AUTOMOTIVE - DRIVEN: Grand Cherokee Trip To Zion

The vacation plan was for a multi-day trip to one of the most beautiful natural places on Planet Earth.

That would be Zion National Park in southwestern Utah, home of rocky spires that pierce the sky, bold rock faces of impossible size and height, narrow slot canyons, wooded hiking trails and a plenty of wild animals.

Nature in all its splendor. At least that?s what we?d heard, since we had never been there before. We have seen so many amazing places since we moved to Arizona, and we were ready for another treat.

Distant cathedral cliffs greet travelers as they near Zion. (Photo: Bob Golfen) Naturally, we needed just the right vehicle. It had to be rugged yet refined enough for the lengthy drive from Phoenix, a nearly 400-mile trip ranging from high-speed freeways to winding mountain roads, with the capability of going off the pavement. Four-wheel drive would be a bonus.

A comfortable premium interior and a great audio system would be nice. So would decent handling, drivability and fuel mileage. Workable GPS navigation would be another bonus. And since this was a tour of the Great American Southwest, it would be appropriate for this vehicle to be an all-American.

We lucked into the perfect vehicle: a 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo 4X4 with all the trimmings. Well, nearly perfect. Fuel mileage was only fair, and the navigation system was about worthless. More on that later.

The newly rehabbed 2011 Grand Cherokee is a fine piece of work, upgraded in a way that maintains its Jeep spirit while losing the multiple warts that previous owners had learned to tolerate. The new SUV is one of the key components of Chrysler?s strong resurgence this year.

A golden field of waving grassland contrasts with the surfaces of the carved rocks. (Photo: Bob Golfen) The two biggest gains in the makeover are the all-new interior that is refined and attractive instead of sturdy but chintzy. That and the new chassis, developed along with the Mercedes-Benz ML-Class during the automakers? erstwhile relationship, and a sophisticated suspension system that can be dialed-in for optimal performance.

The previous Grand Cherokee was always an off-road champ, but it felt decidedly heavy and trucklike on highways and city streets. The new model is thoroughly up-to-date in its drivability, even showing admirable stability when dicing along those winding mountain roads. I discovered that the Sport setting on the center-console suspension-control dial improved handling considerably. So that?s where it stayed.

Both Chrysler and Mercedes are quick to point out differences between the Grand Cherokee and ML chassis systems, lest you believe you are getting Mercedes underpinnings at a cut rate. Still, I would put the Grand Cherokee up with the best of the German SUVs in its road manners, especially with that Sport setting.

We did quite a bit of dirt-trail driving but no serious four-wheeling, so we didn?t really test the Jeep?s Trail Rated capability. From what I?ve read and heard, the Grand Cherokee?s off-road setup has been dialed back somewhat to better reflect what these SUVs are commonly used for, which is not hard-core rock crawling but more along the lines of what we were doing. Still capable, just not as all out.

That suspension-control dial, called Selec-Terrain, has electronic settings for various types of off-road terrain, such as mud and snow, as well as the on-road Sport setting.

Source: http://automotive.speedtv.com/article/driven-grand-cherokee-trip-to-zion/

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