Seems the Jeep Cherokee has been around for years, well in fact it has, as its first incarnation was way back in 1984, whilst it was on the drawing board as early as 1978 when a team from American Motors and of all people, Renault began designing it.
There have been a number of facelifts over the years, but this new Jeep Cherokee despite being from a different world technically to the old cars, actually takes a step backwards in its styling taking design cues from the very first Cherokee.
That said, in every way, the new car is bang up to date, with a new suspension and steering system and full-time four-wheel drive system as standard across the range. Only engine option is the 2.8 litre diesel, but you do get the choice of manual or auto boxes. Trim level is nice, with leather, air-conditioning and cruise control all standard. The car comes fitted with what Jeep call the “Sky Slider” canvas roof which is electrically operated, so that should be interesting!
The new Cherokee will only be available in one specification level and that’s called “Limited” and price wise the car starts at £24,595 for the manual version.
We will be taking the new Jeep Cherokee on some serious off road testing very shortly on a specially designed off road course in a disused quarry and as soon as we know how good it is, we will be writing a full report so watch out for it in our road tests section.
The new car is on sale from August 08.
