Review: 2019 Jeep Cherokee North – Part 5
So I have come to the end of my week long review of the Jeep Cherokee North. And my conclusion goes something like this. Final fuel economy was 11 L / 100KM which is higher than what I am used to. But still decent seeing as I was on city streets and heavy traffic on the highway during my time with it. Which meant that the 9 speed automatic transmission really could not show off what it is capable of.
The North in its base form goes for $34,416 (the base price for the Cherokee overall is $27,021 for the record) and while it does come with a fair amount of kit, it is missing key safety features like blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alerts and the like. To get those, you have to pony up $895 for the SafetyTec group which includes the following:
- Blind Spot Monitoring With Rear Cross Path Detection
- Exterior Mirror With Courtesy Lamp
- Exterior Mirror With Supplemental Turn Signal
- Park-Sense Rear Park Assist System
- Power Heated Mirrors With Turn Signal And Lamp
That brings you to $35,222. And you don’t get autonomous emergency braking. For that, you need to go up to the Limited trim level and pick the technology group which makes the price $37,600. And right there that illustrates the main Achilles heel of the Jeep Cherokee. The price. Many people who cross shop it across competitors like the Honda CR-V Toyota RAV 4 or Mazda CX-5 will see that those vehicles have many these features at a much lower price point. While it is true that the Jeep will do much better off road and it has a V6 option, I am not sure that shoppers will care and may take their business elsewhere as a result. The reasons being is that unless you tow stuff, the V6 is non-factor for many who want four cylinder vehicles for fuel economy purposes. Plus 95% of SUVs never touch dirt which makes the Jeep’s off road capabilities a non-factor. That’s a bit of a shame as this is a nice vehicle and it does merit a look if you’re looking for a vehicle of this size. Perhaps Jeep or more accurately Fiat Chrysler may want to look at this as this vehicle that merits more attention than it currently gets.
October 29, 2019 at 1:40 am
I m one of the few oddballs who liked the old Cherokee s oddball styling, which positioned bright LED daytime running light eyebrows up high and headlights rather low, where people didn t realize that s what they were. I was in the minority, and Jeep not only resisted extending this design to other models but has abandoned it altogether with the 2019 Cherokee, which now groups the DRLs and standard LED headlights higher up in more conventional clusters. (Hyundai has already adopted this design — less deftly, if you ask me — in the Kona and redesigned 2019 Santa Fe .) Additionally, the waterfall grille that formerly began above a crease in the leading edge of the hood and then cascaded down — you know, like a waterfall — now has a more conventional look on a more vertically oriented nose.