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With its knobby tires and air suspension, this SUV can take you just about anywhere -- including a night out on the town.
Craig brings 15 years of automotive journalism experience to the Cars team. A lifelong resident of Michigan, he's as happy with a wrench or welding gun in hand as he is in front of the camera or behind a keyboard. When not hosting videos or cranking out features and reviews, he's probably out in the garage working on one of his project cars. To date, he's fully restored a 1936 Ford V8 sedan and is currently resurrecting another flathead-powered relic, a '51 Ford Crestliner. Craig is a proud member of the Automotive Press Association (APA) and the Midwest Automotive Media Association (MAMA).
Red tow hooks mean Trailhawk.
The 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee can do it all. With advanced four-wheel-drive systems, an available air suspension and lots of ground clearance, this SUV is an adept mountain climber. Yet thanks to its handsome styling and premium interior, it's still a great option for family duty or a night on the town. Whether it's tackling the Rubicon Trail or shuttling you and your spouse to orchestra hall, the Grand Cherokee is up for just about anything.
The aggressive sounding but eminently livable Trailhawk model sits smack dab in the middle of the Grand Cherokee range. Only available with two rows of seats, this trim level is designed for off-roading. Accordingly, it comes standard with a Quadra-Drive II four-wheel-drive system as well as an electronic limited-slip rear differential. There's also a Quadra-Lift air suspension, a disconnecting sway bar and standard 18-inch aluminum wheels wrapped in Goodyear Wrangler all-terrain tires.
The Grand Cherokee you see here is powered by a 3.6-liter V6, though there's nothing base about this entry-level offering. Smooth throughout the rev range and quiet, to boot, Stellantis' Pentastar V6 is always a delight, delivering a class-competitive 293 horsepower along with 260 pound-feet of torque. Sure, those figures are a far cry from what the optional 5.7-liter Hemi V8 cranks out (357 hp, 390 lb-ft), but the Pentastar engine is more than up to the challenge of hauling around a big-boned, 4,747-pound SUV. That V6 even enables the Grand Cherokee to tow up to 6,200 pounds, though you can drag half a ton more if you opt for the Hemi.
Helping this SUV accelerate with ease is a well-sorted eight-speed automatic transmission. As smart as it is silky, this gearbox happily shifts with imperceptible smoothness, and when you roll on the accelerator, it readily drops gears to let that V6 engine breathe, which it does particularly well at higher engine revs. Switching to sport mode significantly livens up the throttle response and transmission performance, much more so than in other midsize SUVs.
The four-wheel-drive Grand Cherokee Trailhawk is EPA-rated at 19 mpg city, 26 mpg highway and 22 mpg combined -- figures that, curiously, are exactly the same as two-wheel-drive models. In mixed use, I'm getting just shy of 18 mpg, not a great showing.
Dynamically, Jeep engineers have a lot to be proud of. The Grand Cherokee's structure feels absolutely rock solid, as unyielding as a granite boulder. This stiffness helps provide a ride that's well controlled but plenty comfortable, the Trailhawk's air suspension soaking up imperfections without letting the body flop around. Those adjustable suspenders are also a godsend while off roading because they give you up to 11.3 inches of ground clearance, nearly as much as a maxed-out Wrangler Rubicon.
Mirroring its well-sorted ride, the steering feels dense and sturdy through the thick-set wheel. This SUV is always planted, yet it feels smaller and much more agile than you'd ever expect.
The Grand Cherokee's doors go ker-chunk when you open or close them. It's loud and old-fashioned sounding, but also reassuring, like that USB battery pack you keep in your computer bag even though it hasn't been charged in months. Inside, this SUV's interior is regal and swanky, even if this tester's is blacker than a soot-choked chimney. From the leather to the hard plastic to the stitching, all the materials employed here are lovely -- well, nearly all of them. Piano black is never a good idea, even on stringed, keyboard instruments. This glossy-black material attracts dust and fingerprints like crows to carrion and the stuff is easily scratched. This Jeep's interior trim already looks like it's been drug down a gravel road and the vehicle has just 1,600 miles on its odometer.
Seriously, enough with the piano black.
The Grand Cherokee's dashboard looks great and all commonly used controls -- like the shifter, infotainment screen and air vents -- are easy to see and reach. The power front seats are all-day comfortable and both heated and ventilated in the Trailhawk. The second-row bench is similarly accommodating, offering plenty of headroom and legroom, as well as ample support from its firm cushions. Rear seat riders get butt warmers, too, which are standard on all but the base model. If you need three rows, spring for the Grand Cherokee L, which is more than 11 inches longer than the standard model, or you could nab a Jeep Wagoneer or Grand Wagoneer, but none of those SUVs get the Trailhawk treatment.
Keeping pace with other premium SUVs, the Grand Cherokee offers plenty of tech. For starters, an 8.4-inch infotainment screen with navigation is standard in Trailhawks, but the optional 10.1-incher is worth every penny of the $1,495 upgrade fee. Bright, colorful and crisp, this screen is home to a Uconnect 5 infotainment system that's super responsive and easy to navigate. Every Grand Cherokee comes standard with a 10.3-inch reconfigurable instrument cluster that is, unfortunately, less laudable. The interface is not well thought out and cycling through menus is surprisingly unintuitive. Beyond all those features, driver aids like adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go capability, blind-spot monitoring and lane-keeping assist are standard across the model range.
The Trailhawk comes with Jeep's best off-road setup and air suspension.
You can also get this Jeep with an optional digital rearview mirror and 10.3-inch passenger-side display. Invisible to the driver, that $1,095 dashboard-mounted touchscreen allows whoever's riding shotgun to play with the vehicle's cameras, put a destination into the navigation system or consume their own entertainment via Bluetooth-paired devices or an HDMI port. Overall, this is a pretty slick feature, even if the on-screen interface lags noticeably compared to the main infotainment display.
Other standard Trailhawk goodies include automatic headlamps and high beams, LED foglights, remote start and a heated steering wheel. The example you see here is also fitted with the $1,295 Luxury Tech Group III package, which gets you rain-sensing windshield wipers, second-row sunshades, a hands-free power liftgate and more. The $1,995 Advanced Protech Group II includes parking sensors, a 360-degree camera system and night vision with pedestrian and animal detection, something that's particularly useful at low speeds in urban areas. A full-color head-up display is available in this SUV, but only on fancier Overland and Summit models.
From most angles, the new Grand Cherokee and its extended-length sibling look good, though to my jaundiced eye the styling is a step backwards compared to this vehicle's predecessor. The latest generation doesn't look as handsome or well-proportioned, and the slightly angled grille makes the vehicle look like it has an awkward overbite.
With its unique blend of capability and luxury, the Grand Cherokee should perform better in the dirt than rivals like the Ford Explorer and Kia Telluride. Depending on trim, this Jeep's interior is also rich enough to give the BMW X5 and Volvo XC90 a run for their euros.
This 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk checks out for a not-outlandish $61,040 including $1,795 in destination fees. Options not already mentioned include $1,695 for a dual-pane sunroof and $395 for silver zynith paint (yep, that's how they chose to spell zenith). Eschew all extras and you can grab a Trailhawk for about 53 grand or if you're especially miserly, a base Grand Cherokee Laredo for less than 40.
This is a solid, do-it-all SUV.
As it sits, the Trailhawk is an impressive SUV, one that's undeniably capable in the dirt, yet still refined enough to rival some luxury utility vehicles. With generous amounts of standard and available tech, rock-solid dynamics and an upscale interior, this Jeep just about does it all.