Jeep Grand Cherokee test drive since 2010 SUV

Best-seller

Long -term Jeep Grand Cherokee test with top V8 under the hood.
Jeep Grand Cherokee Main weapon of the American brand in Russia. In 2011, two-thirds of jeeps sold in the Russian market were on this model, and in 2012 demand almost doubled. And this despite the fact that the diesel version of the most popular in this class appeared only in the fall.
But if we talk about sales in the context of a market segment, then the results of Grand Cherokee do not seem outstanding. One of its main competitors, VW Touareg, was sold seven times better, and Toyota Land Cruiser 200 is almost ten. Why? To understand the reasons for his modest successes in the global sense, and quite noticeable in the framework of one brand, we decided to spend a month in the company with the legendary Grand.
True, we did not get a diesel SUV, but his flagship modification with a 352-horsepower V8 Hemi gasoline volume of 5.7 liters and air suspension, in the top-end Overland configuration. This means that there is almost everything that the soul wishes the panoramic roof, bixenon, a complete set of safety systems, a leather salon, a sabwuffer and a hard drive, as well as the Performance Handling, which adds a sport mode to the sport in the Sports Sports Asset. The settings of the adaptive chassis and allows you to adjust the rigidity of the suspension.
And what is most interesting, for all this wealth they do not ask for so much, at least by the standards of the segment of full -sized SUVs: about 2.8 million rubles. For comparison, the prices of VW Touareg with a V8 gasoline engine start with a mark of 3 million rubles, and the Toyota Land Cruiser 200 with a gasoline eight is available in only one configuration and costs even more than 3.3 million rubles.

The only thing that differs our test grandi from the car, which can be bought from any dealer is the wheels. Instead of chrome 20-inch on our car, 18-inch, but with quite toothy Toyo Crosscountry AT tires were installed. We'll have to climb into the mud!
What else, in addition to the price, is able to interest customers Jeep Grand Cherokee? For example, technical filling. He has a mighty eight-cylinder engine, a hardy gearbox with a decreasing nearby, constant all-wheel drive and electronic-controlled blocking of the rear inter-axle differential. Plus, air suspension with the ability to increase road clearance to 27 centimeters and the Selec-Terrain system, which allows you to choose one of the five operating modes of off-road systems.
But most importantly, this is the Mercedes-Benz ML chassis of the previous generation, on the basis of which a new Grand is built. Independent suspension of all wheels, hard, strong body and partially unified with Mercedes.

1. The ergonomics and the quality of materials used in the interior are better than we are used to seeing in American cars.
2. Prixes are both beautiful and read well. In the center is a monochrome LCD display.
3. Nash the Grand is started by the button in the cabin.
4. The sites are wide, with poorly expressed lateral support. But they have a convenient profile and large settings.
5. The gearbox sector is located in the usual place - in the central tunnel.
6. The control system of auxiliary systems: Joystick of the Selec-Terrain system, as well as the transmission operating modes (left) and air suspension buttons (right).
7. In the place of a handbrake in Grand Cherokee scabbard - a parking brake is given by a small pedal on the left, which must be pressed with your foot.
8. The seats are soft and, according to the feelings, strong - will not be erased in a few years. In our version, the chair was equipped with ventilation.
9. A signatured steering wheel switch that migrated to the Grand with Mercedes-Benz Ml. It was possible to really get used to it only by the end of the test drive.
In the cabin, there really are buttons and individual details from EM-El of the past generation. Even a multifunctional steering wheel switch has been preserved, which requires a few days to get used to, however, the architecture of the front panel, tidy and multimedia complex in Grand Cherokee are owned, and the gearbox lever is located in the usual place in the central tunnel.
The quality of the finish, let's say, is more than good for an American car. The front panel supposedly covered with leather (in fact imitation), in some places soft plastic, not a vulgar dark tree in the decoration (it was on a test car, but if you wish, you can order classic options), soft, thick skin with perforation. Remove a rustic silver plastic from the central console and an unnecessary wooden insert from the steering wheel from the cabin, and it would be no worse than the Europeans.
However, the main thing that Jeep Grand Cherokee conquers others is its appearance. The gross faces of the body, square wheel arches and the arrogant look of narrow headlights from under a massive hood are serious, male car. Especially on toothy tires, and with a huge volume of almost six liters of eight under the hood!
The Hemi motor starts noisily, but after a minute its displeased grocery is replaced by uterine gurgle. Even with a slight press on the gas pedal at the site of the Grand Cherokee body, the inertia of a massive flywheel is so great.
Street touches, smoothly accelerates a real American!
The American character in Grand is felt in everything. In how he lifts his nose on acceleration and pecks them on braking, how slowly he reacts to the driver’s commands. True, off -road tires were probably also added to the steering reactions to the steering wheel, however, the overall level of interactivity of the Grand Cherokee chassis is at exactly the level that you involuntarily expect from an American car.
Although if you compare the new SUV with the previous grand, then the balance of comfort and handling is now somewhere between the American and European approach to the suspension settings.
However, the Mercedes refinement of the Grand Cherok chassis is still not enough.
On the asphalt roads in automatic air suspension mode, the composure and elasticity on small and medium bumps is felt by vibrations of unsprown masses, and when the wheels enters large holes, the car shudges with the whole body. The suspension is collected in sports, but vertical fluctuations in the body are becoming more noticeable, the microprofile of the roadway is more felt. Therefore, it is best to use this mode on a high -coating highway.

