Jeep Cherokee (Liberty) 2001 - 2005 SUV

Free Indian

About the jeep, and even about the one that is wide, we probably know everyone from adolescents to pensioners. The legendary American SUVs of the Jeep brand in the era of the development of capitalism, or, as it is now called, the era of the initial accumulation of capital, was the most striking example of how to live and what you need to ride. The coolest, of course, was the older brother of Jeep Grand Cherokee, and those who did not allow funds did not go on models easier. Such as Jeep Cherokee ...

However, to say that Cherokee is a simpler car, only the owners of the aforementioned Grand Cherokee could, and for everyone else, a real jeep remained an unrealizable dream. But times are changing, and the ideas about what a good car should be, especially an SUV, also change with them. Gradually, the so-called parquet SUVs came to real crooks, with more advanced running qualities, amazing accelerating dynamics, design, like futuristic concepts. Naturally, the old Cherokee with his design and design of the 1984 sample could not compete with such models on equal terms, and even the 1996 restyling, which significantly transformed the Indian, was unable to change the situation - the car slowly but surely lost the circulation. But now, after the emergence of a completely new Jeep Cherokee, this model seems to go in a way: the novelty turned out to be very good. And more about it ...

Is this jeep? This is cherkee?, - the amazement of the fans of the model, probably, had no bounds. The contrast between the old and the new Cherokee is not just striking, he generally shared these models. If it were not for the characteristic design of the Jeep Libe on the hood, then guess the descendant of the old, angular Indian in the new Cherokee/Lyberty. For that matter, the new car is more like another SUV from the Jeep clan - the utility of Wrangler. The same rustic round headlights, a false radiator grille with vertical slots and many other secondary signs. Because of this lattice, by the way, Jeep even sued - the company's management seemed that the new Hummer H2 has the same part to Dzhipovskaya, which in several generations is a branded line of Jeep brand car. True, in the end, the court recognized the claims of the company as insolvent, and the Hummer H2 will remain with the lattice with which it was originally represented by the public. However, Hummer is not relevant for us, if only because such cars are unlikely to be delivered to our market, unlike the new Jeep Cherokee. The first acquaintance of the audience with this car took place far to the 2002 engine, and currently the car is very actively sold by dealer. Well, let's see ...

The external design of the new Cherokee can be discussed for an arbitrarily long time, and at the same time the opinions of the parties may not coincide at all, but one thing can be said for sure: the car turned out to be really outstanding. It can be called funny, beautiful or ugly, interesting or ordinary, the fact remains: it attracts attention. Inside, everything is also very peculiar, but not to the detriment of ergonomics: the four -spoke bagel is convenient and pleasant to the touch, and the devices on a white background are very distinguishable in any conditions. The tidy itself is very informative and is, in terms of ergonomics, one of the best images, but it really lacks an indicator displaying the operating modes of automatic checkpoint. When switching, the driver is forced to either switch to the touch, or each time translate a look into a diagram drawn near the lever. Otherwise, everything is very good: all the necessary buttons and switches are at hand, the visibility is good, but almost nothing is visible back. The steering wheel, by the way, is one of the most convenient among SUVs - both size and thickness are optimal, although adjusting the steering column would not hurt in height. By order, duplicate buttons for controlling the audio system and cruise control can be installed right on the steering wheel.

Landing in front is comfortable, but relatively vertical, and in corners you immediately remember that you are sitting very high. By the way, about the turns - despite the fact that the car itself is not unprofitable, the driver and passengers feel any turn as very sharp and deep. The seats have no lateral support, and therefore in the turn the driver, instead of driving a car, is forced to cling to the wheel so as not to move off the chair.

It is comfortable to go to the rear passengers: there is enough space with a margin, especially in height, and there is where to put their feet. True, even in our rather chic car there was no central armrest on the back sofa, and he himself was not even formed for two or three passengers. But the trunk is the dream of any car owner. Despite the fact that Cherokee is a real SUV, albeit with integrated into the body, but still a frame, which itself takes up a lot of space, the trunk turned out no worse than in a passenger universal. And this is primarily to blame for the reserve located on the fifth door. It does not take up space in the trunk, as was done in the previous Grand Chero-Kee, and does not hang under the bottom in the back, which would seriously limit the cross-country ability.

