The IT Nerd

The technology in the Jeep Cherokee Limited is extensive. Let’s start with the safety technology, here’s the list of things that will keep you safe:

• Ten air bags including driver and passenger knee blockers
• Adaptive Cruise Control with Stop: This uses radar and video sensors to help maintain a consistent distance between you and the vehicle in front of you by adjusting cruising speeds. When activated, it’s even capable of bringing your vehicle to a full stop automatically.
• Forward Collision Warning with Mitigation system: This alerts you when you’re approaching another vehicle or large obstacle too rapidly, allowing you to take action to prevent a collision.
• LaneSense Lane Departure Warning: This system lets you know if you are drifting out of your lane unintentionally. If you should begin to drift out of your lane without signaling, the system provides an audible warning, as well as feedback through the steering wheel.
• Blind-Spot Monitoring with Rear Cross-Path Detection
• Rear back up camera

The next thing is the key. It’s a proximity key that allows you to walk up, open the door, press the start button, and drive away. You can also remote start the Jeep, open the rear hatch, and unlock the doors. Like other Chrysler vehicles I’ve reviewed, there’s a real key on the inside. When you want to lock the car, simply press a button on the door handle when you get out of the car. Net result: You never have to take the proximity key out of your pocket.

Now to the easy part of this review, which is the UConnect system. This is a newer version than the one that was in the Grand Cherokee that I drove last year. It has been refined since the last time I tried it with things like the buttons and graphics looking more smooth and consistent. Navigation is still provided by Garmin which is a good thing. And as usual, it took me seconds to pair my iPhone via Bluetooth and make everything work the way I expected. Plugging in my iPhone via USB allowed me access to all the music and playlists on it. The voice recognition was good, though I had trouble with street names. The system is powered by a 8.4″ touchscreen which is clear and easy to read. There are redundant controls that are well designed and easy to reach. When it comes to the design part, I’ll use the controls on the steering wheel as an example. Individual buttons have their own feel so that once you know what the functions are, you can use them purely based on feel. It’s still a excellent system to use. But it’s facing some significant competition in the form of the system that comes with the Hyundai Genesis which comes with a 9″ screen and is just as easy to use. Thus, Chrysler may have to step up it’s game shortly.

No matter where I was sitting, the audio was fantastic. Crisp highs and well defined bass with zero distortion. Kudos to Chrysler for providing a top notch stereo.

Now to the crown jewel of the technology in the Jeep Cherokee, which is the fact that it will parallel and perpendicular park itself using a feature called ParkSense. Now cars that do parallel parking by themselves is not a new feature as several vehicles have this feature including the Ford Explorer that I reviewed a couple of years ago. But perpendicular parking is a new feature that I have not seen in another vehicle. I tried both and they work well, assuming you understand how the system works. More on that a second. Right now let me show you a video of the system in action:

Now it looks impressive, but I did this in an open parking lot where it took several tries to get this video recorded. The reason being is that I had to be three feet or less from the cars that you’re trying to park between. Once I figured that out, I was able to make the system work perfectly at will. Another thing to note, you have to trust the system. The first time I used it, I was convinced that I was going to hit one of the cars I was trying to park between and I aborted the parking attempt. Further attempts at parking brought about the revelation that the system would automatically figure out when I was too close to a car and issue instructions to shift into drive or reverse depending on the situation so that it could adjust the position of the car. My suggestion is to try out the system in a parking lot for a hour or two until you are comfortable using ParkSense. It does work well once you understand how it works.

In the last part of my review, I’ll wrap up some loose ends and I will give you my final verdict.

The interior of the Jeep Cherokee for the most part is a place that you will not complain about. Let’s start at the front:

The driver’s seat is well bolstered and very comfortable. It is 8 way power adjustable and comes with adjustable lumbar support. The front seats are heated and ventilated.

They also make it clear to anyone who sits in them what you’re driving.

The memory settings for the drivers seat as well as the door locks, window controls, and controls for the mirrors are on the doors. The leather and wood accents are a nice touch along with the chrome door handle.

What is a bit puzzling is the placement on the driver’s side door of the button to open the flap that covers the gas cap. It’s a small button located in an out of the way location that most people will never consider looking for it in. This is easy to miss. I would suggest that Jeep should relocate it to the left side of the dash where the controls for the interior and exterior lights are.

