It was just a prototype. http://www.jeepin.com/news/rescue/index.asp Itll never see the market. Unless something big happens. 5 bucks a gallon of gas might do it.

GC have a bad reputation. The engines are usually super reliable. My mom has a thing for grand cherokees. Every time she starts looking for a new vehicle I tell her to stay away from em. She is on her third. Suprisingly all were trouble free. She now has the inline six. Hates it. Wants the v8 back. I drove it and it has a nice powerband but she likes the hp of the v8. The v8 was way to touchy on acceleration. A little tip in meant a big burst of power. It was not trail ready. It would kill you in an off camber loose traction situation. Not nice on wet ice either. Did well in mud. Super cushy ride even through the roughest terrain at mach 5.

 

I have years of experience with all types of Jeep vehicles. I have seen Grands go 2-3 hundred thousand miles. The engines I-6, or V-8 are some of the most reliable built. To say the Grand had build quality issues, especially electric, is non-sense. Just compare the issues discussed on this and other EXPY forums to Jeep GC Forums and you'll quickly see, the Jeep cant hold a candle to the EXPY in electrical issues. The EXPY has tons more. As far as being trail rated, well consumer pressure and competition from other manufacturers has caused Jeep to build a more car like ride, therfore the loss of a soild(real) front axle and quite possibly the death of a truly off road Grand. I have owned 10-12 Jeeps in various models in my life and would put them up against any American made vehicle for overall quality. Oh. how I wish Ford would build that new Bronco!!! Then Jeep and others may wake up and recognize the potential market for true offroad (trail ready) vehicles. Until then, we have to sit by and watch this transformation to streetable 4WD vehicls from all makers. Dont get me wrong, I love my EXPY, but give credit where due, the Grand is a fine vehicle! Just don't look at the sticker price!!!!

 

Very nicely said shagnasty. The Grand Cherokee has won 4x4 of the year(motortrend?) more than any other vehicle(and Jeep won more often than any other make). Even though I don't listen to critics/magazine or any review in general on most topics, I agree with this one. Also on the I-6 thread most people seemed to agree the 3 best I-6's of all time are the Jeep, Ford 300, and Cummins.

 

I can say that i have yet to see quality issies with any jeep. Never seen a tranny fail, never seen an engine blow. I have seen 300K on I6 cherokee's with the origional motor and trans. I am a mechanic at a local garage, and I see my fair share of almost every vehicle, but I rarely see jeeps break down. Now If I had $1.00 for every 4.0 Explorer that had loud valvetrain noises, I'd be a rich man.

 

I would have to agree with the last few posts. Jeep is known for thier quality. From engines to trannies to the build. On the other hand, there is allways gonna be some lemmons out there. Maybe someone that did get a bad Jeep in the past now looks down upon them and stays away from them when buying a 4x4, which is very understandable. If I got a bad vehicle that gave me issues from ecectrical, to tranny, I would probably stay away from it too. But I have never heard of anything like this with the GC. All I have heard are good things. I haven't seen the new GC in person, but it looks solid, and the interior blows my mind. This is gonna be a good one.

 

A very good friend of mine is a master mechanic and an emissions tech. He is an avid off road enthusiast and loves jeeps. He told me if I ever brought a GC through the door. He would personally strangle me. He gets to see the worst of the worst. But there were more than just a few. In his opinion. They were very troublesome vehicles. I regard his opinion highly.

 

i do not think i would want a veh. that has a system that turns off 4 cylinders on the highway, i have a liberty my wife bought for her self never again will we buy dcx anything

 

I guess there is bad in every make and model. My personal experience is with what I've owned and been associated with. I have a lot cofidence in my current 98 GC. It has 181,000 miles on the original everything! And to be quite honest, it rides and shifts better than my 2001 EXPY EB. I hate it cause I just spent 17,000 dollars on the EXPY! Not that I don't like the EXPY, its just the way it is. If Jeep would get their heads on straight and build that third row seated vehicle they've been promising for 3-4 years now, we might have something to compare head to head. But until then, this die hard Jeep guy is a proud EXPY owner! Its huge and thats what I need with 4 kids!

