Tell me about the Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee

kidzndogz

New member
We are in the market for a second car and Shaun is considering the Jeep Cherokee or Grand Cherokee. We were worried about mileage but we just figured he can drive my non-gas sucking car on the 2 days he will have to drive far to drop Liam off and then go to school. We kind of wanted something with 4WD to go up north.

He's mostly worried about cost and reliability. I'm more concerned with safety ratings, lol.

But I've only heard positive things.

Recommend? What's the mileage like? Reliability? Installs?

We are open to other options too...we are just working with less than $7k right now so this seemed to fit best and have the best reviews. I looked at Edmunds but Liam keeps me from reading full sentences, lol.
 
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eyeslkethesky5391

Senior Community Member
I loved my 98 grand cherokee. It had a 4.0L 6 cylinder engine. It got between 18-22mpg. I would probably get the grand cherokee due to the headrests in the back seat that the cherokee lacks.
 

kam1011

New member
I had an '05 Grand Cherokee that was really hard on carseat installs. Granted, I wasn't as good at it back then, but I always went and got help from a tech and I was always limited to one spot where the seat would work because of the fixed headrests and shape of the seat. I traded it in right before my second child was born since the three techs I went to were all unable to get two seats outboard. After spending so much time here, I'm sure there was SOMETHING we could have done that would have worked better, but regardless, it was a BEAST!
 

An Aurora

Senior Community Member
We have had both Grand Cherokees and Cherokees and loved them. All my brothers have Jeeps too and they all love them. They are cheap to fix which is a good thing.

Our Grand Cherokee had horrible gas mileage (14mpg) but it was the 8 cylinder engine. It was easy to install seats in, though. The Cherokee wasn't as car seat friendly and there's no headrests back there (at least in older models, not sure what year they switched to headrests back there).
 

Lys

Senior Community Member
Informed for life give the jeep Grand Cherokee an unacceptable safety rating on all models from 2006 and newer ( that's as far back as I checked).

DH drove one as a rental a while back and liked it but I've since crossed it off our list because of these safety ratings.
 

crunchierthanthou

New member
The Grand Cherokee didn't have LATCH until 2005. More importantly, the 2001-2004 model years don't have TAs for the center position, and the center only has a lap belt and no headrest.
 

Kac

Ambassador - CPS Technician
I :love: :love: :love: my 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It has no tether, but you can get one retrofitted in the middle.

I get perfectly tight installs on every seat. The one seat I struggled with was the FR80, but I didn't completely know how to install it. :eek:

I'm definitely getting another Jeep when this one dies. I'm not sure about mileage. I drive 8+ hours Monday through Wednesday and typically get gas Sunday and Tuesday. I'm also paranoid about running out of gas.
 

Guest

New member
I had a 1995.5 Jeep Cherokee w/ that 4.0L 6 cyl. I guess in the middle of 1995, they added a driver's airbag or something like that. It's 1/2 yr model cuz some kind of airbag got added. Overall, I thought the car sucked. Since the Cherokee never really ever changed, my guess is my opinion would apply to Cherokee's 10 yrs newer or more.

Gas mileage sucked. I was getting around 11 mpg in the city. I had a bunch of overpasses on my commute which are basically hills and that just sucked. I literally saw the gas needle dip when going uphill. One time, I was low on gas and the engine actually cut out right before I hit the peak of the overpass. It restarted once I crested the top. I had to leave 1/4 tank at a minimum to keep that from happening.

Back seat was awfully small. The rear doors are like half doors. Not the hugest deal cuz it is a 4 door, but why limit yourself? Just get a bigger car. Price difference can't be that much, especially used.

Front seats are super comfy on short trips, but b/c they're so soft, the lack of support means things can get painful on long trips. I'd say the change is for a trip around 1.5 to 2 hours or longer. For normal commutes, it's not an issue. For road trips or commutes in LA traffic, it can be an issue.

It'll prolly run forever, but I never felt the quality was very good. Not worth the horrible gas mileage, cramped size, etc. I'd definitely choose the Grand Cherokee over the regular Cherokee. That said, neither are all that high on my list. Mainly, the available powertrains bother me. I'm assuming you're not getting a new one. The new one is NICE cuz it's basically the Mercedes ML. Price is jaw droppingly high tho.
 

kidzndogz

New member
Nah, we've moved on. Sigh. What we are looking for just wasn't matching. We've been looking at 4Runners now, 2000-2001ish. And Pathfinders have been in our radar as well. I was less than thrilled with the lack of headrests in the Jeeps.
 

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