To the left of the steering wheel are the controls for the exterior lights and interior lights along with the button to open the rear hatch. One thing to note is that the Jeep Cherokee has automatic headlights and as you can see, I have set them that way. You can also press the knob to activate the fog lamps.

The steering wheel is leather wrapped, heated and is on the chunky side. But it still is comfortable to hold. There are redundant controls for the UConnect system on it. One thing to note is that I found the horn to be somewhat hard to press which was disconcerting at first. But after a couple of days I stopped thinking about it.

The gauge cluster is interesting as you can customize the centre portion with whatever info you need to see, plus navigation directions are replicated there. I do note that it is sometimes prone to suffering from glare though, but it doesn’t really affect your ability to see anything.

To the right of the steering wheel is the always useful engine start/stop button.

Here’s the 8.4″ display that’s part of the UConnect System. Below it are controls for the automatic parking and dual zone HVAC.

Just above it on the dash is a place to put your sunglasses….

… and on the roof is another place to put your sunglasses.

Below the HVAC controls is a USB port, an SD card reader, and AUX jack for audio and a 12V outlet.

Here’s the shifter, the controls for the four wheel drive system to the left of it, the parking brake (of the electronic variety) below it, and a pair of decently sized cupholders.

The centre console has a feature that I have never seen in a vehicle before. This is a wireless charging plate for phones that support wireless charging. If you have a phone like a Nexus 5 or a Galaxy S5, you’ll love this. It is made by QI and I reviewed one of their charging plates a while back and found it to be a very good product. Thus I would expect this one inside this Jeep to be the same.

Underneath that is a deep storage area that also has the CD player, a USB port and another 12V outlet.

The glove box is a good sized one and it is lit.

The sunroof is MASSIVE. The only other one that I have ever seen that is competitive with this one is the one that was in the 2015 Hyundai Genesis that I recently reviewed.

The back seats sit three people. Though the person in the middle has to deal with the hump created by the driveshaft. One thing does stand out about the back seats….

….You can slide them forward or back as you can see here to create additional legroom.

If you don’t need the middle seat, you can flip down a pair of cupholders and also use it as an armrest.

Those in the back also get one other handy feature. If you look just below the HVAC outlets, you get a 115V outlet. Handy to charge your iPad, laptop or your phone.

Moving to the the cargo area, you get a privacy cover.

And if you have something long to transport, you can fold down the right rear seat and the front seat to accommodate it. Trips to Home Depot will never be the same.

This apparatus puzzled me until I figured out what it was. This is part of Jeep’s cargo management system and it adds handy hooks and a removable grocery bag as well as many innovative and thoughtful add-on storage solutions including a First Aid Kit. Accessories that leverage this feature are available at your dealer. I’ll also note an abundance of cargo hooks and tie downs all over the cargo area of the vehicle.

Here’s what the results of our weekly grocery shopping trip looks like. As you can see, there’s room left over in the back.

The rear hatch is motorized and the button to close it is on the left near the cargo management system. Its position and size (as it is on the small side) was puzzling because my wife and I were looking for it and didn’t find it until my wife discovered it and said “what does this button do?” right before pressing it causing the rear hatch to descend and bump me in the head (I wasn’t hurt by the way because it was a gentle bump). The hatch then promptly went back up as it is designed to do when it encounters an object. I would suggest that Jeep should relocate the button on the hatch itself to make it easier to find or make it bigger so that it is easier to spot. If you look at the bottom right corner of this picture, you’ll notice another 12V outlet.

Some notes:

• I was able to set up the driver’s seat to fit my six foot frame and then hop into the back seat easily and have ample legroom thanks to the sliding seats. Headroom for me was on the low side, but I did have room.
• Visibility is good in all aspects and headroom which is usually an issue for me in vehicles with sunroofs was good as well.
• Everything was put together well and any surface that I touched felt like it oozed quality. I could not find one thing in the fit and finish department to complain about.
• There’s an abundance of soft touch materials that I believe will hold up over time.

Now in part four, I’ll cover the technology in the Jeep Cherokee. And there is a lot of technology in it so stay tuned!