 

In one part of America, a mechanic sees alot of Excursions/Expeditions/Explorers with mechanical/electrical problems. He regards these as problematic vehicles. Somewhere else entirely a mechanic does regular maintenance on these and never finds a problem. He regards these vehicles very highly. I think this is basically the conversation we are having. It all has to do with chance and percentages. Maybe a bit of luck.

One man may have very bad luck with Fords. Does this mean that Ford makes a piece? Not at all. Alot of people here seem to have a story about some Chevy they or a friend owned that had a constant array of problems. Likewise many Chevy fans have the same circumstance with Fords. This is the personal experience everyone seems to have.

 

I had a friend with a GC, it went over 250,000 miles with the stock engine. It was still running when he sold it. The only thing that I had to replace for him was the oil pan gasket and the front header panel (he ran into a ditch while off roading at 1:00 a.m. with no headlights on, I had to come pull him out with my 74 F100). Other than that, it was solid, had a lot of power, and fairly quiet inside.

Jeep has lost track of what why people buy Jeeps. If people want an SUV that size, they get an Explorer. If they want an SUV that size that could go anywhere, they'd go get a Cherokee. Not anymore. Performs "like a trail rated Jeep" means that its NOT a trail rated Jeep. Now people have to spend the same amount of money to make a Cherokee into a good offroader as any other vehicle, so Jeep has lost the edge that it held on the competition.

The problem with the new one is, as it's been mentioned before, the IFS. Imagine what the uproar we'd all have around here if the Super Duties all went to an IFS. It would be anarchy and chaos.

 

if it could handle the load, just think how nice a Super Duty would ride(no axle hop) if it had IFS(or even all 4) built like it's for the full size humvee. just a thought.

 

Quite right diesel donor. I recommended subaru to a friend having had very good luck with them. His was in the shop every other week. He curses the day he listened to me. I on the other hand had extremely good luck with them. He did buy a different model than I did though. Coulda been the problem. Found his model on a couple of bad guy lists.

 

73fastback
boy have you hit the nail on the head, i'm a vw mechanic and major time ford lover. i have personally seen the german enginers lose the edge they had for many years now, mopar and jeep used to have some great products but it looks to me anyway, that they since"damler' taking control have put to much german into american iron, i had a dakota for three years the 4.7 was sopposed to be a new mopar mill but i remember working on motors that looked like it in 71 in mb's. maybe i'm wrong just that it sure looks like a mb v8 to me. same goes for the 3.7 v6 in the liberty looks like the motor in mb's small suv. the old 4.0 inline would run for ever my bro also had 250 k on his with 1 rebuild of the torqe flite now the tranies are of mb design i think they look like zf's. my4x4 dakota's automatic had to be rebuilt at 45k not very strong imm. i also found the local mopar dealer had a major problem when it came to warrenty NO PROBLEM FOUND every time only to have problem found and repaired at a local shop when it was something i could not do my self like 2 sets of ball joints in 70k. again imm dcx has lost it

 

What is "Trail rated?" is there someone giving out badges as to what is "Trail rated" and what is not?.....are they standing out on cut lines saying: "Sorry sir, you can't bring that International Scout down this road because it's not "Trail rated?"

Sounds like a marketing thing like "New and improved" or "Greasy oil".

Obviously Jeep saw the cheap Chevy truck version of a Hummer selling like hotcakes to basketball players, and decided thet they wanted in on that market.Same as when they made the TJ with coil springs.

Unfortunately, there is not a real big market for hardcore offroaders anymore I guess, and the money is where the Beamers and Mercedes and Acuras etc. have their SUV vehicles. Sad, but perhaps it leaves Land Rover as one of the few building the real deal, and even they have a version of that Mazda/ford Escape thing that doesn't even have a low range transfer case...

Too Bad.

 

Jeep's "Trail rated" meant that each vehicle that they used to make could, in stock form, run through the Rubicon trail in California. That means stronger parts in order to take the extra off road abuse.