TRAVIS LANGNESS: Welcome to New Hampshire.
I'm Travis Langness, automotive editor for Edmunds.com,
and this is the 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Jeep Grand Cherokee's been out for a while,
but this one is sort of a swan song.
It's got the 707 horsepower, 6.2 liter,
supercharged V8 out of the Hellcat cars, the Charger
and the Challenger, and they've put it in a big family SUV.
We'll start at the front here, where
you can tell the difference between this Trackhawk
and the other Jeep Grand Cherokees, specifically
based on the air vents that are up front.
That supercharged motor needs a lot of air to perform,
and this is one of the big differences
on the front bumper, as well as these two vents down here.
These feed the engine and an oil cooler,
and that's where fog lights used to be.
But this car needs that air, so they eliminated the fog lights.
There's also these big hood vents on the top.
These are Pirelli P Zero high-performance summer tires.
They also have an optional four-season, all-season tire
that you can get.
But underneath are these yellow six-piston
Brembo brakes, connected to 15.75" rotors up front.
That's a lot of stopping power.
Jeep says it'll stop from 60 miles an hour in 114 feet.
We haven't tested that yet, but it definitely
has good, solid brakes.
The profile is pretty much the same
as the other Grand Cherokees.
It's a good-looking SUV.
And as you move around the back of the car, there's two items.
Obviously, first being the badge,
that set it off as a Trackhawk, but the second
are these quad exhaust tips.
They make a great noise.
You'll see just how impressive this car is, especially
as a big two and a half ton SUV.
The Grand Cherokee isn't the most impressive midsize SUV,
in terms of cargo space, but it's decent.
Compact SUVs, like the Honda CRV,
they're going to have a similar size back here.
But there's nothing out there in that market that's going
to match it for horsepower.
So we're going to take a look at the interior of the Trackhawk.
It's special compared to other Jeep Grand Cherokees.
It's not too far above and beyond,
but there's definitely some nice interior touches
here to set it off from the rest of the group.
For starters, you've got things like this carbon fiber
trim, only available on the Trackhawk,
also this nice two-tone leather interior, perforated leather
on the doors, perforated leather on the seats,
the ventilated front seats.
The Uconnect is one of our favorite parts of this car.
It's an easy-to-use system.
This one has new graphics.
It's pretty stylish.
It's crisp.
It's really great resolution.
All the buttons, all the knobs, controls
underneath the Uconnect are easy.
They're at an arm's reach.
Cup holders, little small, but the nice piece
in the center console here is the drive mode selector.
We can go between track, sport, auto, snow, and tow.
And this vehicle is actually equipped with a tow package,
which can tow up to 7,200 pounds, which
is the same tow rating as other Jeep Grand Cherokees.
And that's probably a chassis limitation, rather than
an engine limitation.
But that's still really impressive
that you can take a 700 horsepower
track-focused vehicle and tow a 7,200 pound trailer with it.
And then there's the launch control button.
The launch control is really easy to use.
You can set the RPMs.
You can change it based on whether you want
to launch at 1,900 or 2,500.
We found, basically, over 2,0000 or so,
the power actually overwhelms the brakes,
and it won't let you launch.
It just kind of lurches forward, and then launch control
is disengaged.
But now that we're done taking a look at the interior,
let's take it out for a drive.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
First things first, you got to see
how this Trackhawk accelerates.
Basically, at any point in the throttle, any mode you're in--
auto, sport, track-- you just stomp it, and it goes.
Let's give it a try.
[ENGINE ROARING]
That sounds fantastic.
You can tell every bit of the 6.2 liter,
supercharged V8 is working.
And it shifts really fast.
That eight-speed automatic is a great transmission.
They reworked it for this particular application.
They needed to upgrade a lot of things, the transfer case,
the drive shafts, and because there was so much
power going to the all-wheel drive system
that the Jeep Grand Cherokee is not used to,
even the SRT motor isn't putting out
anywhere near 707 horsepower and 645 pound-feet of torque.
