Time To Move On
by David Finlay (13 Oct 05)

Many of the changes to the Cherokee range for the 2005 model year were cosmetic, or involved minor improvements to the interior, but they also included major advances such as the introduction of a 2.8-litre turbo diesel engine (replacing the previous 2.5-litre unit) and a six-speed manual gearbox. The car tested here is in the mid-spec Renegade trim level with five-speed automatic transmission, though the manual is also available. Another feature of the Renegade is that the 2.8 diesel is the only engine option, since only the Sport uses the 2.4-litre four-cylinder petrol unit and only the Limited gets the 3.7-litre V6.

The 2.8 is a sturdy unit, producing a healthy 161bhp. From the sound it produces, it's also very obviously a diesel, but the efforts at improving refinement which are also part of the 2005 upgrade certainly work well; the engine note, though characteristic, is also well subdued.

There's another change to the Cherokee specification which Jeep doesn't talk about much. It came on-stream a couple of years ago and consists simply of lowering the ride height by about an inch. This may not seem like much, but the effect is profound. Earlier examples of the present-generation Cherokee were alarming to drive on tarmac because they felt like they were about to fall over. Nowadays the effect is greatly reduced.

It hasn't, however, been eradicated completely. You don't have to be going particularly quickly round an especially sharp bend to realise that this, above all current SUVs, is the one that most requires fingertip touch on the steering if you want to avoid a loss of stability. Considering the on-road driving quality of so many other 4x4s, and the excellent road manners of the first UK Cherokees back in the early 1990s, this is a serious disappointment and something Jeep should really be looking into.

The ride height reduction inevitably means that the Cherokee doesn't have as much ground clearance as before, which leads to a few extra bumps and scrapes in difficult off-road conditions. The other off-road issue is that the Cherokee isn't class-leading on very steep downhill slopes - it won't maintain very low speeds, and there's a risk that you might start yarding towards the bottom when you intended merely to inch.

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