Or, at least, it would be, except that the transmission on our vehicle dropped a gear just about every time we touched the pedal while cruising, causing a slightly jerky ride exacerbated by the seat design holding the transmission in gear helped, but you can’t hold the transmission in fifth gear. The Hemi has gobs of torque as well as real, usable horsepower, but it’s civilized enough to quietly carry your in-laws around. It makes just the right noises when operating, is silent when cruising and has an appropriate, deep vrooming noise when acceleration, and provides instant, smooth acceleration at any speed. We could ramble on for hours about the Hemi, but the long and short of it is that it’s an absolutely wonderful engine for everything other than gas mileage. On the lighter side, when equipped with the Hemi, the Grand Cherokee is a lot quicker, more nimble, and fun to drive. The poor gas mileage across the board is the Grand Cherokee’s achilles heel a Chevrolet Suburban actually gets about the same mileage. That’s only two miles per gallon less than the 3.7 V6, which produces a respectable 210 horses (235 lb-ft). 04 seconds even so, the Hemi Grand Cherokee only manages 14 city, 19 highway. The multiple displacement system works imperceptibly, shutting off or activating cylinders in.
The Hemi is rapidly becoming legendary in its own right, achieving as much as its original namesake in the 1950s. The heavy vehicle feels fairly nimble around sharp turns and can handle curves at surprisingly high speeds, doing well on emergency maneuvers as well. Ride is not bad, smooth on smooth roads, able to deal with nasty cement and dirt surfaces, but it is still firm and you feel sudden shocks if they’re large enough.Įven though there are lots of electronics to keep the Jeep stable, it seems to do just fine on its own, despite big off-road tires. The active suspension and fast-acting automatic four-wheel-drive were very helpful in keeping the Hemi tamed around corners, where normally we’d experience considerable skidding and a swing-out tail but even without the electronic doodads, the Grand Cherokee handled surprisingly well. With Hemi models, a hydraulically controlled active stabilizer reduces body roll while smoothing out the ride when travelling straight by decoupling the front and rear stabilizer bars when they are not needed. It feels nimble around paved turns but can still cross a stream it can outrace some sports cars, but can also go into low-gear four wheel drive for 5 mph rock climbs. Overall, the 2005 Grand Cherokee has a smoother ride and better on-road handling than past models, yet is more capable on the trail.
Our only gripe is that the heavy weight of the Grand Cherokee makes gas mileage less than it should be, and that the steps taken to increase economy make the vehicle seem less ideal.
(The independent front suspension, amusingly, has indeed been used on Jeeps – the very first four wheel drive vehicle with an independent front suspension was a 1962 Wagoneer!) The Hemi provides a whopping 320 horsepower, with a penalty of just one or two miles per gallon, and the active suspension helps that power to be manageable in what is at heart an off-roader. The ancient engine choices – the AMC-era straight-six, the early-60s 318 – are gone, and a new engine with far more power than anything ever to be used in a Jeep is optional, coming with something else never before seen on a Jeep – an active suspension. The interior is a bit more luxurious looking, the ride rather different. Electronic front and rear differentials lock or unlock instantly, and a new independent front suspension feels equally at home off road and on. It looks like every Grand Cherokee before it – a little more square in some parts, angular in others, with odd-looking headlights – but it’s surprisingly different.
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