On bad roads and off -road we also traveled. But more on this - in the next note.
Motor V8? At first glance, it is not so epic as you expect from a 5.7-liter unit. Acceleration from a place is not bad, but it is not impressive either live or according to the passport: 8.7 seconds from a place to a hundred. Yes, and sound accompaniment does not have enough brightness and depth, although the voice of the atmospheric eight will still turn out to be many times more pleasant than boring sniffling V6 or diesel thawing.
The nature of the powerful Hemi motor is revealed on the highway, where it equally confidently accelerates the heavy SUV first to 100 kilometers per hour, then up to 150. Assed acceleration does not subside even at higher speeds, but why does the fuel reserve strive for zero with such speed?
The first thousand rubles spent on gasoline (about 30 liters of the 95th) ended in just two days on a 20-kilometer route work-house. Over the first week, more than three thousand rubles took the fuel, and the fuel consumption indicator daily exchanged all new numbers at first 16, then 19, 20, 24 liters per hundred kilometers! And as it turned out later, this is not a limit for Grand Cherokee.
   
USA
In America, Jeep Grand Cherokee is a real bestseller in its class. Better he (127.7 thousand grades in 2011) sold only Ford Explorer (135.7 thousand cars). At the same time, the Grand Cherokee is only five thousand of the sold cars ahead of the brutal Jeep Wrangler, which over the past year spread out of 122.4 thousand copies!
Hemi
A modernized 5.7-liter eight from the model of the past generation is installed on the new Grand. Its power increased from 334 to 352 horsepower (520 Nm). This unit is equipped with a shutdown system of half of the cylinders at low load and saves up to 20 percent of the fuel.
Exploitation
General mileage of the car, km 1237
Mileage from the beginning of the dough, km 319
Fuel consumption, l/100km 24.7
Technical characteristics of Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 At Overland
Benzine engine type V8
Working volume, cubic meter. cm 5654
Max. Power, L.S./rpm 352/5200
Max. moment, nm/rpm 520/4200
The type of drive is complete
Transmission 6-speed automatic with electronic control and lowering nearby
The front suspension is independent
The rear suspension is independent
Brakes ventilated disk brakes in front and back
Dimensions (DHSHHV), mm 4822x1943x1781
Wheel base, mm 2915
Equipped mass, kg 2949
Max. Speed, km/hour 225
Acceleration 0100 km/h, from 8.7
Fuel consumption (comb.), L/100 km 14.1
Emissions CO2, g/km 329
Fuel tank volume, l 93.5
The volume of the luggage compartment, l 457 (ISO 3832)/782 916 (ISO 3832)/1554
Tire size 265/50r20
Price, rubles 2,667,000

Source: Motor magazine [July 2012]