The driving qualities of the new Jeep Cherokee were also not disappointed: the tested car is equipped with a 3.7-liter six, the capacity of which is 211 hp, which in itself guarantees pleasant sensations from the trip. And he fully justified our hopes: 10.8 seconds from a place to hundreds - this is good even for the SUV. The machine is easily controlled - the steering wheel has a clearly pronounced zero, with the deviation from which the force on the steering wheel increases significantly. It helps a little on the snake, but nevertheless, at high speed, it does not force the driver to catch periodically, adjusting the course. Speaking of speed. If you like to ride quickly, not very carefully inverting before steep turns, then immediately after buying Cherokee, you need to change the tires for highways - these, with a universal pattern, although good on the off -road, are few on the asphalt. And now about off -road - you noticed what Cherokee over the front and behind? We can say that they simply are not ...

It is this option that gives out the true purpose of the car: why, tell me, such a lean look to the car if it is not intended for off -road? And the new Jeep Cherokee, if not intended, is at least well adapted to him, which we had the opportunity to make sure. True, few can guess how good this good on asphalt roads is a capable of crossed areas. And not least because neither outside nor inside Cherokee is no different from the SUVs. Although, however, there is still one very significant difference - to the left of the automatic checkpoint selector is the distribution lever. In our Cherokee there was a custom-made all-wheel drive transmission Selec-Trac. It is offered only as an option, and the base is in the base more simple and cheap Command Trac - without an interdose differential, with a rigidly connected front -wheel drive. Naturally, a more expensive transmission provides great opportunities to drive an off -road. You can choose one of several options, for example, only rear -wheel drive. In this case, there are, as in the commercial, only the advantages: good accelerated dynamics, minimal wear of transmission, and even fuel is saved. The machine is well and pleasantly controlled, and with maximum acceleration, he even tries to polish the asphalt with rear, leading, wheels. In terms of dynamics and controllability, the machine in this mode does not differ significantly from the rear -wheel drive car, except that a high center of gravity and a vertical landing make themselves felt.

That's just all this is significantly on dry and even preferably asphalt coating, and in any other case ... just for this other case there is a full-wheel drive mode, and depending on road (or off-road) conditions, the four-wheel drive is connected slightly Differently. The second position, which turns on immediately after the 2WD mode, is most indicative of this car: after all, Jeep, and not some SUV there! If all the so -called SUVs have a handout, if it still has it, works according to the offensive principle, gradually moving from simple to the most difficult modes, then the creators of the transmission of the new Cherokee acted completely differently. Immediately after the rear -wheel drive, the handout turns on the full, and not just like that, but with a rigidly connected front bridge - the so -called Part -Time. In this mode, you can only operate the machine for a short time, and even then it is desirable on the most slippery coating so that the front and rear wheels have the opportunity to slip relative to each other.

About the same principle, transmission also work for other SUVs, but there it was done in order to save: the Part-Time hard-connected bridge replaces the interdess differential lock, which is simply absent in inexpensive European and Japanese models. Simply put, in order to avoid additional expenses for the installation of an interdose differential, the designers make a rigidly connected front -wheel drive, and they, in principle, are not enough that the client will be able to use all -wheel drive only in extreme cases. Such cars, with a rigidly connected drive, and even without the possibility of interlocking inter -celebrations, I personally classify at about the same level with powerful parking lots like the BMW X5 - it is better to have easy controllability and comfort, as well as various electronic imitations of these very locks of differentials than than To ride on the simplest, from the point of view of mechanics, a car, which yesterday, perhaps, was a utilitarian pickup. I thought that Cherokee was about the same cohort, but this car was very pleasantly surprised to rehabilitating all of its American-made counterparts in my eyes: the next mode of work was the 4-Full-Time regime so beloved by all the admirers of all-wheel drive models. From its name you can understand that this mode is designed for long -term movement of a car with a drive for all four wheels! That is, the torque of the engine is transmitted to the center differential, from where it is distributed through the axes, and not one of the differentials in this mode is blocked.

