Commander, Grand Cherokee

Commander, Grand Cherokee

Author
Discussion

croyde

Original Poster:

23,633 posts

235 months

Sunday 6th February 2011
quotequote all
Still kind of regretting getting rid of my Discovery 3 a couple of years ago as it was so bloomin' useful if not slightly unreliable so just looking at cheap alternatives.

Looks like buying a 2007 Jeep gets you a lot of car for the money but what is the difference between the Commander and the Grand Cherokee? Seem to have the same diesel engines and one has a boxy shape a bit like the Land Rover.

Are they just slightly different takes on the same thing or is it a lot more than that?

Cheers.

Roo

11,503 posts

212 months

Sunday 6th February 2011
quotequote all
Same chassis and mechanicals but the commander is a boxier shell to give seven seats.

croyde

Original Poster:

23,633 posts

235 months

Sunday 6th February 2011
quotequote all
Cheers.

I have just read some American sites where owners talk of terrible reliability which may explain the fact that they can be picked up for little money compared to rivals.

croyde

Original Poster:

23,633 posts

235 months

Sunday 6th February 2011
quotequote all
Ahh! just seen what you do for a living so maybe you'll know better about their reliability.

Ta.

Roo

11,503 posts

212 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
croyde said:
Ahh! just seen what you do for a living so maybe you'll know better about their reliability.

Ta.
And prior to what I do now I worked for a Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge dealer from July 2000 to September 2009 so have a fair bit of experience with them.

They're not a bad bit of kit and the Merc engine is very good but they are slightly prone to going wrong and when they do they can be expensive to fix.

Earlier Grand Cherokee's of the latest shape had a better 4x4 system than the very recent ones. The 5.7 petrols get through fuel like you'd expect and the SRT is great fun but useless as an off roader.

croyde

Original Poster:

23,633 posts

235 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
Cheers for that. What's your thoughts on the four door Wrangler.

Roo

11,503 posts

212 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
croyde said:
Cheers for that. What's your thoughts on the four door Wrangler.
Agricultural, slow and thirsty.

croyde

Original Poster:

23,633 posts

235 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
Roo said:
croyde said:
Cheers for that. What's your thoughts on the four door Wrangler.
Agricultural, slow and thirsty.
Thanks Roo, so similar to the Defender. I don't mind slow and agricultural but do mind thirst if there is no performance benefit.

Thanks.

CorseChris

332 posts

238 months

Tuesday 22nd February 2011
quotequote all
Recently bought a late 2006 (2007 model year) Grand Cherokee Overland 5.7. Loving it. Just had it converted to run LPG to keep the costs down. I intend keeping this a long time, so there's no question I'll be in profit on the installation..and as you say, you get a lot of car for your cash. Used to have a '94 XJ 4.0 which was great, this is a completely different animal - much more refined, very quiet, really a nice drive for what it is.

Even allowing for the slight reduction in mpg on LPG, this will still be the cheapest car to run that we own......as long as I don't get too carried away with the right foot too often.

I did contemplate the SRT-8 briefly, but as well as being outsdie my budget really, it was the compromise to the off road ability that finally put me off. Whole point of having a Jeep is that it can handle the difficult conditions. Not much point in buying one that can't, even if it is pretty rapid.

FWIW, on a run, before the LPG was put in, it did 22-23mpg. Short trips not so great, as you'd expect, more like 16-17mpg. The MDS does help though.

yabadaba

133 posts

197 months

Tuesday 22nd February 2011
quotequote all
CorseChris said:
FWIW, on a run, before the LPG was put in, it did 22-23mpg. Short trips not so great, as you'd expect, more like 16-17mpg. The MDS does help though.
My 3.0 CRD on a 55 plate only gets about 28-29mpg on a run and it's down to 15-17mpg around town. Drives nice and I like it, but I may as well have gone for the 5.7...was trying to be sensible!