The seven-seat Grand Cherokee has found favour with Jeep fans as a decent daily driver and a solid towing platform.
But now it’s time to put the five-seater Grand Cherokee, in Overland spec, through its paces. This smaller vehicle is about $5000 cheaper than its bigger stablemate, but does it actually represent a better buy as well?
Price and features of the 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland
The five-seat Grand Cherokee Overland WL has a manufacturer suggested retail price of $98,450 (excluding on-road costs), but my test vehicle has two option packs – Luxury Tech ($4500) and Off-Road ($2750, more about those packs soon) – and premium paint (Rocky Mountain, $1750), so its price as tested ends up around the $107,450 mark, excluding on-road costs.
Luxury Tech includes a digital rear-view mirror, wireless charging, 12-way power front seats (with memory and massage), four-zone climate control, ventilated outboard second-row seats, and second-row window shades.
The Off Road pack includes 230mm rear axle, rear electronic limited slip differential, Trail Rated badge, 265/60R18 Goodyear Wrangler all-terrain tyres, 18-Inch polished/painted alloy wheels, as well as skid plate protection for the fuel tank, transfer case and front suspension.
Otherwise, standard features include a 10.1-inch multimedia system (with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto plus wireless capability for both), black nappa leather seats (also heated and ventilated for the driver and front passenger), panoramic sunroof, ambient lighting, a hands-free powered tailgate and 20-inch alloy wheels.
Exterior paint options are bright white (standard), or optional premium paint such as diamond black, silver zynith, velvet red, baltic grey, Rocky Mountain, midnight sky and hydro blue, which all cost $1750 each.
In terms of styling, it looks okay to me. The interior is a pleasant mix of dark leather on the seats and as door trim, glossy black plastic peppered throughout the cabin and a woodgrain-look surface on the dash.
The Grand Cherokee’s interior is spacious and comfortable, with plenty to like. But there are also a few niggles here and there and that’s disappointing for a vehicle with a price-tag as hefty as this Jeep’s.
I operated my phone off the 10.1-inch multimedia system’s wireless Apple CarPlay capability without any strife.
Having said that, controls are a confusion of physical buttons and dials and on-screen buttons.
There are plenty of storage compartments (including concealed centre console spaces with centre console soft-touch-opening/sliding) as well as charge points including a wireless charging pad, twin USB-A and USB-C points, and a 12V outlet.
But the interior lacks an overall sense of prestige that it should have and as a result it’s not quite up to scratch.
Second-row passengers have access to power outlets, directional air vents, and comfortable seats.
The rear cargo area has a cargo cover, four tie-down points and a 12V power outlet. The full-size spare wheel is in an underfloor compartment.
This Grand Cherokee has a claimed 1067L of cargo space when all seats are in use, and 2005 litres when the second row is folded away.
The Grand Cherokee has a 3.6-litre V6 petrol engine – producing 210kW at 6400rpm and 344Nm at 4000rpm – and an eight-speed automatic transmission.
This Jeep feels underpowered, and it takes ages for this 2167kg vehicle to get off the mark – so a rapid-fire sprint into traffic from a standing start is out of the question without some white-knuckle nanoseconds of doubt – and overtaking can be a laggy affair.
Making matters worse is a jerky throttle – downward pressure will yield nothing-nothing-nothing and then suddenly the Jeep will lurch forward – and this Jeep’s spongy brake pedal is very slow to bite.
On the plus side, this Grand Cherokee has height-adjustable air suspension and low- and high-range 4WD.
It also has various drive modes: Rock, Sand/Mud, Snow, Auto and Sport.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland does not have an ANCAP safety rating because it has not been tested.
It has a suite of driver-assist tech including AEB (with pedestrian and cyclist detection), blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, active lane management, traffic sign recognition and tyre-pressure monitoring.
Some of the driver-assist tech – such as lane-keep assist – is intrusive, beeping and jerking the steering wheel when the Jeep’s onboard computer perceives you to be straying.
This Jeep is covered by a five year/100,000km warranty.
Service intervals are set at every 12 months or 12,000km, whichever occurs soonest.
Capped price servicing is $399 per appointment for the first five years, at time of writing.
Driving the 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland
On-road, the Grand Cherokee, though smaller than its bigger stablemate, actually feels rather cumbersome.
That sense of bulkiness combined with the loose play in the steering, wallowing bodyroll, as well as that aforementioned jerky throttle and spongy brake pedal make for a mildly unsettling – and more than annoying – driving experience on sealed surfaces.
This Jeep’s 3.6-litre petrol V6 feels underpowered and the transmission is often busy scrambling to match gear shifts to revs.
On the loose-gravel track leading to my 4WD testing ground, this Jeep was skipping over minor corrugations where other (much cheaper) 4WD wagons have exhibited composure.
The drive mode was set at ‘Auto’ and the height-adjustable air suspension was at ride height because the terrain didn’t yet warrant vehicular adjustment.
When it came time to tackle more difficult terrain, it was easy to switch through drive modes – it’s a shifter-lever above and to the left of the auto transmission dial. And selecting 4WD Low (low-range 4WD) is a button-push, below and to the left of the auto transmission dial.
This Jeep doesn’t have a diff lock so it’s reliant on its low-range transfer case and an off-road traction control system which is okay, but some of the Grand Cherokee’s off-road driver-assist aids seem slow to engage (eg. when switching between drive modes) and/or clunky in operation (eg. hill descent control didn’t hold to a truly low speed, instead seeming to free-wheel down steeper slopes once momentum kicked in).
At full stretch, the Jeep’s air suspension will top out at 276mm of ground clearance – better than the 300 Series (235mm), but not as good as an air-suspension-equipped Defender (291mm).
This Jeep has approach, departure and rampover angles of 30.1, 28.4 and 24 degrees respectively and a listed wading depth of 610mm – all measurements which are far from the best, but not the worst either.
Limited axle articulation impacts this Grand Cherokee’s off-road effectiveness as it tends to leave a wheel in the air as the vehicle traverses undulating terrain.
This Jeep has towing capacities of 750kg (unbraked) and 2813kg (braked).
This five-seat petrol Jeep has an official fuel-consumption figure of 9.9L/100km on a combined cycle.
On test I recorded 11.9L/100km and that was after I’d spent a solid five hours of low- and high-range 4WDing.
This Grand Cherokee has an 87-litre fuel tank so, going by that fuel figure, you could expect a driving range of about 730km out of a full tank.
Note: Subtract a safe-distance buffer of 30km to 50km from any fuel-range figure for a better idea of your vehicle’s actual safe touring range. Also, remember that numerous other factors affect fuel consumption and so impact touring range, including your vehicle's tyre pressures, the conditions, how much extra weight you have onboard (passengers, camping gear etc), whether your vehicle is fitted with any aftermarket equipment (bullbar, spare-wheel carrier, etc), whether you are towing (a camper-trailer, caravan, or boat etc) and more.
What we think of the 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland
The Jeep Grand Cherokee seems like another missed opportunity and is a bit of a disappointment all round really.
It feels underpowered and underdone, and it simply doesn’t have the prestige feel or impressive fit and finish that it should.
It could be much better.
Having said that, Jeep fans will be happy with the new five-seater flexibility offered in this smaller Grand Cherokee.