This mode differs from 2WD only in that the front wheels in this case are also leading, and not drivers, which positively affects the controllability of the car on slippery coatings. Incidentally, all -wheel drive SUVs that can travel both in the rear -wheel drive mode and in the permanent all -wheel drive mode, in fact, very few. Most of these SUVs have either a permanent all-wheel drive, which makes them very voracious and slow, or the above, a rigidly connected Part-Time all-wheel drive. And the fact that Jeep Cherokee has such a complex and universal all -wheel drive transmission, unequivocally indicates how seriously the company approached the issue of the universality of its new model. The engineers probably had a huge temptation from the new JEEP another SUV with independent pendants of all wheels and a complex all -wheel drive, but completely helpless on the highway transmission. And the fact that immediately behind the rear -wheel drive in the handout follows a position with a blocked interderser differential, demonstrates how serious research was carried out during the development of the model.

When do most owners include all -wheel drive? Despite all the recommendations of professionals, most often only when some leading wheels can no longer cope with their duties, and the car can sit in capital. Full -wheel drive is turned on only in order to overcome a heavy area impassable on the rear drive. But if the second position in the handout would only include all -wheel drive, but without blocking the center differential, then most of the owners would have done that, allowing the car to sit completely. After all, for them that 4-Full-Time, that Patr-Time is all one, and if the car buried well, then, I’m afraid to help it not only not only a lock with a low side, but also the self-locking differential of the rear axle, which is installed according to order.

And so, the slip of the rear wheels barely began, the driver turns on a serious all -wheel drive with lock, the car easily goes to a hard coating, and the distribution lever is again transferred to 2WD mode - easily, simply and without unnecessary movements.

This also helped us. Topping the goal of achieving diagonal hanging, we rushed to check the degree of steepness of each suitable hill. On the rear drive, the car simply cannot reach the middle of the obstacle, only if on the move. At the slightest hint of hanging, the leading wheel fell into a slip, and the car rolled back. Well, we switch the handout: in Part -Time mode, cross -country ability increases significantly, and we eventually get what we wanted - classic diagonal hanging. Pay attention, by the way, what steepness the hill had to be found before at least one of the wheels came off the ground. But this does not mean that you can’t go further - we stopped only for a spectacular picture, but we could easily jump through this obstacle. But we did not even turn on the reduced row ...

What finally say about the new Jeep Cherokee. The car is interesting, in places even funny, technically very advanced, quite brisk enough for the city and far from helpless on off -road. Of course, the owners of the SUVs can also be understood: the average SUV owner has extremely rarely arise for all these off -road reasons, and even when it arises, he still does not know how to use all this economy. And not every owner of such a handsome man wants to drive his car into impassable dirt. So it seems that half of all that is in this Cherokee, the owner does not seem to be needed. On the other hand, finding a real SUV with such an interesting design, with a technically advanced transmission and a powerful six -cylinder engine is now incredibly difficult. Especially for that kind of money. And if so, then why not try to get more for the same money - more power, reliability, patency, in the end - security.

All new models of SUVs suddenly turned into SUVs with flimsy pendants overnight, those that still remained faithful to the ideology of all-wheel drive remained some completely archaic and boring in terms of design. Yes, and they remained, these very real SUVs, very few-in my opinion, there are enough fingers of one hand to list all the classmates of the new Cherokee, still capable of some feats on off-road routes. And against the backdrop of this unconditional surrender of all all-wheel drive models in front of the off-road, the new Jeep Cherokee looks just like RAMBO in front of newfoot soldiers. The advantage in everything - probably, such an advertising slogan would suit this model most, and it, which in advertising is very rare, would be completely true. If it seemed to you that the article is too laudable, then this means that you just have not traveled to the new Jeep Cherokee. Having traveled on this car, you would undoubtedly agree with my conclusions. Personally, I really liked this car. And if they asked me: would you take such a jeep for yourself?, - I would honestly, as in spirit, replied: let's ...

SUBJECTIVE OPINION:

(+) Dynamics, handling, running qualities, body and interior design, advanced transmission, acceptable price.

(-) high fuel consumption, too universal tires.

Text: Pavel Kozlovsky and Sergey Mitskevich
 

Source: Autogazet / N 25 (371) dated 10.07.02