Jeep’s Fifth-Generation Grand Cherokee Is an X5 Fighter That Climbs Mountains

When I brought up the BMW X5’s suspension during a conversation with a top Jeep engineer (who asked to remain anonymous), his eyes switched to hi-beams.

“I told the team, ‘We don’t stop working until the Grand Cherokee handles better than the BMW,’” he said. A drive in the all-new 2022 Grand Cherokee – this is its fifth generation – and it seems Jeep nailed it. The fifth-generation Grand Cherokee matches (and often bests) the X5’s handling on-road while continuing to offer access to off-grid, off-road adventure and an under-the-radar cool the Germans can’t touch.

No, it doesn’t match the X5M for ultimate road dominance. That thing wears tires the size of Bavarian beer halls.

The spankin’-new Grand Cherokee has been glimpsed before, but this was the first opportunity to drive the SUV untethered to minders. The big news here is that Jeep offers this GC with a three-row variant, expanding the appeal of a vehicle that already dominates its segment. Jeep has sold nearly two-million Grand Cherokees in America since the first-generation “ZJ” bowed in 1993, according to Jeep, and with this move to include three rows, Stellantis anticipates a rosy, profitable future.

But three rows ain’t squat if the new Grand Cherokee can’t deliver owners to backcountry, steakhouse or backcountry steakhouse in comfort and style. This new design maintains that promise for 2022 Grand Cherokee buyers. The look is iterative and cautious (you can’t blame Jeep, given how well the GC sells). It’s also handsome within the GC heritage. More than once on the drive through the ravishing red canyons of Moab, Utah, where Highway 128 traces the wide and muddy Colorado, I waved at a Grand Cherokee driver that I thought was on the press junket. But time after time, there was the confused face of a fourth-gen Grand Cherokee owner flying by.

Not much initially appears new on the Grand Cherokee. But new and improved it is. Jeep strived to maximize outward visibility, adjusting the width of the vehicle’s vertical pillars and lowering its beltline, among other changes (“As an industry we overachieved with the high belt lines and we’re correcting now,” one Stellantis operative explained).

That results in an interior seating position that’s upright and commanding. Adventurers will appreciate that it’s easier to visually position the beast amid off-road obstacles like boulders, tree limbs, rabid pumas, elephants, hyenas, rhinoceroses and free-range chocolate labrador puppies. Commuters will find the GC’s rear passenger-side blind spot has shrunk in traffic making it easier to avoid road hazards, drunken pedestrians, Impalas, Mustangs, Thunderbirds and urban-savvy chocolate labrador puppies.

First up in this GC buffet is the high-end Summit Reserve trim, equipped with the optional 5.7-liter Hemi V8 (the 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 is standard) paired to the Stellantis-made under ZF-license “Torqueflite 8” eight-speed automatic. The Summit Reserve’s 21-inch wheels and aesthetic elegance suggest a penchant for road duties, and along the smooth winding highways of Moab, the Summit Reserve’s body control was excellent. The V-8 thurmmed along with plenty of signature Stellantis Corporate Burble (that BRR BRR BRR BRR you get with a Challenger V-8?), with the whole SUV wafting on a cloud of easy torque.

Thanks to its unibody construction, the GC doesn’t suffer the trucklike Wrangler qualities often associated with the ride of a Jeep. That huge moment of inertia that leads to heaving body roll is absent, unlike the lengthy Gladiator and Wrangler Utes. Instead of waiting that half second for the body to take a set against the chassis, the Jeep simply leans in a tad, then the excellent dampers kick in, keeping the GC’s body nearly flat and remarkably controlled through sweepers and low-speed hairpins alike.

The GC’s stiff brake pedal calibration, which leads with a good amount of bite in the first two inches of pedal travel, lends confidence too. Sports car buyers would want linear braking application across the pedal travel, but Grand Cherokee owners will appreciate the immediacy and stiffness; It allows control of the balance of the truck’s balance with minimal effort. It all suits the imperturbable, easygoing competence and confidence of the Grand Cherokee.

And yet this SUV can hustle. At one point in the drive, the route jinked at a right angle to the river bank and shot up a nearby hillside. The endpoint was an overlook which sat miles and hundreds of feet above. Getting there meant climbing roads that had cracked over and filled with tar. Cattle guards crossed the road every few miles. But mostly, the road snaked up the hillside so steep there might have been a chairlift running up alongside it.

As easily as it dispatched the slower, smoother road by the Colorado river, the Grand Cherokee took these tight bends with ease. That meant risking 60 through the many 25 mph hairpins to figure where the Grand Cherokee might get upset. The Jeep's front tires didn't squeal and only the smell of smoking brake pads and gooey tires was cause to slow down.

Halfway up the hill, there was an overlanding rig that needed passing. The V-8 spooled up power quickly and seamless gear changes allowed it to feed in like an opened flood gate. The overlander was soon a spec in the GC’s side mirrors.Who’s hunting switchbacks in a GC for thrills? Almost no one. But there’s such ability here. That’s reassuring, because inevitably there will be a time in every GC’s service life where it will be heading up to a ski hill or down a gnarled grade with 100’ drop to one side. Timidity is not an option then.

In fact, the whole experience feels silken. The GC’s steering rack doesn’t bother with much road feel, but it’s well-weighted and overall calibration is reassuring and precise. No more than 10 or 15 degrees of steering angle was needed on the trip through Moab, even through the tighter corners. Yet, it doesn’t require much effort to keep steering on center. Some combination of masterful calibration and a masterful job by Jeep PR picking smooth roads through spectacularly distracting scenery, surely helped hone this perception.