We’re finally beginning to get a glimpse of precisely what Chrysler has been up to since snagging a whopping $6.six billion in federal funding for the duration of the automotive implosion of 2009.

Although General Motors has been busily chugging along like nothing happened, the Pentastar hasn’t specifically rolled out a wave of new and refreshed models. There’s been an apparent hitch inside Chrysler giddy up, and those loyal to your company’s three brands have been forced to settle for tiny additional than slightly reworked choice packages.!!!. until now. As 2010 comes to a close, the corporation is pulling the covers off a range of new models, each as crucial to its future success as the last.

At the front of the pack will be the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee, a motor vehicle which is turn out to be synonymous with Chrysler’s righting of itself within the public eye thanks to some of the most well-crafted advertisements within the industry. Should you do not know what we’re on about, we highly suggest pointing your browser toward YouTube and spending a couple of minutes watching the company’s “The Issues We Make, Make Us” spot. Be prepared for an overwhelming sense of patriotic duty, as properly as a burning desire to pick up a hammer and bang some nails.

You’ve been warned.

Even before Chrysler’s run-in with Chapter 11, there have been flickers of hope within the company’s fleet. The Dodge Ram packed 1 with the greatest interiors in the segment, and the previous-generation Fantastic Cherokee wasn’t a horrible place to spend a few hours. The 2011 Grand Cherokee picks up people cues and runs with them in all directions, resulting in a car or truck that’s as capable off road as it is jousting with mid-town traffic. If this could be the new face of Chrysler, we like what we see.

This is a handsome vehicle.

Jeep has a lengthy and storied history of brutish designs to pull from, and also the 2011 Fantastic Cherokee picks from the finest. The familial squared-off fender arches and seven-slot grille join new, glowering headlamps for a appear that is all close to much more determined than its predecessor. The narrow lights and upright fascia give the Grand Cherokee an aggressive nose that looks all but determined to pull the brand new Chrysler from the ashes of your old single-handedly. Short overhangs front and rear are plenty functional for taking on your favorite trails, but they also give the SUV the sort of ready-for-anything stance that made buyers fall in love with high-riders to start with. Inside a world populated by bubble crossovers, the Fantastic Cherokee clearly stands apart.

That look continues down the side of your motor vehicle.

With blacked-out B- and C-pillars backed up by angular rear bodywork, the design is beautifully modern. For as soon as, the designers at Chrysler don’t seem to be entirely beholden to retro styling, and that actuality pays large dividends for that Fantastic Cherokee. Light splashes of chrome on the door handles, mirrors and roof rack are much more fine jewelry than bling, and demonstrate a degree of restrained taste that we do not see too typically from domestic producers. In short, it can be a vehicle that you’re proud to drive, and that draws attentive stares no matter where you go.

Chrysler was one particular with the 1st domestic firms in recent times to underscore the reality that a vehicle does not have to wear a luxury badge just to have an outstanding interior, and also the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee takes that knowledge to heart. Though our tester came equipped with all the feature-heavy Overland package and all in the leather niceties that entails, we’re told that lower rung models are no much less gorgeous. Deep, real-wood accents are traced with chrome along the door panels and dash, as well as the exceptional leather seats wear stylish contrasting piping. The cabin is lined with a host of little details that merely make it apparent that Chrysler’s team place within the hours stressing over fit and finish. Five years ago, we merely would not have thought this level of refinement was feasible from any Chrysler branch, let alone Jeep.

To us, the icing on the cake could be the steering wheel from the Awesome Cherokee. Chrysler finally seems to have realized that the chunky, one-size-fits-all unit of yore wasn’t doing anybody any favors, and chucked it in favor of piece that does considerably a lot more for your overall cohesiveness from the interior. We cannot underscore enough how important a steering wheel is always to a vehicle’s cabin, and Chrysler has absolutely nailed it aided by the Fantastic Cherokee’s new tiller.

