This Jeep is worth the price and more

It has happened many times before and it has not always worked. Sometimes a monstrous abomination is created, yet other times an inspired piece of machinery comes of it. What am I talking about, you may be wondering? The current Jeep Grand Cherokee model is what I would call the love child of a Jeep and a Mercedes Benz. It has the DNA of one of the all-time off-roaders and that of the custodians of luxury and car technology.

It is for example, built with the chassis of a Mercedes Benz ML and the interior and technology of a Mercedes Benz S-Class, yet with the off-roading character of the Jeep. In the real world, it should not work. It should fall flat on its face. But it works. In fact, it worked so well I became emotionally attached.
So what do we like about it?

The looks
It looks good. It really does. The changes from the old one are striking. Jeep seems to have thrown in everything but the kitchen sink. Everywhere you look, there are improvements. The flared wheel arches give it a beefy, almost macho look. And then there is that styling of the lights. The dark designs around them remind me of rock stars. I would venture to say that this is actually a cool SUV. My only gripe with it is that, it looks a bit intimidating and aggressive, but that will probably work to make boda bodas give you a wide berth.

THE ACCERELATION
A direct fuel injected 3.6 litre V6 engine produces a very respectable 290 horsepower that propels it from 0 to 100km/h in six seconds. It is controlled by an eight speed automatic gearbox and optional sequential flaps behind the steering for when you want to play around a bit. I asked Gilbert Wavamunno, Spear Motors sales director, why it is not turbo charged.

The reason is quite a mouthful: A sequential multipoint electronic fuel injection system. But even without turbo chargers, its acceleration is quite impressive. And the best part is, it does not disorient you like many big engine cars will. It remains civilised.

RIDE & HANDLING
The Jeep comes standard with air suspension. Let me explain. Traditionally, the springs in your suspension are going to be made out of metal. That means while they can handle rough terrain and limit the amount of bounce, things like dip and high speed cornering confuse them.

Air suspension came about as a solution to that problem. They still look like springs but they are just tough rubber bags filled with air and controlled by an onboard compressor that controls things like ride height. This one’s system is internal. Like a submarine’s ballast, it stores its own air.

We checked out how high the SUV can be raised. Even at medium height, the ground clearance will give a Land Rover Defender a run for its money. Now, to properly test the limits of the suspension, we took a detour down the back alleys of Nakawa industrial area. And I have got to say; the roads back there are as bad as they come. Big stones and bathtub sized potholes at every turn. Yet, while the ride down those roads was obviously still uncomfortable, it very decently handles the rough terrain.

The leather seats are firm enough to keep five passengers in place but not too squishy to make the whole experience nauseating. On a decent bit of road, high speed cornering in any high riding vehicle should be approached with copious amounts of caution. What I liked about the Jeep though is that away from ridiculous potholes, it transforms into something else. It hankers down to just the “optimum ride height” (it tells you so on the driver’s console) and begins to eat up corners like a saloon car.

INTERIOR &TECHNOLOGY
A mong other things, you get five bucket seats clothed in leather, chunky steering, a banging sound system and quite a handsomely neat interior. The touch screen centre console comes at a whopping seven inches and it controls nearly everything you can think of. Know how you buy a new phone and then spend about 30 minutes setting it up to your preferences? Well that is what we did first.

Ride height, door lock settings, sitting position(one for you and one for your wife), set up your Iphone, how long the lights or the engine stay on after you leave the car, the list is endless. I love technology so much it was like my own personal nirvana on a seven inch screen. I can only find one complaint to make. We miss the traditional PRND gear stick. This new one will take some getting used to. But then again, we used to miss the old manual stick shift and it virtually gone from almost all new cars.

Verdict
This new Grand Cherokee is a wonderful SUV. At $79,900 (about Shs206m), it is a bargain compared to the Mercedes Benz ML or a BMW X6. Yet it looks really good, has most of the toys and will not misbehave off-road.