2014 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk V-6 4x4
Tribal Loyalties: The Small Crossover with the Big Name.
August 2013
BY ANDREW WENDLER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY A.J. MUELLER
Resurrecting the venerated Cherokee name was an easy decision. Affixing it to the rump of a soft-edged, squinty-eyed crossover that includes neither a solid axle nor a traditional transfer case in its mechanical specs, however, likely took a little more thought. Soften it too much, and you’ve got a Cherokee without the integrity and grit. But go too hard-core, and you risk alienating today’s crossover customer, an archetype that didn’t even exist when the previous Cherokee XJ’s 17-year reign of right-angle styling and farm-implement simplicity began.
By now, most have decided which side of the transfer case they stand on, so we’ll just inform you that Mark Allen, Jeep chief designer, followed one overriding philosophy when designing the Cherokee: “To pay homage to Jeep’s heritage and *visually convey that this is an all-new Jeep, while still communicating legendary best-in-class capability.” Later he refined the statement: “We couldn’t make it look like a box.”
The solution, in Jeep’s point of view, was to release the new Cherokee in four strengths: Sport, Latitude, Limited, and the Trailhawk model pictured here. Eager to prove the new car-based Cherokee is no pansy, Jeep took us to Wrangler territory and sent us over Hell’s Revenge and Fins and Things, a pair of challenging slickrock trails in Utah’s canyon country near Moab.
As the off-road-focused model of the bunch, the Trailhawk lifts by one inch the Cherokee’s all-independent suspension of front struts and a four-link rear, for a total of 8.7 inches of clearance. Unique front and rear fascias offer improved approach and departure angles of 30 and 32 degrees, respectively, and the three bright-red tow hooks (two front, one rear) are the real deal, with each rated for 8250 pounds.
Wheel flares, skid plates, increased engine cooling, and an auxiliary transmission-oil cooler round out the Trailhawk’s mods. Its towing capacity is 4500 pounds.
Jeep designates the Trailhawk as “Trail Rated,” an achievement celebrated by plastic exterior badges. To earn them, Jeep developed an innovative drive system called “Jeep Active Drive Lock,” which is standard on the Trailhawk and incorporates a low range and a locking rear differential. It’s the most advanced of the Cherokee’s three four-wheel-drive systems. The alternatives are a single-speed setup called Active Drive I and a two-speed Active Drive II.
Active Drive Lock employs a two-speed power transfer unit with a 2.92:1 low-range ratio, giving the Trailhawk a Wrangler-like crawling ability. Jeep’s Selec-Terrain traction-control system allows users to choose between auto, snow, sport, sand/mud, and rock—the latter of which can only be engaged in low range. Stand*ard on all three four-wheel-drive systems, Selec-Trac works as a central office of sorts, coordinating the operation of numerous vehicle-control systems including engine, transmission, braking, and electronic-stability functions among others for optimum *performance and traction. Another benefit of the setup is its *ability to completely decouple the rear axle for improved fuel efficiency in situations where four-wheel drive isn’t required.
We spent 95 percent of our five-hour off-road journey in low-range rock mode, which automatically locks the rear differential (it can be locked manually in any mode, as long as you’re in low range), only briefly selecting the sand/mud mode. Though Jeep assures us that lots of incremental adjustments to the drive-system algorithm take place as you inch over rocks and through sandy washes, we observed from the helm no earth-shaking differences in vehicle control—aside from a few impromptu sandstorms kicked up by the spinning of the fully inflated Firestone P245/65 all-terrain 17-inch tires.
Both the rock and sand/mud settings allow for up to 100 percent of the torque to be sent to the rear wheels. Selecting low range turns off the stability control so the driver can place the Cherokee in precarious off-road positions without panicking the vehicle’s electronic self-preservation helpers.
Jeep’s Selec-Speed Control, basically a hill-descent and -ascent assist bundled under a zippy moniker, is designed to maintain a given vehicle speed (between one and five miles per hour) by regulating engine torque and brake pressure. We used it extensively on our desert trek, and while the ascents with it on are confidence inspiring, radical descents are where the system truly amazes, arresting downward progress with nary a skid of complaint from the tires, leaving the occupants hanging in their seats.
Making its debut in the Cherokee is an optional 3.2-liter Pentastar V-6, which shares virtually everything with its 3.6-liter sibling save for bore size. With 271 horsepower and 239 pound-feet of torque, it’s got a hearty leg up on the four-cylinder units found in the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4, leaving only the 2.0-liter EcoBoost Ford Escape in the ballpark with its 240 horsepower and 270 pound-feet of torque. It’s quiet and gutsy, and, paired with the new Chrysler/ZF nine-speed automatic transmission, the combo feels like it has as much oomph as anything in the segment.
Chrysler tells us the nine-speed—a manual is not offered—has more than 40 different shift maps available on the fly. Maybe. All we can say is that the unit isn’t as busy as we expected. Oddly, it avoided ninth gear with a pathological zeal, and even at highway speeds the only way to engage it was to select it manually with the shifter. Jeep says the preproduction models we drove were still undergoing calibration refinements.
Steering is a one-way conversation, but the electric, speed-sensitive, and variable-effort rack is as direct as anything in the segment save for the Mazda CX-5’s. Managing high speeds through the winding canyon asphalt of the Moab region is a cinch, the electronic stability control ever ready to apply selective brake and throttle inputs to correct ham-fisted driving. We forced the issue, finding its intervention to be of the gentle, motherly type and leaving us to enjoy the Trailhawk’s serene interior. Seriously, this thing is a rolling anechoic chamber compared with the cantankerous Jeep Liberty it replaces.
Even as this new, highly styled crossover offers far more on-road refinement than Jeep’s Cherokee of yore, it surely provides a better, if software-based, off-road package, too. That might not be important to today’s crossover shopper, but it’s awfully important to Jeep.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEgNyCYmtqI[/video]
