Grand Cherokee scoring high!

I just found this article from Car and Driver which compares six different sport utility vehicles on the ultra-demanding Chicken Point Trail in Sedona, Arizona.

Chicken Point

When I saw how thoroughly well the new 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee did, I knew that I had to post something here. If you skip right to the end of the article you'll see what I mean. Out of nineteen categories rated 1-10, the Grand Cherokee scored a nine or a ten in eleven of them, and an eight, nine, or ten in fifteen of them!

The testers weren't comparing the Jeep to any easy competition either. Car and Driver compared the Jeep Grand Cherokee to such big names as the Volkswagon Toureg, the newly redesigned Nissan Pathfinder, the Toyota 4Runner, and the Mitsubishi Montero. The Jeep left them all, literally and figuratively, in the dust.

Lusty engines are big winners on these pages. The Jeep, propelled vigorously by the largest engine in the group, finished atop the ratings by a clear margin. Zero to 60 in 6.8 seconds puts this 4920-pound SUV at the front of the pack. Nothing else was close.

But the Jeep wasn't just the big winner on the outside. Car and Driver raved about its interior as well:

The Grand Cherokee's front seat and driving position are especially agreeable. You sit more "arms out" than in most trucks, a sharp contrast from the 4Runner and its bus-style angling of the wheel. The dash is also quite high, so your gaze needs to drop only a few degrees as it moves from road ahead to the instruments below. The hood ramps down, opening the view before you. The dash is shrewdly shaped to put the center-mounted radio and HVAC within easy reach. Taken altogether, the Jeep earned top marks for ergonomics.

We might not have a Chicken Point style trail to drive on, but I would still encourage you to stop in and test drive the new Grand Cherokee, take Car and Driver's word for it--you won't be dissappointed.

The big winner!