So on the highway, there is a little bit
of noise from the exhaust, and then,
a little bit of wind from the supercharger,
but it depends on the throttle level,
whether you're at 10%, 15%, 20%, you're going on a grade.
Most of the time, it's pretty quiet.
But really any time you get into the gas,
it definitely gives you some of that,
oh, hey there's a big V8 under the hood.
And it comes out of the back pretty well.
The exhaust is nice, but it's muted
compared to the Hellcat cars.
This is going to be a car that you're
going to go on road trips.
You're going to have people in the back seat.
You're definitely going want it to be a little bit more quiet.
And you wouldn't know that it gets up
and goes as fast as it does until you--
[ENGINE ROARING]
--give it some right foot.
[ENGINE ROARING]
So one of the things about the Grand Cherokee,
and the Trackhawk is no different,
is steering isn't the best.
It's kind of vague.
You can't really tell, necessarily,
what the tires are doing, which is
a little bit of a disappointment on the Trackhawk,
if I'm honest.
I expected a little bit more feel,
but the steering wheel feels good in your hand.
There's a good on-center feel, it returns to center pretty
easily, and it's well-weighted.
But when you go around a corner, you're
just kind of doing things by telepathy.
Now, that's not super disappointing
when it comes to a car of this size,
but when it comes to something that says, "track" on the back,
and that you're expected to take out and drive
in a high-performance fashion, it
is a little bit less than we would expect.
And any time you get on a wide open stretch of road,
you really, you get the desire to just drop your right foot
and see what happens.
[ENGINE ROARING]
It feels great.
Oh, and good breaks, too.
On city streets, the Grand Cherokee
is as good as you would expect.
We've known this for years.
It's definitely high quality.
It's easy to drive.
The controls, like I said, are all kind of within arm's reach.
And it's pretty quiet, too.
And something you wouldn't necessarily
expect from this high-performance version,
as we found on the highway, as well,
is that it's comfortable over bumps.
The ride quality doesn't break your back.
It doesn't hurt you on the highway.
Even here in Portland, where there are significant potholes,
it gets a good amount of winter road work,
it's not uncomfortable.
The Pirelli P Zeros, while they are sticky, stiff tires,
have enough sidewall.
And this vehicle is perfectly easy to drive in the city.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Here we go.
We're going to take it out on to the track here.
And it really gets going great, regardless of pedal pressure.
Throttle response is really good.
And the one thing that we noticed
on road that's a little similar to the on-track response
is the steering is a little bit numb.
It's a big, heavy vehicle, so things
are kind of moving around a lot on you,
and you can't feel, necessarily, so much what
the tires are doing.
It definitely feels fast, though.
Any time you stomp on the throttle, it gets up and goes.
And there's going to be a decent sized market for people
interested in this truck, but--
SUV crossover-- but not sure how many people are actually
going to take it on the track.
And that might be a mistake because this thing is really
fun on a track.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
One of the problems with the Grand Cherokee is its price.
Base prices start around $86,000.
This particular one, with all the options, as I mentioned,
is over $100,000.
But cars that normally compete with the Grand Cherokee
are in the high $30,000, maybe $40,000, some even
$50,000 range.
A few touch this car's price until you
get into really the ultra-luxury, super-premium
SUV.
We're talking Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, things like that.
And I'm just not sure that this Jeep is as nice on the inside.
Now, are you going to shop those cars and this one
at the same time?
Probably not.
So, for instance, if you like the Hellcat Charger,
but you want something with a little bit more space,
this is a great option.
It's got that same 707 horsepower motor,
five pound-feet less torque, not a big difference,
but more space in the back. and all the SUV
capability you can think of, plus the all-wheel drive,
all-weather capability.
If you're looking at the Trackhawk,
you're really just looking at it for its motor,
but it is a hard price to swallow.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So which one would you rather have,
a 700-horsepower, two-ton SUV with all-wheel drive
or one of its Hellcat siblings?
Tell us in the comments below and be sure to subscribe.