Under the hood of the Jeep Cherokee Limited is a 3.2L Pentastar V6 that puts out 271 HP and 239 pound feet of torque. It’s mated to a 9 speed transmission. That’s not a misprint. This gearbox has 9 cogs in it. Now you’re likely asking why would Jeep put 9 cogs in a transmission? The extra gears are supposed to improve both acceleration and fuel economy. The engine and transmission drive all 4 wheels via Jeep’s Active Drive II 4×4 system. Active Drive II 4×4 comes with low-range gearing which is great for rock crawling and has a neutral mode for flat towing behind an RV. It offers Snow, Mud/Sand and Sport modes, the latter delivering more power to the rear axle for a sportier on-road feel. You also get hill decent control and an off road suspension as part of the package too.

So, how does this combination work? There is lots power and torque available, but there were times where I put my foot down on the highway to pass a truck and it took a second to accelerate. It didn’t happen all the time, But it did happen frequently enough that I decided to mention it. I’m guessing that it is due to the fact that the transmission has to drop a few cogs so that the Jeep can accelerate. Though I will note that putting the vehicle into sport mode helps with this. I would recommend that you plan your passing activities when you’re on the highway so that you’re not caught out by the second or two of hesitation should it appear. Beyond that, I really do not have any complaints about the engine or the transmission. In terms of the latter, it for the most part shifts smoothly and there’s no “shift shock” which is that slight lurch that your vehicle makes when your transmission shifts gears when accelerating. You can easily use the accelerator to crawl through stop and go traffic and on the open road you can deliver the right amount of power to get the speed you want. The brakes are easy to modulate and bring you to a stop smoothly. In terms of fuel economy, I’m averaging 11.8 L/100 KM on 89 octane gas in mostly city and some highway driving. That’s pretty good considering that this is a SUV that isn’t light. Plus my daily driver which has two less cylinders and 120 less HP gets about the same fuel economy in the same conditions. Other than tire noise things are quiet inside the cabin unless you put your foot down. The ride is smooth and steady, floating over big bumps but taking the edge off the sharper ones. It handles curves as better than most SUVs in this class with minimal body roll. Though if you push it too hard in a curve, you’ll be reminded that it’s an SUV due to the high center of gravity.

Now let’s head off road. To test its off road capabilities, I headed to a gravel road in Belfountain which is north west of Toronto that has very steep uphills, downhills and sharp turns. It’s usually frequented by the pickup trucks and SUVs that are owned by the farmers in the area. The rough winter that we had really made this road rougher than normal. In the past, it was a challenge to drive this road. But now I feel that vehicles designed for off road use are the only vehicles that can handle this road because it has become so rough. Also having previous experience driving off road (I took a off road driving course that was run by Land Rover) helps as well as you can make a mess of a vehicle if you don’t know what you’re doing off road. Having said all of this, the Cherokee was able to deal with this road exceptionally well. Ruts, uneven terrain, and loose gravel did nothing to upset the Cherokee. One thing that was really handy was hill decent control which made going down really steep hills way less stressful. If you need to drive off road as well as on road, this Jeep is for you.

The next part of the review will look at the interior which is a very interesting one. Stay tuned for that.

When you think of the compact class of SUV’s, most vehicles in that class look like SUV’s, but they really can’t go off road in any serious way. That’s fine if you have no aspirations to touch dirt. But if you do want to go off road, you want something that can handle any possible condition that you could come across. Enter the Jeep Cherokee. It’s a vehicle that will take the kids to soccer practice as well as take you deep into the woods and back. Now let me deal with the elephant in the room. The looks. It doesn’t look like your father’s Jeep Cherokee: I’ll admit that looks are, shall we say unique. However, this is one of those vehicles that you have to see in person because my pictures will not do it any sort of justice. For all the buzz the look of the front end of the Cherokee seems to be generating online, it really is not that bad. In fact, I like it. Walk around to the back and the unique look continues. Take it from me. If you walk around the vehicle a few times slowly, you’ll find that the look is coherent. It really does work to make this SUV unique in good way. Now the Jeep Cherokee that I’m driving is the Limited trim level which comes with a V6, a real four wheel drive system, and a ton of technology. This is going to be one packed review. As usual, I’ll be posting a multi-part review that will cover the following sections:

• Engine, transmission, handling, fuel economy, and driving comfort
• Interior
• Technology in the vehicle
• Wrap up

As an aside, all the photos for this review will be taken with the LG G Flex Android based smartphone which was provided to me by Rogers and is exclusive to them. I will have a review on this phone on Friday. But in the meantime, let’s see what the Jeep Cherokee can do both on and off road.