Our Jeep came packing the much-celebrated new Phoenix 3.6-liter V6 under the hood. With 290 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque, the new engine is often a couple of millennia ahead with the engine it replaces. For the duration of our Very first Drive, we felt like the six-pot didn’t have quite enough gusto to shuffle around the five,000 pound Awesome Cherokee in a dignified fashion, but after a full week aided by the new engine, we’re changing our tune. A little. The V6 handles day-to-day driving duties devoid of any real issues, and will even summon up sufficient courage for interstate passes on command. It can be smooth, though if you’re expecting to dart out in to the left lane, brace for a lot of revs through the wee sixer.

Chrysler mated the Phoenix that has a five-speed automatic transmission that, even though a lot smooth, seems to be the weak spot inside the driveline. The EPA hasn’t been kind for the Awesome Cherokee V6, slotting our tester at 16 mpg city and 22 mpg highway. During mixed driving, we saw close to 19, so the feds figures are spot on. Throwing an additional cog into the transmission would go a long way toward squeezing an additional mpg or two out with the SUV. Obviously, losing a pound or hundred would not hurt points, either.

Nestled behind that transmission is what Jeep calls its Quadra-Trac II four-wheel-drive program. That has a bevy of settings (including ride-height adjustments) for virtually just about every kind of off-road or slippery driving condition, the process is supposed to become to trails what a stand mixer is always to baking – necessary.

Unfortunately, our time aided by the Fantastic Cherokee was abbreviated by a last-minute trip, so we weren’t able to put the Fantastic Cherokee as a result of its paces inside red clay of East Tennessee. Not that it can be going to be asked to conquer the Sahara on a regular basis by average owners.

We can say with some authority that the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee is as mild mannered whilst soft roading as one could possibly anticipate from of a automobile that is still far more an SUV than it is actual body-on-frame competitors. Chrysler has accomplished a wonderful job with the suspension, providing a ride that soaks up breaks in pavement with no succumbing to wallow or excessive entire body roll. Do not get us wrong, this isn’t your momma’s crossover, and as such, you can’t anticipate to hustle it via a series of twists devoid of appropriate amounts of understeer, but for a automobile that we’re told can keep pace having a Wrangler once the tarmac evaporates, it can be an superb driver.
Most domestic manufacturers seem to have last but not least gotten the memo that quiet means high quality for the vast majority of buyers out there, and as such, the Fantastic Cherokee’s cabin insulates you and yours from agitations like wind, street and engine noise. Actually wind that three.6-liter V6 up, although, and you will hear it sweating through the engine bay.

Jeep is asking around $30,215 for that base, two-wheel-drive version of the 2011 Grand Cherokee, although our virtually top-of-the-line tester hits the wallet for a more heady $43,695 with destination. Needless to say, which is with nearly every single choice the corporation could probably cram into the truck with the exception in the mighty 5.7-liter V8. Speaking of that eight-pot, we’ve got to wonder if we’d opt for your much more potent powerplant were it our name around the dotted line. At close to two mpg less in each city and highway driving with an additional 70 horsepower, we’d certainly consider it. The sad actuality is that the brand new V6 – or much more accurately, the transmission – just does not provide plenty of from the way of fuel economy to warrant the hit in horsepower. There’s some word that Chrysler will be bolting the Fiat Multiair method onto the Phoenix with significant increases in horsepower sometime soon. If which is the case, sign us up. Otherwise, we’ll take the five.7-liter, please.

Chrysler actually has carried out some thing impressive together with the 2011 Awesome Jeep Cherokee. The corporation is plainly operating using a dearth of resources compared to each Ford and General Motors, but has managed to turn out a product capable of keeping pace, if not besting comparable metal, from people two at the same time. Here’s hoping the Pentastar can pull off similar feats of engineering and accounting wizardry using the rest of its fleet. If you are searching through the web for more info about the sphere of 0 car finance deal, please make sure to visit the web page which was mentioned in this passage.