Gadgetory

the undeniably good-looking Jeep Grand Cherokee a luxury handsome beast now available with a turbo diesel along the waited is it the perfect Grand Cherokee or just the perfect reason to go back and check off the v8 let's try this 2014 Grand Cherokee summit all-wheel drive with the diesel check the tech now it's not a stretch to say that the current Grand Cherokee is kind of the American Land Rover they've taken this guy upscale very mature and sophisticated in its lines but it remains a serious off-roader spot the latest ones by a revised face and rump slightly smaller more streamlined taillights and such in other words it's just getting more elegant every year now technically a Grand Cherokee in this current guys is not a truck at least not in the opinions of a purist because it's not a body-on-frame vehicle it's a unibody design but it makes for a very car like vehicle now because we've got a summit which is the top trim level we've got a standard 8.4 inch squarish but very large UConnect head unit we've seen this before in Grand Cherokee is another Chrysler products I'm not gonna go real deep on it if you want to get some details on a check out our other reviews of other trim Grand Cherokees we're really here to talk about diesel today I will mention though that at this point CD is optional we have one here in the console you would get this either by optioning CD on a cart or getting the blu-ray headrest system we have that I don't approve of but basically optical discs by by now we have an all-wheel drive diesel vehicle but because of Grand Cherokee this sort of American Land Rover thing that's all been refined out it comes down to a nice set of elegant electronics your shifter here it's very familiar automatic shifter that goes to an 8-speed automatic and here you've got your mode you can go all the way over to snow sand an automatic selector and then you've got mud and rock selections augmenting that you've got choice of ride height here and you can lock her down in for low so you've got the full complement of real Jeep off-road terrain rated stuff now interestingly this new diesel in the Grand Cherokee is not a German unit not an American unit but because of the new Fiat parentage it's made in Italy by VM Motors and apparently they've got a mechanic running around barefoot because someone left a sock in here it's a turbocharged diesel as they just about all are these days 240 horsepower it's gonna fall for a big vehicle 420 pound-feet of torque this is a dramatic difference a stark difference between those two metrics and interestingly of all the grand cherokees this one has the least horsepower but also the most torque now the weight is stunning as well I had to do a double-take and reread the materials 50 300 plus pounds kerb weight 0 to 60 happens in 7.8 seconds which is kind of a miracle but again thanks to all that torque it happens your mpg is actually pretty good for a vehicle of this weight it's 21 City 28 Highway that is 8 miles per gallon better than the v8 5.7 liter Grand Cherokee it's a huge difference even though neither our numbers to brag about all wheel drive on our vehicle you can get these in rear-wheel drive towing capacity and all-wheel Drive is 7,200 pounds a little more actually if you get rear-wheel drive and your range as diesels tend to have is stunning 730 miles on a tank let's get right to the heart of the issue driving this thing reminds me of a school bus the power comes on pretty mushy it's rubbery throttle response there's a ton of power there don't get me wrong but it's not accessible in a responsive way I find that part of be a chore to drive on the other hand the ride quality is super even over really crappy muddy rutted roads where you would take this thing ride qualities nice and weird for that engine the interior cabin noise would be superb as well so the engine and its behavior and power delivery and noise are completely at odds with the way this car looks outside and in and of course it feels it's weight it feels it's 50 300 something pounds but not in a tubby way it's it's well controlled weights which not every suspension can lay claim to doing successfully visibility is not bad all around the vehicle you've got some pretty good vis the corners because of a large quarter window between the C and D pillars and of course members is a two row car there is no third row or third row options okay let's price our summit dese on our 2014 configuration this guy's gonna start off a little over 48,000 delivered that's just for a summit at all-wheel-drive 3000 add the diesel option 5,000 it's an all the cart tick-box the only other option i would add on this high trim vehicle is the optical disc drive why not you've got a thousand CDs at home I would skip the $2,000 do a headrest blu-ray system like the plague and go get a couple of iPads all in a little over five years to pay off the diesel option here that's ballpark math you need to value things like it's very long range its unique torque curve although it's towing capacity on this vehicles no better than a gas v8 here's what this vehicle appeals to someone who bemoans how nice jeeps have gotten in recent years or drives a ram Cummins pickup as their work truck or generally likes the sound of a diesel engine for the rest of us this one doesn't necessarily fit Oh